Ufesas, Ufesas: My Kingdom for Some Harp!

Posted in Reviews on May 4th, 2009 by JJ Koczan

She's frowning because there's no harmonica on this record.Somebody get Eric from Five Horse Johnson on the phone, because in all my days of recklessly casting opinions onto the hard work of others, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a band who needed a harmonica as badly as does Ufesas from Uruguay. On last year’s self-titled EP, released via Skittlebrau/Folie ? Deux Records, the five-piece runs through a four track set of dirty garage blues, and though the guitars howl and echo and puff their boozy breath all over your girlfriend while she’s standing right next to you at the show, the shrill sound of a mouth harp is all the more conspicuous for its absence.

Opener “The Destroyer” might be the most “stoner rock” of the bunch, with a riff that shuffles along accompanied by thick bass and swaggering, slurred vocals. A bit faster than the hungover “Barely Alive” which immediately follows it, there are no shortage of parallels to Nebula aping Zeppelin. “Barely Alive” is the longest of the pack at 6:19 and is the musical equivalent of rolling out of bed only to have the daylight smash you with a headache while you try and remember where you are and how you got there. Only difference is it rocks. Hangovers, not so much.

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