Whenever I hear the tag 'bar band' slapped onto a group, I consistently expect bland, painfully Midwestern interpretations of the 12 bar blues. There's just something inherently horrifying about a sub-genre synonymous with washed up 40 year old men (do I really need to insert a Huey Lewis joke here?) pumping out blues-tinged Bad Company covers to a crowd of disgruntled factory workers. So when someone characterizes a group as being "homegrown shit!" from the heart of Ohio, it's usually a negative. Luckily the Anomoanon, hailing from Kentucky, straddle the bar-band fence with enough substance and tact to keep me interested longer than "The News" ever could. Frontman Ned Oldham sounds more or less exactly like his younger brother, Will, which is both a blessing and a curse. If you like Palace Music, Joji will most likely make your day. In fact, Ned is slightly more consistent than his brother when it comes to output and performance. But being entirely familiar with the albums vocal nuances strips the Anomoanon of identity in the singing department. We are left with the music to sift through, which on the whole is far enough removed from the Palace moniker to merit separate attention. Ned and company plod through a solid set of mid-'70s rock tunes, not afraid to lay on the thick guitar harmonies that typified the period. Admittedly, I recognize the irony in replacing comparisons to Will Oldham with Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, but at its core, Joji is immersed in classic rock-isms. I don't think I've ever heard a Glenn Fry imitation as convincing as "Green Sea"; a simple, catchy song that avoids cock-rock histrionics, and indeed represents a lazier side of the genre. It's up to you to decide if Joji's nostalgia is distracting or not. Amidst the myriad of throwback bands these days, the Anomoanon at least deal out their fair share of earnestness. And when the music sounds so effortless, its easy to stop thinking about what band came before, and to start realizing how good what's playing right now is. Suffice it to say that regardless of which Oldham brother you've enjoyed in the past, there's no reason to pass this one up.
1. Down and Brown
2. Leap Alone
3. Mr. Train
4. Green Sea
5. After Than Before
6. Wedding Song
7. Nowhere
8. Bird Child
More about: The Anomoanon
