Customer Reviews

Guys & Dolls

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

 

 

I was one of the few that got to see these guys perform as The Crawdaddies when they first started out playing frat parties around Drake University in Des Moines. Later when they became Rex Daisy and started playing bars, I played their songs on the radio at 103.3 KFMG. "Stuck on AM" was on one of the KFMG "Local Licks" compilation CDs or a benefit CD or something...it's a pretty decent tune, and we gave it a lot of airplay. "Welcome Back" is from one of the Pravda "Super Smash Explosions" compilations and was always a crowd pleaser. The best songs on this album are "Brand New Friend" and my favorite, the old Crawdaddies standard, "Bottom O' The World". These guys left Des Moines for Minneapolis and became the next Trip Shakespeare, but their big time recording contract never panned out--otherwise we'd be hearing them on the radio still today. A fun group of guys that made music that people really liked a lot...that was Rex Daisy.

All of the songs on this album have a somewhat unfinished feel, but that's a good thing. If this album were super slicked up/smoothed out then it would become more generic power-pop. Perhaps Starship could have written this song or Journey that other one (I've moved away, but Rex Daisy used to have a pay-the-rent alter-ego as just such a cover band). Luckily, Rex Diasy add alot more jangle and twang to their sound, and counterbalance this with regular doses of Beatley strings. Its like if Pavement had decided they were really going to take mellody seriously; or if Michael Penn was more guitar oriented and had less obscure lyrics; or for that matter if some power-pop group's songs were picked up by a fairly reverent garage band with a sense of art and play. If these guys haven't been forced to get real jobs and continue to put out albums, then it seems like that they'll put out better ones than this, where things come together that much more. But as things are I still find myself listening to this four years after I picked it up and enjoying both the energy and melodies. If your tastes embrace both the pop and the indie, then its likely that you will too. p.s. -- The second to last track is a fairly reverential cover of the TV theme, with a couple of instrumental tweaks. It makes me smile pretty much everytime.

Rex Daisy isn't your basic overproduced pop combo. You won't hear these songs on the radio, but that's generally a good thing. These guys are the grownup version of the best garage band you went to see in high school.

Highlights include: the album's opener, "Stooge," gets going with an hard-edged guitar. "OK, Casey" channels Marshall Crenshaw. In fact, you can hear a lot of the band's influences throughout the album, from The Who to Alex Chilton to even (dare I say) The Monkees in their pop-friendlier moments. As noted by another reviewer, the live version of "Welcome Back" (the theme from "Welcome Back Kotter") is a delight.

Fans of 90s'-era Minneapolis rock should not be without this album. And Rex Daisy fans should also seek out the soundtrack to the movie Dummy -- RD guitar/vocalist Mike Ruekberg wrote most of that film's terrific songs.

This is the best pop album ever