Dyslexic Postcards
Spare the Altar
(Self-released)
myspace.com/dyslexicpostcards
There is something magnificently debauched about Miami's Dyslexic Postcards that might be hard to put into words without actually triggering your porn filters.
That said, these guys (in particular longtime frontman Joshua Xmas) put that seed of corruption into my teenage mind many, many years ago during one fateful and discordant evening at the sorely missed Cheers bar.
I remember the night with some degree of clarity: The Basicks performed in front of some acid-washed (and I mean acid of the lysergic variety) bed sheet thing stenciled with Mr. Magoo and what I'm pretty sure were sex stains. I would later find out that it had nothing to do with the Basicks as much as the violent amalgam of blues, punk, and psychedelic alt-rock that is the Dyslexic Postcards.
And truth be told, they've had a pretty spotty record of live performance. But just when I was about to write them off as another great Miami act that had come and gone, they drop their first full-length effort, Spare the Altar, and it is everything you'd expect. These are six tracks that incorporate those aforementioned genres with added New Wave nuances as well as synth-pop sensibilities and washy, echo-y feedback moments, transporting this disc from straightforward rock 'n' roll into a land of feverish dreamscapes.
Opener "Shakes That You Make" gets it going with a bittersweet fisting reference before giving way to the acerbic "Now They Know." The middle section, "So So Lover" and "Put Up Your Makeup," cloaks questionable lyrical matter in moments of true saccharine pop while "Reason to Die" is a sing-along arena rocker replete with "heys" and fuzzy guitars. And finally, "Emerald Shot Eyes" closes the disc with a country-ish twang of heartfelt softness before it all loops back to the sexy debauch of the beginning.
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