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"RIDE THE PONY"
The Winebottes
This four-piece band haunted Boulder for several years before moving to Philadelphia, where they're now based.
They're generally described as "sounding a lot like U2," an inaccuracy derived from Darren Taylor's rapid-fire, sustain-heavy guitar style.
The Freddy Jones Band or The Alarm is a closer match to the Winebottles' hazy power rock.
Doug Murray is a powerful, if over-emotive vocalist, concentrating too much on shouting over the din than on the meaning of the words he's singing.
When they mix it up with some ska and sax, as they do on "Moonburn" - or slow it down, as on "Home Alone" - it's more fetching.
Like too many bands these days, they put a "bonus track" on the album. Everyone's CD player has a track counter: No one's fooled anymore, or amused.
Note: The Winebottles play Manhattan's tonight, 123 E. Pikes Peak Ave., $3.
- Jeremy Simon Gazette Telegraph
"TO THE FAITHFUL
DEPARTED"
The Cranberries
Label
The last young Irishwoman who was into protest songs was as irritating as she was illuminating, so skepticism at Dolores O'Riordan's homage to dead people is healthy. Her social consciousness is aging in dog years: Still twentysomething, she's quickly graduated from the chirpy love songs on "Everybody Else Is Doing It, Why Shouldn't We?" Last summer's concert tour was full of impassioned appeals and speeches explaining songs like...