Sometimes it's painfully obvious that the members of a band are smarter than you. Much, much smarter. Like they're George and you're Lenny, and you don't get them, and you can't take care of yourself, and eventually they're going to have to sit you down by the river and put their arm around you, and then put a gentle and loving bullet into your skull. That much smarter.

Right now, I'm sitting on the couch and my girlfriend is doing a smart-person dance to Adult Rodeo. Everybody involved is wearing glasses, including Adult Rodeo. The smart-person dance is kinda stiff and jerky, and involves a lot of pointing. It's a fun dance to do. And when my girlfriend does it, I'm pretty sure she's much, much smarter than me.

Here's the thing about smart bands: usually, you get the impression that they're sitting at a corner table, snickering and making snide comments behind their menus. Not so with Adult Rodeo. Right now, Adult Rodeo is sitting around me in a circle, on the floor, or perched on milk crates. We're holding hands and swaying back and forth. We're clapping in time. We're walking like Egyptians, and our glasses are sliding down our noses.

Right. Here's a recipe for Adult Rodeo: two parts They Might Be Giants, two parts Devo, one part B-52's, one part Mekons, the ground-up bones of Emmet Otter's Jug Band, a short stack of flapjacks, and a bottle of Tomolives. Whip until peaks are stiff, rub all over your naked body, and have Kramer roll you in rainbow sprinkles.

The Kissyface itself is tough to take at times. Most of it's a Powerbook-driven hoe-down (in this case, though, that's a good thing). Weird bleeps have never been coupled so successfully with fake drawls, and most of these songs are mighty well-developed. Some even bust out into some pretty killer campfire choruses. It's got a bunch of filler, though, like those Sno-Balls farmers feed to their hogs to pump them up before market; the album could be twice as good if it were half as long.

On the whole though, The Kissyface succeeds where it should fall on its face, mostly by virtue of the fact that it's so much goldurned fun. Yes, Adult Rodeo is smarter than you, but they're not flaunting it. They're just playing their lo-fi indie electro-country-core. And you can stomp your feet right along with it. If you want.

-Zach Hooker