Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Disasters Vol. 1

Rest assured, Mostly Other People Do the Killing get the joke and on Disasters Vol.1, the amorphous collective's eleventh disc and this trio's riotous second, you either get the joke too or you don't. It really makes no never-mind to this eclectic bunch because MOPDtK know instinctively that, if you don't throw yourself off balance from time to time, (like every single time the opportunity presents itself) you're going to get deeply sucked into the muck and mire of human folly. And hasn't it been proven time and time again that our poor brains can't contend with the pummel pummel pummel of global contention and its twenty-four hour news cycle?

So lighten up. Gather your wits and prepare to cast them to the wind because that's why music like "Three Mile Island," "Exeter," "Marcus Hill" and all the other jauntily neurotic, yet oddly satisfying and smile inducing tracks of Disasters Vol.1 was created for. It's why bassist and bandleader Moppa Elliott (who cheekily released Blue (Hot Cup Records, 2014), a note-for-note recreation of Kind of Blue by you- know-who) writes his musical ensemble sketch comedy with an infectious, joyous abandon for keenly observant punchlines. Genre be damned!

But, asks Elliot and his impetuous peers, randy pianist Ron Stabinsky and ever-threatening-to-pull-things-apart drummer Kevin Shea, why stop at just damning genres? Damn it all and have fun doing it or clear the lane for someone else to make the matter fly. Again, it makes no never-mind to these guys. They're going for all the gusto and you should too. That's why "Wilkes-Barre" rumbles and rhumbas. "Centralia" bursts with a madcap punk energy breaking freely into a rock n roll road song with Stabinsky boogieing big time down the highway. The disasters inherent in the titles (each title a town in Elliot's Pennsylvania home state that have experienced either floods, fires, or mining accidents) are serious, life-changing business. But if we don't take the time to laugh how do we face the next calamity we all know lies ahead?