Fossil Arm--rather, a one Michael Lacey--plays punky, lo-fi folk songs on an electric by his lonesome. This sounds like what Fake Problems' Chris Farren might have been doing in his bedroom at 16, albeit with an older-sounding, more ragged howl and, at times, entirely too much harmonica. And while Yesterday's Wars Are Tomorrow's Hit Movies ain't horrid in that sense, it is way, way too fucking long.

Lacey lets these songs meander entirely too much--Hit Movies' five tracks top out somewhere around the 33-minute mark, and none of them are doing anything interesting enough to let go on for so long. Maybe Lacey wasn't trying to be any sort of musical pioneer doing this, but it just mauls the songs either way. Opener "Fathers and Sons" has something like seven harmonica solos. I lost count.

He's got kind of a Tim Armstrong/Bob Dylan hybrid warble at points, too. That would be cool if he was singing and playing something that was more interesting than rambling, overly wanky songs like "Pretty Black" that don't really go anywhere and offer precisely zero hooks to reward the listener's patience. It can just get aggravating at times.

Yesterday's Wars Are Tomorrow's Hit Movies is about as twice long as necessary, yet barely a second of it is any memorable. Hopefully Lacey is just the Abbott who hasn't met his Costello yet.

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Yesterday's Wars Are Tomorrow's Hit Movies EP