“Overall, though, it's satisfyingly weird, and you're not likely to hear anything else like it any time soon.”
“Satisfyingly weird” is what Mike Patton’s label Ipecac seems to pride itself on but this doesn’t always assure quality music, just weird music. Ipecac’s beyond spectacular packaging often makes up for even the weakest records in their catalog but in The Tango Saloon’s case their music is about as exciting as their logo only cover art… sigh…and their choice of font and band name spell out EXACTLY what you will get.
The Tango Saloon = think cowboy with a rose in his mouth... now think less interesting.
Mr. Patton is also in the habit of supporting / releasing records by his friends / fellow band members and not so surprisingly a member of Mr.Bungle is found among the 15 cowboy costumed members of The Tango Saloon. This, the playing dress up part leads me to believe that perhaps a companion dvd or enhanced cd would make this attention span killer of a disc a lot more captivating. Just as the PFM review suggests, Tango Saloon has “a sense of structure that can get overly lackadaisical” and in my world this means one thing: boring.
You can look at the PFM review in two ways: there are not many reviews of Tango Saloon on line so for a slim pickins’ scenario you are in pretty good hands, but between the label website bio and message boards, I too could have written a piece similar to Pitchfork's.
I take that back; I have trouble creative writing about a record that inspires napping over a Buenos Aires cowboy bar braw (Does Argentina even have cowboys?)- so PFM wins. This cd might make for a compelling soundtrack to a silent Western black and white film and while I don't know how to tango, The Tango Saloon doesn't make me wish I knew how.
This doesn't earn the band a 7.4 rating in Tuning Fork world, it earns them a full six shooter.
