Champale / Simple Days / Pitch-A-Tent "Hard to Be Easy", the stunning first taste of these Simple Days, is beautifully sung, played and produced. While Mark Rozzo's songwriting works the same deceptively simple chords that Stamey and Holsapple have strummed blessedly through our lives, his singing is a notch above them -- more on a par with Norman Blake. Because "Hard to Be Easy" still earns the repeat button on its tenth play, Rozzo's smooth and easy voice could make it the ubiquitous number one hit you never wind up hating...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Matt Schickele / Cities Filled With Lights / Feldspar While all of the playing is solid, the real appeal here lies in Schickele's ability to strike a mood. Each song is self-sufficient and complete, so on a track-by-track level the disc is successful -- but a greater pleasure comes from listening to Cities Filled With Lights as a whole. At this level, it yields the same satisfaction as a great collection of short stories: individual pleasures are enhanced by unraveling the hidden threads that run through the seemingly separate units...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Squarepusher / Go Plastic / Warp It’s clear that in his two years away from the scene, Jenkins has immersed himself in the world of dub-reggae and San Francisco’s thriving glitchtronica underground. He demonstrates that he’s the king of glitch on the aptly titled "Go! Spastic", a song whose lightning-fast breaks and caterwauling programming are enough to make even the mighty Kid 606 wet himself. "The Exploding Psychology" gives us Jenkins at his Scientist-aping best...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Aroah / Cuando Termines Con Todo, Habra Terminado Contigo / Acuarela Aroah is based in Spain, but Irene Rodriguez Tremblay, the young, lovely-voiced woman behind the music, is American (I think). Her Vega-esque voice and simple guitar are backed up by generally subtle, nuanced bass, drums and occassional keyboards. The songs are melodic enough to catch your ear without really being poppy, and rely more on atmosphere than they do on hooks to keep you interested. Once that atmosphere is established, it's really Tremblay's voice and lyrics that make things happen...more»
		Babes in Toyland / The Further Adventures of... / Fuel 2000 More so than the Riot Grrrl bands who were, roughly speaking, their contemporaries, the Babes flew in the face of the male rock establishment, though not so much because of their feminist tirades or idiot savant approach to music-making. In fact, Lori Barberra was (and probably still is) one of the best drummers around, hands down, and Kat Bjelland can snarl, growl, shriek, and yes, sing with the best of them. They just rocked, and they rocked hard...more»
		Bonny Billy / More Revery / The Temporary Residence, Ltd. Newly rechristened Bonny Billy (it beats 0{+>, I guess), Will Oldham gives us More Revery. The aptly titled ode to influence is an Ira Kaplan grab bag of covers running the musical gamut from P.J. Harvey to John Holt. Originally released as a tour-only EP, the disc, now available "over the counter", is some of the best material the Bonny Billy camp has released in years. The album opens with a cover of "Someone's Sleeping", by Mamas and Papas founder John Philips...more»
		Jenny Choi and the Third Shift / Grand and Ashland / Ona Choi doesn't bother with double entendre, or Tori Amos rip-roaring either. She's post- everything: post-feminist, post-Tori, post-DIY, post-riotgrrl, and she carries it all off with the confident panache of a second-waver. Bitter, dried-up feminist musicians can wither a little bit more with the knowledge that Choi's multitudinous talents come courtesy of their earlier efforts -- though they'll be comforted by the fact that their success is the reason Choi's work is considered mainstream...more»
		Gravitar / Edifier / Manifold Before playing Gravitar's newly issued "lost" album, a better safety precaution than putting your trays in the upright and locked position would be to make sure that your volume knob is turned down -- way down. Edifier's first song, "#1 11/22/97", drops you in medias res, headfirst into a spiraling pit of churning sound. Combining the flowing improvisation of free jazz with the bombast of heavy metal (free metal?), the three young men of Gravitar rachet up the volume...more»
		Jungle / Long Time No See / Scratch Jungle has made a determined effort to cast themselves as an early '80s flashback rather than a serious band, but the facade collapses when the band begins to play. It's a little difficult to hide great melodies and expert musicianship. If these guys were indeed one of that bands that emerged during that thankless era, you'd remember them as legitimate, skilled musicians. To further attempt to explain their sound, try to imagine if Wilco's Jeff Tweedy was a member of Kiss...more»
		Mark Lanegan / Field Songs / Sub Pop Field Songs is a fragile, thoughtful record strengthened by the purposeful direction of Lanegan’s poetry, which never lingers longer than necessary and sometimes isn’t there at all. The languid, sensual feel of "Blues for D" is punctuated by its lack of vocals, though you can somehow still sense words screaming through the guitar-work like amputated limbs. Here, Lanegan seems to capture the real secret of blues: no matter how bad it hurts, hurting still feels more like something than the nothing of loneliness...more»
		Super Chikan / Shoot That Thang / Rooster Blues While Super Chikan scratches out his share of 12-bar blues for the purists in the audience, he also shuffles and delves into a bit of boogie-woogie, bending the lines between traditional gut-wrenchin' depresso-tales and gutsy R&B. Even when telling the tale of the blues, Super Chikan puts an ironic twist on it by kicking up a storm about off-kilter topics, like land-leveling with the Mennonites or speakin' the truth when you should keep your trap shut...more»
		Swell / Everybody Wants to Know / Beggars Banquet Swell has a style that’s easy to recognize, yet hard to put your finger on. They began their career with a country vibe, then moved closer to mature indie rock in the late nineties. Everybody Wants to Know sounds familiar in its catchiness, but its style is completely unique. Solid rock beats and driving bass lines provide the ground for Freel’s fuzzily-distorted guitars to converse in swoops, stabs and trills. Each song uses the same basic building blocks...more»
		Terminal 4 / Self-Titled / Truckstop Terminal 4 is the latest project from cellist-composer Fred Lonberg-Holm, whose elegant salon pop is quite nicely showcased here. The most obvious distinguishing feature here is the eclectic instrumentation; in addition to Lonberg-Holm's cello, double bass and trombone feature prominently. When guitars do rear their heads, they are tamed and tightly controlled. There's nary a drum to be heard on the album, and only one song, "She Caught Herself", has vocals...more»
		Tricky / Blowback / Hollywood The disc's promotional package is Cliff's Notes for the US radio DJ who has never heard of Tricky. The list of accomplishments ("Rolling Stone named...", "Genre Bending UK native..") is followed by a list of the album's key guest stars. I can hear the stock DJ voice in my head saying "If the Red Hot Chili Peppers will play with him, this guy must rock!" Moving beyond the packaging to the material, Blowback includes a few songs that seem custom built to satisfy various radio format standards...more»
		Various Artists / Unwired: Africa / World Music Network Clearly, the idea of any homogenous "world music" simply does not work. Every country has a different history; as such, a different culture, and therefore different music. Such differences are clearly illustrated by Unwired:Africa, which was issued by Amnesty International and the people who produce the Rough Guide series. The only common thread running through the album is that each track is a) African and b) acoustic. It should thus come as no surprise the style of music veers wildly from track to track...more»
		Molly Zenobia / Wind Chains / Self-Released Most listeners will be able to recognize elements of Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Aimee Mann in Zenobia's music. The Tori Amos comparison almost goes without saying; both Amos and Zenobia favor the piano, and their vocal styles are similar. Fortunately, Zenobia lacks the overpowering emotional baggage that made listening to Amos' last few albums such a chore. You'll recognize the delicate, occasionally blustery piano/vocal combination used on "Porcelain" and "Fade"...more»