Starlight Mints

Starlight Mints are a group of beautiful pop mutants: four oddballs whose love for archetypal pop music and AM radio has provided a rock-solid foundation for a whole bunch of inspired weirdness. Allan Vest (vocals/guitar), Marian Love Nunez (keyboards), Javier Gonzales (bass), and Andy Nunez (drums) began jamming together in the '90s, giving birth to their own funky brand of heavily instrumental, surrealistically worded pop sound. The band has previously released two albums, the dream that stuff was made of (2000), and built on squares (2003), and with drowaton they continue their quest for the perfect synthesis of conceptual composition and eminently humable melody.

Church bells, horns, piano, violin, tambourine, triangle, synths and sound effects complement the usual suspects of guitar, bass, and drums to paint a broad and surreal sonic palate. Opulent chamber pop collides with post punk and new wave, throwing off charged particles of ever changing infectious melody. Allan Vest sings out lines of poetry that react like lyrical Rorschach tests, blooming images in the mind of the listener. They bend and twist within, dancing to the melody of the Mints? music.

Drowaton continually challenges the listener to keep up with its complexities, but rather than coming off progishly, the band's blend of classic string arrangements,cheeky boyish vocals, catchy melody and ornate surrealism is a pleasure. You might call it bubblegum psych. But whatever you call it, it all adds up to something very grand and instantly recognizable: Starlight Mints.