Pop quiz hotshot: You
re in a mediocre rock band from Omaha whose fan base does not exceed the city limits. You have glorious dreams of standing on stage with brilliant lights illuminating your pale face. The idea of having awestruck roadies set up your equipment while you sip on Heineken's backstage makes you quiver. You have the drive, you have the talent, but you're just not quite there yet- what do you do? The answer is simple: you call in the hired guns from Saddle Creek.
Conor Oberst, as Bright Eyes, is back with some friends for; you guessed it, another split EP. This time the lucky beneficiaries happen to be Omaha's own Neva Dinova, an aspiring squad of rockers known for the easy pronunciation of their band name, and their affiliation with Crank Records. One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels features six songs that vary in song quality from decent to "this song is so bad that it makes me angry". Certain parts of the album are nicely composed but overall the complete product is similar to Oberst's dieting habits: meatless.
Neva Dinova vocalist Jake Bellows fronts four of the six tracks found on the album. The highlight of his contribution is the albums finale, "Spring Cleaning", a sad tale of an unfortunate pregnant woman told over the honesty of an acoustic guitar. After hearing that song I choose to spend the remainder of my listening time scouring the rest of the album for traces of Bright Eyes, rather than hearing any more Bellows. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.
At this point your probably thinking to yourself that Bright Eyes, the band who brought us the masterpiece Fevers and Mirrors, is going to pick up Neva Dinova's dead weight and single-handedly save this EP. Unfortunately, this never happens. All we are offered are two additional sub par tracks. Don't get me wrong, "Black Comedy" is a beautiful song, but it has been played at shows and in Internet circulation for the last two years. The only new song we find from the band is "I'll Be Your Friend". Oberst tells us a story about a female drifter with a coke problem, your damn right he wants to be her friend - survey says - co-dependency.
Although One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels doesn't provide us with much musically, it does force us to ponder some important questions. Has Oberst lost a step or two in his decrepit old age of twenty-three? Does the future hold anything in store at all for Neva Dinova? Is this album really that bad or simply just the calm before the storm of the next Bright Eyes full length?
