On Saturday I was hanging out with my high school friends. As one does, we remarked on the passage of time, how weird it is for our peers to be having children, and, since my wife and I are teachers, what the kids are up to these days. We also lamented that we had hoped the ’90s revival would be way cooler — getting back to the DIY ethos of the era, the feeling of empowerment and transgression, that the children of the baby boomers owned the world just the way they did. Instead, we have bad middle parts and mechanical copypasta by people who think Nirvana is a clothing brand! And look at how I sound now! Fortunately, Bones Owens sidestepped all that. His new EP, Eighteen Wheeler, realizes my alt-country meets ’90s alt-rock dreams.
The EP kicks off with the title track, a dreamy love song with an inexorable push, showcasing Owens’ gentle voice and sincere commitment to his interlocutor before the EP veers into the kinds of songs that have earned Owens tours with the likes of Whiskey Myers and Koe Wetzel. The bluesy “Bring Me Back” and catchy “Dead Flowers” capture that ’90s post-grunge rawness. It’s a heady combo: Bones’ scratchy voice and brash confidence, even as his lyrics display a teder vulnerability.
One could call this “swag” and they’d be right. Even in tender moments like “Heavy Arms,” we can hear a self-assurance that was surrendered when the zeitgeist fell in love with the soft-spoken recriminations of indie rock bands in Brooklyn and Portland. For Owens, this is a hint at what’s to come on his next album, due out in summer 2024.