Three-song EP from a Boston trio that sounds a bit like Queensryche and later King Crimson filtered through grindcore: weird, off-kilter time-signatures mashed in with dreamy little acoustic passages and topped with loutish bellowing that fades in and out of the mix. It sounds a bit better than it plays, but not by much; on the plus side, it's nice to hear dorkily precise musicianship in a world crowded with earnest folkies and all those damned punk-pop bands, but a lack of a sense of humor is a minus, if I could understand what the hell the songs are about. No idea what or who "The Ringers" are, but lead singer & guitar guy Matt Gardner doesn't sound too pleased about it.
The ending track, "Hermit" is as proggy-folky in its bombastic way as anything by Tull or Zep, making this most inspired anachronism-from-an-era-of-rock-that-never-happened I've heard in a good long while. Expect them to be doing two-disc-long rock operas in a couple years, and they'll go over huge in Germany. The cover art is irretrievably stupid and probably done by a sixth-grader (with shading skillz, natch), and plus, it has nothing to do with the contents. I think. (MA)
(self-released; Wonderdrug Records -- P.O. Box 230995, Boston, MA. 02123; http://www.wonderdrugrecords.com/index2.htm)