*** Silkworm

EVEN A BLIND CHICKEN FINDS A KERNEL OF CORN NOW AND THEN

(Matador)

Silkworm have two simultaneous dynamics: they're a writerly band marked by meticulous songcraft and thoughtful, unconventional lyrics; and they're a piledriving guitar-rock machine with a dark, heavy, dense attack. Sometimes the words get buried in the guitar incandescence, or the instrumental work gets tripped up by the songs' wordy convolutions. But sometimes the band get their songs over with the force of a nailgun.

This double CD is a collection of out-of-print stuff from Silkworm's first few years, when they were a quartet with guitarist Joel R.L. Phelps: most of their first album, early singles, an EP, some unreleased recordings, and a tense, subdued track ("Insider") from a Tom Petty tribute CD. You can hear their recording style evolving over the course of the retrospective, but it's surprising how many of their early experiments connect full-on -- though more often in the cathartic mode than the intellectual one. They transform Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" into a bitter, pounding guitar storm. And the original songs like "Slipstream" that let Phelps and singer/guitarist Andy Cohen cut loose have wildly sparking energy.

-- Douglas Wolk