Kevn Kinney, longtime leader of Drivin N Cryin, cops to the fact that his group has always had a broad palette of influences — something that can give their albums a weird schizophrenia at times. He compares it, quite appropriately, to “The Kinks meet the Who meet the Ramones and the Count Five at a little bar owned by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.” So he’s switching gears, releasing four thematic EPs over the next year — beginning with the rock-oriented Songs from the Laundromat, on June 12, 2012 through Redeye. Kinney describes them as “a five- or six-song recordings, every three months — like a magazine subscription.” How else could the first one start, really, but with a nasty-rocking howler called “Dirty”? Between there, and the equally appropriate rockabilly ballad “Clean Up,” Kinney and Co. rattle through “Ain’t Waiting on Tomorrow” and the very REM-sounding “REM” before bloodying their knuckles on the fleet “Baloney.” A fine start, Laundromat will be succeeded by the Paul Ebersold-produced Songs about Cars, Space and the Ramones, then the even more punky Songs from the Garage followed by an as-yet-untitled fourth EP.
‘Half Notes’ are quick-take thoughts on music from Something Else! Reviews, presented whenever the mood strikes us.
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