Did you ever hurriedly grab yourself a cup of coffee without really paying attention to what you were doing? Well, if you’re unlucky enough to get one of those last cups in the bottom of the pot, you may be in for a rough day in beverage-land. You won’t notice it at first, but slowly the coffee grounds will start making their way to the top of your cup, and an otherwise stimulating and flavorful experience becomes gritty and unpleasant. Trying to down those last couple of swallows can be simply impossible.

Well, those annoying coffee grounds kept coming to mind as I tried to digest this new disc by Muncie, Indiana’s DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE SKELETON CREW. The band is a foursome with a two-girl, two-brother kind of setup. The lineup consists of Jilly Turd on vox and guitar, Susan Polcz on drums, and the brothers Matt and Paul Hagan on lead guitar and bass respectively. While this disc is obviously the work of talented musicians coming together from different backgrounds, the overall sound struck me as a confused and uneven affair. Driven by punky riffs, abundant keyboards, and funky bass lines, this album seems to be striving (perhaps subconsciously) for the controlled chaos of MR BUNGLE. Sadly, the effort falls flat quickly as contrived riff-borrowing (mostly from classic punk bands) and several other factors will have you choking all the way back to the sink with this puppy.

The satisfying aspects of this band lie in the musicianship of guitarist Matt Hagan, and bassist Paul Hagan. Matt’s open guitar voicings, and Paul’s bass noodling actually saved several songs on the disc from my hitting the “skip” button. For example, the shimmering lines of “Keep Moving Forward” are some of the strongest moments for the band on this tangled record, and give the listener an idea of some lofty achievements of which this band may be capable one day.

But unfortunately, the talents of these musicians often sound as if they are battling for dominance, rather than complementing one another. Jilly’s incessant one-dimensional screaming loses its appeal in the first 30 seconds of the disc. Will someone please inform this young lady that she is not Jake Bannon from CONVERGE? Only he can get away with this type of constant shrieking.

Another chunk of grounds that choked me in this lukewarm cup of BUNGLE- worship was the track “The Sun”, whose zany synth washes and surf guitar reminded me quickly of why I don’t own any B-52s albums. (Well, I do have the FRED SCHNEIDER disc with “There’s a Monster in My Pants”, but doesn’t everybody?). At any rate, I’d avoid the SKELETON CREW for now and make a trip over to your local Wawa, where you can get a nice steamy cup of ground-free java and listen to classic DOOBIES and BLUE OYSTER CULT at the same time. Not a paid endorsement, in case you were wondering

- Marchman

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