Admiral Radley - I Heart California (The Ship, 2010)

Admiral Radley

I Heart California

The Ship

2010

Rating: 6 ho ho plants out of 10

Running a little tardy on this review...Admiral Radley sounds exactly what you would get if the members of Grandaddy and Earlimart got together and dicked around enough in the studio to produce a record.  Wait, that's exactly what happened here.  It really couldn't sound more like a mash-up of those two bands if you tried.  And it also probably makes perfect sense that I don't enjoy this nearly as much as Grandaddy (an all-time favorite band of mine), but more than Earlimart (who I've never been too excited about).  Even if this isn't Jason Lytle's best output, I'm still magnetically drawn to anything he produces like a moth to a flame...well, maybe not exactly like that, cause it won't kill me if I touch the music.  A couple of standout tracks - "GNDN" is a nice mellow number that would have fit in right on Grandaddy's perfect pop album "The Sophtware Slump", and "The Thread", a nice waltz-like track with Arianna Murray singing, and is probably better than anything else Earlimart has ever been a part of. 

Earlimart - Everyone Down Here (Palm, 2003)

Earlimart
Everyone Down Here
Palm
2003

Rating: 7 podunk California towns out of 10

Here we have proof-positive that moving from a well respected underground label to the big time doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the creative out put of the band. Southern California’s Earlimart, once the darlings of the Devil in the Woods record label roster, now find themselves in the major leagues and with a terrific new record, "Everyone Down Here". Imagine a mixture of Sparklehorse, Pavement, The Pixies, and Grandaddy, and you’ll begin to understand what sort of sounds these guys (and girl) produce. Especially great is the second track "We Drink on the Job", which offers not only a catchy chorus but comes across with a great idea as well – who wouldn’t like to mix some libations with the workplace? Well, other than your boss that is? If there is a down side here at all it’s that the record is too short, but sometimes it’s better to leave them wanting more anyways.