{"id":22366,"date":"2022-01-27T05:30:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T10:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22366"},"modified":"2022-01-28T14:55:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T19:55:38","slug":"album-review-the-grip-weeds-dig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/27\/album-review-the-grip-weeds-dig\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Grip Weeds – Dig"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019re a band that has a well-earned reputation for top-notch original material, an album of covers had better add something worthwhile to listeners\u2019 understanding and appreciation of what you do. Otherwise, beyond a busman\u2019s holiday, what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n

The Grip Weeds have long since established their rock-solid rep as purveyors of hard-charging, muscular (yet supremely melodic) rock. The term \u201cpower pop\u201d is criminally overused, but if it\u2019s applied in its original context \u2013 as in Pete Townshend\u2019s adoption of the term to help describe his band\u2019s approach circa The Who Sell Out<\/i> \u2013 then it fits The Grip Weeds like a sleek leather glove.<\/p>\n

Dig<\/i> is the band\u2019s latest album. And its deluxe edition, Dig<\/i> is a double album. Twenty-five songs \u2013 all covers \u2013 do in fact tell us a great deal about the band. And while longtime acolytes of the band (like this writer) aren\u2019t likely to discover many surprises \u2013 nothing on the order of, \u201cSo they<\/i> influenced the band?\u201d \u2013 Dig<\/i> is a wonderfully consistent musical thrill ride.<\/p>\n

A personal note, if I might, simply to draw the connection between my own musical orientation and the music on Dig<\/i>. No less than four<\/i> of the songs on the album \u2013 \u201cShape of Things to Come,\u201d \u201cJourney to the Center of the Mind, \u201cLies\u201d and “I Had too Much to Dream (Last Night)\u201d \u2013 were covered by my own retro-psych garage band The Echoes of Tyme on our own self-released 2003 album, Sun Greets the Dawn<\/i>. The Grip Weeds do a far better job than did we, but that\u2019s to be expected.<\/p>\n

And a bunch of the others were in our set list, and in the set list of a later band I put together, Men From Uncle. Point being: I. Love. This. Music. Some of the tunes are easy to play; others pose a bit of a challenge. But what they all share is that they are FUN to play. And The Grip Weeds clearly agree; they tear into these songs with exuberance.<\/p>\n

The Grip Weeds nail what is special about these tunes, and don\u2019t seek to reinvent the tunes. Yet somehow the New Jersey foursome makes each and every tune sound like a Grip Weeds original. They display a deep understanding of the material, whether it\u2019s proto-garage or something a bit more ambitious and\/or challenging.<\/p>\n

Highlights abound. \u201cI Love You\u201d was a hit for People, and covered by The Zombies. The Grip Weeds do great things with it, and Kristin Pinnell\u2019s lead vocal spots on the song are a welcome touch. If you own a copy of Nuggets<\/i>, you\u2019ll be familiar with most of this material. If not, welcome to a world of wonder (and go buy Nuggets<\/i>). And not for nothing does the band enlist one Lenny Kaye to pen a liner note essay for Dig<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The band sneaks a bit of original material into the mix, but it\u2019s done in such a stylistically consistent manner that you will be forgiven for not even noticing. And the band\u2019s taste in its choices of material is impeccable, digging deep into the era for some unexpected choices by The Velvet Underground and The Beatles \u2013 not the songs you\u2019re likely to expect.<\/p>\n

You might even find yourself wiping away a nostalgic tear or two as you luxuriate in covers of Thunderclap Newman and The Turtles. The lockdown-era Dig<\/i> is fully realized retro excursion of the highest order. Find it, buy it. But make sure you get your hands on the Deluxe version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a band that has a well-earned reputation for top-notch original material, an album of covers had better add something worthwhile to listeners\u2019 understanding and appreciation of what you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,49,51,55,57,62,65],"tags":[3634],"class_list":["post-22366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-psych","category-rawk","category-review","tag-the-grip-weeds","cat-33-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366","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=22366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22379,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366\/revisions\/22379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}