2 out of 5

Label: My Pal God

Producer: Jason Ward (engineer)

7 tracks in and the album just dies.  D & T started as a sort of jammy band true to their name – with a spine of guitar that would occasionally blossom into hard-edged riffs – that took notes from klezmer and jazz and blended them in a nifty New York post rock shake up.  Over near a couple decades they’ve transformed into a sleeker machine – tracks still extending into double digit times on occasion but with more focus on theme and less on bouncing from hook to hook or more seemingly improvisational tactics.  But to the band’s credit, the Drums & Tuba of this first release – given extra tracks by a My Pal God re-release – is absolutely identifiable as the one of present day, and at moments kicks out tunes with just as much intelligence and bite.  …But pretty much toward the start of the disc.  The first handful of tracks are all a gas – Flying Ballerina is much more loosey-goosey by comparison, so it’s nice to get off to a could stomping start with ‘Does It Suck to Be You.’  This lurches into ‘The Inspector,’ another solid stomper, before the maturely titled ‘The Adventures of Poo-Poo and Pee-Pee’ works some unique and humorous horn effects in a fashion I don’t think the band resurrected.  It’s a little giggly but also madly cool, and ads an absolutely unexpected extra dimension that can’t be found just by tossing a different instrument into the mix or somethin’.  ‘Carrots’ is probably one of the best aggressive tracks the group has ever written, Neal McKeeby’s guitar trickery reminding you that the dude knows how to play, and isn’t just there keeping time and pressing distortion pedals every once in a while.  This is nothing about wackadoo solos or anything, it’s just that the cut is compositionally awesome, and it all wraps around that guitar.  ‘Open Case’ is wandering (and sets the theme for several ‘…Case’ tracks thereafter), but it works as a lead in to the peppy ‘Kuc to Luc.’

And then, I dunno what happens.  Moments do pop out from the remaining batch of tracks (which unfortunately outnumber the solid tracks, hence my low rating) – ‘The Butcher’ makes good time, even though it doesn’t capitalize on its beats – but the sequencing of this is just all wrong.  Most of the concluding tracks feel like demos (excluding the extra tracks, even though those are full songs) or ideas for songs, and paint more of an image of an improv trio.  Spread out around the disc this might’ve worked, but all packaged together it just kills the listening experience, and you completely tune out.  I saw D & T live once and… I fell asleep.  When they were playing, it was awesome, but McKeeby would record several guitar loops prior to every song, so it was a long wait and… no crowd conversation… (not that I’m big on that) …and that’s what the end of ‘Box Fetish’ felt like to me, just a long pause where resources are being gathered for an actual song.

Despite the low rating, this is worth picking up for the excellent jams it starts with, but it’s certainly not a solid listen through and through.