THE DODOS The Dodos play the Phoenix June 16 as part of NXNE. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Anyone dissatisfied with the Dodos’ last album, Time To Die, should like No Color. Stripping away the antiseptic production and muddied instrumentation (they’ve lost the vibraphones and are back to a duo), the San Franciscans return to what they do best: playing acoustic folk rock with the energy and urgency of a punk band.
Touches of strings and effects work as the dressing rather than the focus. Neko Case lends vocals to more than half the songs, but she’s surprisingly easy to miss. More noticeable are the band’s busy percussion and off-kilter rhythms, turning relatively straightforward melodies into driving, idiosyncratic mini-epics.
It’s clichéd to remark on a duo’s ability to sound like a full band, but the Dodos’ virtuosic acoustic guitar playing and busy arrangements undeniably defy their numbers.
Top track: Sleep
