Earning the name Buddahead from friend and fellow artist
Leona Naess, Raman Kia and his band earned their first taste of fame by scoring
a gig at the 2003 Bonnaroo festival. Their performance was noteworthy enough
to have a cut included on that year's festival comp and Kia has gone on from
there, building his reputation one gig at a time. An album released on close-to-major-label
Sanctuary didn't hurt, but didn't garner as much acclaim or sales as industry
insiders had predicted. As such, Kia and his band are self-releasing this
one, making the best of what could have been a band-shattering situation
and using it to remind their fans and new listeners how solid of an outfit
they are. Which is fine, but the band doesn't really do itself or its' fans
any service on this CD.
While I can appreciate what the band is doing here,
it really seems as if the band phoned it in on this one. I am not feeling
the lyrics and the performances seem really listless and uninspired. Hopefully
Kia and his band can shake it off and regroup for the next one. On the other
hand, I wouldn't be surprised if the band broke up after this CD. It sounds
as if the inspiration is gone, quite frankly. I wouldn't ante up for this
CD. It's just not clicking.
BUDDAHEAD
