"now all you are is a line in a song to me"
This tale is about a traveling band, one that started off in Georgia and made its way to Brooklyn through a long, strange trip. The Mendoza Line is not an easy band to define and that's fine with singer/guitarist Peter Hoffman,: "We listen to a lot of music and things seep in, you know? Maybe our publishing company's name says it all: Avant Drunk."
Seeping into their album--Lost in Revelry-- are Dylan, Costello, The Replacements, Iggy Pop (albeit mellowed), Built to Spill, Cowboy Junkies, and even a smattering of Luscious Jackson. Overall, it features slower songs, but you don't seem to notice as you listen. The shifting line-up of singers and songwriters (everyone in the band writes music and lyrics for their own songs) keeps your attention in this witty and inspired effort.
"The lyrics are definitely the key," said Hoffman. "A Damn Good Disguise" features words like: "You turn a blind eye to a blank wall and that's our life" and "Things you were given that you claim to find vile you cling to like cancer." The words dance like partygoers around hot coals and the folksy tunes are exposed as dark and naked when these lyrics come to light.
Hoffman feels the songs, though written by different members of the group, all are an indictment of their age group. "The songs have a lot to do with this age of being in between college and adulthood. The album title refers to this time in our lives; all trying to have a good time and grow up at the same time. We're saying goodbye to people that were important in our lives that aren't anymore. This is a stage in life no one ever talks about. The time between 22 and 30 is purgatory."
Would anyone disagree?