Early Greyhound - Suspicious Package
Record Label: Hawk Race Records
Release Date: April 13, 2010
Some of us are stuck in the past. I'm not just talking about those people who don't listen to anything after 1978, or '80s metalheads who think Appetite For Destruction is still the best album of all time. There are countless local bands that will never make it out of the town halls and shit-kicker bars playing classic, yet contemporary guitar licks and cheese choruses.
For Earl Greyhound, they are a band stuck in the past but at least doing it well - for the most part. Seeing the band live is no joke. They certainly put on a show worthy of nostalgia and the heart of rock and roll. On tape, there lies a different story.
Songs like "Shotgun" and "Sea of Japan" sound like they were taken directly from your parent's guilty pleasure collection. The tracks are slick in their throwback, but not even close to the quality the band is capable of. It's even more disheartening as Suspicious Package closes up with shifts to a more contemporary pop sound with "Bill Evans" and the acoustic "Out of Air." Things delve back into a nostalgic norm with the closing "Misty Morning," making a grand closer to an uneven album containing an ironic chorus line "Rip it up and put it back together," sang towards the end.
There is much to still love about the band though. The guitar licks. The soulful vocals. The six minute back-to-back openers of "The Eyes of Cassandra" parts one and two (two being the impressive meat of the idea) and "Ghost and the Witness" which captures a void lost so long ago in the airwaves and frequencies of rock. The guitar licks in "Holy Immortality" would make many a shredder proud of their finger-picking passion.
Suspicious Package contains great throwback for those looking for an "in my day" attitude of music. The album soars on some tracks, but falls short with some of its more present sounding ones. If you've exhausted your discovery of back catalogs of old, Early Greyhound is offering something with a fresh lick. For some, it will conjure up feelings of 60's soul and 70's rock, while others will rock out the best tracks, and leave the rest on the cutting room floor. At least there's still a band that shows where rock met blues' nasty aura and passion. Early Greyhound should stick to their guns of the past and not remind us of why we hate the dull future.
Seeing the band live is no joke. They certainly put on a show worthy of nostalgia and the heart of rock and roll. On tape, there lies a different story.
Pretty much exactly how I feel about their first album. I'll definitely give this a listen at some point, though.
Pretty much exactly how I feel about their first album. I'll definitely give this a listen at some point, though.
no, this band sucks horribly live. they played with coheed sonically they sounded like complete shit...everything was all muddy and just had bad songs. i listen to a lot of stuff but the last time i saw a band this bad was the blood brother at another coheed show a few years ago... oh fuck a coincidence?
I'm really trying my hardest to like this. To me it just sounds like imitation. It doesn't sound sincere or genuine. Maybe I'm just weird.
I'd agree with that, I saw them open for Portugal and they were dressed like it was a 70s inspired costume party. Not that they're bad or anything, I just can't get into it.
i saw them open for coheed and was really freaked out by their lighting, which on closer inspection had this weird shadow/figure effect that showed people having sex. my friends and i kept joking that the band was literally randy jackson on drums, jesus on guitar, and erykah badu on bass
no, this band sucks horribly live. they played with coheed sonically they sounded like complete shit...everything was all muddy and just had bad songs. i listen to a lot of stuff but the last time i saw a band this bad was the blood brother at another coheed show a few years ago... oh fuck a coincidence?
also this is 2010, not 1975
I don't think they'd m,esh well with a crowd expecting to see coheed. I saw them open for Portugal. The Man & I thought they were great.
Also, this is 2010, not 1975. They can play whatever music and dress however they want.
Not saying you have to like it, just saying.
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