The Gilded Bats get a punk review.

Ok, maybe this is just our opinion, but it sure seems like a punk review. Article A, the aforementioned review in the Daily Iowan, the fine newspaper of the University Of Iowa:

The Gilded Bats

** out of *****

To compare the Gilded Bats to bluegrass, think of what Sour Skittles are to candy - only hard-core fans can truly appreciate them. The rest of the public simply struggle to understand, while puckering their lips.

Playing "Old Time Bluegrass" to the point of turning off fans in its self-titled album, The Gilded Bats holds true to its style; while the Iowa City band's disregard of modern music decreases accessibility, its steadfastness increases genre creditability.

Paying tribute to its predecessors, the Bats includes covers of "Cumberland Gap" and "Cripple Creek," with little artistic modification but providing a somewhat boring look into the roots of its sound.

In its entirety, the album is an excellent time capsule to an era before electric influences, but at the same time, only true bluegrass connoisseurs and people over 60 will likely understand the style of music they play.

Cole's Pick: "Black-Eyed Susan"

- by Cole Cheney

So The Gilded Bats are like an inaccessible sour candy compared to true bluegrass, so only true bluegrass connoisseurs will like them? That doesn't really make sense. Comparing a band to Sour Skittles? Ok, it's a stretch, but we'll accept that. Cole, however, doesn't say that he/she thinks Sour Skittle suck, but that only "hardcore" fans will appreciate them. So it stands to reason that punk rockers can't like rockabilly, and Nirvana fans can't like Gillian Welch. And if you like Sun Ra's music, fuck you, 'cause nobody else understands it.

So here's the thing about The Gilded Bats. They aren't an esoteric mind experiment into what humans did before top 40 radio. And "genre creditability"? They play guitar, banjo, fiddle, and wash tub bass for chrissakes. Now here's our favorite line:

Playing "Old Time Bluegrass" to the point of turning off fans in its self-titled album, The Gilded Bats holds true to its style...

So there it is folks... the band is apparently turning off their fans because they're playing too much of the music that their fans love. An old time string band can only be good if they don't play old time music, or at least not too much of it. They better play modern, new time stuff. Maybe some break-beats would do the trick.


On another note, we're still waiting word from CD Baby of the availability of the album, so stop bugging us. (Get it? Bugging us?)