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Depending on your predilections, the idea of "psychedelic rock from the backwoods of Pennsylvania" might stroke you one of a few different ways; the grizzled stoner record shop owners among you might find yourselves salivating, while someone like me might want to flee. And while this disc wasn't completely my bag of tea, as it were, I found it surprisingly listenable, and there was something to like in almost every track. This is about the dozenth album from Poor Luther's Bones mastermind Garth Forsyth, released on his own Heavy G Records (which sounds like it should be an old-school gangsta rap label). Forsyth and his band keep things tolerable by showing restraint and keeping the songs relatively short and mostly pretty melodic, with a welcome lack of the self-indulgent noodling, Renaissance-Faire instrumentation, or other jam-bandery you might expect. His leaping-off point is more Sgt. Pepper-through-White Album-era Beatles than Pink Floyd or Grateful Dead, though the songs go off in some different directions as well, with mixed results: "Down So Long" sounds like the White Stripes meet Sonic Youth, which is kind of interesting, while "Get Loose!" sounds like Wilco redoing Dylan's "Everybody Must Get Stoned", one of the most annoying songs in rock history, so that's no good. It's not hard to imagine the band teaming up with Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev producer Dave Fridmann for a future album; I'm not sure if the band has the desire to move past recording and releasing their own records, but I think they're at a level where they're ready to rise above their current level of obscurity. (mike.06.05)
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