LA Weekly Aug 26-Sept 1, 2005 Weed Patch at Tangier Neither pot-obsessed hip-hoppers nor pot-obsessed skate punks, Weed Patch simply show up in whatever they're worn to their day jobs and deliver such smartly worded and musically idyllic gems as "Let Go Of The Wheel," "Dreaming My Days Away," and the wryly rocking "Sandy Koufax." Their musical vision combines the woozy sunsets and dark portents of Workingman's Dead, the smiley-face dream-pop of Big Star, and a noodling streak that treads into dissonant Wilco/Sparklehorse territory—six-minute epics like "Some Kinda Happy" sound like Tom Joad messing with a KAOS pad. However, experimental nerdery doesn't overwhelm the expansive California warmth of this local quartet's cosmic dirt-road sound. Singer and lead songwriter Neal Weiss once wrote for No Depression, so he knows how to approach the city limits of alt-country: Honor thy past, then sidestep it. Matthew Duersten |