I used to think Dirty Projectors were bombastic. I used to think Parenthetical Girls were epic. I used to think Battlehooch were chaotic.

I used to think these things, but it turned out I just hadn’t heard Jookabox yet. These guys really Man (Man) up. And those Anticon-esque moments are just-plain confusing. I’m really just using these signposts because I’m lost, though (and where would us reviewers be without our signposts, touchstones, dead ringers and red herrings?).

Dead Zone Boys is a fast-forward futureland where people travel in pods that zoom around town like lazers from the Star Wars movies and remember the past enough to bang on a tom every once in awhile like Panda Bear. It’s hot because of, I dunno, global warming or something. It’s also really, you know, future-y, with robot parts lying around everywhere and people getting zapped by scantron beams.

People in this day and age still sometimes sing like the guy from Coldplay (or at least “Evil Guh” hints at it). They also listen to a wide variety of music, apparently. I always predicted as a child that someday all the genres I enjoyed — hip-hop/rap, metal, rock, punk, oldies — would be molded into one big, brown glob of glow-in-the-dark playdough.

If Dead Zone Boys has anything to say about it, my vision for the future is being lived out right now. Hey, cool beans! I always wanted to live in the future and drink “Zombie Tear Drops.” (Sorry, that just slipped out.)

Now if I could just get my virtual-reality helmet rolling I could really get this party started. So, can I get free porn on this thing?

Check out more from Grant over at The Gumshoe Grove.

Jookabox: Phantom Don’t Go [mp3]

Jookabox: You Cried Me [mp3]

Asthmatic Kitty [CD, 2009]

1. Phantom Don’t Go
2. Don’t Go Phantom
3. You Cried Me
4. East Side Bangs/East Side Fade
5. Glyphin’ Out
6. Evil Guh
7. Xxxiawn Shell
8. Zombie Tear Drop
9. Light
10. F.I.T.F. #1

I must say, I’m quite obsessed with a few select songs off Royal City‘s latest release, 1999-2004. Those tracks are 1) “Here Comes Success”, thanks to its eclectic guitar breakdown toward the end of the tune, and 2) “Bad Luck” due to a clever lead guitar riff. 1999-2004 is an album of rarities and b-sides collected over the tenure of this short-lived band.

While the band Royal City is no longer in existence, their music and their overall greatness lives on in these songs. “A Belly Was Made For Wine” and “Can’t You Hear Me Calling” show a slower, softer side of the band that comes close to the power in its opposite. All these songs make up an album that leads to a simple, painful realization: the desire for Royal City to reunite and make a comeback.

Royal City was recently featured on Cover Art, where you can see more photos like the one above and download another mp3 from the release.

Royal City: A Belly Was Made For Wine [mp3]