Magnet #56

Oct/Nov, 2002

"Texas ain't condemned yet. What can be done with the limited ingredients of emotive gloom-country never ceases to amaze. SSG is Will Johnson of Centro-matic on Casio/acoustic guitar, sounding like a rural undertaker whose tangled, impressionistic Robert Pollard-esque ruminations are delivered as crumbly, wizened laments. Okkervil River is Will Robinson Sheff's coughing baby, and his roaring-vioilin-dappled song of devotion builds to the punchline that the speaker is paying his "spoiled rose" for love. Sheff's Appendix Out-like voice is a toothless painkiller next to Johnson's, but this single is a must-own for when the creek's dried up and you've blown the termite wings off your turntable." - William Bowers