Big Drag has a knack for writing tunes which seem like familiar AM radio
classics from the medium’s golden era, but destroyed beyond recognition. in
actuality, they’re not: every Big Drag song (save for obvious covers, a
la “Tallahassee Lassie” here) is self-originated. It’s just they’re such
rock fans and record hounds, they know how to take fragments out of rock
chestnuts and drag ’em through enough layers of fuzz and punk brutality to make
’em 100-proof Big Drag. It’s not even AM radio pop which totally informs their
approach, either: have a field day sighting “God Save the Queen” in “Uneven,”
or the descending bass-run-of-dread from “Human Fly” in “Big Drop.” It’s all
part of the fun of listening to the area’s finest Black-and Decker pop trio.
3.0 stars – Tim Stegall
This article appears in August 18 • 1995 and August 18 • 1995 (Cover).