Shiner

The Making Love EP is one of those reissues that seems questionable. Sure, Shiner were part of the early `90s indie rock scene that birthed bands like Hum and Sunny Day Real Estate, but they never approached the same sort of popularity or artistic value. In other words, they were a little less indie and a little more rock. Then there is the fact that the release in question is simply four live tracks and a cover of Bad Company’s (you guessed it) “Making Love,” all of which are rather unimpressive.

The EP opens with vocalist Allen Epley announcing in true cryptic `90s alt-rock fashion, “Evolution is just a theory,” before the band starts “Fetch a Switch.” The song progresses just like you’d expect some uninventive alternative track to do: soft note picked verses into big rocking chorus. Sure, there are some dissonant buildups that recall Fugazi more than Stone Temple Pilots, but even those don’t do much to help.

“Third Gear Scratch” and “He/She” move in a similar manner with the latter even approaching nü-metal territory thanks to a chunky bridge section. “Cake” closes out the live section of the EP with a song that recalls Quicksand at certain moments and dull hard rock at others. What is really bizarre however is what comes at the end of the song. Between tracks you can hear a crowd cheering, one that is presumably club-sized by the sound of it, but at the end of “Cake” the crowd sounds switch (rather blatantly) from the club yelps recorded where Shiner was performing to arena-sized swells. Whether this is Shiner’s attempt at sounding like they can pack an arena, or just a simple joke, it sounds awkward, and pointless. Unfortunately. much better can’t be said about the closing cover.

“Making Love” could pass for the work of a band like Puddle of Mudd if it weren’t for some trippy little guitar effects, and even those, well, they don’t do much to reign in what is otherwise a glossy radio rocker.

So like I said before, this reissue seems questionable. Maybe Anodyne didn’t press many copies when the EP first dropped in 2000, but is there really much demand for this now? Who knows, nostalgia is sometimes a strange thing.