I feel a slight affection and pain for One Bad Otter. Not only is there mascot a cute river animal (affection) but one of the members, electric guitar player and singer Joe Gumienny, has left to band to pursue other musical interests (pain). On the album Gumienny plays phenomenally well and his inclusion in the band is essential to complete the Otter sound, mind you, I haven't heard them play without Gumienny. All that said, the album Otter Than You is a upbeat barroom brawl of a record. You can feel the peanut shells under your feet, the brewing of beer from the tap, and those yellow and blue stage lights casting onto the Otters as they jam whole heartedly.



The band hails from New Jersey and have been playing since 1996. This record was released in 2004 and so offers a much more mature sound than what they must have started out sounding like. The band plays nine songs with vigor and dexterity, allowing each song to maintain it's own qualities while still sounding like that band you might have heard in the pub as you stared in through the glass windows. That is their pitfall however, that they are just another band you may hear on a Friday night over a pint.



Opening the album is the song "Knew You When", a funky Barenaked Ladies-style rocker reflecting on a love and a chance you may have, or may have never had. I'm a sucker for drummers and Otter's drummer Jim Rilko is fine example of a versatile and punchy musician. He holds his beat steady as Gumienny pulls out an opening riff I can only describe as: happy. Once the chorus comes in with "Before you built that wall" the whole band rings in and the 'happy' riff turns into a dirty full sounding rising wall of sound. On other songs such as "Keep On Walking" the vocals take on a whole new character; they are gravelly and penetrating, a nice contrast to "Knew You When"'s softer tone s. The song is formulaic foot stomper including a high flying guitar solo and a constant acoustic rhythm.



On songs such as "Kid Sinister" and "Adam's Eve" the band ponders more worldly questions and subjects. "Kid Sinister" empowers the powerless with "How can we save the world if this is all we got?" sung in a potent and optimistic way. The other lyrics to the song hold obvious references to the government of the United States without being overtly critical.



"Adam's Eve" paints a ravaging portrait of Eve-of-the-garden as a metal goth seductress, and although this is the image I gather in my mind the lyrics are quite honest: "I just woke up in the garden/ Have no idea how it started/ But when that serpent slithered in/ The fallen angles began to sing/ She joined the chorus and took the lead/ Pulled the apple from the tree/ She's Adam's Eve". The song is not a meditation on religion or on the conflict of good and evil, it's a depiction of a the first women on earth, coming from an alternative crowd.



The final most enjoyable and humorous song is a tribute to the punk legends of the past in "The A#@Hole Song". The lead singer sings in a cockney imitation as the band plays in an upbeat tempo and just let's loose in every aspect; even near the end of the song a belch echoes out and a beer cap is thrown to the ground as one member screams "Gawd Saeve The Qween!".



One Bad Otter is pretty bad, in the good way. They could jump into any bar venue and raise the roof and get the people stomping their feet and clapping their hands. Their musicianship is unified and thorough, nothing sounds particularly weak on the record. Although it's not something I would listen to regularly, these good 'ole' boys can sure raise a little hell. It would be of more interest to catch them live than sit and enjoy their peanut-shell, bear soaked music in your own living room, however. Still, Otter aren't a bad find (no...oh nevermind).



Track Listing

1 Knew You When

2 Canterbury Love Song

3 Believe

4 Island Man

5 Keep On Walking

6 Now and Then

7 Kid Sinister

8 Adam's Eve

9 The A#@Hole Song