After such a super-duper live show, I hate to put down this neat ska/swing band. They are just dripping with potential, but unfortunately they lack an adequate vehicle with which to express it. The music is great, despite some overly-hokey background vocals here and there, but there are two factors that really prevent this record's success: terrible production and weak lyric writing. This album was obviously thrown together without much regard for sound quality and was very poorly mixed. While you can pretty much hear everything ok, it just sounds lousy together. The drums are too weak, the vocals are too strong, and everything else is just kinda slapped down in the middle of it.
As for those lyrics, most of them come off as pretty lame and corny. While some of the songs are really funny, like "I Don't Play Basketball" and the mismatched jibber-jabber of "The Spanish Song", the songs that dwell on more serious topics are not just not funny, they are really cheesy, like "Hypocrat" and "Holy Monkey." I was a bit sickened by lines like "You're walkin' around thinkin' you're so cool/You're really lookin' like a messed up fool" that sound like something I wrote when I was in junior high.
Amongst these weaknesses, there are some spots on this disc that really caught my ears. I don't think I've ever heard a more hilarious intro to a song than the intro to "I Don't Play Basketball," and the song itself is really fun too. "The Spanish Song" is a riot, "PB&J: The Musical" is a gag epic, and the secret song, "Mime Time Jive," is an awesome 70's funk tune with some incredible bass guitar.
I like this band. They are very talented musicians, have a great sense of humor, and put on a great live show. Sadly, their CD doesn't do them a bit of justice. I admonish you to look out for these guys in the future, as I'm sure they will mature. Two cows, in the hope of a better tomorrow.
