Imagine the excitement I had when I received a CD from a band called "Ray Charles Ives". In the crowded carapace of bands named after band name/musician puns of Wevie Stonders and John Wilkes Booze (no a musician, but...), Ray Charles Ives really stands out (although my favorite is still Duran Duran Duran). So, it was much to my dismay when I found out that this wasn't the sound of two Sousa bands marching from the opposite side of town towards each other possessed by Lucifer's/Jehovah's gospel soul.

Yes, this is a jam band. There are some Bonnaroo bands that excite me. Just look at some of Billy Martin's side projects (ie: illy' B). And these cats have some good chops (so does Branford Marsalis), but the one thing that intrigued me, is that in every other review of this EP I found, everyone dissed the one track I liked. Out of the 5 tracks presented here, 4 of them are the same bland jam band boogies I've been hearing at college house parties the last decade. Track 2 ("Polly") is encouraging. Off-kilter 6/8 rhythms flirt w/ tangoing acid electronic squiggles on ice, and at the end, jam band tabooland is reached, w/ averbal vocal harmonies (opiated indie beach boys to be exact). If these kids continue the inertia of "Polly", reaching outside jammyland, and really lower their ph (while keeping the off-kiltered funk), they might have something. Until then, i'm keeping my jam to the lysergic encrusted crevasses of the imagined Olde Albion/Americana (and points elsewhere).