Acetate features Dave Schools of
Widespread Panic, Kevin Sweeney of
the Sunshine Fix, and former
Counting Crows drummer Ben Mize. It's a record as casual as the sketched front cover or living-room recording studio on the back -- just three guys from Athens cranking out some rock & roll. Opener "Can't You Can't You" is nearly power pop with its harmonies and big, crackling main riff, but the vocal also suggests the jam band scene's homespun soul. That's how it works on
This Band Makes Me Feel, where influences both shared and unique are thrown onto a pile in the middle of the room. "Things Goin' Down" is a meaty
ZZ Top nod, the instrumental break in "Pungeoned Again" is straight from the core of '70s rock, and "I'm in Hell" is a sidelong pop song of the sort
Beck might write highlighted by fluttering electric guitar overdubs.
This Band Makes Me Feel occasionally reveals its casualness just a little too much, like these are the band's rehearsal tapes and we're just listening in. But that's all right for a record like this, because fans of the groups these guys are normally in like that kind of access. The album never moves into extended jam territory. But it has plenty of time for Sweeney's inventive guitar work, particularly on the psychedelia-tinged late-album standout "Out of My Hands," and is happy to crank on a thick melody for as long as necessary. ("Good Riddance" is a great cross of broad-shouldered rhythm and interesting melody. Very
Meat Puppets.) Fans of Schools, Sweeney, or Mize separately will have no trouble getting into the trio as
Acetate. For them, spinning
This Band Makes Me Feel will be like inviting the band over for a basement level concert on a Saturday afternoon. ~ Johnny Loftus