The Halo Benders - "Halo Benders"

The way I see it, nothing can be bad about a song that shares its name with the band that plays it.

The Halo Benders were the first Calvin Johnson band that I ever heard and are probably still my favourite. (Though they are equalled by Beat Happening at their best, the Halo Benders are the more consistent band).

The Halo Benders are like two schoolyard outcasts (one tall and skinny and the other short and plump) railing passionately and innocently against injustice. Maybe they aren't ideal bandmates - the tall skinny one being completely preoccupied with treble frequencies and the short plump one interested in the bass end of the spectrum to the exclusion of all else, but the jarring incongruity of the two sounds together create something like perfect harmony. These are two buddies with a shared purpose and no other friends.

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The United States of America - "The Garden of Earthly Pleasures"

This United States of America, like the other one, is an ominous country. This song is a maddening psychological journey into a sinister synthesized jungle taking shape in the chemically altered mind of a lady. "Venomous blossoms, violet nightshade, blackening mushrooms and petrified willows, twisted and brown" are just a few of the things you will find "in her eyes." But be careful, because like in that other garden of earthly delights, obtaining the wrong kind of knowledge is gonna change things. For the worse.