Matthew Good hasn’t forgotten how to rock, but still hasn’t forgotten his anger. And that’s a good thing, so to speak.
 While much of the  previous few year’s worth of music have been very much laid back, multi-layered and ambient sounding, he returns to form on his new CD “Arrows of Desire.”

While there are layers of levels on some tracks, for the most part  the CD is a straight ahead rock CD beginning with the title track.

“Arrows of Desire” reminds me of early hits like “Hello Time Bomb” and “Everything is Automatic.”  It starts with a  driving bass line and carries on from there.

 The CD is chock full of catchy rockers, of which “Via Dolorosa” is definitely one of these.
“So Close” bristles with tight jawed anger and is powered by another driving bass line.
“ We’re Long Gone” is a straight ahead, tuneful rocker with a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band inspired piano riff.
 There is a lot of Pixies influence on the songs especially on “Mutineering” which begins with a jagged guitar riff and tortured shrieking guitar powered intro.

“Garden of Knives” also begins with a shrieking feedback and settles into a mid-tempo groove.
Others, like “Letters in Wartime” are more in the vein of previous, more mid-tempo, ambient music.
So is the slower, melodic “Guns of Carolina,” which begins with chiming guitars and a slightly feed-backing lead and haunting layers of background vocals.
 The first single “Had it Coming” has a Nirvana mixed with rap and a touch of the Talking Heads feel to it.
Overall, it is good to have Matthew Good back and sounding like he is having a little more fun playing music.

The Steel Wheels don’t have anything to do with the 1989 Rolling Stones album. Instead they are a Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia based string band/ roots  collective powered by  the songs of Trent Wagler.

 The music is powered by a whole lot of down home fiddle music. The entire CD is very much a bluegrass influenced  album with vocal harmonies and plenty of mandolin,  banjo, guitar and of course fiddle. There are peppy tunes like “Go Up To That Mountain” with a little bit of twang and some subtle harmonies.

 It is a pretty laid back CD overall, though they pick up the tempo on “ the Race.”
“O Child” brings everything together perfectly— the instrumentation, the melodies and the whole bluegrass sound  The Steel Wheels have got down.

“Until the Summer Comes,” is one of the more mournful , slower fiddle powered tunes.
 On a  more upbeat note, the Steel Wheels turn Tom Waits’ 2006 song  “Walk Away” into a folk/ roots song which works very well.

The other big highlight is “No More Rain” which is a toe tapping,  folky number which a catchy rhythm and upbeat fiddle which sounds like a group of friends hanging out and playing music on the front porch, which is, chances are, where these songs  were born. It is an entertaining easygoing listen, especially if you  enjoy a good  string band having fun playing traditional instruments together.
Catch them at the Geomatic Attic, Oct. 4.