THE HUMBOLDT DESERT 7-inch EP

Produced by Greg Freeman and X-tal
Recorded at Lowdown Studios, 1991

J NEO MARVIN: Vocals, guitars
MICK FREEMAN: Drums, vocals
JIMMY BROUSTIS: Vocals, guitars
ALLISON MOSELEY: Bass
Guest: Dan Leone: Ukelele

SIDE A: The Humboldt Desert (J Neo Marvin)
SIDE B: Damp In The Trenches (Xmas Song) (Jimmy Broustis)
More Fun In The New World Order (J Neo Marvin-Jimmy Broustis-Allison Moseley-Mick Freeman)

CMJ REVIEW: For those of you who have not yet moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, Humboldt County is rapidly ceasing to be a lush fertile forest area of old-growth redwoods and hillsides teeming with hippies and marijuana plants. X-Tal's music is warm, roundabout and stirringly strummed, an uplifting folksy ramble augmented by some Galaxie 500-tuned lonesome guitar wailings. Their lyrics, however, are anything but complacent or nostalgic, and are pointed at those vile and greedy Californian voters who defeated the Environmental Act of `90 (shame). "Damp In The Trenches" is a protest song, of course, and, along with "New World Order," resurrects traditional Bay Area punk ranting but with an intricately meshed backdrop.
- :CMJ New Music Report Issue: 258 - Oct 25, 1991

NEO SAYS: A three-song EP of topical ditties. "The Humboldt Desert" thumbs its nose at the timber industry to a Lou Reed-ish groove. Dan "Cheap Eats" Leone sits in on ukulele. "Damp In The Trenches (Xmas Song)" is Jimmy's song about consumerism, Operation Rescue, and other random subjects. "More Fun In The New World Order" is a brief comment about the Gulf War featuring the whole band trying their best to sound like Minor Threat. Punk rock, dude.