OUR WEEKLY COLLECTION OF SHORTER REVIEWS | |
No Brass,
Yes Virginia,
EPA,
The Milwaukees,
Cliff Brown Jr.,
Shanti Project Collection 2,
The Explosion,
Pizzicato 5,
Peter Joseph Burtt,
Jeff Dahl,
Sunny Sunday Smile, Vol. 2,
Matt Turner,
Dressy Bessy,
Whip,
Doves,
Ektroverde/Hinageshi Bondage,
Vibrant Green,
Mary Karlzen,
René Lussier,
Nuzzle
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No Brass / The Crowning of the Sun / No Brass (CD)
At least you can take No Brass' Mike Kovacs at his word… there's 'nary a
lick o' brass anywhere on this album! What there is, is lots of "classic
rock" style rock 'n' roll. If you get your kicks listening to '60s/'70s era
rock music but are tired of the same old guys playing it (Foghat can
get tiresome!) then The Crowning of the Sun was virtually made
for you. With showy guitar solos and big rock sound aplenty, songs like
"Around the Corner" take me back to a time when I wasn't yet in grade
school, a time when some grownup people dropped a lot of acid and listened
to a lot Jethro Tull. I honestly had a difficult time making it all the way
through this disc. There's so much music like this already
cluttering up the "nice buy" bins in CD stores that I hardly think a new
take on it is worthwhile. Still, maybe there are some old hippies out there
who need something new to listen to. To be fair to Mr. Kovaks, he makes it
clear in his liner notes that this is a labor of love more than anything
else. So while I might not like it at all, as long as he digs it, The
Crowing of the Sun has served its intended purpose. -- nw
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Yes Virginia / Oh Holy Night / Wise Guy (CD)
I was starting to think that Christmas 2000 would pass
without a new release from Yes Virginia...but happily, Fed
Ex corrected that. For the uninitiated,
Yes Virginia have marked the last few holidays by cranking
out instrumental hard-rawk versions of Christmas carols and
other holiday songs -- mid-Atlantic-based readers may have
heard their stuff on the radio at holiday-time. Oh Holy
Night is the group's most ambitious effort to date, and
their first batch of all-new material in a couple of years.
Fully capitalizing on the talents of new keyboardist Mario
Padovani, Oh Holy Night tackles some
less familiar material and succeeds at the challenging task
of giving an arena-rock sound to favorites like "Coventry
Carol" without driving them off-course into guitar wankery.
Give them credit -- hard rock Christmas carols sound like an
awful idea, but Yes Virginia have taken the time to do it
right, while clearly also retaining the fun and joy so many
holiday records are missing. Even if your personal Santa
Claus doesn't sport a mullet, you should give this a try.
Find it at CDStreet. -- gz
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EPA / Evergreens Vol. One / MykeDroner (7”)
EPA is severely indebted to the Fab Four -- even more so than Oasis, if you
can believe it. I would even go so far as to say that without the
Beatles, this band would not exist. Both songs on Evergreens Vol. One
are so far in hock to the lads from Liverpool that it's literally not
even funny. Side A introduces you to "Here Comes the Sun Again", which
is a blatant rip-off of -- you guessed it -- "Here Comes the Sun" from Abbey
Road. Things don’t get any better on Side B. "Startour"
features weepy cellos, a lyrical reference to "Sexy Sadie" and a chorus
of "why don’t we do it in the park". Now maybe I’m crazy, but all
of those elements have White Album written all over them -- especially
the lyrical dig, which is basically swiped straight from "Why don’t we
do it in the Road?". I can’t tell
where the Beatles stop and EPA begins. -- jj
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The Milwaukees / The Bland Comfort of Life With
Lloyd Justin / 24/7 (CD)
Having heard Rye Coalition, I knew that New Jersey was home to some of
the loudest
music around, and I could have guessed that. It's a shocker,
though, that
this state (or any state) is also home to bands that,
judging by this one's
name, appear eager to be labelled "emo". The Milwaukees
live up to
this tag with songs of exaggerated emotion that you
remember as much for
their lack of humor as for their often-good
melodies. Still,
the Milwaukees are good at what they set out to do, with
above-average
vocals, complex melodies (see "Patriot Song") and a
unique guitar attack
that is inspired by (yet does not duplicate) the J. Mascis
approach. If you
don't play this loud or give it time to sink in, there's
a chance that the Milwaukees could be thrown in the "generic emo"
bucket, but they're actually fairly disctinctive. Their guitars ring as
powerfully as the
drums behind an Engine Down track, and their over-the-top
passion makes for
the same sort of pleasures a band like Slade or Hanoi Rocks
could always
deliver on a cold Saturday night. -- td
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Cliff Brown Jr. / We Are Stardust / Best Kept
Secret (CASS)
The humble four track recorder prevails once again as the
one man music
machine called Cliff Brown Jr. delivers his brand of folky,
poetic ruminations. Brown's use of the analog Juno keyboard
adds some
spacey synth sounds -- an odd partner to the strumming of
the
acoustic guitar. While not wholeheartedly philosophical,
Brown's
lyrics pose some metaphysical questions that'll leave you
pensive. Tracks like "Comin' Out of Myself"
and "We Are Stardust" have an unexplored, space rock quality
that makes
them float by in a hazy, tripped-out state, without
succumbing to a worn
out subgenre riddled with abused guitar effects. This humble
cassette
release makes the most of its medium, offering a stunning
round of
slack-jawed numbers that swirl samples, grooves and
carefully planned
eccentricities into a cohesive production. -- am
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Various Artists / Shanti Project Collection 2 / Badman (CD)
I missed the first volume of this AIDS-benefitting collection, and therefore can't tell you if it
was sadcore, like this one, or not. Although seven different artists proffer
their previously unreleased tracks here, the album sounds like a planned
single work, with its emotion and tempo remaining nearly constant
throughout. The tracks by MAdM (Melissa Auf der Maur) have the most energy --
particularly her mad cover of Roxy Music's "Love is a Drug" -- but in general,
all of the music sounds like the Cowboy Junkies' slower songs. This is
the soundtrack you'd seek to create a blue mood, or at least a thoughtful
one. -- js
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The Explosion / Steal This / Revelation
(CD)
Don't blink or you'll miss this five-track EP from Boston badasses The
Explosion. Hmm, a big, hairy spider on the front, skull and crossbones on
the back...think it could be punk? Two seconds in, all doubt is gone. Tearing it up in the style of the Buzzcocks and Stiff Little
Fingers, the band makes no pretensions regarding their shtick: they're
loud, fast, angry and noisy. It's not exactly an original sound, but when
it comes to punk, sincerity has always ruled over innovation. With that
in mind, this is a solid release from a band that will probably never reach
widespread commercial success, but will provide part of the soundtrack for
someone's teenage years. -- rd
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Pizzicato Five / The Fifth Release from Matador / Matador (CD)
I don't think Pizzicato Five could surprise me unless Nomiya
Maki and Konishi Yasuharu hid in my hall closet and jumped
out at me just as I was getting home from work. The Fifth
Release from Matador continues in their standard vein of
bouncy, swinging-sixties bubblegum pop, though if you listen
closely you'll detect an increasing shift toward the grand
excesses of disco and musicals. If you have any kind of
sense of fun, tunes like "A Room with a View" and "20th
Century Girl" will make you smile, and Nomiya Maki's
mostly-Japanese vocals are as seductive as ever, but there's
an undeniable sense of sameness here. Sure, "Tout, Tout
Pour Ma Cherie" is almost inhumanly bouncy and "The World
Without You" wears its orch-pop flourishes well, but it's
not enough. The P5 concept seems played out, and the only
thing left to do is count the stolen riffs in "20th Century
Girl". There's reliable, and then there's predictable.
The Fifth Release... comes down on the wrong side of
the fence. -- gz
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Peter Joseph Burtt / Travelogue / Ten to Twelve
Productions (CD)
There have been a number of artists -- Peter Gabriel, David
Lindley, Henry
Kaiser, Paul Simon -- who have successfully brought
disparate cultures
together through music, but Burtt has made the first I've
heard in which the
guitars play rough, which ultimately makes the disc sound
like a live event
in the making. Rather than coming at you like the calm flow
of a river, as
the songs of Zimbabwe's masterful Bhundu Boys always did,
there is a bit of
blues guitar here, and a good chunk of Americana that makes
the melding of
musical cultures bring about an honest sort of tension. You
never forget
that Burtt is American, but that's not a bad thing -- nor is
it a bad thing to
recall Zabriskie Point-era Pink Floyd during the
standout "Mami
Wata". When field recordings of crickets, birds or griot
singers are not
sampled into a song, but rather make up the piece itself (as in
"Baldeh"),
the marked difference in sound quality disrupts the overall
flow of the CD,
yet they add to the joy that Travelogue brings. It's engineered by
an artist who
truly loved his time spent in Mandinka, the Shona and other
parts of
Africa, and its songs leap out like a handshake from across
the seas -- one
you'd be very wise to accept. -- td
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Jeff Dahl / Pancake 31 / Triple X (CD)
I read somewhere that whatever music you listen to during your "college
years" (e.g. your twenties) will more than likely stick with you for the rest
of your life. I'm not sure whether this claim is true for everyone, but 45
year old Jeff Dahl steadfastly harkens back to the mid-'70s on Pancake 31. Coincidence? I dunno. The extremely prolific Dahl utilizes his unique, off-kilter voice as he punches out everything
from trashy glam ("The Sad Ballad of Dagmar Tranquilizer") to full
throttle, guitar-centric '70s-era rock ("Last of the Red Hot Cocksuckers")
that reminds me of The Dictators in their heyday. Continuing in the vein of
his many bands and moods, Dahl is predictably, er, unpredictable as he uses
every medium from low-key garage sounds to blissful acoustic guitar. Be
careful though, because Dahl can still cross the line -- his stinging
style of raucous energy proves that music can be timeless indeed. This
former Angry Samoan still has a distinct bite and breadth that will leave
most twenty-something punks in the dust. -- am
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Various Artists / Sunny Sunday Smile, Vol. 2 / Sunday (CD)
Sunny Sunday Smile, Vol. 2 is a pop music lover's dream, offering
21 songs from ten certified gushy pop bands. The lineup includes
Insta (formerly Kitten Factory), Minithin, The Cinematics, Class, The
Proctors, Honyrider, Sugarplant, Maylove, Mrs. Kipling and Tokidoki. The
only band I know well among these is Class. The three Class songs on
SSS can be found elsewhere, but they're good, so this isn't
bothersome to me. I like most everything here -- particularly
The Cinematics, who remind me of The Sundays, for whom I have a
particular weakness. "Disjointed" is beautifully melodic and tenderly
sung. The gushy strings in the middle are just the right thing. "Sylvia's
Waiting" starts out a bit like Komeda but turns out to be more gentle and
less quirky. I also like the Mrs. Kipling stuff. "Human After All" is just
a touch punk and more than a touch happy pop. I hear a bit of Brent's T.V.
or Sweet Baby here. It's positively infectious. Sunny Sunday Smile,
Vol. 2 is a great little pop compilation -- and at only $8, everyone should have
a copy. -- nw
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Matt Turner / Shards of Wiggett / Penumbra (CD)
I have only recently become acquainted with Keith Jarrett's
Koln
Concert, but Part One just floors me, and I think it shows
all the beauty
and potential of piano improvisation.
Certainly, for
beginners weaned on rock, it's a great show. While seasoned
jazz lovers
would love that Jarrett CD too, Matt Turner's Shards of
Wiggett is
unquestionably more geared to listeners at an advanced stage
of jazz
appreciation. What it seeks in each composition, I think, is
more akin to
the dissection of an instrument than an emotion, as if Matt is
trying to uncover the mystery behind all the potential
sounds that a key-strike might create. In small, attentive doses, pieces like
"Chill Room"
worked upon me like a musical whodunnit written in a
language I
studied for only a year. I could neither guess the ending nor
ultimately
comprehend it, but at least it inspired me to try. Other
tracks, like
"Elesoap", are another story, though -- one so
aggressively unmelodic that
I'm happy to be too stupid to appreciate it. -- td
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Dressy Bessy / The California EP / Kindercore (CD)
Someone in the Dressy Bessy camp apparently realized that
they hadn't had a significant release in well over a year.
Arriving just in time to dispel the winter chill, The
California EP is a sunny, all-too-brief burst of jangly
sixties guitar pop (something guitarist John Hill apparently
doesn't get enough of in his other band, the Apples
in Stereo). Pixie-like vocalist Tammy Ealon, heavily layered
in the mix, lends her cheery voice to five new tunes; the
title track, in which Ealom daydreams about visiting said
state and wearing a flower in her hair, is the most
memorable. "Hangout Wonderful" challenges the pop-ethic the
most, offering a gently dischordant vocal and a bit of
guitar fuzz, while "In the Morning" unleashes an almost
vaudevillian rhythm. As seems typical for Dressy Bessy,
nothing here prepares you for the fact that live, the band
plays at almost unbearable volume, giving their songs a punk
rock edge they otherwise seem to lack. -- gz
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Whip / Song Song / Priapus (CD)
Here's some dark, acoustic, lo-fi minimalism for fans of Bonnie
Prince Billy and other Will Oldham/Palace projects. The songs are
all about "nothings" and "nevers." These aren't sweet nothings, though,
and the singer is not whispering in your ear; in fact, he's emoting with
southern-gothic tinges. On "Matthew Lyndon Wells," Whip sings about
"nothing" being
"happy to go for a ride." I don't know what that might mean, but it's
certainly meant
to convey a sort of poetic doubt. Whip conjures this same emotional frailty
throughout, straining at themes that don't always seem genuine, as if they're mining the woodsy folk movement for all it's worth. At
times the singing is perhaps too moody and practiced; nobody wants to be
compared to Seven Mary Three, but there are definite points of comparison in
vocal inflection (sometimes a gruff phrasing is best left subtle). Don't
get me wrong -- this is miles ahead of Seven Mary Three! Finally, there is
no getting away from the similarities to Palace. You wonder if somewhere,
Will Oldham is saying "I don't remember recording these songs." The best
song would seem to be the finale, "untitled", in which Whip finally pulls out
all the stops and makes a statement. It's a soundscape worthy of the
Waterboys...so you have to wonder why Whip settle for Palace-pale along the
way. -- tnd
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Doves / Lost Souls /
Astralwerks (CD)
I like Morrissey, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I also like bands
that sound like Morrissey and The Smiths. Therefore I like Doves. Not
everything on Lost Souls is Moz-like, but at least one tune, "Sea
Song", begins with about a minute of a rolling guitar/drum/bass groove
that is 100% straight from a mid-1990s Morrissey solo disc. Then the
vocals kick in, and things don't get any less Mozzy. Finally some spoken
words samples appear low in the mix -- which as you know, has always been
a favorite the Smiths boys. There's even a picture of a boxer on the CD
cover, so that settles that. Happily, even when Doves aren't trying to
sound like the big M, they still sound pretty great. The production on
Lost Souls is terrific; it's smooth but not featureless, lush,
detailed and well mixed (which is sort of a requirement if you're going
to go for both lush and detailed!). "Here It Comes" has the
harmonic drive and sad melody of a Psychedelic Furs tune. "Rise" breaks
out the reverb for a big, emotional, romantic stadium-rocker. "Lost
Souls" take the opposite tack, going for a stripped down, close-miked
feel and a dark, lovely chorus. "Darker", one of the disc's three US-only
bonus tracks, is dirtier and rougher than the other tracks,
but maintains their dark, atmospheric qualities. Unless you have something against melancholy, pretty songs, you'll like Lost Souls. --
ib
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Ektroverde/Hinageshi Bondage / split 7" / Verdura (7")
Ektroverde does its damnedest stuffing a hypnotic rhythm down your throat
on the A side of
this split 7". The repetitive bass line is reminiscent of The Doors'
"Roadhouse Blues", yet
the cranky saxophone redirects your thought process toward something a bit
more Kraut-styled, revealing the exceptional versatility and eccentric creativity that
has made
Ektroverde (and its parent band Circle) a must-have for the seedy
underground experimental
music collector. Hinageshi Bondage spares you from an overt sonic assault
and instead opts
for two haunting, Goth inspired numbers. "Tänään Ruokalassa"'s guttural
moans sound like
you’re stuck in the middle of an Aboriginal burial ceremony in the middle
of Finland. "Peltilehmä" sends shards of high-pitched clinks through a whirling field
of rumbling waves.
Think of Throbbing Gristle's low-key yet exceptionally disturbing
experiments meshed with
the harsh, jarring reality of post-modern musical encapsulation, and you’ll
click with Hinageshi Bondage’s philosophy. -- am
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It's not that I like or dislike Vibrant Green, it's more that I find them
fascinating. Take the opening track, "Grodin". It's sort of a cross
between the Violent Femmes and Frank Black, but it's weird. The structure
is loose and conversational, yet there are moments where it seems to strive
for something epic. Is it punk? Is it prog rock? That isn't really clear.
Another example is "The Window Song". It's really spooky, sort of DIY goth
-- just the type of thing to show up on a Blair Witch Project album. It's
really nothing like "Grodin". And then there's the production. Throughout
the album it's not very good, but strangely, this enhances a kind of punk
laissez-faire mentality (if you're familiar with anything by the
Frank Black side project Dos, you know what I mean). In the final
analysis, though, I think I like these songs enough to want to hear them given better
production. Then my feelings for Vibrant Green would move from
ambivalence to admiration. -- nw
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Mary Karlzen / Dim the Watershed / Y & T Music
(CD)
Karlzen's last CD, Yelling at Mary was criticized for being inconsistent in tone and voice -- she sang country, she sang
rock and she sang pop, but she didn't combine the styles very well, or present them well singly, either. With Dim the
Watershed, Karlzen presents a more blended and charming result, but the final product is still less than dazzling. Most
singer/songwriters try to move listeners with their heartfelt lyrics. Karlzen's lyrics are full of sophisms -- enough to fall a flat like soda
that's been left uncapped, as in "Reunion" ( "and we'll wonder, yes we'll wonder / why there are reunions to make people feel so old") and
"Time" ("On the table lies a ring / What promise does this bring?"). Her voice is high, thin and girly; with all due respect, sometimes she
sounds like she's about four years old, and that's solely a comment on volume level and tone, not lyrical maturity. There are many times
during the early tracks when Karlzen is nearly drowned out by the guitar, but the melodies don't linger in my head or on my tongue. I'd definitely look for Dim the Watershed in the used bins; it's for the collection of a completist, rather than someone who's particularly selective. -- js
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René Lussier / Solos de guitare
électrique / Ambiances Magnetiques (CD)
That's right, the title translates as Electric Guitar
Solos -- but if you're expecting
Satriani-style wanking, you probably haven't been reading
Splendid very long. This is a set of fourteen electric
guitar improvisations recorded live, without overdubs or
tinkering. Some of them, like "Sous-sol", fall into the
realm of music, but the majority lean toward the broader
category of "Let's see how many odd, frequently non-musical
noises I can get out of this electric guitar". There's a
lot of very harsh sonic texture here, and a lot of feeback;
you'll hear scraping, and downright frenetic two-string
strumming, and numerous guitar abuses that probably would've
given Jimi Hendrix pause. A studio diagram inside the CD
booklet suggests that multiple live monitors were placed
around the room during recording, the better to create
feedback. They surely did their job well. Lussier never
fails to challenge, and Solos... is interesting, if
not necessarily listenable in the long term. -- gz
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Nuzzle / Junk of Myth, '92-'95 / Zum (CD)
The lifespan of most emo bands appear rather short, but
Nuzzle -- who last
year released San Lorenzo's Blues through Troubleman
Unlimited --
have been plugging away for nearly a decade.
This anthology contains their full-length debut, Follow
For Now,
along with singles and bonus tracks, all of which have been
remixed,
remastered and put on CD for the first time. To those
unaware of their
existence, the songs sound impressively fresh and show a
dominant punk
influence behind the band's early music. A lot of this is
like Black Flag in
serious mode, with my personal favorites being
"Ican'tations", "Cavendish"
and "River Underground". Nuzzle occasionally
includes a bit of
piano and the odd slow-down moment ("Cant Remember", "For the
Length of Me"), but
the tension is always present. Every minute the band placed on
acetate during
the early nineties seems to pack a year's worth of their
stored agitation,
which makes these 20 songs heavier than average listening; still,
they're very, very
good and, rather than bumming one out, proceed in their own
emo way to make
folks like me feel blessed for having spent my youth on
the East Coast. -- td
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gz - george zahora | nw - noah wane | am - andrew magilow | ib - irving bellemead | jj - jason jackowiak
td - theodore defosse | rd - ron davies | js - jenn sikes | rg - rodney gibbs | tnd - time digravina | mf - marcel feldmar
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