.Spider Bags

Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World

Getting passed off as North Carolina natives might help explicate
the music Spider Bags concocts, but the moniker is disingenuous. Dan
McGee, who simultaneously fronts New Jersey’s DC Sniper, and his
Southern-dwelling cohort don’t crank out punk as one might expect.
Instead, Spider Bags works in and around Americana with a nod toward
pervasive Dylan-isms and a dash of lowdown garage.

Following 2007’s A Celebration of Hunger, this latest effort
arrives confined by genre restrictions. Its first single, “Hey
Delinquents,” plays as an alt-country paint-by-numbers, giving
listeners little more than a simplistic recap of a formula long ago
codified by the Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt axis. While the disc mostly
functions within stilting guidelines, it’s when McGee and Spider Bags
incorporate a freewheelin’ approach to rock ‘n’ roll that the band
genuinely displays its talents.

The seven-minute “Trouble” begins as other tracks represented here:
An echoed slide guitar leads the ensemble alongside a dainty piano
line. Quickly, though, feedback presents itself as another player in
contention for domination of the track. Momentarily bogged down by
songwriterly concerns, this offering eventually leaps beyond
expectations and enters into a dirge of production flourishes and
belligerent feedback. Approximating DC Sniper’s pacing, the penultimate
“Nowhere Nobody Nothing” gives listeners another brief glimpse into the
Spider Bags’ ignored, muscular abilities before the album slowly
whimpers to a close. (Birdman Records)

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