Live Music

iTunes Review

Austin’s Strange Boys clean up their sound for their third release while losing none of their freewheeling charm. They've added barroom piano and harmonica to the format of guitar, bass, and drums; it shifts the focus from the '60s garage rock of their first two albums to honky-tonk, shuffling front-porch folk, and twangy Texas blues. The band performs with a low-key command of roots rock that matches their ramshackle style, a feel reinforced by Ryan Sambol’s nasally, mumbled vocals and wry one-liners. The album's more rollicking first half includes the jaunty “Me and You” and “Walking Two by Two,” the R&B gem “Doueh,” the uptempo rockers “Punk’s Pajamas” and “Omnia Boa,” and the swaggering “Mama Shelter.” The mellower yet still-catchy second half has a distinct late-night feel, best captured on “Over the River and Through the Woulds,” “You Take Everything for Granite When You’re Stone,” and “Saddest,” a piano ballad with an unexpected synth breakdown midway through.