Ruby Isle

Night Shot (Kindercore)

By Emily Becker
Published: August 30th, 2008 | 12:05am

On Night Shot, Ruby Isle’s newest foray into the twists and folds of electro-pop, the band invites Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday to be a guest vocalist on the title track. If it sounds gimmicky, well, that’s because it is. And a little disappointing, too — considering that Dan Geller, Ruby Isle’s vocalist and bass player, has already accomplished more than many working musicians. He founded Kindercore Records and formed I Am the World Trade Center with vocalist Amy Dykes. Ruby Isle’s output as a band has them doing as many covers as a typical bar band, furthering the feeling that Geller, and bandmates Aaron Lemay and Mark Mallman, are just goofing off.

Even the band’s name sounds like a grenadine-based kiddy cocktail. While grenadine has its place, it’s not the rock on which to build a stiff mixed drink, just as Ruby Isle is not the basis for satisfying dance music. Ruby Isle aims squarely at electronica’s guilty pleasure center, but they miss the mark. The occasional strong moments are dimmed by the onslaught of schlocky melodies and the inclusion of a guy like Zonday, who sounds just as silly as he does on YouTube. Geller’s collaboration with Dykes on “Solsbury Hill” fails to recapture what the two had when they covered Blondie’s “Call Me” as IAWTC.

Night Shot includes a bonus EP that Ruby Isle created for the music blog aggregator, elbo.ws. The EP, which is more palatable than Night Shot proper, includes eight tricked-out cover versions from a variety of indie acts (though two include Dan Bejar). Ruby Isle also adds a hefty sample to each cover, some of the samples, like Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” on Destroyer’s “Foam Hands” and the Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere” on the Headlights’ “Cherry Tulips,” are impossible to miss. But the joking continues, as Ruby Isle includes an answering machine message telling them “to get their heads out of their asses” and finish this covers record — which feels staged from start to finish, applause erupting at the end of the final track.

Although Night Shot offers a lot of attention-grabbing details like guest vocalists, covers, and samples, when you strip away all the tacked-on flourishes, pufft! — the record disappears.

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