CANTEEN KNOCKOUT PLAY THE HORSESHOE TAVERN JULY 17.
Already well-known to the barflies who frequent the outposts of this city’s alt.country circuit, Canteen Knockout get an introduction to the national scene via weewerk’s re-release of the band’s 2006 longplaying debut. Navajo Steel offers 13 songs of the bad woman/beer and whiskey/truck driving variety, all penned by former Pope Factory and Slit Slot drummer Andre Skinner and performed by his band of local music-scene vets. Weewerk clearly see something here that shows promise, and on cuts like the highway lament “Georgia,” that promise is clear; but too much of this material sounds flat and generic on record, though it benefits from the very tidy steel-guitar playing of Alex Maxymiw, formerly one of Luther Wright’s Wrongs. For now, Canteen Knockout may best be consumed live, chased with a shot and a cold bottle of something evil.