Snap-On Voles

The Bagsbys are completely cracked. And I love it. Few people will take Martian Love Call seriously, but it’s nevertheless fun to see the inmates running the asylum. In this case, it’s David and Steve Bagsby making “cartoon jazz” as the Snap-On Voles. It’s music that my five-year-old might love — if I had a five-year-old. But I’d be willing to buy one just so the little tyke could share in the Voles’ complete absurdity. The album (dedicated to Frank Zappa) is either genius or ridiculous — maybe both. If nothing else, it’s brazen. The Voles create music inspired from jazz, funk, pop, rock, country and new wave using drums, guitars, pianos, squeaky toys, insect buzzes, goofy vocals and spaced-out zips, blips and squiggles from what sound like old Atari games. Everything but the kitchen sink. Then again, the Bagsbys probably bang on a sink somewhere on the album. From the polka playfulness of “Otto Zilch” to the 23 seconds of synth jumble that is “Kafka’s Day Off,” the Bagsbys fit a considerable amount of musical gibberish into less than 30 minutes. The result is a bizarre album only a Mother of Invention would be proud to call son.