Pastiche

Gotta Go - Victor Scott

Flock of Seagulls - Victor Scott

Ever notice how the word pastiche is usually preceded by "merely?" Or, in the case of a wide-ranging but well-executed album, a critic might claim it "transcends pastiche." Victor Scott's Happy Days (SVC Records, eMusic) isn't mere and it doesn't transcend anything. It doesn't need to. Why would anyone make excuses for a sound collage that packs as much wit as "Remember Vibgyor!"? If "Dirty Knees" sounds like a mash-up between The White Stripes' "Blue Orchid" and Sonic Youth's "Dirty Boots," so what? It still rocks. In an age when weepy young guys have got the indie kids swooning over an imagined Eastern European past, Scott calls his Django-inspired jaunts "Chimp Farm" and "Golf. That's a positive development. And if we must sit through folky singer-songwritery stuff, shouldn't it be about getting wasted in a parking lot and offer lines like "Flowers give away their sons and daughters without guilt" ("Flock of Seagulls")? "Gotta Go," though, is the highlight of the record, the funky showstopper that in a just world would be blaring from every soundsystem on every dancefloor on the planet this summer...Oh! Did I mention there's a song called "Underpants!"?

One of the year's best for sure.

Happy Days B-Sides bonus:

The Laundromat Song - Victor Scott

Also, Take Your Medicine has created an artist-endorsed video for "Fortune Favors The Brave."