Los Angeles studio hounds Greg Kurstin and Tommy Jordan (Geggy Tah comes from baby-sister pronunciations of their names) thrive on patchwork eclecticism. Grand Opening is an inventive first record, a multi-culti implosion that sucks in all manner of styles and instruments — in their hands, steel drums, melodica, glass bottles and piano sound as natural a combination as guitar, bass and drums-and reworks them in ways that turn out far better than reasonable expectations might suggest. At times, the two get tangled up in their own ideas, but the proliferation of ironic juxtapositions (“Last Word (The One for Her)” cuts the wedding march with a funeral dirge) and an utterly convincing P-Funk throwdown (“L.A. Lujah”) make it easy to forgive.
Sacred Cow continues the duo’s tactful progression towards a modern version of Steely Dan-dom. Other than a weakness for stretching songwriting ideas too thin, Kurstin and Jordan make a convincing case for themselves, ably adopting and shucking elements of style with cavalier conviction.