Slowride

Local bands, take note: When a weekly newspaper talks shit about your music and gives you grief about changing your formula on a new album, don’t write pithy e-mails to complain. Go the Slowride route instead. The Dallas trio disappointed two years ago with sophomore album Building a Building by darkening their catchy post-emo formula and becoming an early ’90s sound-alike, yet on their latest disc, they not only stick to that formula but pump it full of smoky, stinking diesel fuel. Doesn’t hurt that the diesel engine on C/S is manned by producer Stuart Sikes, and truly, Slowride has never sounded better–Sikes’ polish makes these guys sound like hairy, bloody brutes, and the absence of needless overdubs proves how impressive these guys are at whipping up some clatter. But it’s a shame that “The Year of the Snake” leads the album off–it’s a misleading single, a been-there-done-that rocker which obscures the more interesting three-in-a-row blasters “Slowly,” “Morals and Dogma” and “You Can’t Tell Me How It Is.” Does it hurt that those three tracks sound like B-sides from the first Foo Fighters album? Not really. Songs like the winding, snarling “Morals” overcome their inspiration. Dan Phillips tears the song every which way in its four-minute run and pulls off a mighty nice sing-along chorus: “On our climb out of here, we’ll most certainly die of fear.” Phillips and Co. do their damnedest to add a unique coat of paint to their inspirations this time, giving the nostalgic and snobs alike something to clench their fists to.