Berkshire Hounds

Greatest Hits

Jim Campo and Spencer Garland still rock gigs with black X’s on their hands, but the underage East Cameron duo writes songs like they’ve run themselves through the ringer on more than one occasion. Berkshire Hounds’ Bandcamp-only Greatest Hits finds the Dallas natives rumbling with a slacker’s defiance as bold as the LP title itself. The 10-song debut dumps a 22-ounce Bud Ice on alt.country (“Six Feet Under”), upends the Clash’s reggae punk (“It Would Appear That Dan Is a Complex Guy”), and gets loose on juke joint piano blues (“We Go Home Together”), each of which busts down doors with measured imperfection and a heavy horn line held by trombonist Lee Rikard and trumpeter Royce Strange. Best is when Garland breaks out his cutthroat bark, a Marlboro Red howl that rattles “High Walls” and electrifies “Pretty Dress High Heels.” These Hounds are on to something.

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This article appears in April 20 • 2012.

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