June 08, 2006 - Missoula Independent
the hermans
stalking matilda
i like you, betty records
The next time you take the ’88 Cutlass Sierra down to the gravel bar for a bonfire party, take along the hermans’ stalking matilda, an album heavy on power chords and frenetic drum fills that’s best listened to loud, not to mention drunk. It’s just the thing to drain a keg to. The album’s first song, “desert island,” introduces the band’s compulsively confrontational persona by ripping through a list of items offensive to the singer’s sensibilities, including some paired opposites. That song, mixed with the whimsy of “pope on strike,” which imagines a pre-pontifical pope “thinking ’bout pew-bound women,” proves good times and gut-rock riffs can carry an album. Forays into more earnest fare, however, like the anti-trustafarian tirade “college rock,” turn the sound sour. Lines like “you’re all the same and I won’t play your game” threaten to bum out listeners whose attitude is going to have a lot to do with how much they enjoy an album that’s raw enough to irritate if picked at persnickitously. Those inclined to crack the case without attitude, however, can expect to enjoy the aural equivalent of a cold canned beer—a swig of something to slake the thirst of the unpretentious. (Jason Wiener)the hermans play The Raven Cafe Wednesday, June 14, at 9:30 PM. $5.
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