Megapuss
| Surfing | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Megapuss | ||||||||
| Released | October 7, 2008 | |||||||
| Genre | Experimental rock, indie folk | |||||||
| Length | 47:57 | |||||||
| Label | Vapor Records | |||||||
| Megapuss chronology | ||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (66%) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| Pitchfork Media | (5.9/10) |
| Robert Christgau |  |
| The A.V. Club | (B) |
| PopMatters |   |
| The Harvard Crimson | |
Megapuss is a band with the following members: Devendra Banhart, Gregory Rogove (of Priestbird), Fabrizio Moretti (of The Strokes), and Noah Georgeson (member of Devendra's band and his producer). Megapuss formed as a joke between Banhart and Rogove, where they created the song titles first and wrote humorous songs based on the titles.
Their debut album Surfing was released October 7, 2008, and featured a few guest performances such as Aziz Ansari in the song "Duck People." Their album was more or less critically panned and deemed too light and crude, although many appreciate it for its humor and its solid songs.
Surfing is the only studio album by Megapuss. It was released digitally on September 16, 2008, and physically on October 7, 2008, on Vapor Records. Actor Aziz Ansari contributed to the song "Duck People Duck Man".
The album cover, which depicts the band's two members, Devendra Banhart and Greg Rogove, fighting each other naked, proved controversial upon its release. Rebecca Nicholson wrote that it "takes nudity away from vulnerability, and even sexiness, and hands it right back to the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, circa their sock-donning period. Yes, it's obnoxious, but that has to be better than soft-focus sincerity." The booklet that comes with the album contains even more graphic nude images of Banhart and Rogove.
A single, "Adam & Steve" was released on November 7, 2008, along with a music video. Allison Stewart described the song and music video as, respectively, "a freak pop version of the Doors," and "entertaining as heck, like something the Monkees might have come up with after not showering for several weeks. And taking lots of drugs." The music video was also reviewed by Spin, in which it was described as "a sweetly endearing, jokingly homoerotic display the likes of which hasn't been seen since, well, the latest Judd Apatow movie."
The album was met with lukewarm reception after its release, with many critics dismissing it as an intentional joke. Still, the album did receive some positive reception, with Andy Battaglia writing it had a "sense of musical adventurousness more engrossing than any on Banhart albums in the past." According to Metacritic, the album has a score of 66%, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
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