Mann's World

A review of Drunk Horse's "In Tongues" (Tee Pee Records)

I know Jessica will disagree with me on this:

Have you ever been attracted to someone simply because they remind you of someone else? Maybe they give you the same intense gaze as your former lover, or maybe the sound of their voice brings back a moment from years ago. Perhaps it’s a certain something that only the beer goggles will bring into proper focus.


That’s the feeling I get when I listen to Drunk Horse’s latest CD. There’s a whole lot here that reminds me of some of my past musical loves, notably Blue Oyster Cult, ZZ Top and Foghat, with a little Thin Lizzy thrown in for good measure.

The rhythm section is tight, and singer/guitarist Eli Eckert’s voice has plenty of swagger and attitude. Eckert also has a flair for writing hook-filled riffs (as well as a propensity for using them over and over again), and guest Josh Smith of The Fucking Champs provides the right touch of guitar-god theatrics on “Grinding Teeth.”

But despite a few brilliant riffs, there really isn’t a whole lot here that hasn’t been done elsewhere. Even the CD’s best song, the epic instrumental “Skydog,” lifts passages nearly wholesale from King Crimson’s “Red.”

If you ever spent time doing bong hits and listening to “On Your Feet or On Your Knees” through your Koss headphones, this CD is going to sound awfully familiar to you. In fact, if you’ve recently spent time listening to Queens of the Stone Age, Fu Manchu or just about any other band mining the ‘70s stoner rock quarry, it will sound familiar to you too. But familiarity alone isn’t enough to hold my interest for very long.