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 Caught in the Carousel "There will be music despite everything"
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Patches and Gretchen
Sugar Head Pie
Sandpaper Tongue
Gretchen Seichrist's on stage alter ego Patches and Gretchen (also the name of her band) is a single punk rock mom who wears a white facial mask, smokes cigarettes and lives in a house so crowded with plastic alligators, pink elephants and other chachkes, it looks like it was furnished by a sprint across a swap meet. Armed with a priceless snarl, drop dead perfect timing and lyrics that reference mini-skirted buzzards, Henry the Eighth, ghosts and wolves, Patches and Gretchen's Sugar Head Pie is one of the most refreshing and consistently brilliant albums to come along in some time. "Crying States" sounds like Gordon Gano fronting The Pretenders on Mars; "Blood Suitcase" suggests a feral Liz Phair and the riveting ramshackle post-punk folk of "Time Of The Lilacs" is a delicious, swervy romp that finds Patches and Gretchen declaring, "I've got to start thinking about myself/And I'm gonna do it all by myself." Later, the poetic sprawl of "Black Market" brings to mind Mark E. Smith; "Take The Gauze Off" is a wondrous low-fi stomp and the muttering acoustica of the closer "Everything Is Indian" is nothing short of a warbling and hushed modern classic. An early entry for one of the best albums of 2010.
—Alex Green
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