Between them, the members of instrumental quartet Double Naught Spy Car have served as side players for too many greats to list, but highlights of their collective CV include stints with Lydia Lunch, Nina Hagen, Nels Cline, Josie Cotton, Taj Mahal, Robert Fripp, and Stan Ridgway. As DNSC, they’ve served as the backing band for live performances by crime novelist James Ellroy. Their sound is an all-embracing classicist homage, drawing from surf, exotica, lounge jazz, prog, and Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtracks. (Amusingly, the CD Baby page for the release categorizes them as “Jazz: Weird Jazz.”) Their kitchen-sink methods were described thusly to L.A. Weekly by the band’s guitarist Paul Lacques:

We don’t pay off for fans of any genre. If you‘re a surf fan, we’re really gonna let you down. If you‘re a jazz fan, we’re gonna offend you. If you‘re a rock fan, good luck. If you’re a country fan…well, maybe we‘re reaching a country audience. We sort of mock genre, and at the same time we’re trying to create our own genre.

Their sixth album, MOOF, is set for release in a week, and it’s DM’s privilege to premier the entire album for you today. It includes a lot of high-powered guest performers, including Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Sylvia Juncosa, Joe Baiza (Saccharine Trust), Joe Gore (Tom Waits), and Ben Vaughn. That last name gave me a laugh to read—despite having penned the surfy theme music for 3rd Rock from the Sun he’s far from a household name, but he’s the artist behind one of my desert island albums, Designs in Music, a marvelous record that MOOF’s kitsch-obeisant ethos and slick production immediately reminded me of.

Here’s that LP stream for your examination. High points to our minds are “Hairsuit,” “Rhymes of Chimney,” “The Hesher Variation,” and “Loose Cannons in Tight Quarters.”
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Beck & co do Skip Spence - watch Nels Cline soar!
Mike Watt is still on the move with Il Sogno del Marinaio: an exclusive video premiere