Every year at the Fuji Rock Festival there comes a time when you've reached the point of sonic overload. You're searching for a place for a quiet lie-down when you stumble into a field and are aurally ambushed by a band you've never heard of that blows your head off. Last year, the psychedelic punk-rock soundscapes of The Cooper Temple Clause were the biggest and best surprise of all. From "Cooper Temple who?" it was suddenly "Have they got an album out? I want it. Now!"
Well, the long wait is over with the release of "See This Through and Leave," and if you saw them last summer, this is everything you could have hoped for -- times 10.
The album is packed with so many ideas that you'd think it was produced by a bunch of hip NASA scientists. On first listen, this is a drawback, as there's just too much to take in -- basically, it sounds like a bullet train plowing into a concert hall. But after a few listens, the hooks dig themselves into your brain, refuse to let go and, before you know it, you're addicted.