The Lazy Cowgirls - Tapping the Source (1987)

Whereas some garage rockers found inspiration in Otis Redding records, secularizing the formula and retaining Redding’s raw forthrightness, others admired the dumb forthrightness of The Ramones and wondered how they ever made it out of the garage. That’s The Lazy Cowgirls, I think. They’re punk because they play their rock too simple. They’re garage because they're aware of this. Tapping the Source is an appropriately drunken half hour which may or may not be the essence of rock and roll distilled. I don’t know about that given the absence of “soul,” and therefore “blues,” but what am I, a musicologist? They lay their souls bare in their sometimes great lyrics: “Well they ask me what I drink for, what am I trying to forget / Well I know there was a reason, but I can't remember it,” and I feel that, but I don’t care at all about the first half of this record and I’ve no idea why they stretch Yakety Yak out to almost six minutes on the better side

C+