Alta May: We As In Us (CD)
Seattle rock. Completely generic and faceless formula college rock band that sounds like every other cloned unit from Seattle. MTV-ready. I hated it, but it got added to currents, so apparently some djs at KUSF could stomach it. I just don't get it, it's obvious. Your call, pal. (Cactus)
Amy Annelle: A School of Secrets (CD)
Now, we get literally truckloads of that fashionable no depression/alt country shite dumped on us weekly, but this one was not only tolerable, but proved to be the proverbial diamond in the rough. Ms. Annelle has a wonderful and spooky record here, with an intoxicating neo-ambient take on country/folk skeletons. Would be perfect on a live bill with Faun Fables. Recommended. (Cactus)
Azure Ray: November (CD)
Dreamy indie pop with girl vox. Sometimes reminiscent of Elliot Smith, sometimes Suzanne Vega. All tracks are good. Debut album. (Dean Pickles)
Burnt By The Sun: Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution (CD)
Good good good good grindcore, with death metal touches. Decent, thoughtful lyrics, tho you've got to read them to find out--listening to them will get you nowhere. Members of Human Remains and Discordance Axis. For fans of Dillinger Escape Plan--tasy loud rock that kicks ass without sucking ass. Plus, a song called "Don Knotts." (Uncle Brad)
Cornelius: Point (CD)
More fantastic experimental noise and pop, from Japan. A lot of experimental pop--all of it seems very pretty. His re-write of "Brazil" is fantastic. (Dean Pickles)
Dirty Sweets: Bubblegum Damaged (CD)
Great punk, a la Lolli and the Chones. Angry, female vox by Penny Tration. Play loud and often. (Miles)
Jewlia Eisenberg: Trilectic (CD)
Remember Charming Hostess (a Vaccination label band)??? Jewlia was the leader of that group, and almost all of the members of Charming Hostess appear here as well (oriented around the ladies, with the gents on only a few tracks) as well as members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Faun Fables. "Radical Jewish Music," heavily focused on twisted overlapping vocals (in Hebrew, in many cases)...Great! (Prem)
The Flying Luttenbachers/
Total Shutdown/
Burmese live 1/29/2 at The Stork Club
Elvis and I made our way to Oaktown to catch Weasel Walter, et al, and their free jazz+death metal noise spiel. We got there typically late, but caught the last 3 songs of grindcore unit Burmese. Excellent and raging group. The Flying Luttenbachers this time around were drums, and 2 bass players going through a buttload of effects boxes. It was awesome and pummeling and funny, as expected. The show turned into a big fight when one of Walter's drunk roadies went beserk and grabbed one of the mics from the drums and started screaming and berating the crowd for being avant-garde poseurs. The dude was like on a G.G. Allin freakout tip. Weasel Walter could not control the man, and the set proceeded in a dysfunctional, albeit entertaining, manner. They finally had to stop after about 30 minutes due to impending riot. Great show. Long live The Flying Luttenbachers! Oh yeah, I taped it. Email me if you want a dub. (Cactus)
Groove Collective: Lift Off (CD-EP)
Failure at lift off, a la The Challenger. Limp, weak funk that sounds like the sort of music they used to play during the post-tournament wrap-up program for 70s golf coverage on ABC's Wide World of Sports. I bet college Republicans would get off on this at their recruitment parties. Groove, I did not. (Cactus)
Guinea Pig: Out of Town Live at the Hotel Utah (CD)
East bay improv unit with genius sax man Rent Romus, and others. It's 2 saxes, drums, and cello. Moves nicely between noise and melody and the textures are engaging and inventive. Recommended skronk. (Cactus)
Neil Michael Hagerty: Plays That Good Old Rock and Roll (CD)
2nd solo album from 1/2 of Royal Trux. Sloppy, raunchy, fucked-up psyche garage blues-y Stones-y rock, sometimes with strings and boogie swagger a la Bobby Conn (or Royal Trux, for that matter, I guess). Fuckin' GREAT. Sorta Brother J.T.-style. Note: song order on the back cover is WRONG. Oh yeah, he used to make noise with Jon Spencer in Pussy Galore, too. (Uncle Brad)
Heart Attack: The Last War (CD)
Heart Attack was a fast-playing, short-lived, old-school punk band from NYC. They helped rule the NYC underground scene from 1980-1984. This record contains previously unreleased tracks from that period. Heavily influenced by the Clash, the Ramones, and Crass, Heart Attack helped pave the way for the modern hardcore scene. Short, fast-paced tracks with chord hooks, demonstrates how they were pivotal in structuring what we now know as hardcore punk. Check it out. (Miles)
Hefner: Dead Media (CD)
Synth-ridden, electronic britpop. Reminds me a lot of Carter USM's best work, or Space's first album. Most of the songs are fairly melancholy--making me think of this as a Jarvis Cocker-y interpretation of The Faint. (Dean Pickles)
Interfearence: Take That Train (CD)
Electronic music with a heavy ethno/world vibe. Very smooth and unchallenging soundscapes. Good record to introduce your parents, or other squares, to electronica. Won't scare them, or anything. This is the kind of thing you hear profiled on NPR--not bad at all, but absolutely zero danger value. (Cactus)
Al Jardine, Family and Friends: Live in Las Vegas (CD)
The title says it all. Al Jardine has taken the best performances from a series of shows taped at Las Vegas' MGM Grand. With "Live in Las Vegas," Al leads a front-line consisting of sons Adam and Matt, and Brian Wilson's daughters Carnie and Wendy (Wilson Phillips) and a solid backup band which features former members of the Beach Boys touring band. Al and Music Director Billy Hinsche (Dino, Desi and Billy, Beach Boys touring band) insure that the musicianship and vocals are up to the standards set by Brian and Carl Wilson. The set list consists of a healthy dose of Beach Boys "standards" combined with some lesser-known Brian Wilson "gems." Each of the family takes a turn on lead vocals; "friends" Hinsche and Bobby Figueroa (BB touring band) share the lead on "Sail On Sailor." Included as a bonus track is a studio recording of a new Al Jardine original, "California Energy Blues." Available at www.aljardine.com. (Doctor Midnight)
David Kilgour: A Feather in the Engine (CD)
Very nice. From the great 80s New Zealand pop band The Clean, this guy's been making solo records thru the 90s--this is like his fifth, first for Merge. Lovely watery folksy psyche, some instrumentals. Tunes and vibe recall Syd Barrett, Skip Spence, Velvet Underground. Terrascope's gonna love it. Only complaint: at 38:50, it's too durn short. (Uncle Brad)
KUSF Benefit 1/6/2 at Great American Music Hall
With
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum,
Mark Growden's Electric Pinata,
Splatter Trio, and
Faun Fables.
Certain to be one of the best shows (if not THE best) of 2002, this ungodly sonic conflagration of sweat, grit, wit, and audacity drenched attendees in a searing potion of rock, folk, jazz, avant garde...and elements not subject to rudimentary categorization. Faun Fables opened the show, stirring up a bubbling cauldron of mystical Appalachian folk and, though not outwardly threatening, engendering ominous undertones of malediction. The Siren and the Beast (Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl)...in counterintuitive synchronicity. Splatter Trio next graced the stage, scorching the audience with the boiling oil of unbridled improvisation--only occasionally mutating into deceptively stable rhythms and riffs to mollify the uninitiated. After a hiatus of several years, Splatter Trio (Gino Robair, Myles Boisen, and Dave Barrett) has returned with an agenda of musical deconstruction. Mark Growden's Electric Pinata then swung its virtual bat and in one fell swoop shattered the fragile and artificial body of the Vile Creature of Preconceived Notions, showering upon the gathered masses a delightful assortment of ear candy. Mark imbued the outlandish with the traditional...and vice versa...with his unpredictable accordian backed by a tapestry of guitars, gongs, horns...and other sounds not easily described. Members of Rube Waddell also joined for some malevolent cameos...And then Sleepytime Gorilla Museum stormed the scene. From the intricately intense rhythms of industrial-waste percussionist Moe! Staiano and drummer Frank Grau to the eerily fluid/harshly rigid electric violin and voice of Carla Kihlstedt to the ravenous howl and unforgiving guitar of Nils Frykdahl to the bass rumblings emanating from the homemade contraptions of Dan Rathbun, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum defied defiance with a subterfuge of mastery shrouded beneath the veil of absurdism. Members of butoh dance outfit Inkboat (with whom SGM performed "Cockroach" at Thea
Artaud)took to the stage to lend an impression of elegance...'Twas a Grand Closing, indeed. (Prem)
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Eye-Popping Sounds Of...(CD)
Great stuff...samples of dialog and music from the original splatter films. Lewis started out making early, Russ Meyer-type nudie cuties, but saw a market in gross-out flix, so switched gears. The highlight of his careerwas the bloody trilogy: Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs, and Color Me Red...Blood Red. Mostly heavy organ music, some crazy pop songs (check out his theme to The Pill). Local filmmakers Dan West and Rick Popko are currently working with the aging, Florida-based Lewis on a biopic. (Dean Pickles)
Jackson Moore/Jessica Pavone: Duos, Solos (CD)
Sax and violin improv pieces. Nice. Dunno if they are local. They'd fit in just swell at the Luggage Store Gallery. Recommended. (Cactus)
Papa M: Whatever, Mortal (CD)
Papa M is David Pajo, legendary indie-hero-boy guitarist from Slint/Tortoise/lots of stuff, now trying his hand at making a Leonard Cohen record. It's nice. His second now-I'm-a-singer-songwriter album, with far better results than his last try. Atmosphere's loose and relaxed, but searching, tunes slight but pretty. Oh, Larry, where art thou? (Uncle Brad)
Rent Romus: pkd vortex project (CD)
Another killer release from local sax shaman Rent Romus, this time it's music inspired by the writings of Phillip K. Dick. Wide-ranging and mind-bending live recordings. Romus should by now be as well-known as David S. Ware or John Zorn, so catch up, comrades. (Cactus)
Sinombre live 2/7/2 at The Edinburgh Castle
Local distortion-pop quartet. Great but short blast of crunchy and melodic pop noise. They remind me most of My Bloody Valentine, with elements of Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground. Gabriella's lovely voice soars above and within the wall of ringing guitars, and the new drummer is a caveman genius walloper in the mold of Keith Moon. Within the at times languid and meandering music there is a tenseness and a nervousness that keeps folks transfixed. They'd be a great opening act for Subarachnoid Space. Mason? (Cactus)
The Spits: S/T (CD)
Stripped-down modern punk. Play it loud. (Miles)
Various Artists: Give 'Em The Boot(CD)
Okay, there are a few good songs here, but most are truly marginal offerings from the punk poseurs of the Hellcat/Epitaph stable. There's more to it than wearing fucking patches on your leather jacket. (Miles)
Chuck E. Weiss: Old Souls and Wolf Tickets (CD)
Old-school bluesman. The real deal, not like the mediocre, watered-down bar band pseudo-blues shite you see all too often at the Blue Lamp, Biscuits and Blues, etc. This is pretty fucking raw and rocking, and if you are a fan of RL Burnside, you will almost certainly wet your pants, chum. (Cactus)
