After twenty years of making music for ears set to pick up under ground tones, it’s shocking to think that Ian Svenonius has anything at all left to say. It would seem, though, that with his new disc, that there are a few things that he feels needs to be restated, because after the eight proper long players from the Make Up and Nation of Ulysses, most would think otherwise. Perhaps though, taking up a crew of left coasts musicians to back him up served Svenonius’ purposes. For being an individual so tied to Washington D.C. and the Dischord roster, it’s almost startling to figure that Svenonius enlisted folks from Dub Narcotic Sound System, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Bad Thoughts and Seahorse Liberation Army. He did, though.

The resulting disc, Down with Liberty, is pretty detached from the punk polemics of Ulysses and the garage rummaging sounds of the Make-Up. Departing these sonic pastures makes sense considering the company that Svenonius is now in. And while these players might have the chops to rave up some punky garage, the breezy rock often thought of when mentioning K Records comes across pretty clearly at times. It’s not all azure pastures, but on occasion, Chain and the Gang get there.

“Interview with the Chain Gang,” has some of the nastiest guitar tones on the disc and seems to almost purposefully contrast the rest of the disc. Lyrically, the song basically deals with Svenonius wading through press calls. And while I might sympathize with the interviewer as much as the interviewee, the songs put together thoughtfully with another band member levying sporadic questions upon the singer. Nothing revealed is too surprising – on either side. But it makes for an interesting concept.

Some of that sloppy Northwest rock rears up on “Reparations,” which gets as close to Make Up garage territory as anything else on the disc. And of course, the track gets its full dose of political ramblings, with Svenonius at times sounding like an aware Jonathan Richman. Of course, the song isn’t too much more than a simple riff and some boo-hooing about how the country was and is run by a few unfair dudes. With “Interview” being so thoughtfully constructed, this track here as well as a few others come off as pretty tame. The weird thing here, though, is that most of these songs are delivered with a swampy feel emanating from the cave man drumming. It adds a stripped down touch to the effort that most would expect – and thusly Svenonius delivers.

Even considering the fact that Calvin Johnson, K Records honcho, sports the same backing musicians in his newly minted ensemble, the Hive Dwellers, there still remains a lack of fire to all of this. There are surely some inspired moments, but the biggest draw to Down with Liberty being Svenonius, one would desire an otherworldly performance from the front man. That’s just not the case. And  in the end, fans would be better served revisiting some of those discs by the Make Up.