JIM SHORTS “Eternal” (Trash Dog Records)

What do you get when you combine garage/trash rock with power pop sensibilities? Jim Shorts. This guy (Jim Shorts is David Haynes) has more hooks than you can shake a stick at.  The tape kicks into gear with “Christine”, an original that could well be a single were it not for the muddy, vocal-buried production that is prevalent throughout this tape. The side does well for itself with hook after hook, song after song so consistent that by half way through you’ve come to expect nothing less.

Alas, the flip side is not the same deal. Don’t get me wrong, the hooks are there, just not the same quality as those that graced the first side. In any event, it’s a very good contribution by an extremely talented writer.

Apparently Haynes did everything here except artwork and mastering (Emily Jean and Zach Ramsey.) The release is a 75 unit run, mine was signed and comes in standard jewel box with j-card insert and a small credit sheet.

I can’t help but wonder what a band and, more importantly, a producer, would do for this release-or his next. Great effort regardless.

-- Bob Zilli

COMMANDER KEEN “Low Budget Dreams” (Trash Dog)

 

I’m going to admit it, because this tape kicks off with a track called “Die Hard II,” I was pretty intrigued. Commander Keen, four scamps from Cookeville, Tennessee, make rock-and-roll music like they used to in Boston, or they still do if the “they” in this sentence is signed to Exploding in Sound Records (a nice label to release your music, truly). Like a cross between Loewenstein-fronted Sebadoh and early Foo Fighters, Commander Keen blaze like guitar-shaped rockets and burst over packed arenas in a volatile blaze. There’s a Gas Station Dogs joke to throw in here somewhere – something along the lines of, when do Low Budget Dreams become “Rock and Roll Dreams [That] Come True”? Or something. I tried.

“Die Hard II” makes with the rock, and I’m happy with it, as I am with the also-awesomely-titled “Shark Week.” I’m totally down with “Brain Waves” and “Knoxville,” too. I could take or leave the long songs (“The Camel,” “Nashville”) but that’s mainly personal preference. I’m not at the stage in my life where I want straightforward rock songs that bloom with lengthy solos and then into denouements. But if I know what you kids are listening to these days – and I really fucking don’t, so take that for what it’s worth – you’re going to love it.

Trash Dog Records

Commander Keen

--Ryan Masteller

TRASH DOG “Garbage Eater” (Virus)

Hideous new Iowa City “mongrol core” project from Jeff Witscher, Daren Ho, and Ryan Garbage that sounds like the logical next step in Jeff’s vision/masterplan of playing in an actual hardcore band that gets babes after their shows rather than just scum crew alley loitering. Of course, it’s not a total departure or anything, the songs are still piles of deafening filth but in TD everybody actually bothers playing their instrument (instead of just kicking it against the concrete in a frenzy of hate, Deep Jew-style). “Garbage Eater” has a whole lot of recognizable riffs with legitimate chords, real drum beats, vocals with lyrics (rather than just Alex’s vile primal screaming). Being a Witscher production, it’s still recorded like complete shit with feedback bleeding out of every sweaty pore, but where DJ were so violently punk they broke through the wall into harsh noise, Trash Dog is more of a middle ground rager’s aesthetic. Basically it’s a gross punk band playing gross punk songs with titles like “Punks and Cops” and “Pig Leash.” It’s only a C12 so it’s over pretty quick, but the J-card has plenty of hilarious Witscher slogans like “dreaming of far away/swamps with pizza and/candy” and “dedicated to deviant scrum.” Totally worth grabbing, and there’ll be more from this posse soon I’m sure.