Audio blog with links to great live tracks from great live bands.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

It's not Phish, but...

...if you close your eyes really tight, you may think it is. Sure Raq sounds a bit like Phish stuck in 1998, but hey, is that a bad thing? I work with a band who people sometimes mock for sounding too much like Radiohead. My response is that it's better than sounding too much like Third Eye Blind.

When I want a good intro to a band, I usually go straight for the covers. If I like what I hear, I'll start poking around the other stuff. Like when I first saw Umphrey's McGee, they laid down this sick cover of "The Stranger" by Billy Joel (with some help from Fareed Haque). It sounded good enough to me that I went and ranted about the band to anyone who'd listen. Of course, I've pulled back a bit from that ranting in recent years, but I digress...

Raq has been around for quite some time. I figured they'd be one of those bands who rear their heads for a year or two, then move on and become investment bankers. But these guys have stuck with it. So I give them an A for effort and said to myself, "Self, it's time you take a listen." So I did. And I found this...a pair of cheap sunglasses with a nasty groove in them.

"Cheap Sunglasses" - Raq, 1/24/04 Denver, CO

Download that junk here.