Twenty Dollar Vibe

They sure don't make rock & roll like this anymore. And thank God for that. Who needs what The Artists Formerly Known As Johnny Law refer to in their bio and "fact sheet" as "stripped down... song heavy contemporary rock & roll"? Certainly not AOR radio; no one's looking for two guitars, bass, drums, and leather & dust vocals. The days when albums opened with an FM rock rumble and lines like, "These are the days when fire sweeps across the hills like pouring rain" are dried up and blown away. Besides, Twenty Dollar Vibe is just some little shit band from Austin, Texas; they don't have the Bon Jovi production bucks to land "Written on My Face" in KLBJ's heavy rotation bin. The title track, a mid-tempo anthem-wannabe that could really use the punch producer-to-the-stars Brendan O'Brien provided on Johnny Law's 1991 Metal Blade debut, even lifts the "I don't need to fight" line from "Baba O'Reilly." And Bukka Allen - all over this disc - who does he think he is, Chuck Leavell? In addition, just like all those Southern rock albums, this one has its flabby middle-section, "Love" and "Gray," both of which start off slow `n' simpering and then hit major power chords - much the same way Independence Day producer Dan Baird's old band, the Georgia Satellites, used to do. As for the grand finale, "Austin Homesick Blues," a jamboree stomper with Ian Moore on dobro and its "sober reality" tale of being "a long, long way from home in some Southern town," who needs it? (There's three more songs after "AHB," but they're like tacking "Cryin', "Crazy," and "Livin' on the Edge" on the end of Draw the Line). Naw! This stuff is deader than Boot Hill on a Tuesday night. Thank God. Who needs rock & roll like this?
2.5 stars- Raoul Hernandez