I tend to get obsessed with what's called "college" or "indie" rock, maybe because it's been a staple of my musical diet for so long. I get about a half-dozen CDs a week in the mail these days to review, most of them fall under the college/indie category and are bands I would never have heard of any other way than through my connection with Lazyeye. Anyway, with the advent of lo-fi and the constant deification of the experimental bands of the underground, just about all of it has a touch of ugliness -- some unwieldy distortion or strange effect thrown in on purpose (we're to believe) because it communicates a sliver of the artists' angst or ennui. Sometimes it works, usually it falls on its face. After awhile, the "out there"-ness of true college indie can become rather bleak, static-filled, and so experimental that it's boring. I mean, how many times can you pay homage to Sonic Youth and the Velvets?

I bring this up because once in a while I also get a straight-on rock CD to review by a band that makes no apologies about its love for warm, bassy rock-and-roll. And when the band is good and isn't obviously trying to sound like the Doobie Brothers or Blues Traveler or a bad '80s hair band, the experience can be rather pleasant.

Such is the case with the 3-song CD demo from Omaha's The Get. Here's a band that you would never mistake for an alt-indie-underground outfit in a million years. I suppose you could call them a "jam band," but that definition carries with it the baggage of awful outfits like Phish or the Grateful Dead and their legions of drug-addled zombie-cult groupies. These guys sound way too smart to be lumped into that group of slow-learners. It would be more appropriate to call their music "traditional rock," meaning the band that plays a defined melody, solid instruments, well thought-out guitar solos, and sports vocals not meant to be enjoyed for sheer irony's sake.

Where The Get gets its love for roots '70s rock is a mystery. The trio features former members of Honeywagon and Blahbudda, two rather obscure bands I've never heard before. The combination, however, seems to work.

"Thinman Page 29" is the cream of the crop, certainly good enough to release as a single and definately radio ready. It opens with a cool acoustic guitar riff that leads right into an electric guitar surge that takes us to the solid rolling bass that echoes everything you've heard so far. Some might call this stuff bluesy, mainly because Chris Weber's vocals have the same organic melody lines and twists as Stevie Ray Vaughn's (Webers' voice actually sounds like a slightly higher-pitched version of Paul Rodgers'). The free-wheeling guitar solo is very Eff Em, if you know what I mean. The lyrics don't stand out at all, other than, "It's a long way down to heaven's door" (or is it roar? I'm not quite sure). The lyrics throughout are merely placeholders for melody.

"Mood Swings" and "Five O'Clock" are less interesting. Mood Swings is a little too poppy in a Dave Matthews sort of way. Corey Weber's bass, while it keeps the track a-rollin', is a bit boring. Maybe it's because this is a stab at being jazzy and tries too hard to be free-form, especially on the solo. Five O'Clock has a nice scat guitar riff, floating melodies and reminds me of very early Steely Dan. For once the lyrics seem to stand out on their own, but what the hell do they mean? "She works hard to keep trim/She'll keep her lawn perpetually green." Uh, yeah.

The Get
801 No. 48th St. No. 5
Omaha, NE 68132

phone: 402-551-2679