Pete Weiss & the Rock Band

This band describes itself as The Spinal Tap of Humble Pie". One minute these guys sound like Alex Chilton's kid brother's garage band, the next they go totally low-fi -- as on "Wild Louie" (a send-up of everyone's favorite frat-rock tune), the next they could almost be working up novelty tracks for the old Ren & Stimpy show (luuuv that electric sitar on "Robert Robbs"!). The band's collective tongue is firmly in cheek from A to Z but especially on tracks like "The Celebrated Expatriate Intellectual". Their version of "Amazing Grace" sounds like They Might Be Giants after too much diet soda. They surf it up real nice on "Jade Cow". Lots of tracks contains clips of conversation between Pete and his cohorts. "Milwaukee Medley" is the most comical ode to brew I've heard yet. Humor (sort of a la Ween or King Missile) is definitely the word here ("Give Me Love So I Can Kill"?) but when it's time to _play_, the band stacks up with the best alternative acts. They go blues, rockabilly, garage and several different flavors of alternative. Unconventional instruments peek through the mix from time to time (what's an Omnichord? It sounds like something out of an old sci-fi movie!). This is not an album of standard- length songs but rather a 32-track musical machine- gun belt of sonic bullets mostly 2 minutes and change long, or under. WAY under. (Including a station jingle for station WRTC in Hartford, Connecticut!) It's not so much a project as it is play. I believe you'll have fun playing with Pete and his crew." -Daily Digital Opinion Pick of the Day - June 25, 1998