First appeared in the Missoula Independent on 2/21/02 

I was never too psyched about either the dress-up gospel soul of Washington, D.C.’s Make Up or the hip-hugger blues chic of the John Spencer Blues Explosion, but this I like a lot. A real lot, and not just because these mama’s boys got all up in my business about it. The Chocolate Demos is a little of the good stuff—not strictly funk or soul, although the first two tracks pretty much lay it down with Bootsy-style bass and lots of enthusiastic falsetto backup vocals. And check out this genius line (from “Artists”): “Clement Greenberg wrote the gospel and the word on universal form and beauty/Since the Postmoderns came it’s never been the same ’cause they don’t give a flying fig-newtie/Hooo!!!!” It’s not as brilliant as that all the time, but it hits way more than it misses, and there’s a refreshing earnestness to the whole thing that pretty much makes you like it. At least, it made me like it. Oh, No-Fi Soul Rebellion? You had me at hello.