Unnatural Helpers ::: Photo by Kelly O

Stream: “Sunshine/Pretty Girls” by Unnatural Helpers

The first time this song started within 23 seconds I wanted to turn it off. “What the hell is this nonsense?” I said to myself as I drove around north Seattle. Apparently I had been caught in a moment of self-importance while listening to what some might call “Grunge Lite.” Oh yes gentle reader, I just used the dreaded “G” word. In that moment of pretension, I put on a beret and instantly grew an ironic mustache and longed for a time when Dream Theater would write songs as emotionally piercing as Bob Dylan.

Then I put the track on repeat.

“Good grief! This shit is pretty rocking!” I threw my imaginary beret out of my car window. My ironic mustache disintegrated and in its place, was a gruff five o’clock shadow. There was no need to get critical and over-analyze this song or this band. Unnatural Helpers were singing about the very things that get me out of bed every morning! Only they were singing about their decided indifference to sunshine and pretty girls; which smacks of insanity in my humble opinion. However there’s nothing wrong with being crazy. More sunshine and pretty girls for me, none for you! Ha!

Obviously there’s plenty of the latter when it comes to the song’s subject matter here in Seattle but not enough of the former. This song was crying out from my mp3 player, trying to bring a smile to my face and I was being too ‘cool’ to let it. I wasn’t even hanging out with anyone, who was I trying to impress? Why are we always so guarded as human beings? When did we forget to have fun? And by ‘we’ I’m really talking about myself. Sigh. I just used the royal ‘we’, I’m a punch-drunk blogger this morning.

The long and the short of it is this. This song is one minute and 58 seconds long, once you get to the dual male/female vocals that begin trading off and the goofy yet oh-so-appropriate guitar line bit at the 1:22 mark, you never want this song to end.

MP3: “Sunshine/Pretty Girls” by Unnatural Helpers from Cracked Love & Other Drugs out now on Hardly Art Records