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UNDER THE TRAY
(VAGRANT)
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Deflating some of the self-importance of the latest crop of indie rock, Reggie & the Full Effect recall Ween in their penchant for sly musical parody that has the ability to stand on its own. I use the term "their" loosely, since Reggie is actually the one-man project of Get Up Kids keyboardist (and Coalesce drummer) James DeWees, who records under various alter egos as members of this "band": ’80s-style Euro synth-pop artist Fluxuation, gruff Finnish death-metal act Common Denominator, emo-rocker Reggie (bearing an amusing resemblance to any number of current lovelorn emo singers). DeWees fashions a schizoid mix of music interspersed with random bits of drunken dialogue captured during tour stops. Enjoyment of the record requires a certain willingness to embrace what’s cheesy about the genres he surveys, but if you’ve ever absent-mindedly sung along to Spandau Ballet, grimaced at the tortured syntax and nonsensical content of Euro metal acts (see Laibach’s "Life Is Life"), or bobbed your head to sappy pop punk love songs, you’ll probably appreciate what he’s doing. Common Denominator again steals the show, as he did on Promotional Copy’s height-phobic "Dwarf Invasion," with the schoolhouse-rock lesson "Linkin Verbz," which uses the applicable verbs to encourage you to buy the band’s T-shirts. Live is perhaps the best way to enjoy Reggie, as DeWees puts on an outrageous stage show, complete with several costume changes.
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