Customer Reviews

Every Other Day at a Time

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had heard about these guys, but somehow put off buying one of their cd's. Needless to say, big mistake. Fantastic songwriting, great melodies, irresistable. There's a little slacker, a little grunge, a little country, but primarily great pop harmonies. Definitely a little Brian Wilson thing going on. Best cuts among many: "Dearest Darling", "Kentucky Lounge", "Riverdale High, and "It Only Hurts When I Smile". Do yourself a favor, buy this record.

This is extra-large, super delicious, whipped-cream-and-cherries-on-top American pop and bless the guys who came up with it! Lead singer Ward Dotson has braided together everyone from the Beach Boys to the Doors to Creem and just about everyone else from the 1960s through the 1970s. Yet he and his Liquor Giants compatriots have managed, almost miraculously, to come up with a sound that is serious about its roots and its influences but still entirely fresh on its own.

The album opens with the amazingly gorgeous "Raining Butterflies," a song Brian Wilson would have been delighted and proud to have authored. The harmonies are golden and tight and the song itself catchy beyond belief. "Dearest Darling" sounds like something the Animals or Buffalo Springfield or one of those bands might have put out (especially in the clanging, sparkling guitar work) but again, the Liquor Giants dudes make it all their own.

"Kentucky Lounge" almost has a Crosby Stills Nash & Young groove going, while "Medicine Ball Game" has the tall shadow of The Fifth Dimension cast across it. "Riverdale High"--an unmistakable reference to the high school attended by the whole Archie-Veronica-Reggie-Betty-Jughead gang--is a romp with (surprisingly) no apparent Archies "Sugar Sugar" overtones. "Caroline" is worth the price of the entire album, and I'll leave it at that.

It's not all sweetness and light. "Beautiful Flo" and "I'll Never Mind" are darker songs, both musically and in terms of the lyrics. But they help to balance the album on the whole and deserve a serious listen in their own right. It's hard not to oversell this album--and hard to make it sound worth listening to without making it sound derivative--but if you enjoy any of the groups I've named in the above review, you should give yourself the gift of listening to the Liquor Giants.

Th Liquor Giants don't play around when it comes to making fun music. They're difficult to classify, except broadly, as pop. And pop abounds, with the great "Dearest Darling," "It Only Hurts When I Smile," and "Caroline." Then there's a song like "Kentucky Lounge," which with its belted harmonies and acoustic guitars reminds one of the only good part of "Judy Suite Blues," at the end, when CSN finally dispense of their slow stoner pomposity and get the song and singing moving. The band gets more banal when they sound like regular roots rock; there's too much of that these days. If the Liquor Giants stick with the "la-la-las," though, we're in for more good albums down the road. Let's keep these fellas drunk and in the studio with the Monkees discography stuck in their craws.

Songs It's Raining Butterflies, Dearest Darling, I'll Never Know, I Know I'm Wrong, and Caroline sounds like the Beach Boys. Not too bad overall, it gets better each time you play it. I also have their std. The main guy is Ward Dotson and he definitely knows how to write catchy pop songs.
You won't be disappointed.

Ward Dotson and the Liquor Giants are supreme examples of the 80s/90s garage/punk sound. The Liquor Giants have a sound eerily reminiscent of Minneapolis' premiere garage band, "The Replacements.' Now, no band from Minnesota will ever match The Replacements in garage/punk/kick-em-in-the-ass rock & roll. But, the Liquor Giants "67 East 2nd Street" comes REALLY close. Ward sounds like Paul Westerberg and the music and lyrics are totally Replacements quality.