Punchy absurdism with no time wasted
What’s the deal? Armed with little more than a bass guitar, a cheap-ass drum machine and her sharp-as-a-tack, Dadaist wit, D.C.’s Eva Moolchan has released two albums of ultra-minimalist, ultra-groovy electro-punk in the past two years proffering a grand total of 20 songs in just 32 minutes.
Sneaks’ squirrel-like attention span doesn’t detract from her ability to leave you with one naggingly primitivist hook after another rattling around in your head for days, however, nor from her flair for deconstructionist poetry.
On her 2016 indie debut, Gymnastics, and this year’s marginally more polished and synth-y It’s a Myth — produced by Mary Timony of Wild Flag/Ex Hex/Helium notoriety and sometime furniture designer Jonah Takagi and released this past March via venerable indie label Merge Records — Moolchan has proven herself a master of deadpan-delivered absurdism (“Plastic dinosaurs in hot-dog buns Strawberries strategically placed/ Woop!”).
It could be cleverly camouflaged profundity, could be utter nonsense that’s taking the piss out of anyone who might dare think it profound or could land somewhere in between.
Whatever the case, Sneaks wrings an amazing amount of fun from her spoken-word silliness and skeletally slinky micro-dance parties — the shortest track on It’s a Myth clocks in at 20 seconds, making Gymnastics’ “No Problem” (“No problem/ No problem/ Problem/ No problem/ No problem/ No problem”) look like a veritable epic by comparison at 42 — and it’s all over so quickly you can’t help but go back to verify that all that did, indeed, just happen. And then again and again and again, etc.
If ESG and Pylon and very, very early Gang of Four are your thing, definitely have a listen.
Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences.
“I live hard. I play hard. I take the high road!” Moolchan says with typical, non-sequitur concision.
What’s a song I need to hear right now?
“Look Like That.” A little more drawn-out and spooky than the average Sneaks jam, but if this floats your boat you’ll be into all of it.
Where can I see her play?
At Longboat Hall, tucked in beneath the Great Hall, on June 17 with Chastity Belt and Pony.