There’s more than enough supporting evidence that it only takes two to rock effectively, so the New Rags offer nothing new in the way of reductive novelty. So what do Rhodes piano-pounder Tom Merrigan and timekeeper Andrew Pierce do to elevate their duo above the simple observation that there are just two of them? By writing songs that hustle along with cinematic urgency and bristle with pop immediacy, a bracing blend of Ben Folds, Mark Mothersbaugh, John Lennon and Ray Davies, all banging away on a carnival midway to provide the soundtrack to a clearly uninspected and obviously dangerous carousel. On the New Rags debut EP, Take Jennie to Brooklyn, the pair swing and skitter through a half-dozen tracks of urban dancehall rock and roll in less than 16 minutes, from the insistent pulse of the disc’s opener “Your Room” to the whooping off kilter Ben-Folds-guests-on-The Munsters boogie woogie of “Surf Seven Seas” to the ’60s spy-TV-thematics of “It’s Over.” If it was twice as long, it would still go by too quickly...get ready, boys, it’s time for your full-length close-up.
--Brian Baker
