I Think This Is

Dance hall rock n roll with a punk/country edge. This stuff will put grease in your hair. Sounds like a rockier Beatles. Or majorly old school (pre-second wave) punk. Dare I invoke the Ramones?

These guys are new to me -- apparently they’ve been around for like, a quarter of a century. Also, their singer (Scott McCaughey) is the guy from the Minus 5 who does a shitload of sidework with R.E.M. Hey, okay!

try: 3, 13, 7
FCC: sticker says there’s a violation on track 12, but i don’t hear it.

1. old school rock feel a la pavement. laid back power pop strumming. kinda ripply.
2. upbeat, yet laid-back. lots of drum fills. sort of kitschy beatles-harmony chorus.
*3. a bopper! driving tunnel-riff bass. not quite a 12-bar. extremely danceable.
4. clangy guitar with jangle runs. somewhat hard-hitting, personality-less drums.
5. country vocals. straightforward, very easy laid back guitar rock.
6. fast, dancey, fun sing-songy guitar rock. approaches pop punk.
*7. so have you heard of this band called the ramones?
8. slow slapshot kit and warbly guitar. very central vocals. jangly and slow.
9. oh, there’s the nasal pop punk vocals! very fun upbeat stop/start groove. solid.
10. somewhat melody-less, discordant rant. lots of stop/starts. “you think you’re pretty smart but you’re not!”
11. fast. super clangy guitar. silly lyrics. “i could never be your friend after suicide!” false ending!
12. slow mournful strumming and super-strained (ironic?) twangy howler vocals. “if you believe in cleveland all your dreams just might come true”? play it for me!
*13. whoa. super-scratch space guitar effects and sneaker-pivoting, under-tonic minor bass. there are “uh-ha”s. kinda tom petty. total ownage.