reax music magazine :: music + culture » Reviews » The Capstan Shafts - Environ Maiden

What hath Guided by Voices wrought? Among other things, an entire culture of music fans willing to pay good money for CDs that sound like they were recorded with a boom box, at the beach, during a windstorm. Sure, some of principal Capstan Shaft Dean Wells' 29 brief and '70s Britrock-influenced ditties are catchy, in a jaunty, tossed-off sort of way. And he's got a Pollard-esque knack for interesting titles -- “Vegans and Meteors,” anyone? Or how about “Low Ceilings for Bedhoppers”? The assumption that leaving these tunes in this raw, embryonic, barely audible form makes them somehow more compelling or artistic, however, is flat-out wrong; it doesn't have to sound like a Timbaland production, but I'd like to hear what the hell is going on. – Scott Harrell