Vivian Girls: "Moped Girls"

For a band of supposed amateurs, the Vivian Girls sure seem to know what they’re doing. “Moped Girls” possesses the same willfully obscured craftsmanship that was modeled so brilliantly on their self-titled LP—check them off: a simple, rushed, and slightly altered four-on the floor tom beat; a bass line that could be described as baby’s-first-surf-riff; a sliding melody over roving first-position guitar chords (an old folk trick effective in using open strings to create both unusual chords and a droning sensation, used to great effect in the cavernous, scuzzy sheen that cloaks the band’s sound); Cassie Ramone’s indecipherable vocals under the obligatory cloudburst of canned reverb (there’s something about a double dare, unless it’s a double date, in that cool little hiccup before the bridge, but otherwise it’s all washed-out wordless oohs); a run-time of no more than two minutes.

Critics turned off by the no-fi sound quality and bad playing will find nothing to change their mind here, and likewise those who charge such complaints as thinly-veiled misogyny will find ample evidence lighting up blogs and message boards. There’s no denying that the hype surrounding the band makes the simple matter of liking or disliking them a political action (one would expect that the hijink-laden clip accompanying this song would be too silly to man the battle stations, which is exactly what’s happened), but “Moped Girls,” while not their strongest song, would suggest the Vivian Girls have the stuff to be around for a while longer.