Soul Taco

This local octet’s five-song CD EP comes on like gangbusters with rumbling drums, bass and percussion, plus clown-suit ska trombone and squing-squong car-commercial guitar (Pontiac: We Build Excitement!). It’s definitely not the most original blast of tuneage in the mix, but it’s certainly well recorded (by Joe Johnston, at Pus Cavern North) and you can kinda tell that Soul Taco’s live shows probably go over quite well. On record, though, weaknesses, such as in the songwriting, stand out. The title cut is the best number here; a couple of others have nice Spanish guitar flourishes. Imagine Steppenwolf with an old-school (pre-Devadip) Santana vibe, aiming for Ozomatli and hitting somewhere this side of Goldfinger. Singer Guy Jones has one of those testosterone-enhanced voices that’s either totally cool or fingernails on a blackboard, depending on where you part your mullet. Major-label material?