Here\u2019s a forgotten indie rock supergroup for ya: You take Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), House Of Freaks (Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott), Bob Rupe (The Silos), and Stephen McCarthy (The Long Ryders) and you pair them together to make some rock. The band was over by about \u201995 or \u201996, but this record is quite different. The vocals of Wynn and Harvey are definitely not what I was expecting, but it could\u2019ve been a bit better. <\/p>\n
Eschewing the psychedelia of The Dream Syndicate\u2019s sound, it\u2019s more akin to House Of Freaks; lo-fi Southern-based alt rock. The clearest example here is \u201cTop Of The Hill,\u201d a shuffling ramble with some great vocals and music. Everyone in the band is really working their stuff here and it shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen You Make Up Your Mind\u201d is more along the lines of a traditional rock song: lots of soloing, good recording, and coherent vocals. But it\u2019s not the best that the band could\u2019ve done, which is part of what makes this record quite a disappointment. The one saving grace on lackluster track like \u201cThink It Over\u201d are the interweaving vocals between Harvey, Wynn, and McCarthy. This track is exquisite, but kind of ramshackle at the same time.<\/p>\n
One thing is clear: these guys weren\u2019t playing together to score a hit. Lots of the songs feel a bit too laidback for their own good. \u201cMotorcycle Boy\u201d just lags and is a miss for sure. \u201cOne By One\u201d feels like a House Of Freaks B-side, almost like a Celtic sea shanty with proper background vocals. It\u2019s one of the better tracks here.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, this feels like a modern rock curiosity, a band that got together and got signed in the alternative rock flood that was overtaking the market and managed to get a mediocre record out and sell a few copies. There\u2019s nothing more to think about, it\u2019s just that easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":33526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10204],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-45347","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gutterball","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45347","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\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45347"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}