On their website, New Jersey-based Dr. Roberts describe
\nthemselves as a band who are still very much in the development
\nstage. That’s what I like: truth in advertising.<\/p>\n
Their debut EP,
\nDennis Foxx Lives<\/i>, is the brainchild of guitarist\/vocalists
\nNick Foss and Michael Casteel, and like their website says, these
\nsix songs do show off a band who is still very much trying to find
\nwhere they belong in the crowded musical pool. Yet there is an air
\nabout this disc, much like Nirvana’s debut
\nBleach<\/i>, that suggests once the band gets their act together
\nand tightens up as a musical unit, the results could be
\nunstoppable. As they are now, they’re marginal, at best.<\/p>\n
Taking a sound that is part Nirvana, part Sonic Youth and part
\nR.E.M., the band – Goss, Casteel, bassist John Talor and drummer
\nJoe Lucidi – bang through these songs (supposedly just a sampling
\nof the band’s songwriting catalog) and encourage the listener to
\nkeep their eyes focued on what the group will become. At times,such
\nas on “Simple Tools For The Process” and “Drop G Tuning,” one has
\nto wonder whether the attention is worth it.<\/p>\n
Yet there are moments on
\nDennis Foxx Lives<\/i> that suggest that things are indeed
\nclicking for Dr. Roberts. “Worm” is a powerhouse that refuses to
\nstop once the musical ball gets rolling, while “Repeat It” is the
\nclosest thing to a hit single this disc has on it. Both tracks are
\nthe highlights of this disc, and confirm to me that there is some
\nsubstance behind my hope for this band.<\/p>\n
Yet they have their work cut out for them; the too-loose
\nstructure of songs like “Drop G Tuning” and “Cello Girl” offer a
\npicture of a band that has not completely developed yet. When it
\ncomes to the hard-earned money of the consumer, they might not be
\nwilling to make an investment in a disc which shows a band in their
\nown growing pains. Yes, every band needs to go through this
\nstage… but one tends to think that the studio is the end result,
\nnot part of the process.<\/p>\n
In one way, I hesitate to suggest that
\nDennis Foxx Lives<\/i> should have been longer. On one hand, I’d
\nhave liked more than six songs to base my initial judgment on. On
\nthe other hand, understanding that Dr. Roberts is still growing
\ninto their own skin, would more songs have helped the situation…
\nor possibly hurt it?<\/p>\n
I’ll be intrigued to see how Dr. Roberts matures as a band,
\nespecially on the strength of songs like “Repeat It”. But
\nDennis Foxx Lives<\/i> doesn’t offer enough of those insightful
\nmoments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6682],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-37284","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dr-roberts","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37284"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}