Have You Heard? Mahjongg

Several years ago, an old friend and co-worker told me I should check out this incredible band he caught at the Replay Lounge by accident. They were, of course, the Chicago-based band Mahjongg. This guy, Adam, and I had similar tastes in music, but when he told me they were electronic my mind began to wander. I can get into some of the more crossover electronic acts, but I've typically never been the biggest fan of electronic music as a whole. Still, Adam was very intuitive, and because he made it a point to recommend this band to me, I stored their name and information in the back of my brain. Flash forward to this past week. I heard Mahjongg had a new record coming out, and decided it was finally time, for the sake of the blog if nothing else, to check this band out. Let me just say that I'm an idiot for waiting so long.

Now, I've only heard two songs, "Pontiac" and "Tell the Police the Truth," but they're two very impressive songs. Both rely heavily on poly-rhythms, and sound like they take equal influence from electronic music and post rock. "Tell the Police the Truth" is probably the more "pop" of the two tracks. The first minute or so sounds like they put samples from the classic arcade game Galaga over their intricate rhythms, but the song soon shifts into something a little more like the Faint, which is to say you can dance to it, and takes off from there. You can stream both songs in the player (they're labeled funny, I know, but damn good just the same), or download them at The Modern Music (which is where I found these tracks in the first place, so a big thanks goes out to them).

[Midwest slant] Mahjongg have several shows lined up in Midwest, including one in Lawrence. Remember, my buddy Adam said these guys were good live, so don't make the same mistake I did and forget about them. Midwest dates:

24 - Mahjongg @ The Waiting Room (Omaha, NE)
15 - Mahjongg w/ Coat Party @ the Jackpot (Lawrence, KS)
17 - Mahjongg w/ Blitzen Trapper (!), Fleet Foxes @ Mojo's (Columbia, MO)

Mahjongg's newest album, Kontpab, comes out January 22 on K Records. Get ready.