Joetown-Pills and ammo

Self-produced
2008

On Joetown’s Myspace page under the sounds like sections it says “Bon Scott fronting Van Halen!!!” Wow, that’s a pretty bold statement and it would be even cooler if it was actually true.
There seem to be a number of bands today who see themselves as some kind hard rock avengers and they make claims that they are bringing “real” rock back. Connecticut’s Joetown seem to include themselves in that category although not exactly new because guitarist/vocalist Joetown (Joe Delaney) has had this band going for over a decade. The music is a bit scattered as far as influences as they draw a fair amount from the 70’s with some big, muted riffs crawling on at times, but they bring in some sounds from the 80’s and 90’s as well. To be fair let’s go with the positives first, the guitar tone as I eluded to decent with an above average amount variation. I would also add that the over all production is quite good and the rhythm section of bassist Keefer and drummer Cbone get more attention than some of their peers playing a similar style. Now the other side of the coin is that the vocals of Joetown (the person) peak at fair and bottom out at dry and annoying with mot of the tracks falling closer to that second category. Also if this album were lava then you could easily get out of it’s way because the flow is weak and scattered for the most part. They seem to often hit upon a nice meaty hook rather quickly, but then they seem to through up their hands because they don’t quite know what to do with or where to go from there. So we get left with a lot meandering and shuffling of the same riff for several minutes. For a band who seem big on wanting to rock they seem awful on unsure of exactly what they should be doing, Still they hit on good tones, the energy level is present more than it’s absent and they attempt to mix up the styles some. “Pills and ammo” falls slightly above average yet I wish they had more substance to go with their often striking lead riffs then they might be in business. For right now they sound more like a band with a decent shell, but not a whole lot inside.

http://www.myspace.com/joetown