This 18-minute, nine-song, self-produced EP is meant as a teaser for their produced-by-Joey-Cape (Lagwagon/My Records, duh) full-length out in early ’00.
His songs are folk ballads in the classic sense, but they refuse to wallow in the “woe is me” solipsism that makes most modern folk music the bore that it is.
Like Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan,” a side of The Sabbath Show that gets down-played but is as emotionally-integrated into their “thing” as the stompass is.
Loud, fast’n’aggro music is always gonna have a place as long as teen misfits feel a need to beat each other up. Speedealer is all about that, no shit.
Stephen’s almost Zevon-esque attention to the words and the feelings evokes more than a pop song should, rubbing up the high emotion of good folk rock.