Souled American, Around the Horn (side A)

Chicago's Souled American owe an obvious debt to the Meat Puppets.  The Meat Puppets' shambling hybrid of country and punk on records like Meat Puppets II and Up on the Sun was incredibly well-respected in the mid-80s, but few bands found a way to borrow from it and create something equally distinctive.  Souled American kept the punk-rock irreverence of the Meat Puppets, but by 1990's Around the Horn, they'd shed all vestiges of energy or confrontation.  The songs range from mid-tempo down to slow, and even at their punchiest moments on songs like "Rise Above It", the rhythm section provides little impact or drive.  The references to country have also grown increasingly faint, though the idea of country music still seems to be somewhere in Around the Horn's DNA.  While Spot's engineering of the old SST albums has grown less fashionable as affordable technology is more readily available and recording feels less like a black art, Around the Horn dates from a time when imitating it still seemed appropriate.  Like the old SST albums, the Around the Horn mixes translate well, even if some of the odd efforts at "clean sounds" might be perceived as dated compared to today's trends.  The front cover design, especially the block-y fonts, makes little sense, but it's great that they thanked Gary Schepers on the back.