Stop me if you’ve heard this one in the last twenty years or so, but i think the hottest rockin’ album of the month is on... Alternative Tentacles? Straight-up garage a la the Makers or Cynics (minus the fixation on the tambourine as an instrument of male pleasure), with the operative difference being that they actually print the lyrics—and they’re not about how the singer’s penis is actually that of a large, fearsome, stylish wolf or anything of that nature, either. Wacky! What can i say? A garage album that would not sound at all out of place taped on the back of the same cassette as you have your Knockout Pills album taped on the front of. What i find most amusing is how the songs with outright sociopolitical content—“No Beast So Fierce,” “Luzerne County,” “Hand to Hand”—are smirkfully reminiscent of the two-“worship”-songs-minimum that i understand performers are required to commit to before obtaining gigs at Christian coffeehouses. All the same, i can’t say as i saw this ‘un coming. Keen. BEST SONG: “Tender Sin,” but i also really like the psychedelic “Surprise,” although it kind of pissed me off that i spent so much time trying to figure out who originally did it before i saw that it was written by the drummer. BEST SONG TITLE: “491”—what can i say? Prime numbers command respect! FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: If the song “Exterminator” is, as it appears, to be about the William S. Burroughs book of the same name, my understanding is that it should end with an exclamation point.
–norb (Alternative Tentacles)