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Proof of Utah Discography: FREE AND FEMALE

Free and Female returns to the antic assortment, though it also has some rockin' sides. "Death of Italian Acrobats" intones typically skew(er)ed POU lyrics over Big Brother's "Combination of the Two" as interpreted by the Banana Splits on drugs; "Forks or Blades" is a boogyin' little commentary of sorts on the state of radio. But it also includes a self-parodic quasi-jazz "tribute" to John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" ("I Love Ice Cream"). -Trouser Press

Durable!  Economical!  Fashionable!  Inutile!  Sybaritic! The Six Fine Features listed on the Free and Female lp from the Illinois band Proof Of Utah may or may not be quantifiable in linear millibars of malignium rectate tetranodules but that's okay.  This is a great collection of maddeningly catchy tunes from the Simon and Brosco drawing table.  Try listening to `Death Of Italian Acrobats' without picturing a tiny band of singing scientists bursting forth from an old dusty textbook on the knick knack shelf.  Wearing safety glasses and rumpled labcoats, teaching you about albuminous cellular material, hormones and chromosomes. Making you understand the formula on the blackboard.  That's the thing about Proof Of Utah.  You quickly realize that this band has the ability, the will, and the resources to make you smart.  Free and Female is a perfect example of the sense of intellectual camaraderie set to music that one can only get from the likes of Tom Lehrer, Devo,  and  the Bonzo Dog Band. Think clever, responsible, slightly diabolical intellectuals who can perfectly illustrate a cartoon-ish child's nightmare in `Unpronounceable Bad Thing',  catchily mesh the woes of progress with salad bar etiquette in `Forks or Blades'...and still find time to finish their homework and mow the lawn. -Schnein Dienhorst