home > browse > cd-feature > view article

David Lowery: The Palace Guards

  Tobias Fischer

The long and short here is Tom Petty after a total Eels bender, some rockabilly, some Pavement chill, overall a very cohesive affair that has some serious high points.

Lowery was a co-founder of Camper van Beethoven, a trivia nugget that never fails to impress a few punk history buffs, but this ain’t no beer-smelly day-glo fire-trap, it’s a Texas saloon invaded by Ringo Starr on closeout track “Submarine,” tambourines and everything. In other words, as I mentioned, it’s Eels, sort of, with commercially viable caveats, never mind the honky messy harmonica on the picket-fence-toothed opener “Raise Em Up On Honey.”

What Lowery’s really on about here is trying to teach money-hungry alt-country wannabes a thing or three, and so he reminds everyone about the way-the-hell-faraway guitars Chris Isaak once shoved up the planet’s nose (“Deep Oblivion”) and why Collective Soul loudness shouldn’t be left completely out of the equation (“Baby All Those Girls Meant Nothing To Me”).

By Eric Saeger

Homepage: David Lowery
Homepage: 429 Records