Customer Reviews

Severe Tire Damage

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It's been a while since "Severe Tire Damage" came out and I'm still not sure what to think of it. It starts off great; I'll never tire of "Dr. Worm." The title track is neat, even if it lasts less than sixty seconds. From there on, things get spotty. The mix of new studio songs, in-concert songs and sound check songs doesn't sound thoroughly thought out.

The mixing sounds off. "Ana Ng," a personal favorite of mine, sounds musically sloppy and John Linnell's voice gets drowned out in places. "XTC vs. Adam Ant" isn't much of a song, but I like the guitar solo on this version. "S-E-X-X-Y" sounds better here than on "Factory Showroom." There are two new Flansburgh songs, but both are really subpar: "First Kiss" and "About Me." For the former, the version on "Mink Car" is better, though I'm not crazy about it in the first place. The latter is filler. For some reason, the track goes on for two more minutes after the song is over. Yep, silence.

As for these "Planet of the Apes" bonus tracks goes...I don't get it. Is that "Boogie Stop Shuffle" I hear in one of them? I really have no idea what's going on with any of them.

All said, it's just okay. By no means a great place to start for a newcomer, even though it has some of their best songs. I have the uneasy feeling that these songs were sharpened by the band AFTER they recorded this album - that this was less an accurate representation of how they were live and more of a novel idea meant to tide fans over until the next album.

being a life-long fan of TMBG, I would have bought this if it had been dipped in acid. This collection of live music is solid. Especially noteworthy are the Planet of the Apes riffs at the end. A must-have for collectors.