Bring Back The Guns
Dry Futures
Feow! Records

With Groceries, frontman Matt Brownlie was an effective and courageous performer. After all, not many would have the balls to cover Prince and The Revolution’s “Purple Rain” at a downtown festival. But he pulled it off and made fans for life in the process. When Groceries transitioned into Bring Back The Guns, exchanging members along the way, Brownlie and company became darlings of Houston’s underground music scene and occasionally released new material, though never often enough. On Dry Futures, the band’s debut full-length, BBTG ramp up the courage and attack their instruments with a fury that almost defies logic — thick riffs, crisp drum fills, and sharp breaks pepper songs that run the gamut from orchestral rock to funk to punk.

Opener “No More Good Songs” is a tongue-in-cheek rant on the state of modern music (“Maybe we should all just shut up/No more talking, no more good songs…”), while the faux-metal “Face Smear Pt. 1,” and long-time fan favorite “The Family Name” — which also appeared on Mustache Records’ 2004 local sampler I Hate it Here, I Never Want to Leave — give listeners the best indication of the band’s stylistic range. From the stripped-down indie rock of “I Am The Voice Of Sarah Strickland’s Rage” to “The Art of Malnutrition”‘s danceable punk, Bring Back The Guns deliver a sound that, while not completely unique, is set enough apart from other modern acts to earn the band high marks among purists and critics alike.

The band has had plenty of time to whittle these songs down to their raw essence — most have been live staples for years, and are only now seeing a proper release. As a result, Dry Futures progresses with precision and is further proof that Houston bands are underrated nationally and unappreciated locally. This album (and the label Brownlie started with musician Jana Hunter) might actually change that. As Brownlie wails on “Dry Futures,” “Keep the dream alive.” –David A. Cobb

Bring Back The Guns play with Satin Hooks and The Octopus Project at Numbers this Thursday (10.4.07). Visit Feow! Records here. You can read about the band in this week’s issue of Houston Press and in the October issue of Envy magazine, which is out this week.