4 out 5

Produced by: Davis McCain, Doug Easley

Label: Shangri-La Records

Given how richly Grifters can abuse four tracks, it’s a wonder that anyone has ever needed more.

The Eureka ep, taking place at the end of that four track era for the group, is not only perhaps suggestive of the less balls-out, cheek-bitin’ raw rock their final couple releases would offer – though those albums are no less rewarding than earlier ones, by any means, just patient enough to embrace some silence – it’s also something of a sampler of the various modes the group can shift through.  As such whittled down to seven tracks, the pacing is a bit uneven; each song feels like the A side of a random seven inch.  If you think this sounds like all the tracks are singles, then, you’re right on: All the tracks are singles and they’re fantastic.  The quiet, buzzing folk of opener Eureka I.V., the toe-tapping riffage of His Jesus Song; the break-out distortion creepy swagger of Slow Day…; the bluesy sweet Founder’s Day; the goddamn Grifters’ kitchen-sink fuzz of Banjo…  I left a couple out just for, y’know, commodity, but it’s all there, and they all sound fantastic in that stripped down foir-track goodness that the Grifters make fill your headphones like none other.

The sacrifice of all A-Sides, of course, is that the flow is off.  Eureka is, alas, not a very cohesive listen, which is a shame because each song would be such a great lead-in to a more expansive second track…

At only seven songs and like fifteen minutes, though, you can suffer through the wealth of too-great songs and pretty easily get over the lack of transitions.