By staying well inside well established pop/rock formats, keeping their songs short and being slightly self-piss-taking, THE DONUTS ensure two things. For one, they will never be global celebrities and for another, they will always make lots of friends.
The most recent slew of 14 well-made songs (Buckley) are done in a style that evokes great song makers of recent history. Elvis Costello and REM would be the twin peak cherries on their Chocolate Topped Donut of Fame I would guess. Opening song "Hey John What" sets off a loose rabbit in the specific direction of Paul Weller. But in Donut World the r&b mod snarl always takes second place to the sweet art of the rodeo. Is there such a thing as straight alt-country? This is probably it.
J. Bearclaw sings a rough but convincing vocal while strumming lightly on his guitar. Johnny Taint (a friend of the Bearclaw, no doubt) does the same. Peter Extravaganza plays bass and Fathead hits things in time. More King of the Hill than Beavis and Butthead, mind. Dumb, endearing, and always smarter than you first thought.
While the fine song "Liberty Bell" is ringing out, and Michael Stipe is waving at you from the back of your wrecked memory banks, there is a flicker of excitement that this band is actually pretty good. It's the same feeling you get when, with beer and enthusiasm flowing like beer and enthusiasm you declare of some local contenders "This band are absolutely fucking brilliant!". Well, they're not. But you have had a brilliant night, and they were playing all the right notes. Cruelly we generally ask for something different from international recording artists. Something a bit edgier, more challenging or my surreal maybe.
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2004's Sgt Jack's Pepper Mill (do I need to run through the etymology of that one?) was produced earlier in the same year as Buckley. And it’s pretty much the same, but with two less songs.
The very least I can suggest is that you pop over to their website and listen to a track from each album, It won’t take a minute, and – I assure you – they aren’t at all bad. They might invite you in for coffee and bagels.
www.thedonuts.com
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