Something In the Water

This Green Bay, WI, band's second album is an unholy stew of sloppy, early-'70s Rolling Stones, Midwestern bar band sweat, Detroit proto-punk, and bits of '60s garage rock and psychedelia floating around here and there. Bluesy, boozy guitar rock (with harmonica) is at the base, but given a raucous, snide punky attitude in its execution. In a way, it's music that belongs to no real era; certainly it's revivalistic of some genres, but it doesn't fall neatly into either a late-'60s/early-'70s hard rock groove or a later punk-ish tributary. For some listeners, that description makes them sound like manna from heaven. But it's actually kind of ordinary and unremarkable, even given as hard as these guys are obviously trying to be raunchy and outrageous. The throaty vocals are artless, and what's worse, the production half-submerges them in the mix. Perhaps that was an intentional decision, but when you're working territory many bands have already dug into, lyrics can do something to make you stand out from the crowd. The result is a pretty blurry affair, both in sonics and conception, that like a blurry motion picture doesn't register sharply on the senses or the memory.