ENTREZ VOUS - “Tell Her A Joke” EP
Entrez Vous doesn’t just ask you to “come in” with their name; they hold the door, hand you a drink, and usher you straight into their quirky little universe with the five-song EP “Tell Her A Joke.” Carrboro, NC veteran Clark Blomquist has logged more miles in indie rock than most of us have in our cars (Kingsbury Manx, Spider Bags, Dan Melchior Band), and he’s found the perfect foil in vocalist Kelly Reidy, whose cuddly delivery keeps the whole thing buoyant and bright. Around them, Chris Girard (Spider Bags, Dan Melchior Band, Open Field), Shareen El Naga (Hex Files), and Sean Armbruster (Silk Moth) flesh out arrangements that feel homemade in the best way— utterly charming and off the cuff, zigzagging hither and yon as the mood hits them.
“(Crying in the) Sportbook” sets the tone, pairing busted bets and broken hearts with a twee-pop melody that never talks down to you even as it chases something wide-eyed and childlike. “Willy” drifts in on that same gentle breeze, a lilting love song with the knowing innocence of a Moldy Peaches B-side—sweet, but with just enough snark to keep it from turning to sugar. “Oh, Raquel” takes you out of Carrboro entirely, to some imaginary beach where the palm trees sway on cue and the reverb on the guitars hangs in the air like salt spray, Reidy’s vocal more sigh than shout.
By “Her Favorite Horse,” the band leans harder into psychedelic shimmer, sprinkling in just enough sparkle to make the track feel slightly otherworldly without losing its bedroom-pop intimacy. Closer “Bootsy’s Place,” a wordless instrumental that plays like the overture to a fairy-tale opera about unicorns and misfit pixies, underlines what this EP does best: it builds a world, lets you live in it for 15 minutes, and then sends you back to reality a little dazed and a lot lighter. Très bien, mes amis—or as they say Carrboro, “c’est le top, y’all.”
- Jim Testa, CONSTANT LISTENER
pic Mike Gallinsky