Dave Cloud & Gospel of Power

Dave Cloud is a gruff-voiced Nashville-based eccentric who mines caved-in rock caverns that recall the attitudes and styles of beat-era rebel writers, ’60s acid casualties like Roky Erickson and just about every lo-fi personality who’s emerged in the past 20 years. There’s a drunken rawness at play throughout this debut, as Cloud’s rude drawl and microphone battering moan about chasing women, being lazy and generally wasting away. Sometimes Cloud’s confrontational vocal anti-approach and purposefully flat delivery gets a bit grating, but then when his band whip out a killer tune, like the garage rock rolling through "Fantastic Rage,” you realise this is no shtick these boys are playing with but a strange and uniquely deconstructive vision. Apart from the epic length Napoleon of Temperance album, there is a bonus disc filled mostly with dissonant and lo-fi cover versions of well-known tunes, such as "Eight Miles High,” "Lay Lady Lay,” "Moonage Daydream,” and "Let’s Spend the Night Together.” Fans of early Beck, Ween, and more outsider folks like the Shaggs, Daniel Johnston and Jandek might get off on Dave Cloud’s cloud, but others might just not get (or appreciate) the subtle joke.