Sweet Diesel

By Daniel Silk

Wrongville would be a great road album if it didn't exude all the grimy tedium of rush-hour. Right down to the subway station cover art, Sweet Diesel's second full-length release alternates between burning with the fierce intent of a car trying to beat the light, and lurching, frustrated, like a car stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Vocals stick to the floor like age-old gum or get buried under the roar of an approaching downtown number one.

Doing justice to the simple sharpness of Sweet Diesel is difficult. In fact, the band's releases barely hint at the knowing sarcasm Diesel consistently radiates on stage. Drummer Nick Heller plays hardcore like he's playing chess, and Zack Kurland's bass lines are as sneaky as the smile that never leaves his face.

Ben Smith and Nat Murray's guitars sharpen each other like knives, back and forth and up and down. The first time I saw the Diesel, it took me about half their set to realize they had to be one of the best bands in New York--in retrospect, not surprising. In performance, Diesel's intensity deepens like a curb puddle in a downpour. And it takes several songs for them to drag you into the filth.

For all of these reasons, each new Diesel release can't help but disappoint those who have experienced the group live. Granted, Wrongville is as close as the band has ever come to capturing the subtlety they achieve in their live shows on record. Songs like "Work So Hard," "Assout," "Holland or Lincoln," and "Down Again" live up to their titles: they leave you feeling flattened, but with a light at the end of the sewage tunnel.

"I know what goes around/ It's coming around again...Is this the best it's been?...I've been to the lost and found/ I didn't like it" sneers Murray in the album opener, the anti-anthem "Salvage the Chapters." This world-weariness permeates the entire record; it's effective in establishing a mood, but after 15 songs, the listener is left a little, well, weary. There's only so much wrong that one can take. (Gypsy Records)

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