photo by: michael persico

Umm ... Drop

Aunt Dracula

by Doug Wallen

The frantic blur of freak-pop heard on Aunt Dracula’s debut album will continue to frighten the elderly, baffle anyone unacquainted with indie music and elicit Animal Collective comparisons from everyone else. But while that knee-jerk reaction has dogged the Philly trio from day one, sticking around for a while has always proved rewarding. In due time the songs seem less haphazard and make infinitely more sense.

Face Peel arrives as the band is getting settled after a few dogged tours. Aunt Dracula appeared on the scene just last year but quickly perfected a meticulously erratic live show and got someone in a wolf costume to make waffles for the crowd. If all that distracted from the songs a bit, Face Peel is a chance to finally commune with the band’s deeply ingrained quirks.

The trio—singer/guitarist Scott Daly, guitarist Ashley Andrien and drummer Dan Pell—recorded the album locally with Relay’s Jeff Zeigler and mixed it with Bill Moriarty, the guy behind several Dr. Dog and Man Man records. Daly and Andrien also incorporate samples into the music, adding another layer to the surrealism. Ditto Daly’s voice, which in the course of the opening “Statue of Gordon” jerks from gloomy growl to madcap falsetto, and his songwriting, which yields outlandish imagery and such memorable titles as “Diddle Coaster” and “Timecoat.”

As comparisons go, Animal Collective still isn’t a bad place to start, but there’s also a solid dose of Os Mutantes’ kaleidoscopic tropicalia. Aunt Dracula abandon English similarly at the end of “Evo Tito,” whereas other songs resemble the tribal-influenced fever dreams of Yeasayer. But enough comparisons. These guys have crafted a record that’s psychedelic to the point of delirium.