Great Big Sounds: Buy This Album: Rafter "Sex Death Cassette"

Spring is here and I couldn't think of a better album to welcome it with than Sex Death Cassette by Rafter. I'm walking down the streets of downtown Tulsa with this album, smiling at hobos and jumping wet cement. Hell, I'm practically skipping with this shit. School girl skipping-- real girly like. I'm Christopher Walken up in this mother, dancing around the room. I'm a robot. It's a happy robot parade.

Rafter's Influences (According to his own MySpace page): magicians doing magic, sweethearts making eyes, components doing their thing. house anthems, industrial screeches, big bands, sloppy singers, being in love, sweating. sweat. water. fat.

Ergo-- I am an influence of Rafter because I am fat, in love, sweat, and a sloppy singer.

Ergo-- No wonder I love Rafter . . . I created him. . . . Okay, that's a bit much, but Rafter is one of those artists that makes music I think I would like to make. After several failed attempts in high school, I gave up on creating music and now just enjoy enjoying it. But every now and then I hear an artist that is making music that seems to come from my own head. And as stalkerish as this is beginning to sound, I mean it in the most nonthreatening way. I'm just saying I can relate to it-- instantly. It's what girls and beatniks call "emotional connection," but I like to refer to it simply as familiar.

I want to slide. I want to kick shit for fun. I want to throw round shit into make-shift hoops. Ghetto school yard with this album. Eat jolly ranchers, drink whisky lemonade. I would wear a tank top for this shit and strut like a limping elephant. You don't even want to see my in a tank top, but I don't care. Sex Death Cassette is just that good.

ODDS & ENDZZ