Album Review

Band of Horses, Everything All the Time (Sub Pop)

Comments (0) By JED MAHEU Thursday, Apr 6 2006

Kick 'em in the nuts

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Here comes another in a long line of animal-themed band names: Why not just "Band of Dudes"? And did I mention this new record by Band of (noun)s is fucking fantastic? I'd go as far to say that it's the best non-metal record in this, the first quadmester (that's not a word) of 2006. It's kinda fucked, though, because Ben Bridwell (who sings and writes the songs here) was the drummer for Seattle band Carissa's Wierd. And Matt Brooke (who only sings backup on a couple of tracks) was the voice for that band. And they were terrible! And they were around forever! Talk about travelin' without a map. I'd be kicking the rest of the dudes in the nuts if it took 'em that long to let me sing. I'm sure it didn't really happen like that, but in my version, someone still needs to get his nuts kicked in. The first half of Everything All the Time is chock-full of hits: "Wicked Gil," "Our Swords," "The Funeral" and "The Great Salt Lake" are all classic pop songs. Dudes still leave enough dirt and reverb on 'em to stand out from similar artists like recent Flaming Lips or My Morning Jacket. The songs also have that certain authenticity that only weed and a ninth-grade education will get you. I think they call that "Southern rock."