Overdub

David Garza rocks far too hard to be relegated to the heady singer/songwriter section of the record store. On Overdub, he ditches the acoustic sound associated with wordsmiths and opts for electric guitars, adds techno beats to some tracks, and creates as energetic an album as any rocker has produced in the past few years. The mix of electronic drums and piano riffs on "Drone" and the Zeppelin-esque Middle Eastern guitar riffs and howls on "God's Hands" in particular overflow with the testosterone goodness of straight-up rock. To this he brings his way with words that garnered him the singer/songerwriter appellation. On "God's Hands," he sings with the appropriate note of sarcasm, "Praise the Lord, shake your ass, kingdom come is coming fast." He plays the acoustic guitar on several tracks as well, but even those feel more like modern rock than folk standards thanks to his rapid-fire vocal delivery and sense of humor, as displayed on "Say Baby," a diatribe against trying to get radio play. He pulls off ballads with equal grace and intensity, including the haunting "Soul Custody" and "Bloodsuckers," the latter of which features Garza singing falsetto à la Jeff Buckley. Not all the tracks live up to the originality of the album's best songs, though. "Blow My Mind" and "Crown of Thorns" sound like generic rock songs that anyone could record, which is especially disappointing considering the quality of the other tracks.