Pleasantly eclectic San Francisco band with jazz-alt-grunge-punk leanings give their utmost in this 11-song effort, yet have a ways to go to cement their overall feel. Most of this LP's instrumentals seem partially half-formed, as if still stuck at their "jam" phase of songwriting, and their incidental noise effects, farty kazoo and backwards-taped snippets of conversation do little more than add comic relief to the album's off-beat-ness. Nevertheless there is a certain charm about the shoegazerish, wispy female vocals on "Hell Bent" and "Grand Theft Bravo," and the way they work atypical instruments (Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, violin, mandolin, recorder) into the mix. But although they sound just the way a band like Guided By Voices might have sounded at one time, the Bad Hand's alchemy is not quite yet up to par.

If you are a local S. F. scenester, however, then you need to both own this album (on limited edition white vinyl, no less) and go to all of their shows because whether or not they become the next G.B.V., this is exactly the kind of unpretentious, non-commercial non-pop that every growing boy and girl of collegiate age should cut his/her canines on.