The Bar Feeders' release "Pour for Four, Por Favor"
gave me great hope for a brighter tomorrow.  See, I
looked at the picture of a crowd of people on the
inside of the album cover who were very excited,
presumably over the Bar Feeders.  A couple of them were
decent looking girls...one was really quite hot in a
"am I punk?  am I goth?  am I ska?" sorta way...and
this gave me great hope for my own band, Cookies n
Hookers', potential to attract groupies.  See, I
figure we sound pretty much like the Bar Feeders, only
rawer.  There are plenty of similarities--neither of
us distinguish much between our songs in terms of
which instruments we play when and how fast, and
neither of us tend to write hooks to our songs, or
even give any indication that a song might be drawing
to a close until we stop singing abruptly and then, 3
seconds later, start all over again with a new track. 
And our lyrics are much much better, especially the
ones that I myself wrote.


The album cover sucks...it is ugly and I would be
embarrassed just aesthetically to have this cd
anywhere where somebody might see the case.  And the
lyrics are real bad.  They're that kind of bad where
somebody might mistake them for good.  But they'd be
displaying their own shocking lack of discernment,
because they are bad.  Maybe if you were drunk enough
you would think they are funny.  If you are that
drunk, crack yourself on the head with a bottle of
tequila...you will think that is even funnier.  And
when you come to, you will have sobered up enough to
have the good sense to not find the lyrics funny
anymore and you will thank me for the advice.


Actually, though, the cd doesn't sound bad at all, if
you get past the fact that the songs blend into each
other for the most part and the cover sucks and if you
don't listen to the words or read the lyrics while it
is playing.  Makes me think they'd be a good band to
see live because I really do dig the energy and the
occasional savage intensity that creeps into the
vocals.  


Here's the thing--there isn't enough "not bad" fast
punk out there.  Most fast punk *is* bad, real bad,
and this isn't bad.  But it isn't good either--if you
grade things on a curve they get maybe a B-, otherwise
much much worse.  So, if you really think that by
buying this and encouraging the band and maybe
encouraging a few other bands to play fast punk and
some of them turn out to be better and then suddenly
we are living in a CBGB's circa 1979 world, be my
guest.  But you're not gonna enjoy it much.  And I'm
cool with artists suffering for their art, but *I*
don't wanna suffer for it too.