One of the most underrated bands, still - For years, (more than I care to know) I have been an avid fan of jam band music. No Doy was my first introduction to moe. While not their best studio work (I think Wormwood is the best of these) , it has consistently held up listen over listen as a creative, fun piece of work, and is a great intro to the band with lots of familiar work from their live shows.If you are into short versions of jam band music, you will like this CD...but still, go see one of their live shows, as the musicianship will literally blow you away. (I m shocked that at this stage of their career you can still see these guys in smaller venues, as to me they are now superior to anything Phish ever did...)
Better than Dither - Released in 1996, this could be considered moe. s second studio album or their fourth. The sound quality is very good. It is 58 minutes long, but the last four minutes is just a bunch of noise like someone scratching on a screen.There are some good songs on this and some bad. It is not a jam album, but it is played mostly in the style that moe. plays in concerts. There are no jam and there is only one song longer than 10 minutes. But, it does have the good rock sound that you like about moe. s live performances. It isn t a stripped down, song centered bore like Dither.It starts out with the very embarrassing She Sends Me. This sounds like one of those psychodelic pop love songs from the sixties. There are a couple of other juvenile sounding tracks on the CD. Spine of the Dog sounds like a silly song the Phish would do.There are some very good tracks on this CD, like 32 Things and Four (except for the 4 minutes of noise at the end). However, for the most part I think you can get better versions of these songs on the live albums. It isn t because of the jamming that the songs are better on the live albums. It is because they play the songs in a more straight ahead rock style, with more energy. I wouldn t really recommend buying this CD. It isn t bad....I just recommend buying the live CD s.Some of the songs on this CD are on other moe. studio CD s. moe. reminds of some of the eighties New Wave bands, back in the days of EP s and the dawn of CD s. Groups would release independent albums and EP s (short albums) as they were getting started. After the got a major recording contract and hit the big time, they would take old songs and put them on to new albums (sometimes the songs would be reworked). moe. was like that, which is why the first 4 studio albums have many of the same songs.
Solid. - What blows my mind about moe. is that they can jam for twenty mintues (without boring the crowd to death), then bust out a fat beat, then rock it, all with flawless transitions that somehow make sense. Moth, Spine of a Dog, Saint Augustine, She Sends Me, are all fantastic songs. Actually, the entire album is bangin. If you like jams but don t like Phish, and Widespread Panic bores you, dig this.
great - u dont need to listen to me so ill just say its agreat album with out any mistakes and probaly the best out of moe if u want great moe live try warts and all
A pleasure for the ears - I have all of the studio albums that moe. has recorded, and this is undoubtedly my favorite. It seems closer to a live recording than a conceptualized studio effort, and therefore has a spontaneity you don t normally find on studio albums. Having never seen moe. live, so I am lacking that experience. But when compared to albums like wormwood or dither, this stands head and shoulders above them. The guitar work on Rububla is absolutely astounding, and moth opens with a funky little riff that you can definitely groove to. There are no real weak links in this album, no filler songs whatsoever. Check it out sometime.