They are one of the most wrongfully overlooked rock acts in the region. I hesitantly vote for the latter. Maybe in their cacophonous early days, when guitarist Neil Hagerty was fresh off a tour of duty with notorious New York screech-rockers Pussy Galore, they had a clue. Certainly their space-brained explorations are tougher than the cupcake glam I'd sometimes like to cram back down the Dandy Warhols' peacock throats.
Lyrics are typically tart phrases that taste like throwaways taped back together in the studio.
Only if you believe lava lamps are high sculptural art. It's easy to dismiss genre works. Five Lessons Learned once again picks up that thematic thread, then allows it to unravel. Too often Koski relinquishes lyrical duties to his bandmates, and their attempts to expand beyond Clash-y rants frequently misfire, weakening the mixture's potency. All three are, of course, penned by Koski, punk's rising poet laureate.