The Bigamy Sisters Beyond the Ha Ha (Scotsmen From Hull)

The Bigamy Sisters

Beyond the Ha Ha (Scotsmen From Hull)

Despite taking their name from the Beatles parody film The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, there's little sign of the Fabs, much less outright silliness, in the Bigamy Sisters' music. Not that they lack an especially twisted sense of humor, as evidenced by disturbing song titles like "Gross Out Room," "Streetmilk," and "Crack Skull Here." If there's a Sixties influence at work here, it comes from this side of the pond, via the trippy-hippy sounds of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, worked through a modern filter by way of fellow Rutles fans Bongwater. In fact, Beyond the Ha Ha wouldn't be out of place on the eclectic Shimmy-Disc roster, and might even make label head Kramer a tad jealous, as the Sisters utilize many of the same musical trademarks found in Bongwater (male/female vocals, "found sounds" between songs, and fuzzy but not lo-fidelity production) at least as well as he and Ann Magnuson. Maybe it's just that the members of this Austin quartet aren't fighting all the time, but it probably has more to do with their blend of an airy, elegant feminine side ("1000th Birthday") and the rocking masculine energy of "Let It Sneed."