The Daily Spin II

Gear Daddies | Billy's Live Bait

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: Billy’s Live Bait (1990)

Artist: Gear Daddies

Link:

This one’s for you, Dad - happy birthday!

I’m always going to be a fan of a Minnesota-based band. Though this genre doesn’t usually appeal all that strongly to me, I’m into it here - this fusion of rock and vaguely-construed country hits a lot of those finer points for me that can make an album work in ways others fall short.

What largely feels like rote garage rock tends to blossom into something a little bigger with the lyrics - usually humorous in some sense of the word - and in the twang that slips and slides throughout the entire record, a wonderful extra dimension to an album that I think would have otherwise fallen into the abyss over the last thirty-five years.

You did say you’d accept nothing less than an 8 for the score. I don’t think I can quite reason that, but I like this a great deal more than I expected to at first glance - don’t know if I can in good conscience call Gear Daddies a top-tier band name. If it works, though, it works!

Rating: 7/10

Best Tracks: Gonna Change

Worst Tracks: Stupid Boy