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December 1, 2024


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Queen Bee
Fine b/w Smitten 7" Single (Alternative Tentacles)

By: Jeb Branin

For the most part I love 7"ers more than just about any other musical format but sometimes they create quite a quandary for me as a reviewer. Case and point: QUEEN BEE. Here we have two tunes, both gritty garage rockers but the A side cut "Fine" is a dull, unimaginative rocker that starts going nowhere from the first chord. A million bar bands in a thousand cities have written a tune just like this and sometimes it feels like I've heard them all. The flip side of this record is a cut called "Smitten" and everything that "Fine" lacks, it has in spades. For starters, it has an infectious groove and a deadly barbed hook. "Smitten" puts a boogie in my butt and makes me wanna sing along. It is one of those songs that is catchy enough that by the end of the first time through you will be humming it, thanks in large part to a classic rock n' roll chorus of "Ooooh - ooooh". It is a rough and tumble tune with thick guitars and a driving back beat that on the surface it is laced with melody and goes down smooth. I guess you could say I am a bit smitten with the song. Thus my aforementioned quandary as a reviewer... Which one of these is more indicative of the band as a whole? I have no idea. But it doesn't really matter since I am not passing any sort of judgement on the band's abilities, just commenting about this single, on which, you get a home run and a strike out. A batting average of .500 would make you a major league great but I'm not sure the same is true of a rock band.
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