Two Hand Fools - House Parts

You may have noticed by this point in your Idle and the Bear readership that we've mentioned Two Hand Fools on multiple occasions, but have never posted a review of anything they've recorded. Well, much to your opposite-of-dismay, I'm actually reviewing their recent album 'House Parts', and it's on bandcamp so you can listen for free and realize what I meant by they're one of the only good bands in Cleveland (along with Signals Midwest and The Fucking Cops).

Two Hand Fools sound like the hastily-abandoned-in-Cleveland lovechild of Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine and pretty much an assortment of 90s emo, Oh, and throw in some sort of folk punk sperm donor, and you pretty much have it down to a science. The singalong melodies and sometimes unorganized vocals remind me a lot of Defiance, Ohio...you know, if Defiance had balls surgically attached to their band all of a sudden. Albums like this make me want to misquote Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights and say, "If you don't like House Parts, then fuck you."

The album starts off with balls ablaze, and keeps it that way throughout. Beginning with the song "A Reminded to Me", you'll notice that there's a definite punk approach to the recording of this album. It certainly doesn't sound like anyone decided sticking to a click track would be a good idea, and it definitely doesn't sound like the drummer has even heard of a click track...but I say this all in a positive manner. I like the gritty underbelly of Cleveland punk music that this band represents. Actually, I feel like every band I get into from Cleveland kind of has a hectic style and a lot of grittiness going into what they put out. Maybe the shittiness of the city has gotten to everyone there, and has put a damper on their positive outlook and has quieted anyone who, living in any other state, might very well have ended up a perfectionist.

You'll notice with albums like these that it's quite impossible sum it up as just which songs are good and which songs don't really deserve as much of a mention. This isn't like Dorkrockcorkrod, where you can just point out the 6 songs that rule balls, and say the rest are great if you're a big fan of the band. This is one of those albums where almost everyone will pick a different set of songs to be their favorites. If you want to know what mine are, however, I'll be willing to discuss it in comments or something. There's not much of a purpose in me listening them here...because then it'd just be like the other most recent reviews I've done, in which I've posted a bulleted list of my favorite songs off the releases. I don't want to play into any character archetype, especially a self-imposed one. So fuck all of that. Just go to that bandcamp page and listen to this album. Pray your face doesn't melt and that their band doesn't omit your locale on any upcoming tours. Also pray for no more fucking rain, because I'm tired of it at this point. I'm not saying I'm tired of the song Pray For Rain, I'm saying I'm tired of precipitation. Get your facts straight, kiddo.

-Idle