GREAT PLAINS GYPSIES 4/4, BIG HORSE A stripped-down lineup of rhythm guitar, bass, and drums gives leader Dan Whitaker’s songs lots of room to breathe on this local folk-blues-rock band’s debut LP, Meeting at the Building (Sunny Smedley). Though Whitaker’s muted vocals sometimes threaten to send you drifting off to sleep, he’s gifted enough as a melodist to unlock the beauty of Jimmie Davis’s “You Are My Sunshine” and let it waft into “The Fool,” a country ballad that tickles like a gentle breeze.
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ORBIT 4/4, METRO On its major-label debut, Libido Speedway (A&M), this Boston trio doggedly chases the great American arena-rock dream–only it can’t decide whether the better vehicle is U2’s War or Nirvana’s Nevermind. Still, when it’s a memorable car-radio rocker like “Medicine” the issue becomes moot.
SQUIRTGUN 4/5, FIRESIDE BOWL On its second album, Another Sunny Afternoon (Lookout), this quintet from Lafayette, Indiana, concocts pop punk that’s a little too schmaltzy to really rock: there are some wonderful chunky guitar chords on “You’re the Greatest,” but as the Gilligan’s Island fixation depicted in “Mary Ann” suggests, someone’s watching too much TV and not spinning enough 45s.
