From the California Chronicle:
Apr. 2–MAD TEA PARTY, “Found a Reason” (Nine Mile Records)
Mad Tea Party drops a dollop of ’60s-style backbeat into their servings of raggedy rock on “Found a Reason.”
Performing like spry punk rockers, this Asheville, N.C.-based duo — comprised of Ami Worthen and Jason Krekel — always keeps their party tasty and hot.
Krekel’s electric guitar jangles and dangles through fun tunes like “Every Way” and “Blues Slip In” as Worthen plays both acoustic guitar and ukulele.
To call this raw is not enough. Mad Tea Party has the unstirred audible quality of a live show recorded in a club through open mikes.
On a track called “Bombs,” you can almost see whiffs of cigarette smoke and hear the clank of spent beer bottles dropping like bombs into a trashcan behind the bar.
The same goes for “Bunny Moves On,” a tune that tightropes between rockabilly and folk then finally slips, like a musical time-trip, into a beatnik beat.
Served without sugar, Mad Tea Party sounds mad — positively mad. Crazy, even.
Worthen practically screeches “I Went Out.”
And Krekel? He flat-out hollers the traditional “Polly Put the Kettle On,” a lively number that provides an otherwise positive showcase for his fast fiddling.