Reviews
The Stepkids
Chuck D once rhymed: “This style seems wild / Wait before you treat me like a stepchild.” Over two decades later, the merry trio of Jeff Gitelman, Dan Edinberg, and Tim Walsh ruminated on this dilemma while sitting together in a basement in Connecticut. Steadfast in their reasoning, there was a touch of irony in naming the band ‘The Stepkids’. Theirs is a moniker which alludes to exactly how Jeff et al don’t wish to be treated.
Now that’s just an etymological theory; it could be bullshit. In fact, I’d bet their respective homesteads that that’s the case. A theory based on less conjecture, however, is that with this debut LP they set out with the express intention to place the listener in a time warp, like Van Damme à la Timecop. Think along the lines of Sly and the Family Stone, Funkadelic, Love, Jefferson Airplane, hell, even Stu Phillips’ soundtrack for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. This album is more homage than pale pastiche or parody (cf. Steel Panther). Moreover, it’s a concept album based around psychedelic funk and soul’s conception with a woozy intro and outro bookending its interstellar leanings.
Back to that point on parody. As ever, it’s a pencil-thin line although ‘Brain Ninja’ should be far more alarmingly silly than it transpires. Still, that’s not to say The Stepkids aren’t having fun; with its wah-wahing eerily reminiscent of ’70s porno incidental music and “gonna find you, gonna get’cha” reprise, I’d argue far from it. ’Suburban Dream’ juxtaposes well with its cosmic strut and twinkling B-movie ambience and the softly-sung harmonies on ‘Shadows on Behalf’ are enchanting. Even the tongue-in-cheek ‘Legend in My Own Mind’ is wonderful – the diva-esque support mirrors the male of this duet, himself crooning lyrics like “I’m one of a kind”. Elsewhere there’s much to suggest that The Stepkids aren’t defined by any one discernible era. ‘Santos & Ken’ adds a layer of crunching clavinet while cow bells characterise the takeoff in the beguiling flight of ‘La La’.
An album ostensibly caught in the past, The Stepkids starkly refuses to be constricted accordingly. The inference being that maybe, just maybe, it’s me, myself and I that is obsessed with placing such an act in a historical context. Sure, they wear their psychedelic influences on their ruffled sleeves but I can’t help but wonder whether they simply wanted to create an album that produces something outstanding of their own era and in their collective mind. And do you know what? I think they may just have pulled it off.
Words: Ben Nicholas
‘The Stepkids’ is out now on Stones Throw.
