Gov't Mule

Add Date: November 10

Artist: Gov't Mule

Album: By A Thread

Label: Evil Teen

Genre: Jam Band

Comments: I get the feeling I was chosen to review this album because the promotional materials mentioned that this band had a "punk sound." Let me be very clear here. There's a lot of possible genres that you could lump Gov't Mule into, but punk is not one of them. Southern and blues rock, sure. Even a little bit of classic rock rivalism, definitely. But hell, even the Allman Brothers, which this band came out of in ways that I'm too lazy to explain, were more punk than Gov't Mule.

Gov't Mule does the general protocol of bands like this: Pretty good hooks that are stretched out and repeated so many times that you kind of forget what's going on after the seventh minute of the song (in a live setting, this would be supplemented by certain essential aspects of the live jam band atmosphere woh ho ho). Gov't Mule does this well, and I imagine they are pretty fun live, but jam band albums are like nicotine patches: they only slightly soothe the craving of the already addicted, and they're not going to hook people that aren't travelling 3000 miles to see the Disco Biscuits or whatever.