| From what I read in The Slugs' bio, this
band has been knockin' it out since '83. They did their first record in '85 (Walking in
Circles) and their first full length disc (Holiday) in '88. What I thought was cool is
that they were on the K-Tel tribute record Hooked on a Feeling back in '91. In
'92, they released Fort Fun and songs from the CD were used on "Melrose
Place", "Dawson's Creek" and "Party of Five". Needless to say,
that is very impessive. In addition, I guess I would be remiss if I didn't mention that
Dag Juhlin (guitars, keyboards & vocals) did a seven year run with Poi Dog Pondering.
So, here I am armed with all of this
information about The Slugs. I pop in the CD, hit play and sit back with a cool one and
give it a listen. The opening cut "Margaret" sets the tone, for me anyway, of
what the CD sounds like. The Slugs have that great Midwest electric-acoustic pop sound
that seems to have been forgotten in recent years, some might call what they do a
blue-collar sound. What ever you call it, The Slugs write the type of songs that invite
you to sing along. One listen to the song "Little Something" will have
you convinced of that. I played that damn song over and over: I played it in my house, in
my car, in my underwear at midnight when I was on the roof until my neighbor came out with
a flashlight. I meowed like a cat until he went away and listened to the rest of the disc
in the house. I'll tell ya, the damn thing runs together seamlessly and that's not to say
that all of the songs sound the same. It's just that the band can write one great song
after another.
So when you buy this CD don't play it until
you have the time to listen to it because it's going to pull you in like a compass being
drawn to magnetic North. All in all, this is just a great CD. From start to finish there's
not a bad song in the bunch, and how often can you say that? In this day and age of boy
bands and bands that sound like every other band, it's refreshing to have a band like The
Slugs come along. I think that anybody that likes mid-tempo electric-acoustic pop is going
to like this CD. Great songs, great fun, go buy it.
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