Pajama Club - 'Pajama Club'

Pajama Club - Crowded House-mate Neil Finn and his wife Sharon are the shared drivers in the front seat of this new off-shoot vehicle...where Crowded House was sleek pop/rock ride, with luxurious melodies and padded production, Pajama Club is more of a rugged, ragged ATV (minus a muffler and a top)...we can't help but think that Neil and Sharon's son Liam's indie pop explorations have been a big influence here // Release: Pajama Club (September 13, Lester/Redeye) // Sounds like: a bracing, ramshackle romp of a garage pop album, the edges rough and unfinished...beneath the trademark melodies and trade-off vocals of the Finns lurks a gloriously looped and loopy, muddy musical swamp -- this is invigorating stuff but you'll get a little dirt under the fingernails (which is fine by us)...the songs came about in a living room jam session and the album retains that off-the-cuff immediacy...

Quote: "I'd always had a hankering to play the drums, Sharon's had a similar attraction to the bass. We were having a great old time making noise but we didn't think too much about it until we started playing some of it back and found ourselves dancing." - Neil Finn // What we like: third studio member Sean Donnelly (aka SJD) gives the project an interesting "noise" element, electronic blips and squonks that despite their plugged-in origin actually give the production a more spontaneous, even organic feel..."The Game We Love to Play" is a spooky, off-kilter melange of deep electro-bass grooves and Neil's smooth vocal delivery -- like most of the album, an odd mix of straight-up melodies and menacing, down low, rhythmic funk mayhem..."From A Friend to a Friend" shows off the PJC's alt-rock indie bona fides, more dubby grit and grind than the raw kiwi pop delicacies laid bare in the Beatle-ish "Golden Child"....

Pajama Club - "Golden Child" (from the album Pajama Club)

Pajama Club - "A Friend of a Friend" (from the album Pajama Club)

Pajama Club with touring member Alana Skyring...