ABDUCTING THE UNICORN [AKA: ABDUCTED AT BIRTH]

Bruce Soord the former vocalist and lead guitar player for VULGAR UNICORN starts up this new band called PINEAPPLE THIEF. And maybe not so surprisingly he names the first record "Abducting The Unicorn", it is released in 1999. I am a real fan of the music of PINEAPPLE THIEF as it combines the nineties Alternative Rock sound of SMASHING PUMPKINS with a PORCUPINE TREE / RADIOHEAD style of music.

The one thing I noticed right away was how much Bruce sings like Billy from SMASHING PUMPKINS. He likes to strum the guitar a lot as on this first song "Private Paradise", often it is overlapped with guitar solos. Some great bass work on this one, as well as some electronic programming. Check out the guitar solo 10 minutes in. "Drain" opens with some cool percussion and some clanging guitar melodies.The guitar sound is upfront which is nice, and later there are some amazing atmospheric guitar melodies. The drums are relentless in this one. "What Ever You Do-Do Nothing" has some more good bass lines throughout. The vocal arrangements are interesting. This one is very psychedelic sounding.

"No One Leaves This Earth" is PORCUPINE TREE sounding, quite spacey with some great guitar. "Punish Yourself" has some industrial sounding percussion that comes and goes. Other than that it is quite relaxing. "Everyone Must Perish" has this vocal melody in the background as the song builds by adding sounds as it goes. Starting with floating keys, spacey synths, percussion and then guitar. Then it starts to do the oposite and dismantles. "Judge the Girl" is a catchy, uptempo song. "Parted Forever" is over 18 minutes long. The first 2 and a half minutes are comprised of gentle guitar and spacey sounds that come and go along with soft vocals.This song has some heaviness with scorching guitar solos.There are also prolonged spacey passages as the drums beat.This song and the opener are my two favourite tunes on this record.

I can see why this band doesn't get the highet ratings, but I think they are a fantastic band and I highly recommend them.