Reviver EP

The problem with having a sound unique enough to summarize in two words is that people will use that tag. A lot. L.A.'s Abe Vigoda are self-described "tropical punk," and Google results say this phrase appears 1,640 times next to their name. It's totally accurate. The band's second album, Skeleton , mixed steel drum-mimicking guitars and stilted, hard-to-play (easy to ca ll "tropical"; more accurately "syncopated") rhythms. L.A. all-ages performance space The Smell was their musical home base. On Reviver Abe Vigoda take the next logical step in the development of their easy-to-peg sound: they abandon it. Skeleton was great, but also hinted that there were more variations and textures hidden inside the songs. Just as on Skeleton , Abe Vigoda establish an aesthetic right from the beginning of Reviver . Or rather, they establish what it is not; and this time it’s "not-tropical punk."