Riverboat Gamblers - Underneath The Owl reviews
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
| Spin |
 Chest-thumping call-and-response, greasy riffs, lyrics about drinking and girls and Vicodin and more drinking -- if Against Me! had paid their dues opening for Faster Pussycat at the Whisky in 1984, they might sound something like this. But for every straightforward burner like "Catastrophe," there's a subtle curveball such as the glockenspiel-enhanced "Robots May Break Your Heart." It's weird to think that these Texas upstarts are largely relegated to the fringes of pop -- what they do is so basic, so elemental, it's hard to even come up with a modifier to place in front of "rock."...full text |
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| Rollingstone |
| On their fourth album, these Austin punks sound like seasoned road warriors who've put their livers through the wringer but haven't lost their tenacity, their brains or their gift for melody. Adrenalized cuts like "Keep Me From Drinking" bank on Rancid riffs and big, join–in choruses that can stick in your brain, while fluid guitars, vibraphone and lap steel pop up on several subtler cuts. Some of the tunes slip into vague kvetching: On "Pilgrims in an Unholy Land," Mike Wiebe yowls about "hash marks" and "stretch marks" without giving you much of a hook or an idea of what he's talking about. But the tenderhearted rave–up "Victory Lap" combines the best of Against Me! and the Replacements....full text |
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| Popmatters |
| Armed with an increasingly long list of accolades for their energetic live show, Underneath the Owl is ostensibly an excuse for Denton, Texas, five-piece the Riverboat Gamblers to hit the road with some fresh material, but damned if these guys haven’t started to learn the pleasures of studio rattery. Owl splits the difference neatly, keeping the fanbase happy while still pushing the ball forward. Side A is all the big, obvious, high-sheen rock, meant to be heard blasting out of speakers in a sweaty dive bar, but it’s stuff that tends to mash together in the haze of a few PBRs. Side B, tho, while hardly a sea change, shows a willingness to grow and experiment. “Robots May Break Your Heart” sounds like a rejected Flaming Lips or Grandaddy EP title, but the band’s fearless enough to go ahead with the song anyway, and toss in some xylophone and a robotic guitar riff over lyrics like “flesh is flawed, you know it’s true”. Hey, at least it’s different, as is the steel guitar that anchors the relationship-as-film metaphor “The Tearjerker”. The breakneck “Keep Me From Drinking” boasts a Guitar Hero-worthy solo from lead guitarist Fadi Eli-Assad, and closer “Victory Lap” plays like a post-millennial “Danny Says” and captures the blur of life on tour better than any ode-to-the-road tune these ears have heard lately. Until the Gamblers blow into your town, stick with Side B....full text |
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