DEAD NEIGHBORS “Dead Neighbors” C30
(Fall Break Records)



Raised by Gypsies said it best, maybe, in their review for Dead Neighbors’ self-titled tape: “This might possibly come the closest to being a band which should have been on the No Alternative compilation….”

See you next time everybody!

OK, that’s pretty crummy reviewing if you ask me. Dead Neighbors, a swell indie rock trio from Athens, Georgia, does, indeed, fit that No Alternative model of sure-fire rock and roll from that era, recalling The Verlaines, Echo and the Bunnymen, and early Soul Asylum and Buffalo Tom. Dead Neighbors is thirty minutes of the best jangly guitar riffage you’re likely to encounter this side of 1989. People keep name-dropping Hüsker Dü as a reference point too, which I can also hear at times.

So now the question is, do you have a tape player? Do you like good music? Get off your rump and order this tape, pronto, or I’m going to personally come to your house with my Walkman, hook it up to your $80,000 surround-sound system, and play this on repeat until it curdles your hummus. Does hummus curdle? We’ll find out!




--Ryan Masteller