moe. – Wormwood

Wormwood

1. Not Coming Down
2. Wormwood
3. Okayalright
4. Rumble Strip
5. Gone
6. Organs
7. Crab Eyes
8. Bullet
9. Kyle’s Song
10. Bend Sinister
11. Kids
12. Kidstoys
13. Shoot First
14. Edison Laugh Record

Here’s what Moe have going for them: a rhythm section that elevates the ordinary jam-band improv with a working knowledge of R&B and funk backbeats; the guitarist Chuck Garvey, who on the title track of this erratic live effort plays intense prayer-meeting slide; a repertoire that encompasses truly mindless refrains and disarmingly beautiful instrumental interludes.

The one thing the Buffalo, New York, quintet lacks: tunes that make the most of their instrumental strengths. Wormwood — an album of new songs recorded on the band’s fall tour and subsequently tweaked in the studio with guitar overdubs and such — is plenty engaging when it’s solo time. But it’s downright tedious when the Moe musicians aspire to Grateful Dead-ish philosophy ("Gone") or, more laughably, Southern rock ("Okayalright," which copyright lawyers might argue sits a tad too close to "Sweet Home Alabama"). For a band whose rep lies mostly on the road, recording live and sweetening later was a smart strategy; all Moe need now are more-substantial songs.

TOM MOON in Rolling Stone – February 20, 2003.