I know they’re no Lil’ Kim, but Mommy And Daddy’s debut domestic album, ‘Duel At Dawn’, was released today. Everybody has read the same press release by now: “When she sings and pushes buttons, he plays bass guitar. When he sings and hits the machine, she is on bass.” Mommy And Daddy have quietly (ok perhaps noisily) built a cult following with their import only 7″s and EPs over the past few years. But luckily for USA fans, they finally started to test domestic waters last Winter with their EP ‘Fighting Style Killer Panda’ and now ‘Duel At Dawn.’ Playing the NYC scene relentlessly for the past couple years might’ve helped too. Maybe.

“Franconia Road”, the first single off of ‘Duel At Dawn’, is the absolute Mommy And Daddy song. Vivian’s luscious vox are layered on top of distorted bass and synth creating the perfect electropunk track. Perhaps their most complex song yet, “Franconia Road” could easily be five different songs or remixes if they chose to split it up. But thank God they didn’t… not many bands would have the nerve to release a song with such radical shifts of sound in it. And most bands would never choose to slow things down around the one minute mark only to bring things back up during the last few seconds. Genious. If anything, “Franconia Road” deserves to be a hit. In February, I would’ve never guessed that M/D would’ve released a song to knock their anthem “Confection” off of it’s thrown… much less in the same year.

Listen: Mommy and Daddy - “Franconia Road” (mp3)

Watch: Mommy And Daddy - “Franconia Road” (quicktime)

Ecard: kaninerecords.com/ecards/mommyanddaddy

The real surprise of ‘Duel At Dawn’ is the hidden track. It’s the “I Got You Babe” for the 2000s. But you’ll have to buy the record to hear it…

Purchase Mommy And Daddy ‘Duel At Dawn’: Insound | Amazon

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