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When you put out a fairly well-liked Christian rock debut and then fall off of the map for several years, how do you make your way back? By this point, only the most nostalgic of youth pastors will remember Pushstart Wagon while their kids cling for dear life to their Relient K. So what's the solution? Just make a good CD and don't market it to any particular demographic. If it's worth listening to, the people will find you.

LA Was Our Alamo is a pretty good CD, especially from a group of guys who haven't released anything together since 1994. Steve Guiles (Friction Bailey) heads up the trio on vocals, giving the songs enough of a twang to aptly apply an alt-country label on top of the obvious rock influences. No doubt the band has been feasting on some Wilco or something of the sort and this is a good thing.

In all honesty, the opening songs on the album didn't quite sell me. "Paul" and "Radiation" feel like they're trying a bit too hard to work as singles. It gets a lot better with "Country Star," though. It's a sweet, quirky, toned down love song inspired by actual events. I first noticed myself truly enjoying the album with the song "Mary," an easy-flowing acoustic rock piece with a nicely worded offer of hope.

One of the album's best songs is "Love Is Such a Hard Way." It's a thought-provoking, honest musing on the subject of love with the band's laid back, rootsy mid-tempo rock sound at its very best. If you need further proof that Pushstart Wagon can craft a good song, look no further than the acoustic "Los Angeles," a poignant look at big city loneliness.

Pushstart Wagon shows here that they have the ability to craft excellent music. They generally are at their best when steering clear from big rock choruses and instead going for the smooth or even intimate moments. There are plenty of good moments on LA Was Our Alamo, which makes it an album worth recommending.

Trae Cadenhead 3/20/2005
 
 

If you like the Elms, but with Oasis’ vocalist in a slight sneer most of the time, you already know the sound of Pushstart Wagon.  Pushstart Wagon does some wandering on a few acoustic side streets where you’ll hear steel string flattop as well as some resonator guitars.

The first track entitled "Paul" includes a lyric which likely will put off many Christian listeners.  “Jesus wouldn’t buy you no smokes.  He wouldn’t laugh at your off-color jokes.”  The treatment of Christ as a sort of cartoon or some other fictional character is irreverent at best.  Why is it that so many bands poke this kind of mistreatment about Christ?  It’s not an evil reference, just a reference that puts Jesus into a much smaller role than what He really meant to history.  Guster does something similar in their “Jesus on the radio he took a photograph of me” lyric.  Why don’t bands use Ghandi in these lyric settings?  It’s the same number of syllables.  One ends up singing these irreverent lyrics to him/herself instead of a word of praise to Jesus – and that’s not territory one should find themselves in.

On the rest of the CD, these are tracks that are worthy of some mention.

"Country Star" – endearing in a strange way – quite powerful lyrics:  “May these hands that play guitar never make a fist – may I never strike a chord that’s striking out to hit.”

"Breathing Room" - is the one that has the kid down the street in his garage guitar solo (read: annoying out of time and out of tune) sprinkled amongst the emo-esque 1/8th note rhythm guitar.  This could be a radio hit if it had a usable solo section or just a deletion of that solo altogether.  It’s really weird – these guys can play guitars fine on the rest of the CD, but this solo is just plain noise amongst a very listenable track.  Sometimes bands try to go too far for an ‘organic’ sound and this solo is a prime example that unfortunately sounds like someone is just goofing off trying to sound bad.

"Would I Be So True" - sounds quite a bit like a Guster track with it’s tight harmonies and intertwined bgv’s.  Let’s have more of this and no more goofball junk guitar solos and Pushstart Wagon will find it’s way into many more CD players and iPods.

"Teenage Bible" – while perhaps not PW’s intent, is an honest indictment of the materialistic and shallow society that America has become over the past 25 years.  I won’t repeat the lyrics here but you can read them yourself at www.pushstartwagon.com as you can with the rest of the lyrics on the disc.

"Los Angeles" - is a sweet and relaxing tune with somewhat interesting metaphors about various cities in the US.

 After listening through this disc several times, it is hard to figure out what might make Pushstart Wagon a more common household name.  There is no outstanding instrumental work, and with the exception of the few lyrics mentioned here, there is nothing terribly poetic on the CD.  It’s an average jangle pop disc.  From a Christian perspective, there is limited content here that causes soul searching or edification.  As Simon Cowell might say “It’s just o.k.”

Scott Lake     4/16/2005