Pipe - Slowboy

Label: Merge
Year: 1997

Further evidence that Pipe was/were/shall be a power(Fun)house of dirt-caked, riff-heavy, snarling goodness. This being the final piece of that evidence, as they broke up not long after it's release...but then reanimated a couple years ago and are playing here and there...without any new material that I'm privy to.
This record slows down the angry a bit (a sonic reducer?), and gets a bit more garage-y than the preceding records did, but it's still a rock album of the highest order, covered in grit, spat out in a thick, rich, full guitar tone, aimed squarely at their enemies (real and perceived). There's a Subsonics cover in the mix...and Elvis Costello as well, just so you know. But don't be fooled into thinking Pipe "got soft" (phallic joke redacted by request of management) or something, this band still specializes in bad attitudes and slinging ashtrays across the bar at your forehead (out of love, of course).
Hail NC! Hail Pipe!

DL