The Czars
Before... but longer (2000)

review by: Stephan Finch
Date: 2/16/01

This disc, sent to me free from the world headquarters of 2walls.com, fills in the gaping hole that was left in music by three calamitous events:

a) the breakup of the Velvet Underground,

b) the failure of Velvet to reunite in a slightly reconfigured form, with Lou Reed turning over singing duties to folk-singer John Denver,

c) the untimely deaths of John Denver and VU drummer Moe Tucker, which dashed the hopes of those of us who dared to dream that the aforementioned super-group might one day become a reality. There's almost no chance now that the "Denver Underground" could get a tour together.

Go ahead, admit it: You were one of us, weren't you? It's okay to dream.

Well now say hello to the Czars, and to hell with me if this isn't the next best thing. A quintet out of Denver. Haunting, heroin-chic guitar and arrangements behind sweetly sung vocals and hippie-ish lyrics like these, raging against materialism: "If this is what you want, then get used to destruction... get used to being alone."

Cowboy Junkies already been there, you say? Wrong. This is way different. First, the singer is not a woman. Second... um... oh, these guys can write songs. No covers.

Anyway, it's addictive as hell. I've been listening to it at work, you know, after the office empties out a little. I think of Moe and John and I cry a little. And I sing along, choking up.

But the key question, of course is would I shell out for this disc? You know, I might. I'm more certain that I would shell out for a live show, mainly because I'm betting that the tickets would sell for less than the $16 it costs to buy the disc.

Jesus, I need to get some friends.