A while ago, my friend Stewart made me an interesting offer. He told me if I bought this CD - by a band I'd never heard of, the Ant Farmers - he'd pay me back if I didn't like it. Stewart was pretty confident: he made this offer to an internet list of 150 people or so. Well, I can't match Stewart's offer, nor claim he'll make good on it (and he's much bigger than I am), but I, for one, wouldn't even think of asking for my money back. Any band that dedicates a song ("Jim Dandy") to "Captain James T. Kirk, the poor misunderstood butthole" has definitely got something going in the cleverness department. Other songs concern "My Brother Melvin" ("drinking twelve bottles of beer and maybe falling asleep in a cement pond"), important fashion decisions ("Earring"), dying goldfish ("Princess and the Pea"), and baby rattles ("Dr. Smithus"). The Ant Farmers' music lopes along with a sorta country gait, reminding me a bit of Up on the Sun-era Meat Puppets (must be that desert). Catchy vocals ride over lopsided, unexpected, but fitting chords of near-XTC complexity without ever seeming arch or artsy. "Earring," for instance, uses a looping, repeating guitar pattern, with banjo-like open-string harmonies flitting around a circling bass like flies around a horse's tail. Elsewhere, the vocal parts of "Nail in the Wall" float almost ballad-like, but the song avoids the flabby tedium that can trouble slower songs by a rhythm track that seems to move twice the speed of the vocals. (Note: Six or seven years later, I don't think this is available...but I still listen to it and like it!)

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