Rob Clarke asks Are You Wooltoned?

Their media kits describes them as follows:

“Theirs is an immeasurable slice of pop classicism, trip-a-delically tailored in a subtle hip shimmying glam grooved mid-west tangy sassiness, liberally sprinkled with a Mersey-delic meets west coast incline and sumptuously honey glazed in a shit faced tab toking aura.”

Somewhere, there’s a copywriter congratulating himself for having set a world record for most buzz words and cliché’s in a single sentence. Fortunately, Rob Clarke and The Wooltones’ music is anything but cliché. With guitars a plenty and melodies that stick with you after a single listen, the band’s LP, entitled Are You Wooltoned, is a welcomed surprise.

From the hypnotic psyche-pop groove of “Colors (of the Sun)” to the Who-like guitars in “Iron Eyes Cody”, the band’s roots in 60’s pop is made abundantly clear from the get-go. Imagine Peter Case doing his best Bo Diddley impression and you’ve got “Peas”, perhaps my favorite song on Are Your Wooltoned?. Come to think of it, half the Plimsouls catalog is Peter Case doing a Bo Diddley impression. But that’s a subject for another day.

The harmonies in “The End of The End” make this song feel as comfortable as an old pair of slippers as does the jangly, Byrds-ian guitars of “Are You Wooltoned?. There’s not a clunker in this baker’s dozen of songs and it you order through Kool Kat Musik, there’s a pretty sweet bonus EP.