"My ex-girlfriend is a model in Florida," says local drunk.

Artist: Grandaddy
Album: Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla
Label: V2 Records
Tracks: 7
Length: 31:21
Review by: Christopher Thomas!

Robots. Nature. Isolation. Animals. Sadness. Alcohol. This is the world of Grandaddy, and by extension, this is the world of Todd Zilla. Melancholy tunes about the solemnity of life in a world tearing itself apart – be it through technology, urban sprawl, alcoholism, depression, or any number of humanity's destructive forces.

Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla, another in the long list of Grandaddy's in-between releases, is the usual collection of odds and ends not intended for album release. Each EP and single features songs ranging from typical Grandaddy fare to more obtuse tracks, yet none of them throwaways. Todd Zilla leads off with "Pull My Curtains," a song at the poppiest end of Grandaddy’s musical spectrum, and one that could easily have found a home on 2003's more upbeat Sumday. Following that are 4 dreamy tracks that fit nicely between the sounds of 2001's critically acclaimed The Software Slump and the aforementioned Sumday.

The one odd duck – and Grandaddy EPs always have one or two – is "Florida," a noisy, drunken rant about the Sunshine State that is both hilarious and sad. Finally, the record ends with another long, forlorn track entitled "Goodbye?"

Fans of Grandaddy will have no problem enjoying Todd Zilla's long, dreamy musicscapes (as well as the single most beautiful use of a lawnmower on a record to date). And it is more than sufficient to hold them over as they wait for the band’s fourth and final full-length record to drop in May.