B-Sides the Beatles

So just how did become a tribute band? It's no great surprise that they owe a debt of influence to , but instead of absorbing the lessons of their music, lately are content to simply play their songs, generally as close to the original arrangements as they can muster, and is the second album in two years from that's devoted entirely to covers. Released in 2007, was a song-by-song re-creation of ' first American LP, while 2008's takes a slightly less derivative approach, featuring a dozen songs that appeared on the flip sides of hits in the United States. While these songs are a bit less familiar than the stuff on , most will be immediately recognizable to anyone who likes , and as on , the band plays these songs with skill and enthusiasm but little imagination, following the originals with the crowd-pleasing determination of a true bar band. What most clearly sets these versions apart are the vocals, and while 's moody style made for an interesting contrast on ' first tribute, he sounds a bit rough here and has a hard time with and which demand a higher and clearer register than he has to offer. And though guitarist 's lead vocals on aren't bad, he's clearly more comfortable with the six-string than he is before the vocal mike. There are a couple of nice touches -- , the session man who played drums on the original session for instead of the newly recruited , re-created his drum part here and sounds as good now as he did in 1963, and the cover artwork from the great is excellent. But like , will leave most listeners wondering why they aren't listening to an actual album instead, something may well be doing at this very moment. (Note to the budget-minded: the album runs a brief and historically accurate 28 minutes.) ~ Mark Deming