Weed Seizure by The Hussy (2012, Tic Tac Totally) plays like an alternate ending to Reefer Madness, playing faster forever… or at least 27-ish minutes. Weed Seizure proposes in its own frenetic way that yes, absolute marijuana corrupts absolutely, but is that such a bad thing? The Long Arm of the Law can’t crash this party because it’s happening in one of the few places low enough and dirty enough that the Law can’t touch it. That place, of course, is the garage; the filthy American tabernacle of birth, death, and cheap beer.
To take that fossilized pop structure and recast it in a disaffected temper could easily be an exercise in lofty, unprovocative irony. Fortunately, Year of the Dragonfly has little interest in a deliberately blasé performance. Instead, the newly-minted Denver duo works castoff pop scraps into lush hypnagogic progressions throughout the length of their debut LP. By blasting apart the bones of familiar forms with an uneasy vapor, Pupil (Tinyamp, 2012) shakes pop loose from its sequined exoskeleton and, at its zenith, splits itself open to birth fresh methods of songcraft.
