Garlic – The Murky World of Seats (Bella Union)

Garlic just tries too hard to prove their indie rock chops: the funny/clever/obscure lyrics, the jangly/noisy/monotone guitars, a pedal steel, weird-o sound effects, time changes, a whining vocalist with a bad Lou Reed inferiority complex, etc., etc., etc. I played a bit of this for Phil Wise and he said he heard some Pavement in the best cut on the album, “Slave to the Summer, Son.” You can pick up a hundred other influences here too, and that’s why this disc fails. Garlic is a band with great potential, as yet unrealized. I’d like to see these guys perform live and discover their true heart and soul, because I don’t hear it on this record.

Some MP3s are available on Garlic’s site. Buy it from Amazon.