Linfinity's Martian Bloom

Linfinity are a New York City based group of musicians who helped form a band around enigmatic front man Dylan Von Wagner in 2007. After a brief time the new formed group recorded an EP which, eventually wound up in the hands of a division of Secretly Canadian who issued the demos as the Live at Marcata record. After a brief respite, the group eventually reformed around him once again to record their debut album, Martian's Bloom.

Bizarre to say the least this six piece band is the very definition of strange. Embracing all kinds of Americana and putting a strangely insane version of Elvis as their frontman, Linfinity have come up with something that's been labelled everything from Southern Gothic to rockabilly and everything in between. The truth is Linfinity is all of those things and so much more because you really can't sound as off center as this group does unless there are a mish-mash of influences conspiring against them. The conspiracy is so great and Martian's Bloom is so avant garde that it's almost unlistenable and intolerable to anyone but the most highly trained fans.

Truth be told, it's not that the music is actually bad per-se it's just the fact that the vocals of Von Wagner simply don't fit in with what the rest of the band are doing. I'll be honest, I've heard and seen all sorts of unique characters sing a song before but the strange Elvi-like yodel of Von Wagner eventually becomes to much to bear. It's almost overdone to the point of being overdone on purpose. Dramatic and drugged out, the songs sound like finger nails on a chalkboard when Von Wagner croons his way through them. I honestly couldn't take it anymore after about four songs because of how intolerable these songs had become.

I tried to like this, I really did, I tried to think of these guys as an American Tindersticks on something...but it just didn't work. The music is there and there are some neat ideas, but Linfinity need to leave their singer at a truck stop somewhere and find someone like Stuart Staples to sing for them. Sorry guys, until that happens I don't think I'll be able to listen to Martian's Bloom again.