Aliens in the Outfield

Album review

With a band name like Diarrhea Planet, it almost doesn't matter what the music sounds like. That listeners could stay engaged at all is a testament to either person-by-person tolerance for juvenile toilet humor or to the technically astonishing high-power guitar rock that this Nashville six-piece served up in recorded form and over the course of nonstop touring. Straight-faced guitar shredding was the order of the day on 2013's I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, and this five-song EP follows that trend, giving up a few odds and ends recorded between tours to tide over fans until a new LP materialized. Of the five brief tunes that make up Aliens in the Outfield, first song "Heat Wave" is a winner, employing the same relentless attack of melodic quadruple guitar that graced the best tracks on earlier albums. The '90s throwback "Bamboo Curtain" finds DP in full-on Weezer mode, complete with singsong verses, Rentals-esque "ooh ahh" backing vocals, and a chorus so building and hooky it stretches an intentionally silly tune into something memorable. The EP also includes a re-recorded version of "Spooners," a dreamier tune the band included on a 2014 Adult Swim collection, as well as the slower, more composed album closer "Peg Daddy." Every bit as epic as their longer-running albums, the Aliens in the Outfield EP suggests only the slightest steps forward for Diarrhea Planet, with its grab bag of styles moving into somewhat more even-paced and even subdued territory at times, but always focused on walls of guitar bliss and songwriting so strident and catchy it almost allows you to forget the horrifying name of the band.

© Fred Thomas /TiVo