Coma Rally,
Coma Rally



Label: (self-released)

(3 out of 5)

Tim Locke is one busy man. From solo and Acoustic Mafia shows to alt-country project Calhoun and even Flickerstick fill-in duty, the Fort Worth based singer/songwriter and former Blue Sky Black (nee Grand Street Cryers) frontman has long kept a full schedule. Now comes his most ambitious foray yet, the alt-rock Coma Rally with Daniel Harville (guitar), Byron Gordon (bass), and Max Lintner (drums).

Coma Rally is an angst outlet that rocks. Instead of intricately crafted singer/songwriter melodies, Locke and his bandmates cloak their lyrical anguish with a guitar-and-bass onslaught.

Sometimes that anger is aimed at lovers, as on "Fake Funeral" (listen); other times at post-9/11 America, as in the title song (listen): Coma rally for the dirty broken nation / Wait a second on your comeback celebration / Back to sleep, oh there she goes / Gone.

Coma Rally can get too clever for its own good, as with the driving yet weightless opener "Thanks, Alcohol" (listen).

Yet even when lyrics are wanting, Coma Rally simply rocks. Take the embittered "Failure in the Small Things" (listen), and especially "You Can Self-Destruct Now" (listen).

Coma Rally's sound may not be terribly original, but who the hell cares when it's such a good sound.

The band is finding its niche in the Metroplex scene. Coma Rally garnered the second-most Album of the Year votes in Fort Worth Weekly's 2005 Music Awards (behind fellow Acoustic Mafioso Collin Herring's The Other Side of Kindness). And Coma Rally consistently receives praise for its dynamic live shows.

If Locke et al can remained focused on Coma Rally's future, instead of diverting their attentions to myriad side projects, perhaps the band's sophomore release can deliver something original to cement its place among the D/FW elite.

October 9, 2005