I’ve had The Cold Nose by Department of Eagles on heavy spin cycle for the past week. This record had been previously released in Europe and UK under different combinations of covers and titles, but we finally got it import-free this month courtesy of American Dust/Revolver Records, and it’s worth the wait, even though I didn’t know I was waiting for it. I actually grabbed it off of eMusic, drawn to it entirely because I liked its Edward Gorey-esque cover art. The guts of the disc are just as kooky and compelling, with wistful faux-folky guitar-pop crashing up against all sorts of trip-hop and noise-core production techniques, and even occasional forays into straight up drum-and-guitar rockers, like “Romo-Goth” (which has a totally excellent video at the end of that link). The duo’s try everything and often succeed ethos evokes early Ween, and hopefully now that they’ve got a domestic label working for them, they might be able to follow Gener and Deaner’s path to wider commercial and critical success. Or not. Who cares. This album’s good enough that if even if it’s all we ever get out of them, they still will have been worth knowing. Of.