Shep and Me "Cloudy Chowder"

Trd W/D

The cover art on this one is a gorgeously silk-screened block of day-glow green paisley which was printed on the insides of two half record sleeves (one a Brian Wilson album and the other is a total mystery to me). These ramshackle lo-fi Appalachian musings seems to capture the home-made fragile junkiness of this packaging quite well. The liner notes, which come in the form of a 14 page zine, include various photos and collages that further heighten the sense that you are listening to the next generation of east-coast weirdoes “gone native”; the original wave being the likes of the Holy Modal Rounders.

This music really seems to be a very well executed amalgamation of such groups as Caroliner, the more “folky” Cerberus Shoal releases, or Russian Tsarlag with a dash of Beefheart and the Holy Modal Roudners as previously mentioned, but there is a fair amount of four track psychedelia present as well. Not sure how limited this thing is, but I would suggest snatching up a copy before they are gone and this thing reaches pricey cult status on e-bay.
9/10 -- Kevin Richards (27 May, 2009)