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Smothered in Aliases:
Did you tire of Guided by Voices shortly after they leapt from the twisted track that had given the world Bee Thousand onto a straighter, brighter, more boring track Robert Pollard hoped would take him (guided by Cars) into the top-40 metropolis? I did. That, together with my love of Beck’s Mellow Gold and Ween’s The Pod, gave me cause for rejoicing when I cued up Meet Yr Acres, the first release by The Capitol Years, which is cut from the same unwashed cloth. Capitol Years frontman Shai, Son of Eli (true to indie tradition, this band is buried in a layer of facetious monikers roughly a mile thick) has either listened closely to the aformentioned records or consumed a lot of the same substances as their makers, because Meet Yr Acres is a grimy, mellow, utterly likeable record that stands proudly, if a bit unsteadily, with the best and most lo-fi work of Mssrs. Hansen, Ween, Pollard, and John Frusciante. This is not to say that the music of the Capitol Years is excessively derivative – Shai, Son of Eli (I’m already getting tired of writing that name – it makes me feel a discomfort akin to having to tell a Denny’s waitress in my best grown-man voice that I’d like to order “Moons Over My Hammy”) brings to the table a twisted twang and a wicked melodic sense all his own. Never sounding exactly like Pollard or the brothers Ween, SSOE is just as likely to channel Paul McCartney’s gift for instantly hummable pop, Tom Petty’s reedy vocals, or the lycergic dreamscapes of Syd Barrett. This kind of lo-fi psych pop is so likeable – both super-arty and utterly unpretentious – that it has a long way to go before it overstays its welcome.
- Will Robinson Sheff 5.30.2001