Ginger, Baby

AMG Review of Ginger, Baby

Jack Rabid
All Music Guide

Miami Beach is great, but hard to launch a band. Too many tourists, not enough locals, and everywhere is far (except the Everglades, but the alligators don't care). So it's inspired oddball, interesting bands, from the Eat and Cichlids to Holy Terrors and Scraping Teeth. Nine-person Father Bloopy (on Dippy Records) is as unpredictable. One minute Roger Houdaille is Jonathan Richman jamming with Brian Eno on the title track, with similar Lou Reed talk-singing, the next he's Ray Davies doing wistful pop tunes like "Pepper Tan" or "Miss Morality." Anyone hard to pin down is hard to sum up, but there're several well-written grungy power-pop songs with English-centric vocals, like Peter Perrett of Only Ones singing Big Star. The base gets a treatment too, in both the standout "Florida No Fault" and "Aventura," and there's humor in "Baby Your Lame" and the art rock "Who Pulled the Child Support?"