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Like so many first albums before it, Smashed, The Blind Pets’ self released debut, is an admirable stab at rock immortality that comes up short while providing a quite a few glimpses at a promising future. Like the image inside the gatefold and printed directly on the disc, Smashed is a fractured record; at times, the band riffs, solos, and shreds its way out of the mundane and slices a mighty groove. Other times, the band freaks out into metallic spasms, seemingly intended to flip their audiences’ ears into a completely different direction. Just because a young band hasn’t quite put it all together yet on their first try doesn’t mean The Blind Pets should be dismissed. On the contrary, it just means listeners will have to work a little harder to find the hidden gems on the record.
At almost fifty-five minutes, it’s a little hard to call Smashed an in-your-face uppercut; instead the band appears to want circle and circle before invading personal airspace with intermittent jabs. Even the opening track, a generally spunky rocker that - like many of the songs - has The Blind Pets sounding like The Offspring’s darker hopped-up cousin, opens with the sound of breaking bottles and ends with lead singer and guitarist Joshua Logan noodling all over the place before the entire thing collapses into Logan and the band talking shit to each other. Shave that beginning and end down a tad, reel in the meandering breakdown and solos, and The Blind Pets’ opener goes from good to great. Sadly, this isn’t the only moment where a bit of production or outside guidance might have helped reel in the chaos and resulted in a tighter, leaner animal.
Nonetheless, after the band stumbles through a few unremarkable tracks that show The Blind Pets’ penchant for angular metal riffing, the band hits its stride with a three pack of great songs. “Downtown Girl,” opening with Logan strumming softly and singing almost gently, could play side by side with Nirvana, Mudhoney, and many others. Loud-soft-loud (or soft-loud-soft-loud-loud, in this case) is a tried and true formula that The Blind Pets excel at. And, it’s no coincidence that one of the best tracks on the album is also one of the shortest. Similarly, both “Merchant & Consumer” and “The Others” - the two songs following “Downtown Girl” - are crisp rock and roll songs that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early 90s mix tape. Bassist Dustin Hannah and drummer Daniels Olivas click perfectly behind Logan’s distant vocals, proving that when the band doesn’t wander off into a spastic moment of chaos, The Blind Pets are a really solid power trio.
Fortunately, on the back half of the album, more of the songs follow The Blind Pets’ early grunge wanderings than B-Rate Queens of the Stone Age covers. On “Know It All,” the band roars like a caged animal in a zoo– not like any animal you’d ever want to keep as a house pet. The song is the perfect example of how the band can tease about stretching it out, tantalizing the listener, but not waste any time on seemingly never ending stoner jams. If the band can find the happy medium between longer tunes and the taut crunching of the shorter songs, The Blind Pets could be onto something pretty fun and special. The ingredients are all there; it’s just a matter of production and execution for these guys.
Websites:
http://theblindpets.com
Myspace
i like the blind pets good review
Does this guys write any good reviews!?! All the reviews I have read are just bashing the band like they owe him some money for rent. Oh I get it he must be in a band….. Yeah I bet it rules and gets positive reviews on this cite. Midgetmen Suck!!! The Blind Pets Rule!!!
The Blind Pets are awesome, seen them live a few times. Too bad the writer of this review sucks
Good and honest review. The Blind Pets have lots of potential. Hopefully they grow and learn from their first album.
The “shit talking” that the reviewer, Perlman, is referring to here is actually at the beginning of track 2, Triumph, not at the end of track 1. And whoever can’t tell that the people talking and laughing at the beginning of Triumph are joking around/having fun must have a huge stick up their ass. Also, Olivas is the drummer on Smashed but he is no longer with the band. It would have been helpful for the reviewer to mention that/check out the facts before writing this - he could have simply looked at The Blind Pets’ myspace page (Black Thunder - drums, duh), or you know, attended a show. Have the Midget Men ever been reviewed by the Austin Chronicle? No.
While this review isn’t a complete loss, the credibility is automatically dismissed once the reader realizes the mistakes the reviewer has made. Whether the writer sucks or is just jealous because his own band is only marginally successful, as previous commenters have suggested, you would think that Austin Sound would be able to publish more factual and accurate reviews - we do live in the live music capitol of the world, after all.
For a more credible source and accurate review, click here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid:1068409
I have attended a couple of Blind Pets shows and the energy this band brings could only be paralleled by a handful of other groups, dead or alive. Since this review is about the album and not the live performance, I can vouch for that too. And I could certainly write a damn better review than this Shmohawk. The opening song does start with a sound clip of things breaking and bottles smashing, which doesn’t come across as that inappropriate to me since the album and it’s first track are called “Smashed.” I feel that this song really shows what the band is all about. At a live performance, the lead singer (Joshua Logan) jumps off stage into the crowd during the guitar solo towards the end of the song. His vocals are impeccable and his rock’n'roll vibes are definitely present. Tracks worth listening to that were not mentioned here are: track 3 - “Fever,” track 8 - “Buy Yourself,” track 12 - “Lost Parade,” and track 13 - “The News” & hidden bonus track. Smashed, as an album, has diverse tracks and a kick-in-the-ass sound. At one show, I met The Blind Pet’s, who were hanging out in the crowd watching other shows, and besides being some of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met, they are extremely talented and I advise any music fans to check them out. Even if you don’t like rock’n'roll before you listen to this album (like me), you will quickly change your mind after hearing this gem amongst the endless sea of up-and-coming bands that we call Austin.
Elmasdan, SMASHED is not their first album, it is their second. SUGAR is their first album. Also, it seems that the reviewer’s band gets positive reviews on Austin Sound all the time… weird. I guess one of The Blind Pets should start writing for them.
The highly esteemed Chronicle review linked above states the album is their debut. As did the review on Exploding in Sound. Oops.
Someone just told me about our review on here. Agree or disagree, thanks for the review.
-John-
We definitely appreciate both parties having there own opinions that’s why we do what we do. Thanks a lot for the review Marc! Hopefully we will have another one for you soon.
-josh
Actually I thought this was pretty good review, he said some critical things but also some good stuff. I thought it was positive when I read it, but I like the band so maybe I have rose colored glasses
I hope that “your mom” — who is obviously josh’s mom — realizes what an ass she has made of herself with that piss poor “review of a review”, the random jibber jabbering, and the fact that all her points are irrelevant.
No one cares who the new drummer is. The new drummer didn’t drum on the album being reviewed. (And if the new drummer doesn’t want to go by a real name on Myspace, then there’s no reason for a reviewer to think “Guy with a fake internet name” is not “Daniel Olivas”. What is this? A guessing game to figure out who the drummer of Spinal Tap is?)
No one cares if the reviewer plays in a band. If the reviewer didn’t play in a band, your argument would be “you’ve never played in a band or made music, so you’re not qualified to understand The Blind Pets’ art!”
No one cares if Josh and his friends are the greatest guys ever or if you liked hanging out with them. The guys in Nickelback and Creed are probably nice guys too, if you asked their moms. And guess what? People shit on their records all the time.