Society Gone Madd!, The Legendary Poptones/Bidoche Musique, Gadget, My So Called Band
Reinventing the '80s, Vol. 2, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Ester, Sara Ayers

	Society Gone Madd! / Save Room for Dessert / VIAble UTTerance (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "TV" Favourite hobbies of Society Gone Madd! probably include gnawing on broken glass and rusty-nail acupuncture. This solid California quartet serves up hardcore punk just like their 80's predecessors did - at a raw, breakneck speed and with demonstrative thoroughness. With coarse, seething vocals and a harsh, no frills production, SGM delivers 17 tracks of "real" hardcore they way it oughta be heard. Recommended for the disillusioned hardcore punk fan who thinks he/she has heard it all. -- am
	The Legendary Poptones/Bidoche Musique / In The Sink / The Legendary Poptones/Bidoche Musique (Cassette) Bulgarian "found instrument" artists The Legendary Poptones collaborate with Bidoche Musique and Fred Frantic for their latest cassette. All sounds on the tape are produced using common objects (newspapers, bottles, tables, etc.) as well as the odd toy piano or xylophone, and recorded live directly to tape -- no studio tricks here. They don't even use a mixer (1-track music!). The result is charming, odd, Residents-esque, rough-around-the-edges musical tomfoolery. -- nw
	Gadget / Black Acura / Function 8 (12") Sample 30 seconds of "Black Acura" Here's a plentifully crunchy, potentially speaker-damaging slab o' hip-hop noise from the good folks at F8. The title cut, available here in both longish and shortish mixes, is full of big beats and clamorous noise and scratching and general bass intensity. The other two tracks provide variations on the same theme, all of them enjoyably loud and eminently club-friendly. As an added bonus, there's nothing on the record (save for a few auditory clues) to suggest an optimal RPM rate, so you actually get 10 killer tracks -- 5 at 33 1/3, the same 5 at 45. Good value for money, that. -- gz
	My So Called Band / President Lust / Yesha (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "President Lust" Balancing along the edge of partisan lines, My So Called Band combines subtle libertarian undertones with a nasty strain of firm, punk raillery. Having a penchant for penning songs with a "Punk Rock Scorched Earth" technique, this trio mounts a hearty assault on subjects from cable TV to certain Presidential media darlings. This quick five song EP will no doubt leave an indelible, aural stain on most listeners. -- am
	Various Artists / Reinventing the '80s, Volume 2 / Hypnotic (CD) Sample 30 seconds of Judson Leach's version of "Bizarre Love Triangle" Electronica tributes to stalwart eighties tunes...sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? And it could have been (indeed, on Volume One of this same series, it pretty much was). But rather than being a collection of bland techno tracks that borrow (and frequently screw up) portions of the melodies of eighties hits, these are comparatively faithful and accurate reworkings of the originals. Particularly admirable are Judson Leach's "Bizarre Love Triangle", Nova's reinterpretation of Duran Duran's "Planet Earth" and, best of all, Mortal Memories' slowing-down of Blancmange's "Living on the Ceiling." Once again, Hypnotic provides a pleasant surprise and a substantial increase in quality. -- gz
	John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers / Silver Tones - The Best of / Silvertone (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "I Could Cry" Don't let the title fool you -- this isn't the best John Mayall of all time, but rather the best of John Mayall on Silvertone (which includes 3 CDs dating from about the beginning of the decade to the present). So if you were hoping for tracks from the legendary early days of John Mayall playing with Eric Clapton and John McVie you're out of luck here. If you want to know what the patriarchal UK bluesman has been up to lately Silver Tones - The Best of is calling your name. Cameos by Mick Taylor and Buddy Guy are selling points. Think Roomful of Blues with a vengeance, or what the Saturday Night Live house band wishes it was! -- nw
	Ester / Hotel Hypercube / Thirsty Ear (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Heading Through" It's crunchy! It's riffy! It's droney! Ester combines powerful guitars, staccato drumming and throaty vocals into a dense concoction bubbling with rock and roll intensity. Though there's a distantly Eastern audio aesthetic at work here, the overall effect is more along the lines of what you'd get by taking a circa-1991 grunge band and shutting them up in a rehearsal space for seven years -- a streamlined beast that draws power from cohesion rather than chaos. The mellower songs, especially "405 south", are the best -- you can almost hear them crackle with restrained power. -- gz
	Sara Ayers / Voices / Dark Wood (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "The Choosing" Combining the dreaminess of Enya with thirty years of psychedelic folk-rock aesthetics, Sara Ayers isn't going to click with everyone. Layered over, under and within sparse guitar and mandolin melodies, Ayers' voice sometimes seems detached from the music (and everything else), as if she's performing her vocals during an out-of-body experience. The effect can be a little morbid sometimes, though when it works -- as on "The Waiting Room" and "The Choosing" -- it works well. If you're an introspective type, you'll probably love it. -- gz

nw - noah wane | gz - george zahora | am - andrew magilow