Album Review: Mondo by Electric Guest

When your claim to pop immortality is co-writing "Dick In A Box," what do you do for a second act? For Asa Taccone, you turn a proven talent for smirking R&B into something deeper. The debut of his project with drummer Matthew Compton and inescapable producer/sessionman Danger Mouse is a Beck-ian journey into L.A. slacker soul, full of hooky neon jams that ponder fame's fraught highway and the emptiness of modern life.

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Electric GuestMondo[Downtown Records; 2012]By Kerri O'Malley; April 23, 2012Purchase at: Insound (Vinyl) | Amazon (MP3 & CD) | iTunes | MOGTweetWith a sound as big as its name, Electric Guest’s debut, Mondo has emerged from a six-year gestation fully formed and friendly, hitting the ears with the ease of absolutely perfect, sun-soaked pop. This L.A. duo cuts the difference between back-up vocals and bass beats, soul power and sexy slithering, to create undeniably catchy numbers aimed wide, but shooting sharp.

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Any time there’s a new band that features a member with a relatively famous relative, in this case the Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, certain quesions about credibility are raised. While those questions aren’t as nagging or as potentially harmful as the ones that plague artists like Sean Lennon, there’s still a sense that something has to be immediately accounted for. Certain expectations are raised because of the idea that no one should be given a free pass in the entertainment industry due to immediate and apparent connections.

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Electric Guest are an oddity; Mt. Washington hipsters whose USP is they’ve been teamed up with famed producer Danger Mouse. On the surface, it seems like an arranged marriage, or that the bloke on the reception desk directed Mr Mouse to the wrong recording booth - the one with the two kids in it arguing intensely over cardigans. But it turns out the trio have been friends for years, with Danger Mouse mentoring Matthew Compton and Asa Tacoone when they were still in LA, then moving them out to his house to grace them with the magic touch he brought Jemini, Cee Lo Green and Gorillaz.

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You know how the saying goes, "if so-and-so didn't exist, they'd have to invent them!" Well, if a Downtown A&R came into a strategy meeting with the blueprint for Electric Guest, they'd be on workman's comp after all the back-patting. The buzzed-about L.A. band is pretty much a bulletproof combination of who you know and what you know-- lead singer Asa Taccone's brother Jorma is one of the songwriters in the Lonely Island, and they quickly caught the attention of the increasingly unstoppable Danger Mouse.

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