The Leaving Trains are a darkly psychedelic West Coast punk institution, led by a tormented poet named Falling James. The Trains are well known for dark humor, half-lit, misfit-romantic sensibilities, ethereal harmonies and keen social observations. On this, its most recent mash note from the Silverlake underbelly, Falling James yearns for once-beloved, long-lost people and places and rails against the murderers and corporate malefactors who own the mass media and abuse us with these dumb and dumber leisure options, crooning: "The celebrities we've been assigned are all inbred, bland and fake/Real charisma you’ll never see on your TV... ." Falling James is a sentimentalist weirdo who identified with preteen characters on the TV show "Freaks & Geeks" so much, he penned a tune about them called "Dumb as a Crayon." Also starring Melanie Vammen from the Muffs and Koko Puff from Sluts For Hire, the Leaving Trains perform dreamy dirge-pop, both funny and bittersweet, for smart people with hearts in their chests. Surf to www.steelcagerecords.com

by Dimitri Monroe
from the Detroit Metro Times
6/12/2002