At times, I'm reminded of more willful garage primitives like Thee Headcoats, though here, of course, the low-fi sound is no affectation – just the best these kids could do at the time. "There are some moments," Rigby states in the liner notes, "where the drumming makes me wince," but really he's got nuthin' to be embarrassed about. His work certainly sounds more solid than many sixties garage icons.
Holsapple disappears with the last three re-polished tracks – to be replaced by Stamey and Easter with Chris Chamis on a second set of (barely heard) drums. Perhaps the wildest cover comes from Diesel Version 2.0: a shambolic remake of Kool and the Gang's "Hollywood Swinging" that I never thought I'd hear from this crew. Instead of reiterating the song's basic lyrics umpteen times over its funkbeat, Northcott starts improvising by throwing in the Neil Young slam from "Sweet Home Alabama." The move may not make a lotta sense, but I'm guessin' it drew cheers from the scattered Carolina kids who heard it in one of Diesel's occasional concerts.
All in all, this makes for an amusing musical footnote. But what I'm really waitin' for is a new disc from the revived dB's (I see from the band's website that some tracks from this future release are already cropping up). All this teenaged nostalgia is fine as far as it goes, but in the end, this power pop lover has an ear out for more maturely hooky goods...
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