Slobberbone - Meltdown (2000)

"We are a rock band, pure and simple," says gravelly-voiced lead singer Brent Best, but as this third release from the Texas-based outfit makes clear it isn't so simple after all. The group have staked out a rather original space somewhere between country and punk rock, and they've filled it with quirky characters, memorable stories, and high-octane music that refuses to be pinned down and categorized. The instrumentation ranges from fiddle and mandolin to accordion and tuba; the sound is sometimes folk-country delicate, sometimes frenzied hard rock, though it leans more to the latter than the former. As for the lyrics, Slobberbone's ideas occasionally run out before a track ends, but they're generally dark and/or funny, and more than a little twisted. This release finds them expanding their horizons from drunks and losers, which is not to say they've abandoned those subjects. There are songs here about everything from obsessive love ("Josephine") to the end of the world ("Meltdown") to a Bible-toting traveling salesman ("Trust Jesus").