Considered one of the primary architects of much of the contemporary punk landscape,
the mercurial St. Louis-based artist Martin Meyer (of Lumpy and The Dumpers, BB Eye,
and Fried E.M. notoriety) is still the leader of the pack. Comparable in some ways to the
godfathers of DIY pop—Jonathan Richman, R. Stevie Moore, Martin Newell, or Scott
Miller—his latest band Soup Activists is a delightful diary of one man's pop obsessions.
On the band's previous LP Mummy What Are Flowers For?, Meyer worked with
Sweeping Promises to take the recording techniques somewhere greater. Tracks like
"Jeffrey Jarvis," "The Times," or "I Don't Care What Gilchrist Says" embody offbeat,
'60s-inspired pop from the heart, but like the shambolic smirk of Chris Knox or the
shadowy eccentricity of Dan Treacy, these songs that sound like scrappy lost artifacts
burst with multicolor brilliance. Across the band's latest tape Ambrosia and Linens,
Meyer shies away from the sun beamed jingle-jangles and chippy-chappy British accent
in favor of a dense and cavernous mix of '90s-inspired power pop wit that's sung with a
ethereal sweetness, à la The Rentals, Guided By Voices, and The Super Friendz. Take
tracks like "Typical Flowers" or "Skeleton Fight Song"—they pull all the pieces together
with their cagey melodies, earworm hooks, and fuzzy distortion, but consciously
embrace darker textures and dissonant sonics. That's the charm Soup Activists
represents—the gangly outsider who refuses to remain the same character he had been
a decade earlier.
(Joe Massaro / Paperface fanzine)