== ISSUE 210 ==== CONSUMABLE ONLINE ======== [May 17, 2000] Editor: Bob Gajarsky E-mail: editor@consumableonline.com Managing Editor: Lang Whitaker Sr. Correspondents: Daniel Aloi, Joann D. Ball, Chris Hill, Bill Holmes, Tim Kennedy, Jon Steltenpohl Correspondents: Michelle Aguilar, Paul Andersen, Christina Apeles, Niles J. Baranowski, Jason Cahill, Matthew Carlin, John Davidson, Andrew Duncan, Matt Fink, Krisjanis Gale, Jade Hughes, Paul Hanson, Scott Hudson, Jianda Johnson, Steve Kandell, David J. Klug, Reto Koradi, Robin Lapid, Wes Long, I.K. MacLeod, Al Muzer, Wilson Neate, Mike Pfeiffer, Linda Scott, Don Share, Scott Slonaker, Kerwin So, Chelsea Spear, Michael Van Gorden, Simon West Technical Staff: Chris Candreva, David Landgren, Dave Pirmann Address all comments to staff@consumableonline.com ; subscription information is given at the end of this issue. ================================================================== All articles in Consumable remain (C) copyright Consumable and their author(s). ================================================================== .------------. | Contents | `------------' REVIEW: Phish, _Farmhouse_ - Matthew Carlin REVIEW: Tom Maxwell, _Samsara_ - Michelle Aguilar REVIEW: Gus Gus, _Gus Gus Vs. T-World_ - Andrew Duncan REVIEW: XTC, _Wasp Star_ - Wes Long REVIEW: Clem Snide, _Your Favorite Music_ - Matt Fink REVIEW: Soundtrack, _Love & Basketball_ - Joann D. Ball REVIEW: Radford, _Radford_ - Scott Slonaker REVIEW: Portastatic, _De Mel, De Melao_ - Christina Apeles REVIEW: Euroboys, _Long Day's Flight 'Till Tomorrow_ - Wilson Neate REVIEW: Vagabond Lovers, _When I Was You_ - Jon Steltenpohl REVIEW: Aloha, _That's Your Fire_ - Christina Apeles REVIEW: Various Artists, _Heal the Bay_ - Andrew Duncan REVIEW: Simon Stinger, _Devil On My Mind_ - Joann D. Ball NEWS: Ben Folds Five, Promise Ring, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult TOUR DATES: Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, Dismemberment Plan, Dope / Primer 65, Alex Gopher, Korn, Lifter Puller, Magnetic Fields, Phish, Skint (record label) tour - Brassic Beats, Elliott Smith, Sally Taylor, The The, 3 Doors Down, Tonic, Train / Gas Giants, Veruca Salt Back Issues of Consumable --- REVIEW: Phish, _Farmhouse_ (Elektra Entertainment) - Matthew Carlin Trey Anastasio is an excellent musician, an amazing guitarist and even a great composer. As a songwriter, however, he stinks. Whether he's wailing on '70s arena rock style anthems, strumming his way through dopey hippie ditties or whispering a country-fied Americana tune, his songs lack that magic element that makes music great. At his best, on a song like "Heavy Things," the first single from _Farmhouse_, he is simply adequate. Where Anastasio's talent does lie -- and the same goes for the rest of Phish -- is in setting moods. Despite their legions of doggie paddling fans, Phish's ethereal jams have always owed more to Sun Ra and early-'70s Miles Davis than the Dead. When they loosen up and take structure, melody and rhythm into outer space, Phish can be truly sublime. Conversely, when Anastasio writes a hundred different intricate parts in distinct composerly fashion, Phish is also sublime, albeit in a cerebral way. There are certainly winning elements on _Farmhouse._ Anastasio's guitar tone is fantastic, his solos are fluid and melodic without getting hokey like Jerry Garcia often did, the recording itself sounds live and punchy. On the whole, though, _Farmhouse_ is just plain boring. The title track lacks a hook and pseudo ballads like "Bug" and "Sleep" rehash territory from Phish's past two studio albums. When they eschew Anastasio's still weak voice and lyricist Tom Marshall's wretchedly shallow hippie lyrics ("When I jumped off, I had a bucket full of thoughts / When I first jumped off I held that bucket in my hand / Ideas that would take me all around the world" from "Back on the Train"), Phish still has some undeniable charms. "The Inlaw Josie Wales" is a pretty instrumental with lovely accompaniment from Bela Fleck on banjo, Jerry Douglas on dobro and fine, subtle work from pianist Page McConnell; "Gotta Jibboo" is a fun and funky with a clever horn arrangement and nifty backing vocals that recalls Phish live circa 1996; and the rolling dark bass lines, tasty drums and, as always, fine guitar playing over the thankfully distorted vocals of "Sand" and the triplet polyrhythms of the vocal-free "First Tube" offer up some of what Phish is capable of. Paring down his songs to their "essential" elements does not suit Anastasio and his band mates. The songs just aren't good enough to withstand such proverbial nudity. Phish fans have always preferred long, complicated pieces like "You Enjoy Myself" and the 30-minute jams that "Tweezer" turned in to live, because that's what the band is best at. Phish is not a radio friendly band, and never will be. When they try to be, it just ends up being uncomfortable for everybody. --- REVIEW: Tom Maxwell, _Samsara_ (Independent Record Company) - Michelle Aguilar Reading the press sheet that accompanies the reviewer's copy of this former Squirrel Nut Zipper's solo venture, one would think that Tom Maxwell's new album _Samsara_ is going to fall into that small rock-musician-explores-faux-world-beat category I like to call "gone troppo." This is when musicians who have heretofore enjoyed mainstream rock success abandon said rock world to chase their inner musical demons across the globe. Think Paul Simon in South Africa, David Byrne in Brazil, Stewart Copeland in Burundi. Wait a minute, I'm showing my age again, aren't I? Dammit. In its first paragraph, Maxwell's press release tries to separate him from the SNZ camp by implying that he just had to escape the straitjacket of the Zippers' image in order to get to his real self, the one that communes with "a fury of passionate diatribes on music from the Far East, India, Trinidad, America's South and New York's Harlem." Well, suffice it to say that as much as I love Tom Maxwell and all the 'round-the world influences he brought to SNZ, this is not a "gone troppo" album in my book. With a few exceptions, _Samsara_ is not all that giant a leap away from what Maxwell was doing in the Zippers. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Maxwell had a consistent track record with SNZ, writing most of their singles, some of them my favorites (including "Trou Macaq," and "Put A Lid On It"). He also wrote all the band's calypsos and I'm a sucker for that stuff. But I suppose that's beside the point, now isn't it? So why did Maxwell leave the Zippers? I really don't know and neither Mammoth (http://www.mammoth.com) nor Maxwell (http://www.tommaxwell.com) seems to be saying. And despite what this press release says, nor does a listen to this solo venture provide a solid answer. While there are five or six songs here out of fifteen that probably would have never made the SNZ cut, I have trouble believing that songs like "Sixes and Sevens To Me," "The Uptown Stomp," "The Mooche," (a Duke Ellington cover, for God's sake) "If I Had You," "Caveat Emptor," "Don't Give Me The Runaround" or "You Always Get What's Coming" would have been considered stylistically inappropriate for the SNZ's typically smorgasbord albums. Maxwell even has female torch singers standing in for Katherine Whalen (Holly Harding Baddour on "If I Had You" and Mrs. Melanie Maxwell on "Flame In My Heart"), although, to be fair to these two fine vocalists, Baddour and Melanie Maxwell carve out on their own valid ground and in no way attempt to duplicate Whalen's tricks. In particular, check out Baddour's mock-Chinese opera performance on "Some Born Singing." Most of these are catchy, interesting songs exploring the depths of '20s, '30s and '40s music that reveal themselves more after a few listens. Like the SNZ albums, _Samsara_ is a little of this and that, although here Maxwell widens the scope a little to include old-time country and the blues. They are generally more true to the genres they lionize than the Zippers ever managed to be with its sheen of loving hipster irony. This album sounds less slick than the SNZ's last album, "Perrenial Favorites," and more often like a guy left in the studio to simply do what he does. It evokes in a charming way the relatively casual attitude with which old blues singers were once recorded. Sure, there are also a few interesting departures into world music, such as "Some Born Singing," the title track and the transcendental, all too-short instrumental, "Indicatif," which features a Chinese sona. (Go look it up, I had to.) But I assert that the majority of these songs would find fans among many SNZ lovers, if they came them half a chance. So, then what split the Zippers? Given the above, band politics seems suspiciously to blame, an idea lent credence by the fact that SNZ member Ken Mosher also recently left the Zippers camp. But then, Maxwell has formed his own label, The Independent Record Company (http://www.independentrecordco.com) and may have simply realized that he could make a lot more money selling his own solo albums than begging for two or three songs per album at the SNZ table. The Mammoth marketing machine and the SNZ's cool cat image present certain economic advantages to which Maxwell will no longer have access now. But, hopefully, those advantages will eventually even out and Maxwell's songs will be judged for what they always were in the Squirrel Nut Zippers -- not quirky, inexplicable alternative hits, but an exploration of a time and place when folk and pop music were not mutually exclusive. --- REVIEW: Gus Gus, _Gus Gus Vs. T-World_ (4AD) - Andrew Duncan With their second release _This Is Normal_ gaining the proper respect in the electronic community, the nine-piece Icelandic outfit certainly has no shortage of talent. Who else has the art of blending ethereal pop and new wave ethics with finely defined techno from a collective of artists, filmmakers, musicians, a politician, a computer programmer and a teen star? With _Gus Gus Vs. T-World_, the band is actually taking a relapse in time. Before there was Gus Gus, there was T-World, a band consisting solely of Biggi Thorarinsson and Herb Legowitz, the two members responsible for turning Gus Gus into the underground phenomena they are today. The seven songs - all instrumentals - that are included on this CD are mostly T-World's work prior to Gus Gus' debut _Polydistortion_. The most familiar track on this CD is probably "Purple," a bouncy, outer space techno song that crossed over into _Polydistortion_ release, and also remixed by Paul Oakenfold on the _Tranceport_ CD. Influenced by a healthy dose of Depeche Mode and early industrial, T-World's style offered a sound that contained motion, glistening across a vast landscape of sampled textures while building and expanding like the polar ice caps that drift across the Arctic Ocean. Without the crafty vocal wit that is displayed on the Gus Gus albums, songs like "Northern Lights" and "Sleepytime" offer elegant trip-hop rhythms and loops, even with the flat four-on-the-floor beats, a feat that not too many musicians can pull off. Whether the band develops distant tribal and subtle ambience on "Anthem" or mysterious trance on "Esja," there is not one dull moment to be had, and that goes a long way given the fact this music was created years ago. --- REVIEW: XTC, _Wasp Star_ (TVT) - Wes Long Stop any person walking down the street, ask them if they've ever heard of XTC, and if they don't say it's a drug or a band that Michael Hutchence once fronted (INXS) they'll likely shake their heads no. If you actually run into the rare person familiar with the lads, odds are that they're unaware that the band recorded anything after the 1980's. XTC's history is a long strange trip, and if I ever care to print this review I don't dare go into it all now as I've only got three new ink cartridges and a few thousand sheets of blank paper in my printer. For those curious the best starting place is the Chalkhills site online: http://www.chalkhills.org/ _Wasp Star_ is XTC's second release of new material in as many years. Their _Apple Venus Volume 1_ garnered grand accolades in 1999, a sometimes brilliant mix of acoustic and orchestrated pop which Andy Partridge referred to as "orchoustic." The new album is a return to form of sorts, much more electric and immediate, called "eclectric" by Partridge. "This is definitely an 'up' record," Partridge voiced, "the mood was very light and the album had the least amount of birth problems." The happy-go-lucky XTC of old rears its lovely head from the get go with the opening riff of "Playground," which is aided by the backing vocals of Andy's daughter Holly. "Stupidly Happy, the pick-up line aplenty "We're All Light" and "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" continue the put the top down and sing along at the top of your lungs vibe. The last three songs: "You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful," the lush "Church Of Women" and the jaw dropping "The Wheel And The Maypole" are as good as anything Andy's ever done. These are straight-ahead guitar-driven pop tunes of the highest order with finely honed hooks that you won't mind being snagged by. Bassist and only other member of XTC, Colin Moulding, continues his trend of precious little output with three cinematic offerings in league with last years "Frivolous Tonight" and 1992's haunting "Bungalow." This is an album better than most, recorded by an ever-surprising and horribly under-appreciated band. Once under your skin no tweezers exist capable of prying this little marvel out. _Wasp Star_ is an early contender for album of the year. --- REVIEW: Clem Snide, _Your Favorite Music_ (Sire) - Matt Fink It appears as if the current alternative-country scene is in danger of not really being sure of its direction. With most of the more noticeable old guard of the movement seemingly wanting to distance themselves from the No Depression sound, such as Jeff Tweedy leading Wilco into more experimental territory and the Jayhawks and Son Volt leaning towards more progressive sounds, few of their contemporaries seem to be able to push the genre along. To be sure, there is as much mediocre music being made on the banner of retro-country as there is good. The fact of the matter is, it's not easy to make good country music anymore. Doing so takes a delicate balance of reverent musicianship without redundancy, while maintaining enough of an irreverent edge to create something new and vibrant. Luckily, Clem Snide is capable of picking up where the aforementioned digressed and, more importantly, move the whole genre forward a step or two. For the uninitiated, Clem Snide craft delicately multi-textured country music with charmingly sophisticated arrangements, all wrapped around the abstract surreal musings of songwriter Eef Barzelay. In short, if Vic Chesnutt wrote an album's worth of songs for the Jayhawks to record, and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips showed up to produce, this album, or a close approximation, might be the outcome. Like Chesnutt, Barzelay writes songs in an strangely understated way, with each listen revealing a little bigger piece of the puzzle. Though the music is really far from folksy, mundane small town life is presented through the eyes of those burnt out from the 9 to 5 grind. From the achingly beautiful opener, "The Dairy Queen," driven by carefully picked acoustic guitar and mournful violin and cello, to the classy rewrite of Richie Valens' "Donna," Clem Snide prove themselves more than capable of putting the brains back into what is left of the alternative country movement. As with most bands with this inclination, the ghost of Gram Parsons can be seen hanging around the corners, with the chord progressions and nice harmonies in the gently swinging "Exercise" and the low-key "Bread," which sounds so much like a Parsons' song that you almost expect Emmylou Harris' backup vocals to be ringing in the background. Of course, Clem Snide don't limit themselves to apathetic country balladry, as the muffled dance drum beats of the quirky sing-a-long "I Love the Unknown" will attest. The spooky space country of "1989" and the impressive Wilco mixed with Neil Young ballad, "Loneliness Finds Her Own Way," speak volumes of the depths that this band is capable of reaching. Characteristic of the songwriting here is the stripped down "Sweet Mother Russia," which is a fine example of Barzelay's ability to bring out the beauty inherent in every moment and to toss off some interesting metaphors in the process. At any rate, he's one o