Record Reviews

Peglegasus

Tired of Adventures (Entropic Carnival)

Third time's the charm for Peglegasus, the decade-old Austin bar band dropping into one of their best beer-drenched blurs, "Superdiver," absolutely cold as the first notes on Tired of Adventures. Everyone spreads out a little after that, guitarist/singers Berke Marye and John Voskamp rummaging about the SST post-punk closet, everything from angular melodies to progressive surf instrumentals, while drummer Peter Voskamp tries to contain the Keith Moon in him. At a lean 33 minutes, Tired of Adventures feels like the full 45, the latter half of the album happily meandering through loopy, vaguely Meat Puppets-sounding songs like "Shark vs. La Foussa" and "La Fouche," the nonsensical French chansonish "The Soup Was Mine," and the rainswept acoustics of "Fleas '96." Following Bacon, Lettuce & Tornado ('92) and So Much for King Tut ('96), released by Austin's ill-fated Sector 2 label, Peglegasus finally sounds like they're making music for themselves, finding the spirited middle ground between barroom chemistry and studio formality. By the time most hole-in-the-wall bands pull up to the 10-year mark not having made a million, they often break up, not realizing that musically, the payoff is just around the corner. With Tired of Adventures, Peglegasus proves the journey is just beginning.