Mika Miko
We Be Xuxa
Rating: 3.0
Label: PPM
With 12 songs that clock in at a little over 22 minutes, We Be Xuxa has the character of a punk singles compilation. Yet this is an entirely new record from the almost all girl Mika Miko, who have put together a more conventional record than what we’ve come to expect from them in recent years. Normally thriving on a faster and more brittle branch of hardcore, they’ve turned back the clock to capture a slower and more nascent style of the same music. The best way to describe it might be a mesh between the Washington, D.C. habit of clear vocal articulation ran through the sharper garage-dwelling guitars found in their hometown of Los Angeles.
This change of pace comes as no surprise. Mika Miko are rightfully admired for diving into many of the older and more romantic networks to establish themselves as a force in independent music. They came up though the diminished community of all ages shows, college radio, zines and split 7″ singles. As a publicity tool, this old school approach paid dividends. More importantly, it also taught the band the value of having fun and making live gigs into parties, something that gets lost far too often when fans take this type of music too seriously.
Though a more structured affair, We Be Xuxa is a party in its own right. The heart of the band is in fine form with Jennifer Clavin dropping her voice much lower to match her sister Jessica’s bass. “Beat the Rush” benefits greatly from this newer sound, taking on fuller and more circular motions than the group has ever attempted. These changes move them closer to the D.O.A. School, minus the coarseness in execution. Instead, Mika Miko come off as absurdist students on “Turkey Sandwich,” the type of song that D.C. bands like Grey Matter used to sing too earnestly. A similar carefree feel is carried over to the shake-crazy scene anthems “Wild Bore” and “I Got A Lot (New New New).” Sure there’s a subtext to a salivating tribute to cold cuts, but no music priority becomes ever becomes bigger than dancing.
Glimpses of the band’s wiry and harsh past still spring up on “Sex Jazz” and “Keep on Calling.” At the right moments Jenna Thornhill’s saxophone is slipped under the guitar bridge to tie together the jittery refrains of both songs. Even with these retreads in style, each piece still sounds bigger in scope with cleaner production than their earliest work. No matter how closely things mesh, keyboards, cowbells, bass and lead guitars separate nicely on the final product. While there’s no telling what the band’s future ambitions are, a major label could easily be tempted by how complete their sound has become.
Fighting against the idea of a smarmier and more abstract revisionist history of punk music is a full-time job that the girls may have unknowingly taken on in the past six years. Quite honestly, it only takes small steps, like their cover of The Urinals’ “Sex,” to put their joy over the pretensions of others. As a song, “Sex” is all hormones, touch, taste and all of the other good stuff we get from the parietal lobe. Xuxa is, after all, just an entertainer, and so are Mika Miko.
by Neal Fersko
