Matt Kramer - War and Peas 
Label: Pid
Rating: 

When listening to the first track followed by the last track of Matt Kramer's War and Peas, one might get the suspicion that it's two different acts.  Indeed the album comes off sounding like a dichotomy of light and dark.  The style itself reverberates between retro-garage-punk and grunge themselves.  At times, the lyrics have wit with a slight sense of pop flair. Other times such as in "If God Could Hear Me Now" and "Silence" come off as poems that touch on the album's darker side.  Matt's guitar playing is chunky and isn't afraid to use solos where they're needed also.  While at times, Matt does come off as derivative.  "I'm Getting Closer" sounds like vintage Soundgarden more than anything else, but he still manages to keep the rawness rather than subjecting you to the blandness of made-for-VH1 "nu-grunge" bands.

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