3.0 out of 5 stars
Bluesy, boozy, and loose garage rock jams, November 27, 2008
This review is from: Nightclub Version of the Eternal (Audio CD)
Effortless swagger buoyed with effortlessly amateurish guitar scrawl and rolling grooves. And when I say "effortless playing", I'm talking more about a banging about with childish relish than anything, well, rehearsed. The playing and changes flit with conventional song ideas throughout, but the trio tend to ignore anything resembling an editorial decision in favor of off-key pentatonic detours and endless verses and codas. From the frowsy transitions to the overall nonchalance exhibited throughout the near-hour it takes the band to cut through 7 numbers, I imagine a Howling Hex beer run would put most of my historic benders to shame. Lord knows how long those "Six Pack Days" ended up being.
While I'm unfamiliar with much of Neil Michael Hagerty's body of work in and out of the Trux, I can see the appeal of the aesthetic here--but only when it's met with some attention to hooks. "Hammer and Bluebird" matches its bourbon bluster with a super catchy theme, and Saenz rides the hooks of "Good Things Are Easy" with some bite. But fifty full minutes plus of non-stop unison vocal harmonies/double-tracked vox, no discernible transitions and a slew of purposeless leads is just too much for a garage dilettante like me. That is, unless ya got whatever it is these guys were on here.
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