{"id":22088,"date":"2021-12-12T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22088"},"modified":"2021-12-10T14:56:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T19:56:02","slug":"album-review-nrbq-dragnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/12\/album-review-nrbq-dragnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: NRBQ &#8212; Dragnet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22089\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/nrbq_dragnet.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/nrbq_dragnet.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/nrbq_dragnet-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/nrbq_dragnet-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>NRBQ is an American treasure. Founded in the mid \u201860s, the band has always transcended \u2013 smashed, even \u2013 genre boundaries. They\u2019re as likely to be inspired by Sun Ra as they are to draw from rockabilly. The band has endured countless lineup changes, so many in fact that there\u2019s a contingent that asserts that whatever current iteration of the group exists, it\u2019s not the \u201creal\u201d NRBQ. For the purposes of this review, I\u2019ll dismiss that argument: the current lineup \u2013 led by founding member Terry Adams \u2013 has been together for more than five years, with three-fourths of the lineup stable for a decade now.<\/p>\n<p>Superb musicianship often brings with it a kind of showiness, a predilection toward look-at-me. A hallmark of NRBQ since its earlier days is a refreshing freedom form that approach. Their songwriting has always been pretty solid as well, and Dragnet is no exception on either of those counts. The characteristically silly \u201cWhere\u2019s My Pebble?\u201d may not make much sense, but it\u2019s a fun tune. The winsome \u201cI Like Her so Much\u201d is a peppier answer to the kind of song Marshall Crenshaw showcased on his debut.<\/p>\n<p>The countrified \u201cMemo Song\u201d is sweet and simple, but you\u2019ll be forgiven for noticing that John Perrin\u2019s vocal bears a passing resemblance to a green frog puppet with ping-pong balls for eyes. Adam\u2019s effects-processed electric piano on \u201cMiss Goody Two Shoes\u201d is more than a novelty. And he carves out a delightful slice of British-style Summer of Love pop for \u201cYou Can\u2019t Change People.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The title track is, in fact, the theme from the 1960s TV drama. In NRBQ\u2019s hands, it kind swings. \u201cThe Moon and Other Things\u201d is written by bassist Casey McDonough, and the lovely tune is quite possibly the best track on <i>Dragnet<\/i>. Scott Ligon\u2019s \u201cThat Makes Me a Fool\u201d sounds like it was written (and arranged and recorded) 70 years ago, and that\u2019s meant as high praise indeed.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, there really isn\u2019t an easily definable NRBQ sound; the band\u2019s hallmark is its defiantly eclectic nature, and its unprepossessing attitude. Tunefulness is always in supply, but if consistency in terms of style is important to you, <i>Dragnet<\/i> might frustrate somewhat. For the rest of us, we\u2019re simply glad that five decades and counting, NRBQ is still going strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NRBQ is an American treasure. Founded in the mid \u201860s, the band has always transcended \u2013 smashed, even \u2013 genre boundaries. They\u2019re as likely to be inspired by Sun Ra [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,49,62],"tags":[1609,2864],"class_list":["post-22088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-nrbq","tag-onmivore-recordings","cat-6-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22090,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions\/22090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}