Sunday, September 7, 2008

Dumbwaiters - The Exquisite Pre-Requisite Of...

(Screw Music Forever, 1996)

A semi-perplexing half-stinker from
Home associates Dumbwaiters. There’s a certain brand of wackiness on display in the periodic yelps that punctuate “Reconstruct the la Casa de Carne” and the ever-shifting tempos of it and its B-side, “Martyr,” that ties this material more to canonical late-’60s weirdos than the skewed mid-’90s indie-pop that it is. And while one could charitably describe the overall feel as a mid-’90s take on stock Beefheartian looseness and structural unpredictability, that’d be more than these two songs deserve – this is just the low-intensity sound of buddies havin’ fun, and that’s a vibe that can only carry a disc so far. How far? Thirteen feet is approximately how far that vibe carried this particular disc when I chucked it across the room.

1 comment:

Donald Brown said...

I'll just take this moment to note that you've got crap like this and no CCR singles. One of the best damn singles bands of '69/'70. Not even an old beat-up copy of "Bad Moon Rising/Lodi" (the B side, one of my favorite songs, ever). I'm tempted to give you mine, just for the sake of the collection, y'know...