Dots to Connect

Dots to Connect

Would you ever buy a tribute to a band you’ve never heard of? For the first time in music history, that may actually be advisable. Dots to Connect is a tribute to The Prids, a criminally underrated (and under-covered) band that has channeled the gods of post punk to create some of the most intriguing indie pop of the decade.

During their 2008 summer tour, the Portland quartet’s van was in a crash far less erotic than J.G. Ballard would probably like to believe. The van and all of the band’s equipment was totaled, while the band was severely injured. Although they managed to raise enough money for new gear, they still have an epic pile of medical bills to pay, so Prids producer, Hillary Johnson, has put together this benefit tribute album in hopes of helping to raise the money to pay off those bills and give the band a little more exposure.

Despite Henry Rollins and members of Built to Spill and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart confessing to Prids fandom, the artists found on Dots to Connect aren’t likely household names, although a handful of them should be. A bit surprisingly, it’s not fellow PDXers who highlight the release (although Dandy Warhols protégé’s The Upsidedown’s take on “Glide, Screamer” is quite a fetching piece of space-age musical synthetics), but a trio of California bands. San Francisco’s Veil Veil Vanish’s “Forever Again” is even more hypnotically haunting than the original, LA post riot grrrls We Float give “Persona Solara” a pleasantly simplistic and playful sass, and Oakland’s brilliant Swann Danger turn “Artificial Heart Designer” into a gothic lullaby. Also noteworthy is Autodrone’s cover of “Let It Go.”

Even the contributing artists who should never become household names (Charmparticles, The Wendys, Bell Hollow, Me You Us Them, The Suffocation Keep) manage to sound chicly intriguing when doing Prids tunes. So if you’re one of those people who cringes at the thought of doing a “good deed” or helping others in any way, just pretend that your purchase of Dots to Connect is purely to make your iPod that much more “indie” than your best friend’s. Izzy Cihak