Bedlam Rovers

If Camper Van Beethoven had traded in a bit of their goofball multiculturalism in exchange for a share of X-Tal's pissed-off leftist fervor, the results might have sounded a bit like what the Bedlam Rovers conjured up on their debut album, Frothing Green. While the Bedlam Rovers lack a bit of the easy grace of CVB's early period, their fiddle-fueled (and mostly acoustic) folk-rock also carries a message with a lot more resonance, and Cindy Wiggington's violin communicates the rage, sorrow, and bitter humor of these songs nearly as well as Caroleen Beatty's voice. And while the Rovers unashamedly put their politics front and center at all times, the lyrics often manage to do so with a sense of humor, as on the loopy "Tear Gas y Coke," the pin-stripe nightmare of "Business Suit Hoedown," and the moment in "Recycle or Die" where they announce "Styrofoam's a chemical soup/one big pot luck/If you're still using it/what the f -- k?" And if you ever start to think this band works more from the head than the heart, cue up their fine cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" and you'll discover they've got a lot of soul to go along with their social conscience. And it's hard not to appreciate the honesty of a band whose lyric sheet bears the announcement "Printed on recycled paper...using toxic ink." ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide