Klimty Favela is now out in the world, beginning to crawl.

Following the admonition that you shouldn't read your own reviews, we promise that we won't read any of these:

FakeJazz (USA) : "The talent of this band alone makes this album a must-listen - and when combined with their ambition and imagination, Klimty Favela becomes an album that must be listened to many, many, many times."

Luna Kafe (Australia) : "From one listen to the next there will be another song that will set up residence in your head, spinning cartwheels and letting off fireworks."

PopMatters (Chicago) : "Colorful, sprawling, and adventurous... clever songs, interesting arrangements and genuine humor."

Vanity Project (UK) :  "This quite central European-sounding LP is lithe, athletic, and breaking (conventional rock) records apart."

Mote Magazine (Canada) :  "Klimty Favela may initially be a lot to handle, but that's its charm, and there is always an audience out there searching for something uniquely different.

Phantom Tollbooth : "Klimty Favela makes a lovely racket."

Low Cut Magazine (Denmark) : "...develops in a cool psychedelic way into a real mind journey."

Baby, You Got A Stew Goin' (NYC) : "I wish more bands would take these types of chances."

IndiePop.it (Italy) : "Dovreste proprio sentirli, i Griddle. Perché di band come loro ce ne sono sempre meno."

That Italian review, as translated by the great Sarah 'Sadie' Aldinger:

You should really hear them, the Griddle. Because a band like them is becoming more and more rare.

Devoted to a sort of progressive pop, rolling in a poignant irony, hidden in nonsense, (which isn't really lacking in sense, but in a very personal, instrospective manner for all) they have filled their two prior albums with overflowing melodic maximalism and they reserve the same destiny for Klimty Favela, a surreal musical account & comic strip about a futuristic world in which fossilized human cadavers are compressed and changed into energetic drinks for athletes.

Out of their heads and capable of insertion in every type of bizzaria in the melodic fabric of the journey (passage), this time the foursome from Oakland have spun the perfect experiment from afar.  Closed in the studio for one week to record improvised jam sessions, caught on one single mic, they have put Kevin Seal in charge (singer, keyboardist and habitual collaborator of Tinymixtapes) of breaking up or (taking apart) and recomposing the original tapes combined with a rhythmic session, obtaining the finished song. At the end, they have arrived at the text, with the precious contribution of comic book artist Stephen Tompkins, to give life to the 'city made of teeth,' the Pollack female doctors and exploding heads.

If the band's bizarre eloquence references the great Flaming Lips, the eclecticism of the chosen musical materials and the progressive layering of the instruments make one think of the misunderstood Rock-a-Teens, whose chords dwell in the same inventive vein that guides The Griddle. Because, despite the improvisational nature of the operation, all the pieces of Klimty Favela, appear fully (completely) computed and choral, seeming that the stitching in the studio or the chaos of the original recording were very evident (purposeful). The thick labor of the mixer, rather than the visible thread (web) of the piece, points out the prog aspects, from the beginning (initial) and old-fashioned 'City Made of Teeth' to the irregular XTC-like optimism in "Theme from the 1984 Olympic Games" (based on a parallel theme for the 2060 olympics with a folk feel); landing on (finishing with) the baroque weaving of "Dr. Becky Bolanky" to the Flaming Lips Magical Mystery Tour-inspired "Then their Heads Exploded" & the melodic sixties Psychedelic Pink Floydian "Porpoise Song":

Dedicated to those who love the useful (useless) complexity.

So now it lives over here, all y'all:  http://griddlemusic.com

Sure, it's not syndicated, or RSS-friendly, but if you're a code-knowing type who wants to help us with it, toss us a line.

Also listening to:

The Freak Accident, s/t

Fairmount Girls, Tender Trap

Regina Spektor, Soviet Kitsch

The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema

That's right, you all and all of you.  Hugs, kisses, and inappropriate touching from the city by the bay.  The latest Griddle concoction, Klimty Favela, is now mastered and ready to press.  It comes out along with Stephen Tompkins' 24-page comic book on August 12 at Bottom of the Hill, but in the meantime, please enjoy the new video, "Dr. Becky Bolanky," and a few of the album cuts, "City Made of Teeth" and "Mrs. Jones's Molars." 

We have Griddle T-shirts now, too, in a panoply of sizes and colors.  That three-eyed mascot posing as our avatar?  Also courtesy of Stephen Tompkins' brain and pen?  He/she/it is on the shirt.

Want to hear Adam Curry play cowbell with Griddle?

Here's that episode ('Hit Parade' is the first song):  http://m.podshow.com/media/21/episodes/5118/deltasierracharl-5118-05-10-2006.mp3