Some of the band's best songs in over two decades"
Blurt Magazine reviews 'Songs About Cars, Space and The Ramones' October 24, 2012
Dormant for way too long, Atlanta's Drivin' N' Cryin' is making up for lost time with a set of four EPs spaced out over a year, each focusing on various musical touchstones throughout their criminally overlooked career. (Seriously, the world can make the dudes in Collective Soul millionaires, but pass over their far more talented neighbors in DNC?)
Long before the term alternative country was coined and before stashing your Hank Williams and Clash vinyls on the same shelf was common practice, Kevn Kinney and the boys were blending their love for country and punk rock, turning in three of the best successive albums to come out of the southeast in the 80's rivaled only by R.E.M. (Scarred But Smarter, Whisper Tames the Lion andMystery Road).
Several of the songs off of this, the second of four EPs in this musical experiment (the previous Songs From the Laundromat is the closest DNC have come to recapturing the ambition of those first three records. "Hot Wheels," "Acceleration" and, to a slightly lesser extent, "Moonshot" are some of the band's best songs in over two decades. "Out Here in the Middle of Nowhere," featuring punk legend Cheetah Chrome on guitar and backing vocals is oddly enough the low point of the EP. The powerful closing instrumental track "Space Eyes" makes up for the gaff though.
Songs From the Garage is next up, so it'll be interesting to see if the band peaked too early by releasing Songs About Cars, Space and The Ramones in the middle of their collection, setting the bar too high.