Mi Ami Gets Major Props

Courtesy of Mi Ami/Quarterstick Records

The "strange and cool" 12-inch for "Echonoecho"

Normally, when you think of the New York Times, you think of staid, overly-serious bow-tie and button-down shirt journalism about major issues - economics, politics, and other passions of the intelligentsia. So imagine our surprise when San Francisco's own "tropical/punk" band Mi Ami made the NYT's "Playlist" column Monday, earning music critic Ben Ratliff's unfettered praise for their 12-inch single "Echonoecho." Ratliff calls the song a "strange and cool record," noting "Sometimes there's a trebly guitar -- for stretches it becomes frenetic and noisy and fills up the sound picture -- but otherwise this is something like a dub-reggae record gone crazy." We'd be the first to agree that Mi Ami is indeed tres cool, although Ratliff seems a bit naïve about dub music - Mad Professor had an entire series of albums called "Dub Me Crazy," and "trebly guitar" has long served as a counterpart to dub's dominating bass and sub-bass frequencies. Still, props from such an esteemed rag, er, paper, are worth congrats all around for Mi Ami and their label, Quarterstick. Read the entire review here.