Exit 380 - Cities Townies EP

DALLAS OBSERVER 'Cities Townies' EP Review By Darryl Smyers Thursday, Feb 11 2010 Denton's Exit 380 is an alternative rock group that, turns out, isn't as schizophrenic as it may first appear. The band's last effort, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Stone, flirted with a vague alt-country notion, and while Exit 380 is certainly capable of a variety of (disparate) styles, the energetic quintet now makes music that fits more comfortably in a Stone Temple Pilots/Alice in Chains groove. Cities Townies, the band's new EP, is a rock record through and through-and a darn good one at that. Sure, a few cuts feature a nice acoustic riff, but songs like 'Street Trash View' and 'Caught in a Lie' are much closer to Led Zeppelin than the Old 97's. Sure, this EP's embrace of straight-ahead rock may well turn off a few fans who favored the country concept of Alexander Stone, but there's no denying the band's comfort level with the material presented on Cities Townies. And vocalist Dustin Blocker's bellicose bellow is best suited to material that makes you want to knock back a couple of cold ones rather than reach for an almanac. Sometimes the best music doesn't make you work too hard to enjoy it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DALLAS OBSERVER DC9 Music Blog by: Pete Freedman Friday, Feb. 5 2010 @ 10:19am So, last week, we passed along a free Exit 380 mp3, a song called 'Street Trash View' from the band's new Cities Townies EP. That song highlighted the band's '90s alt-rock prowess and, uh, it sure was nice of the band to give it away for free, wasn't it? Then, this week, the band's frontman, Dustin Blocker, emails along the above video for another song on the EP, this one called 'Run For The Gold'. And, even if for nothing else, the video would stand as an impressive clip just because it's a single shot. But it's a fine pairing of song and visual presentation--even if the concept's a little trite and, hey, Blocker's friends really don't live all that far off from some pretty nasty people, if you really think about it. Oh, and of the music: Well, on that end I'm a little confused. Because, look, this song is crazy different from the song we offered up last week. This one is far more like the stuff we wanted to hear from the band's last album--country-ish, noir-ish stuff. And that's pretty awesome. So now I'm thinking there's more to this band than I thought, and, curious, I go back and listen to 'Street Trash View.' And, actually, on second listen, the Alive in Chains (with maybe a little Living Colour, too) feel of that last one's actually pretty impressive, too. I'm confused: Does this band boast an impressive range or does it have no clue what it's going for? The band's playing an EP release show on Saturday, February 27, at Trees. That might be the place to find out.

1) Street Trash View
2) Caught in a Lie
3) Daddy Was a Freight Train
4) Run for the Gold
5) Harland's Wife