Hmmm...titles like "Mister Easter Aeroplane," "These Aquatic Droids," "The Clam, The Owl," "Uncle of France," and "T-Resistable"; raggedly recorded guitar rock clearly in thrall to the Kinks, the Who, and the Pretty Things in their R&B phase; songs that clock out after a single 30-second verse...okay, so playing "spot the influence" is pretty easy. Still and all, what one might not have predicted is that songwriter Jason Anderson (who may or may not be the guy in the jacket portrait, looking like the average twenty-ish truckstop habitue in beard, ball cap, and flannel), following the guidance of those voices, makes those titles' abstract phrases sing, or how well the band negotiates the low-budget recording auteur's necessary sense of craft-within-limited-means by allowing tremolo, reverb, and distortion to tell as much of the story as notes, chords, or words do, or the simple but surprisingly effective maneuver of ending the homely guitar pluckings of "Agave's Lament" with a coda consisting of nothing but a single organ chord. This song among others slows things down and paces the CD, while the gift of concision makes the snappy "Know What the Story Is" into a Tooth & Nail punk-popper. Wolf Colonel borrows a lot of its tools, yes, but it certainly does know what to do with them.

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