Bands are allowed to have a quirky sense of humor. I am perfectly okay with that. From Motion City Soundtrack to Good Clean Fun there are bands that do it well and do it in appropriate spurts. However, Weatherbox blow their load on 4 Songs, a severely limited edition EP composed of four half-baked, mostly jokey acoustic songs and existing solely to bridge the short gap between last year's The Clearing EP and the debut full-length slated for release in May.

"Is Nice" references Borat strictly in its title and none of its lyrics at least, and it's well-composed with flowing strings and a pretty atmosphere, making for what could be the only worthwhile song of the four. Brian Warren then slurs his way through the next three, falling completely flat in trying to be humorous and draining the songs of all entertainment and even novelty value. "The Seven Different Levels of Devil Worshipping" is mind-bogglingly bad, with two minutes of Warren utterly rambling out of his mind over a single guitar; "Human sacrifices, cannibalism, candles and exorcisms / animals havin' sex with them camels, mammals, and rabbits" -- trust me, it does not cross into 'so bad it's good' territory. "That M.A.D.D." is another bad acid trip unfortunately put to tape -- it seems like the guitars take a strong, interesting cue from Owen, but Warren continuously croons "I won't get that mad" and "oooo" strangely over the whole thing for far, far too long. Warren sings distantly under a coat of distortion in "Brian Wins Again," and it would be a good, emotional number if you could actually tell where it was going.

Only 100 copies of 4 Songs will actually be made when all is said and done, and once one has actually sat through its pointless 13 minutes it's quite obvious why. Weatherbox writes wonderful rock songs when they're put to task and that aforementioned full-length, American Art proves it, but their discography would be just fine without 4 Songs having seen the light of day.

Is Nice