Talkative emerges from the same squishy indie-rock primordial ooze as Animal Collective. The Portland-via-Eugene art freaks are test-driving material from their new LP Hot Fruit Barbecue May 23 at Tiny Tavern in the Whit.
Barbecue bursts from the gates with “Mongoose” — a punchy four-on-the-snare drum line propels the track beneath itchy, harebrained guitar work, garbled and shouted vocals, and electronic buzzing and beeping.
The manic, up-all-night energy carries on throughout the record including album high points like the brief and driving art-jam “Dusty Mastercron,” and the Devo-meets-Talking Heads (and exquisitely titled) “Gentrifuckation.”
Too catchy to be experimental, too pop to be psychedelic, Talkative at times — like in “Sampler Song” and “Hava Nagila” (no, not that Hava Nagila) — swerves dangerously close to pre-2010 indie-rock sameness, a sound as played out as the word “hipster.”
But overall Talkative has a wild and rangy charm, dancing ceremonially around a primal fire, incanting the sacred rites of ’70s-era art-punk. They’re also really, really good.
Talkative plays 9 pm Friday, May 23, at Tiny Tavern; free.