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In a package complete with little rubber insects -- not only underneath the shrink wrap but inside the box as well -- the second recording (but first CD) from Duke McVinnie is a sprawling, sometimes demented affair of debauched jazz, soul music gone awry, hobo campfire howls and rumpled wino death rattles. Somewhat of a ruffian, McVinnie rasps like a cross between Tom Waits, Billy Childish, and Robert Wyatt while thrashing away on a variety of instruments, creating the effect of a cracked misfit cabaret act, minstrelsy with a David Lynch-ian psychic projection. While Waits' famous portraits of of eccentrics and outcasts may conjure pathos, sympathy and humor, there's something deeply unsettling at work on BUGS, more like the subconciously rooted Dali-rock of Captian Beefheart.

What makes McVinnie's music so convincing is his utter willingness to shoot himself in the foot, staunchly refusing to move in expected directions or to provide what his music needs to make it more palatable. Consequently, virtually every song is filled with some block, schism, or personal stubbornness, and McVinnie's artistic vision triumphs more strongly as a result. "Drinking About You" (co-written with Exene Cervenkova) is somehow not as funny as it at first appears, while "Couple Blocks" is so incomprehensibly obtuse it hits the neck hairs just like Skip Spence's OAR LP. Strong stuff this, with a kick to it.
–James Lien, CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT

"Simply great stuff by a truly original artist."
–Peter Blackstock, AUSTIN CHRONICLE

"A whole new icon of off-beat, bluesy, acoustic music."
–Becky Wilson, THE NOSE

"Duke McVinnie is major."
–John Baxter, OPTION

"Duke McVinnie pourrait etre l'objet d'un culte."
–Jose Ruiz, GUITAR WORLD

"His music is savvy, surreal and totally uncompromising."
–Michael Point, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

"Eleven cuts that are as simply enjoyable as they are strangely unique..."
–Seth Friedman, FACTSHEET FIVE

"With a voice like a sad old dog, the many moods of Duke McVinnie erupt from his second solo effort, BUGS, with both musical and emotional unpredictability -- quiet tearjerkers, drunken blithering and twisty, dissonant art-rock that's maddening."
–Libby Molyneaux, LA WEEKLY