CHICKLET Indian Summer ( Satellite ) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
Dreamy T-dot indie pop duo Chicklet are big in L.A., where legendary KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer’s spun their tunes every week on his show since falling in love with their 1998 Lemon Chandeliers EP. They’re still pretty much under the radar here. After listening to the tightly coiled, synth-charged pop musings of Indian Summer, I’m wondering what the fuck our problem is. Chicklet craft perfectly arranged, fluttering adrenaline rushes, buoyed by Julie Park’s perky yet disaffected warble and anchored by a slowed-down punkish guitar backbone. The lyrics are charmingly stiff in that Stereolab-slash-Ladytron way, and the shots of self-conscious irony (as on the fab Subcelebrity, a musing on second-rate fame) are arch without being alienating.