Back in the day, when garage-rock was on its first wave, much of rock ‘n’ roll came from the reaches of the Mississippi, from Memphis’ Sun Studios to Cincinnati’s King Records. But today’s garage-rock revival seems to revolve around Brooklyn. So hopefully Omaha’s Capgun Coup will be bringing the garage back to Middle America with their sophomore release, Maudlin.
While Capgun Coup’s debut, Brought To You By Nebraskafish was a varied ‘first record’ kind of release (i.e., collecting everything they’d done in the years leading up to that), Maudlin hones its focus in on the band’s raucous live sound. It all makes the record more of a throwback than other garage-rock revivalists, not drenched in fuzz but with an up-blues party. From the walkin’ blues of "Sitting On the Sidewalk" to the pian-y wry "An Are We", Maudlin feels like a night at gin-joints on Route 66, especially the garage-party a-go-go "When I’m Gone".
Capgun Coup aren’t exactly that complex, and when they try to play it sweeter, such as back-to-back "Now That I’m Home" & "Farnam Street", the album loses some of its momentum (and "Only the Times Are Changing" is a scrambled garage mess). Not exactly reinventing the wheel, but bringing back a better version of the classic design.
