Off with Their Heads

Live at The Atlantic Vol. II [7 inch] (2009)

Bryne Yancey

Live at The Atlantic is a 7" series that's fairly self-explanatory: put a band onstage at one of Gainesville, Florida's most legendary venues, hit the record button, then send those masters off to the pressing plant and make sure they understand that we require pretty colors for our vinyl. The second installment of this series features Off with Their Heads, and it's a enjoyable, if unremarkable jaunt in the band's constantly-growing wax discography.

Both live tracks come from the band's 2008 full-length From the Bottom, and while a few noticeable differences from the studio versions can be heard (namely, the lack of twinkling guitars and the slight change in chord progressions in "Go on Git Now" and the addition of background vocals in the verses of "I Am You"), there isn't much here to persuade the listener in preferring these live cuts over their studio counterparts. Which is fine; the songs are already really fucking good, and there's no need fixing what isn't broken, so to speak.

And yes, this is a live recording, so this review would be remiss without a comment on the recording quality. It sounds good. Really good. So good, in fact, that this live recording bests many of OWTH's older studio recordings in quality. Ha! Seriously, props to the mixers and button mashers.

That said, Live at The Atlantic Vol. II is a boon for band and series completists, but perhaps a pass for casual fans. Now let's all sit back and anxiously await the announcement of a Ryan Young stand-up album.