Palit
Popt (Pecan Crazy) Led by multitalented visual artist/songwriter Lance McMahan, Palit taps a Shimmy Disc-inspired strain of mutant sleepwalk pop from the outside looking in. Most songs on Popt are catchy at heart, but forlorn vocal delivery and melancholic shoebox arrangements undermine their conventionality. The pleasantly tweaked “Pirates” resonates like a muffled Bowie/Eno outtake, while “Psychic Knife” ambles forth on a xylophonic melody that gradually unfolds into a rumpled epic climax. Finally, there’s “Return the Bad Purchase,” an ice-cold, pitch-black waltz with inner demons confirming that something was a little off-kilter all along. 
This article appears in November 18 • 2011.
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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.
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