Arlo
Stab The Unstoppable Hero CD - Sub Pop

Apparently Sub Pop is signing anyone these days. More likely, their new interns or A&R people, or Poneman or whoever the hell they put in charge over there nowadays, were sick of wading through endless piles of shit for hours by bands that sound exactly like Arlo. They must have just stopped at this middle-of-the-road band; maybe it’s just that this is the best thing Sub Pop can find nowadays. Sub Pop is definitely losing their ability to detect quality, fast. Save for Pleasure Forever, I haven’t bought anything by the label in forever, or at least, like, 1997. Most of that was just because I was strangely drawn to Dave Clifford’s boots. I had dreams about those boots, no shit. Back to my main argument: Arlo will eventually license one, neigh, many of their tracks to any of the various Buffy/Dawson’s Creek medleys on the WB, reaping the luxury of shopping from Ikea catalogs and living that Volkswagen commercial lifestyle you can only get from digital editing. Buncha assholes. I also wish they would have named their album Stop The Unstoppable Hero instead of Stab The Unstoppable Hero. I imagine at least two of the band members are still fighting over that one. (Steve Five)
www.subpop.com