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Wednesday, 21 March 2007 14:09

The album starts off with its best song, "Glueman," a fantastic Fender Rhodes-driven number that bops along, getting progressively better as it goes. In this writer's opinion, this was one of the best singles of last year.

Dave Grelle has been kicking around the St. Louis scene for a long time now, honing his keyboard wizardry into a force to be reckoned with. Long his partner in badassary, Ben Reece has played the saxophone alongside Grelle in many groups, including EM Groove and Hip Grease, and has since picked up the bass. Tony Barbata played with Grelle in the final lineup of local stalwarts Core Project and quickly conspired with the two to make the lineup of the Feed that recorded their great self-titled debut EP, released late in 2006.

Though the Feed and Barbata have since parted ways (the animated Kevin Bowers is now the group's drummer), this lineup gelled well enough to produce an excellent introduction to the trio. If you have heard any of the members' previous bands, then the trio's brand of energetic, fuzzy soul-pop-rock won't come as a surprise. All of the musicians involved in this project are quite talented and while there is room for growth, the songwriting is very good as well.

The album starts off with its best song, "Glueman," a fantastic Fender Rhodes-driven number that bops along, getting progressively better as it goes. In this writer's opinion, this was one of the best singles of last year. "Leave" is nearly as good, building intensity from Reece's pounding sax hits before it lets off some boiling runs. Barbata's start-stop beat in between these parts serves as a good vehicle for Grelle's tale of having "wanted to leave the city, for so long," and also having "wanted to leave you for so long." It may read poorly, but in song it's magnificent.

Unfortunately, that cannot be said for everything Grelle sings. Though they make sense within the songs' stories, lines like "And she fucked good too" and "But she's calling other names when I'm up inside her," from "Good Last Night" and "Bridges," respectively, just come off as lacking tact and class. The Feed are a good enough group that they should be above that. This isn't to say that all of Grelle's lyrics are bad, but he could stand to have a less filthy mouth.

This EP does exactly what a debut EP should do: make people anticipate more. This band has a lot going for it and are worth checking for live, too. Therefore, the full-length is highly anticipated by yours truly and will hopefully give you the same reaction when you hear this album. B+ | Bob McMahon