OUR WEEKLY COLLECTION OF SHORTER REVIEWS | |
Bulbul,
Puerto Muerto,
The Strokes,
Paul Steven Ray,
Structure Factor 8,
Bablicon,
Count M'Butu Orchestra,
Monster Movie,
Membranaphonics,
Khan,
Jamie Solow,
Nataraj XT,
Betty Already,
Crushstory,
Weezer,
Superglider Sampler,
Adam West,
Common Heroes,
Mezzanine~C14,
Random Access Music Machine - U.S. Pop Life Vol. 7: Experimental,
Spacious International,
The Autumns,
Symphony for Heartbreak - U.S. Pop Life Vol. 9: Seattle-Portland,
No Motiv,
Sunday Flood,
Portastatic,
Mars Parker and the Hi-Fi Circus Act,
Ruby,
Echo Orbiter,
The String and Return
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Bulbul / Self-Titled / Trost (CD)
This is a weird mix of post-grunge/cut 'n paste/noise improv/rock 'n
roll from Austrian guitarist Manfred Engelmayr. It makes absolutely no
sense at all! An early 1990s serious-boy-in-flannel track is followed by
a quirky new wave spazz out, and a glitchy electronic thing with a silly
Monty Python chorus and bad drum machine comes right before a sparse,
Pixies-flavored quiet/loud number. The rockier stuff is pretty bad; the
weirdo stuff is pretty good. The titles are great: "Meek Bomb Rattle
Droplet", "I Can Dance Like Dschingis Khan", "It's Not You and It's Not
Your Bike". If Bulbul were to drop the boy rock and focus on their
weirder impulses, I think that they could make a pretty great CD. This
one isn't quite there yet. -- ib
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Puerto Muerto / Your Bloated Corpse Has Washed Ashore / Action Driver (CD)
Tim Kelly and Christa Meyer are the married duo behind this frequently
wonderful act, whose 19 songs show them to be raggedy Mekons obsessed with
show tunes, shanties and AMC movies. All the songs, as the title might
suggest, have dark undertones, but there are many moments where
Puerto Muerto simply sound enamored with the German cabaret. "Orphans of
Stockton" and "Das Vidania" are beautiful ("They talked about croquet and
the boys from war") and very cinematic (boys talking "with their feet in
time"), while tracks like "San Pedro" climax to tango lust and hoofing
screams. Aside from the duets, the songs work best with Christa on vocals,
as her vocal gifts capture a larger portion of each song's potential
emotional content. Still, no matter how much they bring to their great
material, nothing suggests that Ute Lemper could not cover them and make an
even greater dance of doom, bloated with the sweetness of profundities. -- td |
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The Strokes / The Modern Age EP / Beggars
Banquet/XL (CD)
Did you catch The Strokes in any of their high-profile
opening slots earlier this year? I saw them with Guided By
Voices and was duly impressed; they're a robust rock band,
punk more in execution and in sheer style than in sound. Vocalist Julian
Casablancas bucks current trends by singing --
crooning, even -- rather than shouting and screaming,
which works well with the classic-pop-flourish-laden music. I think
this is the same EP the band was selling while on tour, and Beggars
Banquet doesn't seem to have remastered it. Perhaps
they should have, as the sound is a little odd; Casablancas'
vocals seem overmodulated, as if they're hitting a very low
ceiling. It's hard to tell if this is a deliberate (albeit
ill-considered) effect or the by-product of a no-frills
recording process, but it detracts from the overall
listening experience. Fortunately, the three songs here are
among the catchiest tunes in the band's arsenal, and
recording quality aside, they're more than sufficient to
interest me in The Strokes' (presumably) forthcoming full-length. -- gz
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Paul Steven Ray / Psyche Lounges / OVRG (CD)
Like a storm over the ocean, the experimental jazz of Paul Steven Ray combines
waves of ambient white noise with rumbles of thundering bass and drums and
the crackling lighting of guitar. Ray's distinctive piccolo bass guitar
joins bass, percussion, violin and what sounds like a fully-loaded rack of
effects pedals to create the kind of art-jazz which, as the years pass,
becomes as firmly entrenched as the more traditional forms it once
moved to supplant. For two decades, Ray has been prowling the downtown
hipster corridors of New York, playing with a wide range of influential
groups and side men. Unfortunately, little distinguishes Psyche
Lounges from dozens of other fractured, post-Sonic Youth tone poems;
most tracks go on far too long, leaving the listener behind. Electric
guitar and drums take off on a moderately interesting excursion into the
ether on the third track, "Lounge #4" (five of these tracks are numbered
"Lounges", while two are titled), but it's hard to shake the feeling that
it's all only so much noodling. Swinging between quiet moodiness and the
stomping volume of a garage band, Psyche Lounges might have something
for everyone, but a more apt description might be "too much for anyone". -- rt
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Structure Factor 8 / We Beat Penicilin / Ionik (CD)
Drawing heavily upon his hard to pinpoint, esoteric pop influences, Michael
Winters, the brain behind The 8, dishes up another round of infectious
melodies, bustling with his slightly irritating, somewhat whiny and
always effected vocals. Winters does a good job
keeping your mental faculties on their toes, as obviously, there's some
sort of tumor growing up in his cranial space, causing him to spazz out
with subconscious ramblings and catchy hooks that border on pop genius. As
whacked-out titles and uncanny lyrics rumble across your brain, Winters
magically transforms the mutterings of a presumed madman into deeply
satisfying pop gems. Hey, If you can make a tune called "Samuel the
Translator" rock out -- and boy does it -- you've just gotta be doing something
right! -- am
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Bablicon / A Flat Inside a Fog, The Cat Was a Dog / Misra (CD)
I guess it's no longer cool to rock. Just ask Bablicon. These days, Jeremy
Barnes & Co. think it's hip to play music that
owes more to Charlie Parker than it does to The Clash. A Flat Inside a
Fog, The Cat Was a Dog is this experimental trio’s third album, and let
me tell you, it wants nothing at all to do with a power chord. Sounding
something like Stan Getz on a week-long coke binge with Don Van
Vliet (Captain Beefheart) and Liberace, A Flat... is nothing if not a total
mindfuck of a record -- not to mention a veritable museum of Things That Make Noise.
Melodica, fuzz organ, clarinet, oisac keyboards, tape loops, painful vocals and various other brass, woodwind and stringed instruments all make their presence known over the course of the album’s sixteen tracks, creating an eclectic if uneven sound. "Saumur / Paris / Teatowels" is the closest Bablicon have come to capturing the sound of Barnes’ former group, Neutral Milk
Hotel, while at the other end of the spectrum, "Travelling" is so tedious
that you’ll be thanking your lucky stars when (after nearly 8 minutes)
it finally ends. Despite its toned-down and at times monotonous
sound, A Flat is a Fog, The Cat is a Dog is an enjoyable, if ultimately unnecessary, addition to your record collection. -- jj
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Count M'Butu Orchestra / See the Sun / Terminus (CD)
Wow, I really dig this stuff! Percussionist Count M'Butu has played with a
veritable litany of performers over his life -- everyone from The Allman
Brothers to Phish to Chief James Billie to Parliament Funkadelic. He's an
accomplished musician, as See the Sun clearly demonstrates. It's
full of tight, sophisticated Latin Jazz that benefits greatly from the
Count's African music roots. Argentinean vocalist Graciela Lopez adds much
to the equation as well; her seductive, Spanish crooning is a key element
in the album's success. Generally speaking, the vocal strength on display here is impressive. At times I think I'm hearing a modernized Lambert, Hendricks
and Ross, so much am I impressed by the vocals on what isn't
technically a vocal jazz album. "Algo Se Quema" is precisely what I mean:
it's sultry, it's hot, it's sexy -- and the rich, hip vocals do nothing but
underscore this attitude. My one complaint about See the Sun is its
less-than-optimally-attractive packaging, but this just supports Irving's
theory that the quality of the music on a disc is inversely related to
the attractiveness of its packaging. -- nw
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Monster Movie / Self-Titled / Clairecords (CD)
I was pretty excited when this CD arrived. Since
Christian Savill's departure from Slowdive in '95, I've wondered what became
of him (he and bassist Nick Chaplin left for points previously unknown, while the remaining members formed Mojave 3). Now teamed with Sean Hewson, Savill is again
creating some really great music. It's not Slowdive all over again, but it
does have a bit of the same shoegazer feel to it, though this time around
there's more guitar pop and less ambience. Highlights are the layered "Rovaniemi", with lots of fuzz
and feedback, and "Crash Landing", which toward its end includes a sound effect that
sounds just like the noise the Bionic Woman made when she jumped off a
six storey building. The only disappointment, really, is that this is only a five song EP. Bring on the full-length album! -- al
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Various Artists / Membranaphonics / Monitor
(CD)
The ten tracks on this compilation are intended to highlight the drummer's role in music-making, and it does well with this ambitious goal. True, stray
guitar and vocal lines wander around, but the beat always comes to the forefront. Kyle Crabtree's "To Drown is to Live" is an
especially impressive example; marrying gentle guitar arpeggios to
a martial rhythm, the rolling drums have the same trance-like feel that
Martin Atkins turned into a career. Other tracks tip the hat to trash
can percussion, simple goth patterns and some truly far out moments which
completely eliminate rhythm. Together, they make an entertaining
collection for people interested in what drummers can do when left to their
own devices. -- rd
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Khan / No Comprendo / Matador (CD)
Can Oral, aka Khan, the Turkish, multi-named and sometimes-talented, always busy producer/Coyote figure, is back with an album of sleazy conceptual collaborations. Unfortunately, the man who, in a stroke of genius, promoted his last album sporting nothing but his underwear and a martini glass, and started a gay sex line, "1-900-GET-KHAN", to tie in with the album's title, has failed to top himself. No Comprendo's basic premise is this: Kahn specifically produces an electronic music track for a particular vocalist, then lets the featured performer have full creative control of their vocal tracks. Maybe Khan should have given the vocalists something more interesting to work with, instead of creating tracks so stereotypical to each singer’s style. As a result of this misstep, the album is stylistically disjointed. Kid Congo Powers, Lenni Schipp, Jon Spencer and Andre Williams all give mediocre performances over dull tracks, while Diamanda Galas’s "Amen" is horrible to the point of being stupid. The only two winners are the mysterious Julee Cruise of Twin Peaks fame, and former Atari Teenage Rioter Hanin Elias, who adds her truly sexy hardcore styling to "The Bee". I’m not against the sleaze, sex, feces and cannibalism going on on No Comprendo -- just the bad music. Sorry, Matador. Sorry, Khan. Sorry, listener. -- ea
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Solow's childlike, wispy alto sounds like Carly Simon trying to hit a high note beyond her register. If you remember the moment in "That's The Way I Heard It Should Be" when Simon sings "He wants to marry me", you'll have heard, mentally, what Jamie Solow sounds like. Solow recaptures a period -- namely the
early '70s -- in which folky female singer/songwriters melded traditional folk tunes or themes with their very modern (and at the time inflammatory) personal and
political concerns. Riddles is far less political, perhaps because women of the '00s feel that feminism is largely a dead issue; relationships and natural objects (flowers, boulders, ferns, ocean waves and so on) are the main concern of Solow's lyrics. Even if you abhor the period of musical history that Solow explores and enlarges upon, you've got great reason to admire the artistry of her voice. She also pulls in some solid instrumental performers: Patty Weiss (who
played the violin and composed the music for The Truth About Cats and Dogs) and Kenny Kotwitz on accordion. Accordion generally reminds me of Blob's Park and oom-pah-pah bands, but Kotwitz blows past all that, sounding more like updated "Ma Vie En Rose" accompaniment -- the best compliment I can think of for accordion music. Perfect for dinner parties or those Harvey's Bristol Creme-type romantic moments, Solow's Riddles are a
great puzzle for you to solve at home. -- js |
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Nataraj XT / Tandava / NuTone
(CD)
Let's not mince words: the whole "mixing world music sounds
with techno beats" concept has been pretty well played-out,
at least as far as the most obviously techno-friendly
musical styles are concerned. Nataraj XJ's approach --
fusing Indian ragas with pulsating electronic rhythms -- is
hardly unexplored territory. The music is competently
produced, sitar and sarod and other instruments lovingly
meshed with the beats, but it brings nothing new to the
party. In the end, it's the electronic elements that
disappoint; despite some promising beginnings ("Kirwan"
starts particularly well), each track eventually settles
into a highly linear 4/4 groove in the 120-140 BPM range.
With such minimal variation, Tandava all too easily
blurs into a single sixty-one minute track -- and a
none-too-memorable track, at that. -- gz
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Betty Already / Amerimaniacs / Fly Lyla (CD)
This band is ridiculous, with a naked pig as their cover art and a bassist
named Icky Boom. But I mean that in the best possible way. They share
camp factor with the B-52s, although they don’t really sound like them.
They have moments where they sound like X with a sense of humor. The
songs themselves are energetic, with fast tempos -— a good amount of rock, but not
really rockin’ per se. The vocals on "Fire Drill", the album's third song, sound startlingly like The Truth from Causey Way. It may just be Kitty’s sultry, deep vocals, but for a second there I had to stop and check the disk. -- az
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Crushstory / A + Electric / Pop Kid
(CD)
On this debut full-length,
Crushstory fuse awkward, Robyn Hitchcock-inspired
antics with the nasal-yet-forceful vocal stylings
of a pre-1990 Elvis Costello, producing an urgent and compelling album of
pop. The disc works best on songs like "White"
or "...New Rock", in which the group disregards the
posturings of a contemporary rock band and worries about developing pure-pop songs.
These two songs are truly spectacular efforts, and would stand tall
against the best the new Weezer album has to offer,
but the rest of the album makes a half-hearted attempt to recapture their charm.
We can infer a few things from this: A) the band obviously
has it in them to construct a lasting tune, and B) this is
their first release, and debut albums traditionally
suffer from a lack of maturity. For those
who aren't big on logical deductions, A + B allows us
to deduce C: namely that, with a little more experience and
ingenuity, Crushstory could become an underground pop
mainstay. -- td
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Weezer / Weezer (green album) / DGC (CD)
After five years away from the
game, Rivers, Brian, Pat and Mikey return to the sidelines with Weezer
(and no, you're not mistaken, this is indeed the group’s second self-titled
effort). Produced by king-of-slick Rik Ocasek, the group’s first outing
in half a decade finds them mining rather familiar musical territory.
Eschewing the darker leaning of 1996’s Pinkerton, the band has crafted a
sound more akin to their eponymous 1994 debut. "Don’t Let Go"
kicks things off in fine fashion as big, fuzzy riffs and gobs of melody
pour from every conceivable nook and cranny. "Photograph" is a hit
single waiting to happen, offering roughed up surf guitar, hand claps and
Rivers Cuomo’s familiarly demure delivery. The boys slow things down a
bit with the dreamy "Island in the Sun", then kick back into
overdrive with the crunchy, harmony-laden ode to
lost innocence, "Crab". They pull out their rock pants and cap-sleeved
tees for "Smile" and "Simple Pages", while (ironically tinged) lighters
will certainly be aloft for their closing paean to love, "O Girlfriend".
It's blink-and-you’ll-miss-it running time and rather hefty price tag
are the album’s only real drawbacks, proving that even after
five years away, these kids can still write tunes that get stuck in your head
for days. -- jj
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Various Artists / Superglider Sampler / Superglider (CD)
Superglider is a UK-based independent record label specializing in a DIY, organic, ambient-pop sound. Their sampler introduces us to six relatively unknown but highly promising acts. Factotum's "Progress" rolls in slowly with swirling clouds of backwards
guitars and warm keyboards, reminding me of Tortoise at their most elusive.
Betika, described as "classically trained musicians trying to unlearn
everything they know", give us the most interesting tune here -- "The
Bierdigan" is a strangely appealing pop song with tight, melodic guitars,
old-school drum machine and a robust female vocalist singing about Freud and
impregnating someone. Two similar performers, Seamonster and Tex La Homa,
bring us ultra-mellow folk songs over sedated drum machine rhythms, with
similarly hazy results. The remaining tracks, by Line and Robot Dog, cover
more traditional drum 'n' bass territory, propelled by violent soundscapes.
Superglider is off to a fine start at creating a unique
niche, and I'm post-rooting for them. -- ea
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Adam West / Piece of Ass b/w Iron Chain / With an X (7")
Like '60s garage punk greased up with classic offerings from the MC5 and early AC/DC,
Adam West guns through two brawny and well produced
scorchers on this sexually charged single. "Piece of Ass" struts coyly,
like a liquored up wastoid, ready to lay into someone with a good smack in
the face. The flipside, "Iron Chain", sets forth on a crushing mission of
merciless guitar riffs and gung-ho drumming, as Jake Starr's throaty vocals
show a side of smug, lean 'n' mean resolve. Both of these tunes are classic
rockers, pumping barely controlled overdriven mayhem into your veins as
their true rock 'n' roll recklessness boils your blood. Catch your breath while you can;
this slab of vinyl gets better and better as the volume on your stereo
goes higher and higher. -- am
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Common Heroes / The Robin Sings / Self-released (CD)
The Robin Sings arrived in a marbled folder, and the letter
inside said: "Greetings from NW alt-rock band Common Heroes!" So I was
prepared for the worst. I was wrong. This is a terrific CD! Sure, it's
pretty straight-ahead, Radiohead-meets-Queen modern rock, but it sounds
great and the songs are melodic, well orchestrated and super catchy. Not
only that, but the singer has a really wonderful, clear, sincere voice,
and the lyrics are for the most part clever and honest. If all rock
bands were this good, I wouldn't be so grumpy on CD review day! I hope
these guys take off. -- ib
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Mezzanine~C14 / Self-Titled / Break Even (CD)
Long Island by-way-of Chattanooga band Mezzanine~C14 (no, the name isn't explained) don't exactly reinvent metal on their debut album, but they do provide a short, sharp burst of
loud instruments, hollered vocals and unfocused aggression that should
boil the blood of heshers everywhere. Tempos vary (slightly), lyrics
are unintelligible (mostly) and song titles like "Epidemic Lately" and
"Murder M.F." give little away as the trio of Chris Lanza, Jason Spears,
and Will Walker surfs through a half-pipe of heavy grooves. Shards of
melody occasionally break the surface of the band's flood, often carried
by the bassline. Mezzanine~C14 don't offer much innovation, but this
well-constructed album might just have you pulling out your old Sabbath
tee in tribute. -- rt
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Various Artists / Random Access Music Machine - U.S. Pop Life Vol. 7: Experimental / Contact (CD)
All of Contact's U.S. Pop Life compilations do a good
job at presenting an outsider's view of the Stateside pop
scene. While Volume 7's "Experimental" aegis seems a
little gratuitous -- are The Faint, National Skyline or
Kilowatthours really experimenting with anything? -- it
makes for an intriguing, if wildly uneven, mixture of sounds
and styles. That's not a bad thing; a good compilation,
particularly one that purports to be "experimental", should
offer a few jarring transitions and peculiar sonic
juxtapositions to keep you on your toes. From the dizzy psychedelic squelches
of the Swirlies and the abrasive, percussive urgency of the Flakes to the vaudeville peculiarity of Snooze and the Colossal Yes and the frying-pan-in-the-face brutality of Arab on Radar, there's not much here that'll give you reason to doze off. With any luck,
the music will distract you from the fact that while there are
sixteen artists on Vol. 7, the disc has only thirteen
tracks (all the songs are present, but in a few cases two
songs have merged into a single track). Take a close look
at the informative, error-explaining card inside the
shrinkwrap before you start matching band names to songs. Once you've
figured out, you can begin enjoying pop jems--
gz
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Spacious International / Self-Titled / Screw Music Forever
(CD)
This Tampa, Florida quintet seems to define themselves by their use of
cheap keyboards, which is a shame because they're a lot more than a
gimmick. Sure, their synthesizers sound like the cheap gear you buy as a
teenager because it's what you can afford, but as my music shop dealer
always said, "It's not the number of keys on the board, it's how you use
‘em." And this band knows how to use them. Their melodies are simple and
catchy, with the instrumentation providing solid-yet-unobtrusive support.
This makes for lightweight but non-fluffy pop music that draws in jazzy
soloing on tracks like "Sense of Wealth and Being". This is a fine disc,
far exceeding the expectations created by the band's self-deprecating humor. -- rd
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This volume of Absalom Records’ 3" subscription series finds The Autumns
pitting their musical wits against songs originally penned by
The Smiths, Nick Drake, Lift to Experience and David Lynch. They
strip Lift to Experience's "Wish the World Behind" down to its basest
elements and draw out every last glimmer of hope before gently
putting the song to rest. Their sprucing up of Nick Drake’s "Time of No
Reply" doesn’t improve on the original, instead taking it into the
outer reaches of space via loads of FX pedals and astral percussion.
However, their version of The Smiths’ "Please Please Please Let Me Get
What I Want" leaves something to be desired -- mainly a tune and some
backbone. Bad Morrissey impressions aside, this Covers EP is a nice
introduction to a young band with some real potential. -- jj
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Various Artists / Symphony for Heartbreak - U.S. Pop Life Vol. 9: Seattle-Portland / Contact
(CD)
This motley assembly of bands from the Pacific Northwest, including
familiar icons like 764-HERO, Red Stars Theory and Norfolk and Western,
aims at unearthing tomorrow's "contemporary pop music." Since the majority
of these tunes aren't your typical verse-chorus-verse pop numbers, it takes
a bit more aural interaction to discover each artist's marked musical
niche. The Swords Project's magnificent guitar epic has a beautiful,
full-bodied aura that unexpectedly manipulates would-be math rock
into the pop spectrum. Similarly, Grandrapids' "Song 10" pollinates
overdriven guitar lines with accessible melodies, producing a hybrid pop
product that melds noise and catchy melodies together. Besides the
irritating mastering error that combines multiple artists onto one track,
forcing you to fast forward into the track to hear your favorites,
Symphony... successfully pinpoints a number of known and aspiring
Northwest bands, documenting their unique musical perspectives on aluminum. -- am
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No Motiv / Diagram for Healing / Vagrant (CD)
More emo. I like emo, in case you didn’t know, but even I get tired of
hearing it -- especially as all emo bands have the overwhelming tendency to sound alike. No Motiv are more pop-punk than your average emo band, and
lead vocalist Jeremy actually sings most of the time as opposed to screaming, which is a
pleasant surprise. The kids’ll probably love this album...and who could
blame them? Diagram for Healing is completely accessible, catchy,
energetic, at moments tender without being wussy. Songs like "Broken and
Burned" and "Going Numb" perfectly express the 16-19 year old suburban angst
of No Motiv’s mostly male fans. But to my jaded ears, it just sounds like
another emo-pop record. -- az
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Sunday Flood / Advisory / Sun Sea Sky (CD)
It's hard to believe Sunday Flood have been around since 1995.
Advisory is the full length release from this vaguely
religious band with a vaguely religious name; the last word on their album,
which appears where bonus tracks normally hide, is the explicitly unholy
word "Fuck". That seems to be the "bonus" that Sunday Flood provides to its
listeners; the songs on Advisory show the group, even after five
years, to be maniacally uncertain, as willing to die for a melody as to
kill those which approach. When they sing the quiet, aptly named "Hush Falls", one senses
they're anxious to rock -- and when they do rock, on tracks like "Hymnal" and
"The Vessel", the songs sound as if they could easily be turned into ballads. Advisory
is a very hard record to sum up, as the songs -- even after being
recorded -- feel like unfinished thoughts. The ideas are by no means bad, but there are too many loose ends. Rather than thirteen distinct songs, we get thirteen slightly melodic "tributaries" that aren't sure which river they want themselves, or their audience, to cross. Listening
to Advisory, I felt like Adam must have felt when an angel
appeared and said "Mary will have a baby." Thank you very much,
Angel, but do you mean Eve? And the angel said "Fuck". -- td
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Portastatic / Looking for Leonard / Merge (CD)
When you stop and think about it, Mac McCaughan has achieved just about
everything there is to achieve in the world of music. As the leader of indieicons Superchunk, he virtually redefined punk rock. As half-owner
of the esteemed Merge Records, he’s released a slew of classic albums by
a diverse roster of artists, and his collaborations with the likes of
Robert Pollard, Ken Vandermark and Jim O’Rourke have also yielded some
rather impressive results. His rather well-known and universally adored
side project, Portastatic, is also nothing to sniff at. You can now add
film composer to that long list of accolades. Looking for
Leonard is McCaughan’s first stab at film scoring (for Matt Bissonette’s
independent film of the same name), though after hearing its sumptuous
results, you might be led to believe that this is just another day at the
office for old Mac. Bereft of the manic energy that has come to
characterize both his and his bands’ work, Looking for Leonard finds
McCaughan in a relatively contemplative and somber mood that can
only partially be attributed to the film. Lushly minimalist
orchestrations propel "Stealing Romance" and "Sweethearts of the World",
while "Jo’s Plan" emits an air of muted discomfort. Other standouts
include the moody (and aptly titled) "Funeral Music" and the
Badalamenti-inspired dramatic swells of "Only Good People Wonder if They
are Bad". While it might not be the Portastatic (or Mac) that you’ve
become accustomed to, Looking for Leonard shows that even after all these years, McCaughan still has a few good tricks left up his sleeve. -- jj
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Mars Parker and the Hi-Fi Circus Act / Demo / Self-Released (CD)
On this white-sleeved calling card -- ostensibly a foretaste
of a disc called Music to Leave Your Boyfriend By --
Parker and Co. flit, butterfly-like, between styles.
Lounge-inflected pop of the rougher, funkier Love Jones
variety rubs elbows with squalling indie rock flare-ups
and radio-friendly college rock. "High" probably does the
best job of proving that the band can deliver the sort of
musical goods that people want to hear these days (mannered,
feedback-soaked instrumental riffing), while "Tricycle"
offers a promisingly catchy burst of fast-paced,
twisty-turny power pop. However, much of the disc's impact
is lost to ridiculously low recording levels; listening on
my computer, I had to crank the volume way up to hear anything at
all...and the sudden, deafening intrusion of a "you have
new e-mail" alert nearly caused me to wet myself. C'mon,
Mars -- pump up the volume! (Okay, I'm going to hell for
that.) -- gz
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Ruby / Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool / Thirsty Ear (CD)
Ruby, aka Lesley Rankine of Silverfish fame, has always intrigued me. She reminds me of a mixture of Bjork, Deee-Lite's Lady Miss Kier and the character Parker Posey played in Party Girl.
I think the things that tie them all together are their
eccentricities and their general unpredictability. Ruby
hasn't done a thing to let me down on Short-Staffed...; in fact, I
think I'm even more drawn this record than 1995's Salt Peter. She drifts
effortlessly from songs that induce a state of gloomy melancholy to tunes that make you
want to bust a move. What's not to like? My favorite tracks here are
"Beefheart", "Lamplight" and "Waterside", but the
rest are far from disappointing...unless you don't enjoy a good groove. -- al
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Take a bit of The Beach Boys and a splash of sunshine, add some punkish
attitude, stir in some of the erudite pop sensibility of The Lilys and
you've got Echo Orbiter. This record is the follow-up to 1999's A Moment
in Life That's Right, and it shows a group of musicians still intent on
creating fun, spontaneous, slightly eccentric pop music. Somewhat in the
tradition of bands like Of Montreal, Laughing All the While is a
loosely-themed album that hints at insanity as well as child-like
playfulness. It's pleasant enough to listen to, but too large a dose
becomes tiresome. "Melody to Accompany a Stroll Through a Park" exemplifies
the light, sunny fare that can be found throughout the
disc; featuring banjos, guitars, happy chimes, a piano and "la-la-la" harmonies,
it's jaunty and happy -- even manic. Is Echo Orbiter a bunch of
lighthearted kids, or are they just crazy? You be the judge. -- nw
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The String and Return / Invisible City / Sun Sea Sky (CD)
Utilizing three guitars, occasional keys, bass
guitar, drums, cymbals and one or two voices
(depending on the tune), Invisible
City is a mathy, Slint-inclined, full-force dream-pop album.
You might think of The String and Return as a Red Stars
Theory without the emo breakdowns; gaudy June of '44
guitar lines also persist throughout. Actually, the album sounds more
like Codeine than Slint. It's pretty low key,
avoiding the over-the-top eccentricities for which Slint was known.
Perhaps the only noticeable divergence from the established formula is the
series of overtly complicated arpeggios on the opening
track, "Flyweight". Overall, Invisible City is a competent but
unremarkable post-rock-style album. -- jw
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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 | rt - ryan tranquilla | al - amy leach | jw - john wolfe | az - alex zorn | ea - ed anderson
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