Pedro the Lion, Southern Extreme, Strung Out, The Kitty Vermont, Paul Cote, Powerpuff Girls: Heroes and Villains, Chola, Divine Styler, Ladytron, Right Direction, Eric Alexandrakis, Peggy Green, Vine Sweetland & the Forefathers of the New Millennium, No Knife, Pornosonic, As Friends Rust, Tegan and Sara, Slick Shoes/Cooter, DE Music, Motherland

	Pedro the Lion / Progress/A Guitar For Janie / Suicide Squeeze/Chapelle TNI (CD/7") Sample 30 seconds of "June 18, 1976" I feel old saying this, but we didn't have stuff this cool when I was a kid. Whenever I was told a story it was either read a capella or accompanied by one of my mother's fifty-three Styx records. But these days, up-and-coming indie sprouts can be tucked into bed and lulled to sleep by the soothing sounds of Pedro the Lion. The good folks at Chapelle TNI and Suicide Squeeze have collaborated to bring to you this most interesting of split format releases. A Guitar for Janie is a children's story written by California-based writer Buchen and illustrated by Rob Patterson. It details the strange saga of a girl named Janie and her unrelenting will to rock out. Antique beds are purchased, teeth are knocked out, faux concerts are given and a good time is had by all. In order to enhance the mood, Pedro the Lion have contributed a pair of new songs to the project -- though the bleak and stark nature of the songs seems to contradict the triumphant nature of the story. "June 18, 1976" and "April 6, 2039" chronicle the decline of a lowly soul from Kansas City. Initially a tale of hope and promise, the song cycle eventually disintegrates into a twisted melange of forgotten dreams and broken hope, beautifully conveyed by Bazan's methodical vocal delivery coupled with ornate and swelling instrumentation. It's quite moving in a maudlin sort of way. The CD version of Progress includes live versions of favorites "Of Up and Coming Monarchs" and "Letter From a Concerned Follower" recorded during a radio session in Holland. Whatever you might be looking for -- stories, music, laughing, crying or screaming -- A Guitar for Janie and the Progress EP deliver. -- jj
	Southern Extreme / self-titled / Drimala (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Mississippi Sweet" Even before peeling the plastic off of the intricately designed CD packaging, I had a good feeling about Southern Extreme. The jittery sketches on the front cover reminded me of an outlandish Silkheart Jazz release with has all active instruments in a state of perpetual motion. This withdrawn trio embraces both contemporary, post-bop jazz and some of the classic artists of the 60s, creating an amazing intersection of free jazz and the airy, romantic elements of an older generation. This self-titled release is a mind-boggling presentation that any enthused jazz fan should immediately seek out for his or her collection. Kidd Jordan's tenor saxophone lands squarely between Rollins' famous sheets of sound and the pumping ferocity of Roland Kirk's driving chops. Futterman's lightning-quick fingers dance across the ivory keys, deftly sensitive and a perfect accompaniment to Fielder's percussive flurries. Together, each musician plays a distinct role, creating several pieces of passionate art that supplant traditional jazz philosophies with a chemistry that's unrivaled in its own right. -- am
	Strung Out / The Element of Sonic Defiance / Fat Wreck Chords (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Scarecrow" Strung Out started playing music in 1992. I remember hearing their earlier records in my dorm room and thinking they were doing the catchy California punk rock thing just fine. While I’m not totally convinced that I haven’t become a pop-punk prick, I think I’ve decided that the big budget production that came along after the East Bay blew wide open in the mid '90s has stolen the fun from the genre. Musically, you have a band doing basically what they’ve always done, which is fast, melodic punk that dabbles in metal/thrash with spazzed out drum fills and sizzling hot guitar licks. But these days it’s overdone for my tastes; all effected vocals and thundering drums. Further, it seems that the big studio sounds drive the bands to take themselves far too seriously. Lyrically, The Element of Sonic Defiance wants badly to say something, but unfortunately falls short with clichéd images and phrasing I could do without. Give me the crackling weak ass sounds of the early records on Lookout! and I might be back in the game. -- av
	The Kitty Vermont / Wonderful You / Motorcoat (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Streets of Tokyo" Take Men Without Hats. Give them banjos. Then kiss your ass goodbye. Okay, perhaps I exaggerate just a smidgen, but when I hear New Order-approved synth-pop merge with a plucky banjo, I tend to suspect the end is near. Yet, this Wisconsin-based pop outfit may be on to something. Co-mingling cellos with Casios is mighty intriguing on the surface -- even more so when you read that there are clarinets, vibraphones and violins swirling around in the mix, too. However, these potentially inspired juxtapositions are overshadowed by the swollen layers of synthesizers and drum machines permeating each track. If you take your synthesizers as some take their coffee -- without a little cream and sugar to temper the otherwise piquant java -- then perhaps The Kitty Vermont is for you. For others, however, the bite of undiluted coffee is too much to stomach more than once. -- rg
	Paul Cote / Paul Cote / Self-Released (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Lobuine" To say that I've been waiting for the next Lenny Kravitz would be misleading -- one is one more than I need -- but my comparison of Paul Cote to Kravitz should be taken as a compliment. It means that Paul Cote plays some great guitar, and his band provides a seamless mix of funk and rock through these six Assorted Chocolates. Melodically, all the songs impress, and there are some nice Beatlesque moments on "Wax Divine" and "Refresh"; add to that a good guitar solo on "Chinese Pictures" and vocals which are rough and soulful (in a very Kravitzy way), and you have a band that'll go down big at most clubs. This group, formerly known as Calling All Monsters, has been voted "the best unsigned act in New York", so I have to imagine their sound has great appeal to many. Should you be among those who liked (or could stomach) Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman", here's a good guess that Paul Cote will more than simply remind you of that funketeer. He and his band are the real deal, and while I personally don't care for their genre, it's clear that they're a great live band. I may be won over yet. -- td
	Various Artists / The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes and Villains / Rhino (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Signal in the Sky (Let's Go)" This musical salute to everyone's favorite big-eyed superhero trio has been released on Rhino's "kid" imprint. That's ironic, since the music is heavily skewed towards the tastes of the students and twenty-somethings who form the core audience for The Powerpuff Girls' late-night airings. The artists here run the gamut of bubblegum/euro/girlie pop, from the Apples in Stereo at their bounciest to Shonen Knife at their most sugary, all performing "songs inspired by" the Powerpuff Girls. For once, "songs inspired by" doesn't really mean "a series of unrelated songs by artists we want to promote" -- all of the songs capture some of the spirit of the show, aided by Powerpuff vignettes between tracks. Optiganally Yours and Cornelius keep things "out there", Devo and Frank Black work the over-thirty crowd and Dressy Bessy turns in a slightly disappointing performance -- their take on the Free Design's "Bubbles" sounds like Burt Bacharach writing for Luscious Jackson. Yeah, it's just a cartoon soundtrack, but if Heroes and Villains steers one preteen girl away from the forces of Britney/Backstreet, it'll be helping to save the world. -- gz
	Chola / Groove the Nation / FreedomZone (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Call to Arms" I confess that I’m pretty naive when it comes to all this MP3 and Napster stuff. I was doubly confused by the FreedomZone label, which is giving away, via the net, the first million copies of all the CDs they release. Customers only pay for postage, though theyhave the option of paying five bucks for an autographed album cover. Man, and I thought Amazon.com had a hard time making money. Needless to say, I still don’t get how this thing works in a financial sense (unless the artists are paying beaucoup bucks to have their CDs released). Unfortunately this, the first FreedomZone release I’ve heard, doesn’t even make me want to rush to their site in order to get free stuff. Chola make bland hip hop/funk with no discernable message. Their order to “Get that bootie on the floor” didn’t work at my house. I hate to sound like a snob (I mean hey, I live in Wisconsin) but hip hop from Salt Lake City? FreedomZone will have to come up with something more compelling than this in order to make their scheme work. -- bl
	Divine Styler / Word Power 2 / Mo' Wax (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Hajji" The follow up to 1989's Word Power, Divine Styler's first "positive" hip hop album (and Source magazine's album of the year in 1989), is an intriguing CD. I've never heard of Divine Styler before, but according to his bio he's had quite an eventful and accomplished career. While I'm not sure that the music on this CD is quiet as experimental and cutting edge as it claims to be, there's no doubt that Divine Styler knows his way around a rhyme, and his lyrics and delivery are powerful and convincing. There are parts of Word Power 2 that simply confuse me -- goofy echoing texts read by Hitomi Okumo, occasional stale beats, dull drum samples. But for every not-so-great moment, there's an equally weird/interesting one, like "The Ahdan", a chant that starts off the disc, or "Hajji", a heavy tune that traces Divine Styler's spiritual development. Word Power 2 is peculiar and absorbing, if uneven, album. -- ib
	Ladytron / Commodore Rock / Emperor Norton (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Play Girl" Apparently the 80s revival is in full swing across the Atlantic; the British were, after all, pioneers of the dreamy synth pop that ruled that decade's airwaves, so it seems fitting that fellow countrymen would begin its rennaissance. Ladytron are a retro-minded Liverpool quartet whose music immediately conjures images of parachute pants, leather jackets with far too many zippers and mass pogoing. The Commodore Rock EP is their first stateside release via Emperor Norton, and it combines tracks from their first two Invicta Hi-Fi singles. You get chanteuse led, bottom-heavy New Order synth dirges ("Play Girl" and the title-track), a hypnotic keyboard-and-sample-driven triptych ("Miss Black") and the Stereolab-meets-Add N to (X) looping digital wonderland called "Paco". An impressive stateside debut, Commodore Rock will have you rummaging through your attic and crawlspace in search of your skinny ties and Devo LPs. Would you expect anything less than top quality from a group named after a Roxy Music song? I didn't think so. -- jj
	Right Direction / Bury the Hatchet / Victory (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Out in the Fields" Right Direction is a German punk band that's been around for about eleven years. There's a picture of them on the back of Bury the Hatchet; they seem to be saying "We are German and very tough, and if you so much as snicker at us we will stomp upon you with our large boots." Bury the Hatchet doesn't sound like much fun, but it is -- basically, these guys sound like a metal band with some punk rock songs. The huge, shredding riffs and Dave Reumers' Ozzy-moan and raw-throated, demonic howl imply a youth spent enjoying Sabbath and Motorhead records, or at the very least post-"Possessed to Skate" Suicidal Tendencies. Every song reveals the sort of a sweeping, operatic excess that used to make metal great -- and a far cry from the economical punk rock approach. You haven't lived until you've heard the ludicrously Schwartzeneggerian grandeur of Right Direction's cover of Thin Lizzy's "Out In The Fields" (though it's the refrain that does it -- the primary vocals sound like a New Jersey metal band circa '87). I enjoyed Bury the Hatchet tremendously, though perhaps not for the right reasons. -- gz
	Eric Alexandrakis / I.V. Catatonia / Y & T Music (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "The Big Crunch Theory" The press materials for this record include a newspaper article in which Y & T Music label owner Richard Ulloa states “I’ve known Eric a couple years but I never viewed him as a serious artist, but I fell in love with [I.V. Catatonia] on Christmas, realizing his amazing gift for composing. I had to change my perception.” I’d hate to hear the material that came before this record: The material that didn’t qualify Alexandrakis as a serious musician. This 22 track CD is the result of home recordings made with guitars, keyboards, drums, popcorn canisters, pools of water, motorcycle engines, crying babies, buzzing insects, etc. Alexandrakis’ aim was to “key in on sounds, no matter how brief they may be... and finding their musical application.” The sounds are definitely found and keyed in on; however, I’m still searching for the musical application. This record is a self-proclaimed experimental album and we all know how often experimental records end up as self-indulgent headaches. There is an attempt here to incorporate some standard pop. At times, the noise and fumbling of the tracks are chopped and diced with a simple guitar riff, some type of shaking, tapping or beating, and Alexandrakis’ whiney vocals, all parts equally informed by the Effects 101 Handbook. To say that comparisons made to the great bands of the second British Invasion is a stretch is quite the understatement. Shame Shame, Press-Kit Writer! -- av
	Peggy Green / Songs of Naka Peida / Self-Released (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Fair Affliction" The question which apparently haunts Peggy every day is whether the damage done by the Maruin will be the end of our planet. It's not a question I've asked myself, and maybe that's why this instrumental record seemed slow and endless to me. Still, it's hard to deny the skills of this guitarist, who uses a flat-picking style (due to hand injuries) to create wandering rhythms that conjure both the frontiers of Japan and the American West. Individual tracks could fit inside a blues bar ("Achin' Deep in My Bones"), an old-time saloon ("Wrong Stop Blue") or a film like "Tampopo", with Peggy knowing when to linger over each chord on her pedal dobro guitars and when to simply let them skip by like stones on a lake. While the songs seem to share little of Wes Montgomery's taste of adventure, there's actually a good bit of improvisation going on, as in the aptly titled "Improvisations in the Moonlit Dawn", where Peggy essentially wings it. That being the case, Green delivers a surprisingly good wallop of emotional power now and then. All this leads me to suspect that Peggy Green could make a great spaghetti western soundtrack if she ever tried, and if the Maruin let her. -- td
	Vine Sweetland & The Forefathers of the New Millennium / Light Shining in the Distance / The Garden (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Light Shining in the Distance" Vine Sweetland & The Forefathers of the New Millennium are two dozen musicians playing forty instruments (everything from banjo to saxophone to dijeridu to tabla) and a poet. They perform Eastern-inspired, quasi-spiritual music that has been featured in television commercials as well as the Dalai Lama's World Festival of Sacred Music in L.A. Unfortunately I find it pretty unbearable. Mr. Sweetland's poetry is impenetrable mumbo-jumbo and his delivery is annoying. When I first spun this disc up I was immediately put off by Sweetland's aggressive, sloppy vocals. Unfortunately when I tried to scan past them in search of something more enjoyable I discovered that this whole disc is one long track! I guess you're required to either listen to the whole thing or nothing at all. I plowed through so that you won't have to. Admittedly, there are moments of clarity on Light Shining in the Distance (for example I really liked something at about thirty minutes in) but the fact that they are buried between lengthy periods of unfathomable, pop spirituality make them hardly worth the effort to dig out. -- nw
	No Knife / Fire in the City of Automatons / Time Bomb (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Charming" My first exposure to No Knife came when I saw them open for Sunny Day Real Estate. That night they were a dynamic, tight and focused group who wound up winning over the majority of SDRE’s crowd. Fire in the City of Automatons sees the band poised to flat-out steal those fans. All of the visceral energy and ferocious spirit the band exhibited live has been captured on this, their third album. Songs like “K-214” and “Secret Handshake” couple the band’s frenzied playing with studio production to create a slick-rawness that is all but irresistible. But as good as the album is on the whole, nothing comes close to replicating the sheer brilliance of “Charming”. Surely a sane world would hear this impossibly graceful and melodic slab of guitar-pop being blasted from every stereo, car radio and Walkman in the nation. A stellar live act as well as a polished studio band, No Knife look set to explode. -- jj
	Pornosonic / Pornosonic: Unreleased 70s Porno Music / J-Bird (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Dick Dagger's Theme" It had to happen: enough artists have done fake film soundtracks that someone finally decided to make fake porn music. This band, performing as Pornosonic but apparently called the Playas, has composed a bunch of down and dirty porn-funk knockoffs that'll sound very familiar if you've heard any of the actual porno music compilations, which are currently being abused by morning radio hosts all over the world. The Playas have even brought in hirsute porn star Ron Jeremy to provide vocal introductions-cum-porn-vignettes between songs. This was probably meant to be hysterical, but isn't -- impossibly, the introductions are too stilted to make credible porn (perhaps Jeremy can't say "Watch your teeth" convincingly without some sort of sensory reference?). As for the music, after the initial flare-up of funk swankiness it quickly becomes the background it was intended to be, somehow lacking the cheesily low-budget excesses of "true" porn music. It's sad but true: Pornosonic needs a fluffer. -- gz
	As Friends Rust / The Fist of Time / Doghouse (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "The First Song on the Tape You Make Her" A repackaging of some of the band's older material, along with a Circle Jerks cover, The Fist of Time is a pretty damn good combination of hardcore, punk and straight up rock. This Gainesville, Florida band reminds of me a less-metal-sounding Brutal Juice, but with the feverish pace of Les Savy Fav -- they've got a combination of singing/screaming vocals that bombards your eardrums in an unremitting frenzy. Musically speaking, AFR sow riff after riff of heavily tainted hardcore while intricately overlaying line after line of guitar notes. This combination keeps you entertained with incensed melodies that you can immediately identify, while cloaking a higher level of complexity that’ll make The Fist of Time a repeat listen. AFR bridge the gap between Victory and Revelation Records, spreading intelligent lyrics and abrasive hooks over a bed of high-octane fuel, making this reissue a great find and an even better stress reliever. -- am
	Tegan and Sara / This Business of Art / Vapor (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Superstar" Funny the things that can get in one’s way. Along with half a million other music-related quirks, I have a pronounced dislike of Alanis Morrisette. When I heard this release from Canadian twin-duo Tegan and Sara, all I could hear was Alanis. On the surface, it’s obvious -- Canadian, female, young, similar modern rock-friendly sound. Tegan and Sara do at times sound like Alanis, but they have the advantage of not having been the Debbie Gibsons of Canada, and they probably understand the correct definition of “ironic”. By the last track, “Superstar”, the girls have started accelerating toward their own sound, a percussive, propulsive, meditation on fame and ambition. With any luck, this is the direction their future work will take.-- bl
	Slick Shoes / Cooter / California New York / Fueled By Ramen (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Spring Training" Split CDs are a great idea. They give you a much better impression of each band than a complilation track can, and they're cheap enough that pretty much any two bands ought to be able to come up with the cash to produce one -- plus the CD will inevitably find its way into a wider variety of CD players than a one-band CD would. Slick Shoes is a straight ahead hardcore band from Palmdale California. New York's Cooter is a little rockier (i.e. the drum parts vary a bit more), but still stays solidly in the fast drums/bass/guitar lane. Ironically, Slick Shoes sound a lot more DC than California to me, while Cooter's sound is hard to place. While neither band's sound is super distinctive, they both write fast and catchy sing-along tunes. "Work It" from Slick Shoes stands out simply because it's so different from the rest of the CD -- it sounds like someone went crazy with their new ProTools system and decide to put together a funky jam complete with goofy jazz flute lines and lots of recording session out-takes and in-jokes. Cooter's best tune on the CD is probably "Spring Training", a highly energized, almost poppy song with good vocals. -- ib
	DE Music / Buzzed / MP3.Com (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Buzz Line" David Ernst, whose credentials include some impressive teaching posts at Harvard and York College, is something of a maestro at composing melodies that are complex and fulfilling. On this release, all his gifts are on display, revealing his knack for writing music which resembles and occasionally surpasses the film scores of Herbie Hancock -- particularly on "Haunted" and "Slide" (which contains some wonderful bird samples too). Earlier press reports have compared his work to Richard Strauss and Hector Berlioz, and I wouldn't doubt that; some of the intricacies behind these compositions are undoubtedly lost on me. Despite the poor sound quality which MP3 offers, I can tell enough from Buzzed to know that David Ernst is a strong talent with an admirable, rather daunting ambition to never play a similar-sounding song twice. On the strength of his showcases for guitar ("Nite Groove") and drums ("Buzz Line") alone, DE Music's site on MP3.Com is well worth visiting. -- td
	Motherland / Better Than This / MDM (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Help You (With Your Life)" It's another case of "band that doesn't sound anything like you expect them to sound based upon their looks"! The three guys in Motherland look like they've been reading the Big Book of Early Nineties Seattle Style, but their music is quite contemporary and radio-friendly -- kind of an Adult Album Alternative guitar band thing (Goo-Goo Dolls, perhaps, or Third Eye Blind) with a tiny touch of seventies-style country rock thrown in for seasoning. It's mellow and sort of likeable, though ultimately pretty faceless. Vocalist Andrew RD has a good voice but spends a lot of time working in Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams territory. Ultimately, I found Better than This rather tepid -- an appropriate and inoffensive album to put on if your mother's coming to visit, but if she likes it you won't mind letting her take it with her when she goes. -- gz

gz - george zahora | nw - noah wane | am - andrew magilow | ib - irving bellemead | jj - jason jackowiak
td - theodore defosse | rd - ron davies | bl - beth lucht | av - adam voith | rg - rodney gibbs