It's 11:58p.m. on a Wednesday night. I'm sitting in front of my computer, listening to the Sunshine Fix's Kindercore debut. And my patience has officially run out. I don't ever want to listen to this record again. I don't ever want to see it again. Come to think of it, I don't ever even want to see sunshine again. To call The Future History of a Sunshine Fix a disappointment is akin to calling the apocalypse a "bummer." Well, maybe not. But still, this EP marks the obvious downfall of one of the greatest songwriting duos of the late '90s.

The partnership between the Olivia Tremor Control's Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart was nothing short of perfect. Will's electronic mastery kept Bill's pop melodies sounding bright and interesting, and Bill's hooks kept Will out of the realm of self-indulgent electronic wankery. It's now apparent that the partnership was even more vital than that. Without Will, Bill is free to pursue whatever musical inclinations he may have, which apparently includes country. To make matters worse, Will is no longer around to give this album a cool, country-appropriate name like Meditations and Contemplations on the Once-Subject of Cowfucking. No, we're left with The Future History of a Sunshine Fix.

"Last Night I Had a Dream" and "Beaconary Words," both re-recorded versions of songs originally released earlier this year on the Sunshine Fix's debut 7" single, are simple three-chord hoedown jamborees. But this is the least of Bill Doss' problems. On Olivia Tremor Control records, his vocals were crisp and confident, but since those days, he seems to have forgotten how to carry a pitch.

Still, it wouldn't be fair to pigeonhole the Sunshine Fix as a country band. "The Many Keys to Reunion" sounds like a failed experiment in drum-n-bass with a grating piano riff thrown in. And while the twangier tracks are at least somewhat listenable, Doss' ridiculous attempts at experimentalism could easily replace ipecac as a commonplace tool to induce vomiting. Yes, they're really that bad.

Of course, some might say that Olivia Tremor Control comparisons aren't fair. After all, just because Bill Doss also happened to be in that band doesn't mean that his new project should be held to those ridiculously high standards, right? Well, no. Doss actually seems to go out of his way to reference his work with Hart here. For starters, his new group's name is taken from the title of an early Olivia Tremor Control song. Also, Olivia contributors such as keyboardist Peter Erchick and drummer Eric Harris play all over this EP. If Doss had any intention at all of starting with a clean slate, he picked a pretty clumsy way of doing it.

It's been clear for quite some time that the Olivia Tremor Control is most likely a thing of the past. But with The Future History of a Sunshine Fix, any hope for stellar post-Olivia projects is quickly evaporating. It pains me to say this, but I will be quite surprised if Bill Doss ever releases anything that warrants above a 5.0 in the future. As for Will Cullen Hart, only time will tell. But if he follows the lead of his bandmate and issues an album of, say, wispy folk balladry, I fucking quit.

-Matt LeMay