The Dead's aimless studio odyssey continues. This time around, they attempted to create a serious record based around a general theme (more or less), but as with previous efforts, it's disjointed at best. This barely sounds like the same band that did Wake of The Flood, never mind American Beauty. The first side riffs absentmindedly on cover tunes and tepid soft rock. Ironically, it's the much maligned second side which I like more, even though the extended "Terrapin Part 1" is really a very Un-Dead-like exercise, having more in common with prog rock bands like Yes or Kansas than their normal folk/blues context. But not everyone will feel the same way, and in the end, it's just as mediocre as the releases immediately preceding it.

This is a step up from the low-brow Mars Hotel record, but that doesn't mean it's any more entertaining. In fact, it's arguably less so. The Dead had soured on live performances and became strictly a studio band around this time. Their own overzealousness (and many other factors) played into this, but they didn't exactly have the best track record with studio LP's to this point. This particular effort veers in a jazz-fusion direction with strong echoes of their live show (naturally), which doesn't really translate very well. The lone exception was "Franklin's Tower", a feathery-lite slice of hippie-pop which immediately stands out. As usual, the best material comes from Garcia, but other than the aforementioned "Tower" it's not very robust. Elsewhere, Weir's "The Music Never Stopped" somehow scraped the bottom of the charts, which I have to attribute to blind luck. Fairly certain they hit the road again soon after this, and for good reason, even though the record charted pretty high.

I don't think this is any better than the previous studio record, but does have a different feel. The album title references an actual flophouse, and sounds like it. The opening "U.S. Blues" comes off like a bargain-basement version of "Truckin". Also, Phil Lesh gets in a couple of songwriting credits, and they are guilty pleasures at best. But they are not nearly as bad as Weir's "Money Money". This is the Dead gone over to the novelty side of the fence, which is surface fun, but not much else going for it.

The third Hot Tuna record is where they start sounding like a real rock band with old-timey overtones, which makes it a far more accessible listen than the first two. The bulk of the material was composed by Kaukonen and curiously resembles the music which made it onto the previous Jefferson Airplane record (Bark, if you're wondering). Not something you need to go out of your way to hear, but if you like the Airplane, the Dead, etc...this is a record you should check out.

Our favorite long-haired blues nerds get heavier, more rhythmic, and weave Papa John Creach's funky fiddle like a tapestry...yet it sounds as archival as the previous record. Strange but true.