Flashes and Cables EP

You get two versions of the title song, which appeared on the last full-length, as well as four more from the same Oct. 2002 sessions that produced the LP. Traditionalist will prefer the original. I'll take the "Relax, Recline" remix for the sheer audacity of the grind-guitars and stomp drums, pounding and angry, amidst the pretty keyboards.

The rest is more of the same Centro-matic rock that you've come to expect from the most unheralded geniuses in indie since The Grifters (or Silkworm, but that's another story). Will Johnson's gravel-pit mewing is bound to make him the Eddie Vedder of our generation thanks to its pure distinctiveness, which is bound to be emulated by every bar-whore band in the Midwest (that is if they ever get discovered beyond the in-the-know indie crowd).

Don't mistake this for alt-country. Despite the Denton, Texas, origins and the rustic dustiness of the arrangements, twangy it ain't. If only alt-country could be this good. Also includes four QuickTime videos which I ain't seen (You can't watch them on a I-Pod, can you?).

back to   Posted Feb. 6, 2004. Copyright © 2004 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.