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The following is excerpted with courteous permission from "The Weak in Rock":

So I'm just typing the line above this one, and I'm listening to this tape, and my Dad walks into the room. And he says, "I like that music!" This has very little to do with anything, except it indicates two things about the song that is playing at the moment in question (Resolve): First, that Carla's vocals are pretty high in the mix (great for ears with lots of mileage) and, I guess, if you had never actually SEEN her, it's possible that you'd get the idea that she's really cute.

Dad likes this, even though he insists that the music I listen to is "Sewage." Anyway, I can't find a single flaw here. These kids look super. They sound super. They seem to all be friends. You can expect a Weak in Rock "interview," where we will attempt to crush the flawless facade and peer into the rancid gristle at the black heart of "The Pickle." Until then, I gratuitously belt the praises of this four piece cucumber. Here's the play-by-play:

Steve, the drummer, kicks out precise beats with millions of "tossed off" fills that seem so simple that a dead squirrel could do them. Well, it couldn't. It's dead! Anyway, nobody I know likes to see a drummer overplay, and Steve is so smooth and natural he makes yogurt look like radioactive asbestos. Is he "Dumbing Down?" Maybe. Does he rock? Affirmative.

Yianni, the bassist, is a famous new age musician. But that's not really significant. What IS significant is that he lays such a phat bass line, the rump-spasms he delivers straight to your jaded derriere (That's French for Ass) can NOT be denied!

Oh, I almost forgot Pete and Carla, the double Guitar/Vocal front persons. The tape I have starts with Pete singing, on the track "Cheesehead." This is a super-rocking and very funny (oh-oh!) song about killing the prom queen. Pete "channels" a bizarre and scary redneck persona into his normally charming and intelligent self, and if it weren't for Carla's excellent backup vocals, this song might sound like something off of a Mojo Nixon record. Instead, we get a poppy, snappy sing-a-long about a teenage crush with some SOLID fucking guitar work. The distorted bass and the super Silvertone power hit like a ton of bricks. This happens without the benefit of a super-high-budget recording, and I can't wait to hear a souped-up version with like sixteen guitars. I say, go all the way on this one, kids.

The songs get a lot cuter and the personalities get more palpable from here on down the path. As mentioned above, "Resolve" has pretty vocals and cool, low intensity/high sincerity moodiness that demonstrates their wide dynamic range. A bridge that builds up to fever pitch in the middle of the song reminds us that while we may be looking at VH-1 material here, we are not dealing with fucking Joan Osborne, dammit.

"Deaf, Dumb and Blind" is a really awesome and pretty song, I can sing along so well! All of these songs are so rockin' live, it defies reason. Pete is the KING of guitar tone, and Steve and Yianni are On, ON! Carla rounds out the guitar sound with doubles and some mean riffs of her own. Her voice and Pete's knock me on my ass every time. Bellisimo (That's Italian for "Rad")! Try to hear them before you die.

DISCOGRAPHY:
cassettes

The Dairy Queen Tape - Pube Records - 1996

Travis Pickle - Pube Records - 1995

singles

"Sound of Sleep" b/w "Cheesehead" - Pube Records - 1996