Best Band for Geeks 1999
Boston Phoenix
Monday, March 1, 1999
"I don't know if they're geeks," says Jim Infantino of his fans, "but they are sort of technologically adept." Infantino, who started on the folk-acoustic coffeehouse circuit and graduated to power-pop trio format in 1996 with his band Jim's Big Ego, has been writing anthems for professional mouse-clickers for years, but no one noticed because all the mouse-clickers were working late at the office. Since the release of their third CD, though, Jim and his Egomates have been pulling the pocket-protector crowd into clubs in record numbers. The CD-ROM bonus tracks on Don't Get Smart, which feature a spunky pair of scissors snipping through an existential wasteland of office detritus, have surely boosted the band's geek cachet, as has their use of new formats for online music. (Their song "Y2K Hooray" was a big hit at the MP3.com Web site.) But it's Infantino's songs, with their goofy, genre-bending arrangements and defiantly misfit lyrics ("Everybody's trying not to be just like everybody/and I don't wanna be like that") that make Jim's Big Ego the epitome of geek chic. They'll be at T.T. the Bear's on November 19 and at the Lizard Lounge on December 17. Tear yourself away from the computer and try to get there early. Their fans -- yes, the Egomaniacs --are likely to fill up both venues.