Richard Thomas offers both sides of his craft on In The Green Room, the latest album by his Mint Biscuit project: rocking instrumentals and a couple of soul-searching songs about everyday hassles and lucky breaks. The former sees him exploring a more vintage guitar tone, with just a hint of surf as he bends the strings to stretch the notes a bit, with Prawn Risotto, Return To The Drawing Board, and Mustang Hunting as the stand-out musings.
Thomas can get lost in his own world at times, but he does the slam the door in the face of the listener. It is perfectly alright to enter and see and hear what he is up to. It takes a lot of nerve to sing about feeling really sick (Mutating Germs) and worrying it will be the end of him. Lucky for him, he always has his guitar collection and assortment of pedals to look forward to when the fever or other things to make one's life miserable subsides. With each release, he inches a bit more forward. He has found his niche and now it is time to make himself comfortable, touch things up here and there. Or get himself yet another guitar to master.
In The Green Room is a self-released album. Buy it from his website. A wealth of his output is available on CD via elasticstage.com.
Tracks:- Take Transylvania
- Mutating Germs
- Prawn Risotto
- Beneath The Soft Canopy
- Weaselduck Blues
- Funk Track
- Fat Attack
- Fat Dominos
- Heartbeat Baby Trying To Wake Up
- Just Before Bedtime
- Return To The Drawing Board
- Pigeon Patriarchy
- Cooking On Gas
- Tiger Format
- Cold June Blues
- Mustang Hunting
- Bass Explorations
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