Johnny Vance, Air, Leni Stern, Pedal Faster Bicycle Rider
The Hammertoes, Spearmint, Grandaddy, IQU with Miranda July
Soul Junk/Danielson Famile, Pierre-André Arcand, Ramble, 20 Minute Loop, Dumptruck, 22 Jacks

	Johnny Vance / Johnny Vance / self released (CASS) Sample 30 seconds of "One Dance (with "Mia Farrow")" Johnny Vance plays what I always think of as "American Rock." You know: John Mellencamp, Bryan Adams (okay, he's Canadian, but we'll forgive him), that sort of thing. The music's pretty straight-ahead semi-bluesy rock and the singing is, well, some guy singing. Don't get me wrong -- I like some of Mr. Mellencamp's songs just fine, and I've been known to sing alone to "Summer of '69" now and again. And while Vance's music and voice are just about on par with the other American Rockers, his songs tend toward the generic. The exceptions are the first track, "One Dance ("With Mia Farrow")," which wins for goofy lyrics of the month ("Yeah with Mia Farrow, You be Queen I'll be your King, I'd never chase your offspring"), and "Fifteen Minutes," which wins for being the song that finally convinced me that in the future not only will everyone be famous for fifteen minutes, but they'll also write a song about how in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. Unfortunately there's nothing really new or exciting on this cassette, and Vance seems to be stuck in territory that others have explored more effectively before him. -- ib
	Air / Premiers Symptomes / Astralwerks/Source (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Modular Mix" I can't listen to Air's Moon Safari any more without thinking of Laetitia Casta (and, to a lesser degree, silver lipstick, and to an even lesser degree, Qualcomm phones). That's what good commercial licensing will do, I guess. So if Moon Safari was the French analog synthpop equivalent of having Laetitia Casta show up at your house, Premiers Symptomes is the French analog synthpop equivalent of having said buoyant French supermodel drive down your street, slowing down a bit as she passes your house. This seven-track early singles compilation is good, but it's nowhere near as good as Moon Safari -- enjoyable but not essential. Of course, my wife is much prettier than Laetitia Casta, so I'm somewhat indifferent to my own metaphor; you may find the Premiers Symptomes experience far more essential to your ongoing happiness. (Ladies, cross out "Laetitia Casta" and fill in the name of your favorite Frenchman...or even better, don't.) -- gz
	Leni Stern / Recollection / Leni Stern Recordings (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Someday My Prince Will Come" On Retrospective, jazz-guitar heroine Leni Stern looks back at 13 years and 10 albums' worth of work. She includes such classic moments as the beautiful duet with Bill Frisell, "Someday My Prince Will Come" and the joyful "Somebody's Something," recorded with her own band and David Sandborn on sax. What makes Stern shine is her willingness to bend the definition of jazz -- her willingness to pursue a musical vision that isn't easily pigeonholed. Particularly on her more recent tracks (5 out of 16 tracks on the CD are new), you'll hear a musician who isn't afraid to make liberal references to pop and blues influences. Recollection is a beautiful collection of contemporary jazz and jazz-like music from a consummate musician, and is worthy of the time of any lover of well-crafted music. -- nw
	Various Artists / Pedal Faster Bicycle Rider: Holiday Matinee Compilation #1 / Holiday Matinee (CD) Sample 30 seconds of Adam Voith's "The Minor Rock Star III" For those of you who don't follow the music world as closely as we writer types are expected to, Holiday Matinee is a publicity company. Their roster includes a lot of the names you'll find on this year's edition of Indie Rock Trading Cards -- Tristeza, Pedro the Lion, Very Secretary, Jejune, Sharks Keep Moving and a whole mess of others. As with many such compilations, there's a fairly narrow focus -- you're basically getting indiepop and emo, some of it good and some of it goodness-challenged. Three exceptions to the formula come from Adam Voith's novel Bridges with Spirit (soon to be reviewed in Splendid's "other media" section, which will have a better name when it launches, we promise), read by the author. Unfortunately, Mr. Voith is a writer, not a vocal actor, and his rather perfunctory delivery, combined with an intrusive and unnecessary music bed, shortchanges the passion of his narrative. His tracks make decent listening -- they just don't sell his book. And that's okay, really, because with nineteen tracks of indie goodness, the CD should sell itself. -- gz
	The Hammertoes / I too have sinned / Tortuga (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Place the Blame" Incorporating gypsy, flamenco, lounge-jazz and world influences, The Hammertoes demonstrate a sinister sound that crosses the raspy vocals of Tom Waits with the bewildering confusion that is Firewater. And while the tuba, clarinet and bongos all sound good 'n' wholesome, there's something dark and evil lurking in The Hammertoes' minds. It's a collective mindset that fashions a CD with an underlying current of excitement that'll leave you with a bit of paranoia, some sweaty palms and an uncanny feeling of uneasiness. -- am
	Spearmint / A Week Away / hitBACK (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "We're Going Out" A Week Away is a simple pleasure. Straightforward pop from beginning to end, it incorporates club beats, sixties lounge and eighties new wave influences, creating a frothy, anthem-spewing concoction that's damn near addictive. Spearmint reveal their rock chops on "It Won't Be Long Now", and on "We're Going Out" they create four-and-a-half minutes of utter brilliance -- a culturally grounded recreational anthem with a New Order-evoking refrain that'll lodge itself solidly in your forebrain. Ahhh...that's grand. -- gz
	Grandaddy / Signal to Snow Ratio / V2 (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "MGM Grand" On this prequel to their forthcoming album (the ironically titled Sophtware Slump), Grandaddy show that the world hasn't passed them by quite yet. Throughout these four songs you'll hear scratchy tape loops, robotic vocals, piano, buzzing guitar and strange gurgling electronic noises. Who can't love that? "Jeddy 3's poem" is an android love song, seemingly to no-one at all, augmented with whispy vocals and subdued keyboards. "MGM Grand" is a whizzing tale of embarrassment as well as being a backhanded homage to the legendary film studio/hotel of the same name. Signal to Snow Ratio finds Grandaddy comfortable with the fact that music just might save them yet. -- jj
	IQU with Miranda July / Girls on Dates / K (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Girls on Dates" Organic techno recompilers IQU provide a humanized take on Warp Records' output as they provide backing for two of July's incisive spoken-word pieces. "Girls on Dates" spins a tale of indistinct atrocity -- part courtroom drama, part confessional, part therapy session -- amidst a warm, womb-like rhythm. "Kida Co-Coma" gives us the mother and best friend of a comatose girl, arguing over her welfare as we observe from a distance -- perhaps from the patient's own perspective. Each track gets a remix from the IQU crew, but these ultimately seem a bit unnecessary; the potential of the Miranda July/IQU pairing isn't fully exploited, and two more original tracks would've been welcome. -- gz
	Soul Junk/Danielson Famile / Insound Tour Support Series No. 2 / Insound (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Wax Presidential" This is the 2nd release in the ongoing Insound Tour Support Series, in which your favorite online music shop releases a limited edition CD (1000 copies) featuring tunes from a currently touring band. Said band sells half of the discs on the road, and Insound sells the other half. This release features six live tracks from two "Christian Rock Greats" (according to Insound), Soul Junk and Danielson Famile. Not being a Christian Rock devotee, I admit that at first I wasn't really sure whether the bands were goofing on Christian Rock or not. Apparently not, and I can safely say that this is the weirdest Christian Rock CD I've ever heard. There's a definite 'revival' feeling to the whole thing, with lots of shreiks, sing-alongs, handclapping and the like. "A No No - Blackout" by Danielson Famile has a distinct "Krishna youth chanting on the corner" feel to it, while "Wax presidential" by Soul Junk is more alterna-rocky, with Pixies-esq vocals and a lo-fi vibe. There's even a rap of sorts on Soul Junk's "Graveyard Style." Oh, and did I mention handclapping? There's lots of handclapping. Plus Jesus. Whew. It's a strange CD. -- ib
	Pierre-André Arcand / Le Livre Sonore et Les Machines Animales / Avatar/OHM (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "The Return of the Carriage" Is it a bestiary inhabited by feral recording equipment? Perhaps. Is it a perspective-adjusting examination of art installations? Possibly. Is it explained, for the most part, only in French? Yep. If I don't seem to grasp the entirety of The Resounding Book and the Animal Machines, it's because my understanding of French has faded almost to nonexistence. I can, however, grasp that microphones have been manipulated in nontraditional ways to produce animal-type noises, and that these individual chapters of animal movement fit into an over-arching, if extremely loose, narrative. It's very cool to listen to, though -- probably even more so if you're not obligated to write about it afterwards. -- gz
	Ramble / Yeah, Whatever / Ultra Groove (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "I Wanna Fly" If what you really want in life is story-oriented, mid-tempo, bluesy-rock in the spirit of Hootie and the Blowfish, Yeah, Whatever is for you. This album has been extensively tested to verify its cross-over appeal. Focus groups were held to determine that people between the ages of 18 and 55 love this album (really!). It is billed as being not too loud, not too quiet, not too hard, not too soft...just right. Unfortunately, while this may be perfect for Goldilocks, its blandness leaves me somewhat cold (and last time I checked I was between the ages of 18 and 55!). I'm not entirely turned off by this CD -- some tunes are pleasant -- but the overall effect is that of a nicely homogenized project. Maybe you could buy this for your mom next Mother's Day. -- nw
	20 Minute Loop / 20 Minute Loop / 20 Minute Loop (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "She Hated Dogs" It's not easy to make "quirky pop". One misstep and you've got "wanna-be-quirky pop", characterized by massive radio airplay, huge album sales, a slot on the current multi-band festival of choice and, six months later, a personal credit counselor and a promising Assistant Manager gig at Starbucks. 20 Minute Loop write quirky pop. Had the Pixies and XTC not happened along, 20 Minute Loop's bristling rock ditties would seem far more unnerving; instead, the task of Being Odd is largely relegated to the band's lyrics, which paint a lurid cubist picture of hookworms, death, sex, failure, airplanes, fire, disfigurement and evil, rendered in high style via the vocal interplay of Kelly Atkins and Greg Giles. 20 Minute Loop will seize you by the ears, shake you violently, spin you around until you're nauseous and leave you lying on the sofa covered in a cocktail of your own vomit, bile and saliva. Or, if you're less susceptible to imagery, you can just listen to it. -- gz
	Dumptruck / Terminal / Devil in the Woods (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Terminal" Yes, that Dumptruck. Seth Tiven and co. released three underappreciated albums back in the mid-eighties before resurfacing in 1995 with Days of Fear. If you're heard Dumptruck before, the only surprise you've got coming is that they're still around; Terminal is another brick in the REM-style country rock wall Tiven's been building for fifteen years. It's a good album, and it's got that College Nostalgia Factor going for it, but the whole genre has been abused, mined and abandoned. Terminal is better than most other efforts in the field -- especially the blistering "Swept Away" -- but for best results, remove similar-sounding bands from your listening diet for a few days before giving it a spin. -- gz
	22 Jacks / Going North / Side One Dummy (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "All I Can Do" When you're not out creating a new sub-genre, your best bet for gaining attention is nailing down a particular genre with a solid batch of tunes. 22 Jacks has all the necessary ingredients for pop-punk perfection: tightly-knit tunes, harmonious choruses, crafty lyrics and a secret stash of energizing puissance. Smart like Bad Religion yet fun like NOFX, Going North will satiate the staunchest pop-punk rocker's musical appetite. -- am