Jersey Beat   April 1999       THE GRIP WEEDS: The Sound Is In You  Yet another band from the local musical hotbed of New Brunswick; this time it's a first-rate psych/power pop foursome with a strong, winning knack for combining power pop's punchy vitality and psychedelia's boundless sonic possibilities with constantly terrific results. The hopped-up energy, bright, infectious hooks and eager desire to try and do anything beyond the same old stuff beget 16 tracks worth of gorgeously complex, winding, and highly sonorous multi-layered melodies. The often ingenious, immaculately-crafted arrangements, fully fleshed-out with big, bouncy, .ringing guitar riffs, tough, solid-as-marble drums, lively, raspy vocals, breathy background harmonies, smoothly rolling bass lines, soaring strings, and imaginative use of such tried 'n' true psyche-rock instruments as a sitar and Mellotron really deliver the glittering, groovy-ass goods by the tuneful truckload. Moreover, the band's endlessly experimental sensibility, keenly honed to a razor-sharp point, neatly echoes a sweetly upbeat 60's mindset without ever reducing it to a sentimental cliche. A smashingly fine and most refreshing album. -Joe Wawyrzniak