OBITS - Moody, Standard and Poor

The title of this, the second album by Obits, is a pretty apt description of the contents within—in a good way. This record is full of biting, ornery tales played in a straight-ahead punk/garage style by four well-seasoned underground rock dudes who have never gotten close to being rich.

Yep, it could have been a real drag to get through. What saves Moody, Standard and Poor from being a tired bitch session by a bunch of dreary old men is that it's all presented with a dry frankness and—despite titles like "You Gotta Lose", "Everything Looks Better in the Sun" and "Beggin' Dogs"—a genuine joy of playing rock n' roll. Of course, when I say "joy", it's more the kind of pleasure that Oscar the Grouch takes in telling kids to "Scram!" than anything else.

As the main mouthpiece (and grouch) of the band, vocalist/guitarist Rick Froberg is the key to the group’s success here. His steel wool scratch of a pissed-off wail has already been an integral part of two of the best rock bands to come of out of the U.S.: Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu. In Obits, he's toned his voice down a touch (no doubt attempting to preserve his sour-honeyed throat) and as a result, he’s grown from disgruntled art student into a sort of Woody Guthrie with a huge throbbing hangover. It’s a shift he wears well and pulls off with ease—he's a man of the working class, but he's got a terrible headache and absolutely no patience.

The band backs up Froberg’s gritted-teeth ranting with a garage/punk/blues hybrid that pulls deeply from the shared goals of those three styles—namely an insistent beat and relaying the message that life is a goddamn unfair bastard. On highlights like "I Want Results" and "Killer", Froberg and the group lurch and prowl with a direct, full-bodied menace. It’s seething, gnarled stuff that few young bands have the goods to match.

Elsewhere, particularly on the instrumentals and the two tracks where second guitarist Sohrab Habibion takes the mic, things are a little more staid. These moments really convey just how much Froberg’s presence makes the band. That said, when the pair trade call-and-response duties on "Shift Operator", the blood races back into the group quite fast.

It’s true that two albums in, Obits hasn’t yet done anything to cast a shadow across either Drive Like Jehu or Hot Snakes’ legacies. But there’s something compelling nonetheless in the honest, humble, and decidedly not innovative approach of the group. Even having Habibion sings a tune or two speaks to an egalitarian approach of guys who are far more concerned with enjoying themselves than 'making it'. Nothing fancy. No frills. Just four men laying it down nice and heavy. When you’ve got a singer as giftedly tense and unsettling as Froberg leading your charge, you could do a lot worse than to keep it simple.