EPSOM

Pedigree isn't everything, but for what it is worth, EPSOM has pedigree for miles.

The consummate drum stylings of Tim "Grumpy" Harte (Hocus Pocus, Blue Steel, The Aqua Velvets, Dad's Big Weekend, Tom Irwin 'n' the Raouligans) have been in regional demand since his teens, and may have reached their creative zenith --so far-- during his time in BACKWARDS DAY.

Now, for the first time since that band's shameful demise, EPSOM finds Harte rejoining forces with spasmodically verbose ex-BD frontman/lyricist and frequent Illinois Times contributor Scott Faingold, whose negative stage charisma is the rock music equivalent of a celestial white dwarf. Or a pretty nasty train wreck, anyway.

Lastly but not leastly, Steven Sgro's swirling, stomping guitar riffs with BUTTGRAVY continue to echo down through rock history and now ascend thrilling new peaks of both mind- and string-bending with EPSOM.

As for EPSOM's sound, their unadorned guitar-vocal-drum approach may seem simple, even straitlaced, but what comes through is something else again: vital, oozing, organic material, not unlike the effluvial trail of the common garden gastropod. Except no gastropod ever rocked like this. Or did it?