Jason Simon

A Venerable Wreck BYM

Are you sure Syd Barrett did it this way?

With Washington stoners Dead Meadow’s career set to ‘intermittent’, singer/guitarist Jason Simon has resumed his solo career with deceptive ease. The banjo picking on this album’s opener The Same Dream has a languid alt.country feel, but the lyrics, about worshipping the false god of endless economic growth, are as topical as it is possible to get, albeit unwittingly. It certainly makes you pay attention from then on. Patches of phased guitar drift from speaker to speaker, and a couple of the songs sound like Syd Barrett trying to shoehorn himself into an Americana style. There’s a bit of dreamy JJ Cale on The Red Dust, but the title track is pretty purposeful. ■■■■■■■■■■