Section Toolbar: Homepage News Sports B-Section Editorial/Op-ed Features

Issue date: 5/1/08

Media Credit: myspace.com/burneffectcd Linwood is the ultimate jam band but by staying in their early '90s comfort zone, they fail to produce a stellar album.

Linwood is a band that needs an edge. When they're not channeling the early years of the Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden, Linwood comes off as a bland version of the Foo Fighters or Incubus without the funk and Pearl Jam without the gusto of frontman Eddie Vedder.

On their debut album, "Burn Effect," the Mississippi-based rock band is still trying to find their voice. Singer/songwriter Bo Lindsay and guitarist Scott Coopwood met almost 15 years ago while studying for the medical school exam at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. Coopwood, who grew tired of the music industry after performing in two separate bands, almost threw in the towel altogether in 1992. Once Coopwood met Lindsay, they became a songwriting team.

"We write what's in hearts and what we really feel," Lindsey said in a press statement. "Our songs are timeless and we hope that if you listen to them now, a year from now, or ten years from now, that they will still be relevant."

Linwood is timeless in the sense that some things will never die: the jam band. They are the guys down the block that simply love playing music. They are local heroes that play rock shows in bars and clubs all around town. They are unpretentious and down-to-earth, an everyman's band.

But what Linwood needs to be truly relevant is to leave their early 90s comfort zone. Most of the songs are formulaic, circular and don't surprise. The album's grungy title track "Lie to Me" drones with a repetitive chorus that doesn't seem to pick up the pace. On "Your Kind," Lindsay cries out "I wanna be your kinda lover/I wanna be your kind" but doesn't sound all that convinced.

Tunes like the acoustic-infused "Catch My Eye" and "The Dead" stand out from the rest of the tracks. Despite its title, "The Dead" isn't dying: it actually moves. They even make a political statement by saying "this is not my war." Maybe if they take that raw energy and reformulate it, Linwood will, with time, grow as musicians.

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