Phases and Stages

Opposite Day

Economics for Mr Ugly If there's one thing Austin needs right now, it's more bands with songs about 5-year-old superspies, cannibalistic bagels, and monkeys throwing their own feces. This is not sarcasm: In the wake of the capital city's silent (and now smoke-free) spring, Opposite Day's freewheeling, absurdist debut is a welcome batch of high-spirited non sequiturs. Musically, the local threepiece plots a course marked by schizophonic guitars, limber drumming, and loads of, as Anthony Kiedis once so eloquently put it, "funky-ass Flea bass." While they obviously owe a debt to earlier rock oddballs like Frank Zappa and They Might Be Giants, Opposite Day is still very much a unique specimen, and Economics contains enough hairpin turns to frustrate the most ice-veined Formula One driver. Although there are the inevitable moments of high-concept wankery, along with a handful of head-scratching interludes, the 311-ish "Adam Smith" and breezy bossa nova "Candyland Bomb Squad" suggest that underneath all the gee-whiz grandstanding lurk actual songs. "Android Food" feels imported from a Fishbone album, but it's hard not to be swayed by the lubricious rhythms. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, comes the killer psych-rock intro to "Danger! Monkey." If Opposite Day ever figures out exactly what it is they're going for, they could really turn some heads. Even if they don't, however, their fantastical menagerie of cephalopods and androids already offers a much-needed respite from the rational world.