The Convenience Like Cartoon Vampires

On their second record as The Convenience, Like CartoonVampires, New Orleans multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson andDuncan Troast embrace a hypnotic physicality and collage-y,spur-of-the-moment approach to composition. The result is anavant-rock soundworld, peppered with spidery, atonal guitarwork, pointy rhythms, and strident feedback, which may strikeas a total reinvention following the sugary funk-pop of their2021 debut album Accelerator. With their second LP, followingtheir inspiration meant creating with their hands much morethan buttons or switches. Sessions were characterized bygnarly, improvisational jams as they tinkered with everythingfrom cassette loops, found sounds, and 808s. Tracks like"Target Offer" and "Fake the Feeling" quake with ear-splittingguitar feedback, while "Pray'r" and "Rats" eschew their grooveworship in favor of haunting minimalism. Song after song,Accelerator's pop influences are traded in for more eccentricfrontiers, with the clear common denominators of their first tworecords being the duo's spellbinding, funky instincts and amastery of texture. Lyrically, Like Cartoon Vampires collectsdispatches from a dying empire-characters are devoured byalienation and vanity, though society doesn't bat an eye. Butmake no mistake, these songs are not merely disaffectedennui-music-making and collaboration are intensely emotionalpractices for The Convenience, and they reflect a shrieking lustfor life.