==== ISSUE 40 ==== CONSUMABLE ======== [May 22, 1995] Editor: Bob Gajarsky Internet: gajarsky@pilot.njin.net Sr. Contributors: Jeremy Ashcroft, Martin Bate, Al Crawford, Dan Enright, Tim Kennedy, Reto Koradi, David Landgren, Tim Mohr, Joe Silva, John Walker Other Contributors: Scott Byron, Kelley Crowley, Nigel Harding, Tim Hulsizer, Sean Eric McGill, Melissa Pellegrin, P. Nina Ramos, Jamie Roberts, Linda Scott, Ali Sinclair, Jon Steltenpohl, Jorge Velez, Courtney Muir Wallner, Scott Williams Technical Staff: Chris Candreva, Dave Pirmann, Damir Tiljak, Jason Williams Address all comments, subscriptions, etc. to gajarsky@pilot.njin.net ================================================================== All articles in Consumable remain (C) copyright their author(s). Permission for re-publication in any form other than within this document must be obtained from the editor. ================================================================== .------------. | Contents |-. `------------' | `------------' INTERVIEW: Dave Matthews - Dan Enright REVIEW: Dave Matthews Band, _Under the Table Dreaming_ - Dan Enright CONCERT REVIEW: Toad the Wet Sprocket, Roseland, New York City - Bob Gajarsky CONCERT REVIEW: Mike Watt - P. Nina Ramos REVIEW: Kate Jacobs, _(What About Regret)_ - Courtney Muir Wallner REVIEW: Jill Sobule, _Jill Sobule_ - Reto Koradi REVIEW : Quicksand _Manic Compression_ - Martin Bate REVIEW: Cravin' Melon, _Where I Wanna Be_ - Bob Gajarsky REVIEW: All, _Pummel_ - Scott Byron REVIEW: Helmet, _Born Annoying_ - Martin Bate REVIEW: King Crimson - _Thrak_ - Joe Silva INTERVIEW: Cinderella - Kelley Crowley REVIEW: Glenn Frey, _Solo Collection_ - Bob Gajarsky NEWS: Morrissey Album pushed back, Oasis Winners TOUR DATES: Cravin' Melon, Circle Jerks, Everything featuring Cameron DePalma, Offspring/Lunachicks Back Issues of Consuamble --- INTERVIEW: Dave Matthews - Dan Enright Dave Matthews and his band appear to have sprung full blown on the US music scene, but the reality is they're another 5 year "overnight" success. If your only contact with the band is the radio/video single, "What Would You Say?" that's currently making the rounds, you aren't getting the whole picture. This multi-talented group successfully mixes jazz, pop, folk, and rock & roll to create a style that is distinctly their own - and much more sophisticated than most of the music that graces the air waves. I caught up with Dave on one of the few days off from his 200 dates-a-year touring schedule. Here's his view of being a musician/songwriter and his first major label release, _Under The Table and Dreaming_. Consumable: What's been the biggest difference between playing for yourself and being a professional musician? Dave Matthews: With the grace of success comes certain obligations. You have to perform, so there's confines on it that can become frustrating. But that's why we have time off. You lose the power to write, which is my real passion. There's not too much inspiration for me to write on the road. The motel rooms and highways haven't got a terrific appeal - but it's still fun. The two hours we spend on stage every day is the thing that keeps it all worthwhile. If it wasn't for that, I certainly wouldn't be traveling around the country. C: It's good you've kept that joy of performing. DM: If we were to play the music exactly the same way and do the same thing every night - the same set - then it could get dull. But we try to keep it fresh because we feel, if we're not having a good time with the music then people aren't going to have a good time. Not really. They might come and say, "Well, that was cool... They were good..." but to really appeal to people, whether it's all of the audience or five people that are really wanting to get thrilled, we can really reach those people only if we're really havin' a good time. C: That connection of the performer with the audience - the pocket - is the real magic of music. DM: Absolutely. It happens in different ways. Sometimes it's because of us and sometimes it's regardless of us. Some nights it's like, "Ok, we've gotta' go out, we gotta' play now..." It's unusual, but if your spirit's down or you're low, the next two hours seem like a real big thing. But there's a thousand or five thousand people that have come to see us and now we have to reach to the deepest quarter in your body, the furthest spot in your soul and find the strength to put on the show they'll feel was more than worth their coming out. That happens some nights, then I think there's that pocket that is more the road, from working and working. We reach that pocket sometimes. But I know the pocket you're talking about, which is almost like being in heaven, when you're not even there. That has happened occasionally, too. C: How does the songwriting and arranging work? DM: On the albums, the way they've been recorded or the songs we've chosen - up to this point I've brought the songs to the band - here's the song, here's the melody, and here's the music - now let's arrange it. What voices do we want, where do we want to put them? Considering every single person a voice, how do we want to treat it? So that becomes a discussion we all have. Now what's happening is there's songs I'm working on, but there's also songs coming out of soundchecks - 'cause we're on the road all the time. We're playing six, seven days a week, so the only time we get to be creative is during soundchecks, if it's long enough. So, what I think is, the next album will reflect more whole-band arrangements and compositions and I'll probably just stay as the sole lyricist. At the beginning it was all songs I've written, then it's sort of been both, and now it's going to lean toward the band doing a lot of it as well. C: Is that due to the band being together so long? DM: Yeah, everyone's roles are very important. These are the same five people that were together the first day we played in the basement. There's no change. It's not me and a band. The name was deceiving more because of the lack of a name than it is a name. C: Well, you're the front man. DM: It's not really how the band works. People who have seen us live see it's definitely a five piece band and it comes across that way. There's no dancing around me, we're all dancing around the same thing. I think a lot of people that come to see us realize, "Whoa! It's not focused on him." The way I see it is, if one of us goes, we have to carefully think about whether or not all of us should go. Every member of the band - whatever it appears to people outside, inside all five of us are equal and have as much right to shout and say, "No! That's wrong..." or "That's right..." or "Change that..." or "That's screwed up... " or "I have something to say now, so I'm going to say it..." Which I think is good. There's a lot more volatility, but that's healthy. C: How do the lyrics develop? DM: My approach to lyrics is, I don't want to be trite - although on occasion triteness is good - but I don't want to be too preachy. That's a little rule I made for myself. I do feel very strongly about things that unify us, fears that unify and separate us, and love people have... everyone likes sugar. I was very lucky in my upbringing to be exposed to really special people and my family had a lot of generous-spirited ideas. I think that it's important of me to try and get that in my lyrics: a sympathy and generosity toward anyone listening, with occasional weird stories or frightening things that people in general might be able to understand. Whether or not they're going to be able to understand exactly what I'm talking about - often it's impossible 'cause I'm not talkin' about exactly anything [chuckle] - but to get a feeling. I'm just trying to not write another "Baby I Love You/Baby Don't Leave Me/Baby You Drove Me Down/Baby I'm Mad At You" or another "I'm Gonna Rock You/I'm Gonna Rock You Down..." just rock & roll. I know there's a lot of lyricists out there that don't. They're people I look at and I think that's admirable. I don't know where my lyrics come from. They're still my most feared part of music because I'm just not confident about them. C: You have to trust they'll come when ya need em. DM: Yeah. I'm afraid of words because they can be misunderstood. In some of the lyrics I'll have changes and other times, exactly what's there is what I sang. Take the song "Pay For What You Get". That one fell out like brick work. "Typical Situation" took more time. That one seemed more difficult. "Dancin' Nancies" wasn't too long, but that also had a lot more lyrics to it than what's on the song. Usually, those edits happened before we got to the studio. C: I thought "What Would You Say" seemed out of place with the rest of the album. Did you include it so RCA would have a single to release? Dave : We didn't do that one with anything in mind. It was a song that [producer] Steve Lillywhite liked, so we did that. I think one of the things that makes it stand out is it's got different instruments on it. The way we approached that song when we were recording it, was very humorously. It's definitely the pop song on the album, which made me reluctant to release it as a single. So we didn't release a single, but they did release that to radio first, so it came across as a single. C: And as a video, right? DM: Yeah. We made that after the album was recorded. It had been chosen as the single for radio, so we just went ahead and made it. C: It doesn't really capture the spirit of the album though... DM: That's why I didn't want to release it. We thought people could hear that and think, "Oh! Well, that's a wacky song." and then assume the rest of the album would be less wacky. It's kind of a trite and joking and mocking of itself, because it's nonsensical. Which is what's happening in the video. What we were kind of shooting at was the emphasis being on the emptiness, with lots of music. I'd love to do that experiment - if you took a really wacked out song and played it over and over again on the radio, it would sail. I always wanted to do that with a song like "Satellite". Check out the Dave Matthews band - they're touring all over the world, and _Under The Table and Dreaming_ is receiving airplay everywhere. --- REVIEW: Dave Matthews Band, _Under the Table Dreaming_ (RCA) - Dan Enright Dave Matthews' second album - the first on major, RCA - is a successful melding of folk, jazz, pop, and rock genres into one of the most sophisticated releases to sit on my CD player in a long time. This band displays the arranging and performing skills that only hundreds of shows and countless hours of cooperative work can produce. Assisted by veteran producer Steve Lillywhite, the quintet (Carter Beauford - drums/percussion/vocals, Stefan Lessard - bass, David Matthews - acoustic guitar, Leroi Moore - alto/soprano/tenor sax/flute/vocals, and Boyd Tinsley - acoustic violin/vocals) grooves and flows through this collection of enigmatic lyrics and infectious melodies. The album has a sound and feel I thought had been lost with '70s acts Mark Almond and Jesse Collins, except for the pop/radio tune "What Would You Say." This song seems out of place, and is not a reliable indicator of the albums' depth. It's the interplay between Moore's sax and Tinsley's violin that is the highlight of these songs. The two compliment each other in cut after cut as they trade lead lines that subtly blend into duets, then slowly separate. All the while, the songs are driven by Carter's percussive sensibility. When you layer Dave's lyrics on these intricate arrangements, you have an album that is greater than its parts. Insights, like the lament of "Typical Situation", question "Why are you different/Why are you that way/If you don't step in line/We'll lock you away/It's a typical situation/In these typical times/We can't do a thing about it", or the confusion of "Dancing Nancies", "Requesting some enlightenment/Could I have been anyone other than me?" Then there's the playful replies to the questions posed by "What Would You Say", "Don't drop the Big One.../If you were a monkey on a string?/ Don't cut my lifeline.../If you were a puppy on a string/Don't bite the mailman... or these lines from "Warehouse", Hey reckless mind/Don't throw away your playful beginnings/You and I will fumble around in the touches/And be sure to/Leave the lights on/So we can see the black cat changing colors." I wonder what he meant by that. Excellent songwriting and playing by these five gentlemen have combined to produce an outstanding album. I recommend it. --- CONCERT REVIEW: Toad the Wet Sprocket, Roseland, New York City May 5, 1995 - Bob Gajarsky Toad the Wet Sprocket, the band named after a Monty Python skit, has been touring long and hard for their most recent release, 1994's _Dulcinea_. On this stop of the tour, Toad's caravan rolled into New York City's Roseland for a 90 minute set which kept the sold out crowd screaming for more. If, for some reason, your ear hasn't been fortunate to catch Toad on the radio, think of Dave Matthews Band, From Good Homes, or Hootie and the Blowfish. If you know what Toad is about, the live show brought out all the enthusiasm which yearns to come through on their record. The hit "All I Want", from _Fear_, was what brought some fans out onto the floor. It's hard to imagine the song, which almost traces a Thompson Twins falsetto in the middle, being a dance tune, but there were people swishing and moving to the beat. Unfortunately, it was obvious that to some people, this song was all that they knew of Toad. The bandwagonners retreated back to the shadows after "All I Want", leaving the rest of the Roseland floor to the intelligent music lovers. In fact, the highlight of the evening was when Hootie, without the Blowfish, joined Toad onstage to take lead vocals on the _Dulcinea_ track, "Crowing". It's said that the songwriting abilities of an artist show only when someone else sings your song - in this case, Toad earn top marks. To say that Hootie's performance of "Crowing" was chilling is an understatement; his sincerity and passion perfectly complemented the band and drew oohs and ahhs from the entire audience. After 18 songs (and two encores), primarily from _Fear_ and _Dulcinea_ capped off by "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted", Toad left the stage. And, outside of Roseland, several thousand fans were left yearning for more - but feeling incredibly satisfied at the standout performance they witnessed. --- CONCERT REVIEW: Mike Watt - P. Nina Ramos Without so much as a "Hello we are...", Mike Watt and friends went into the first song of their set on their current tour. They started the set with "Big Train", the first track of their CD. The performance was scattered all over the stage, making it hard to focus on one thing. Mike Watt was set awkwardly in the middle of the stage. To either side of Watt were Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) and Dave Grohl (Nirvana). At the beginning of the show, the group seemed uneasy about moving around. However, once Watt got a feeling for the space, he began to whip around the stage. The band played very smoothly as a whole. They really seemed to be in touch with both what was going on with the other performances as well as their own. It was suprising that the band was thrown together in four months; bands that play for ten years don't play this well. Each peformer's personality perfectly complemented the other performers. Eddie Vedder maintained his posture and stood fast during his vocal performance of "Against the 70's". Dave Groll played both guitar and drums with the drumming whipping the crowd in to a frenzy. After playing a few songs alone, the group was joined by David Pirner (Soul Asylum) to perform his piece that appears on the CD. Pat Smear (Germs), looking barefoot and beautiful, had been on and off the stage lending a hand with the backing vocals. During Mustane's performance, Smear picked up Groll's guitar and started to play along without missing a beat. Not long after, he started to sing his part in "Forever-one Reporter's Opinion", his track on the CD. Watt played furiously behind him, while Smear stroked the mike as if it were an old lover. Despite popular opinion, Watt did play fIREHOSE songs. "Making the Freeway," and "Walking the Cow" were part of the set. The songs seemed to be a bit heavy for the Pop 'n' Grunge Crowd. But to the true fans, it was icing on the cake. The performance ran for a while and then seemed to stop dead. They ran backstage to get ready for the encore and when they reemerged, the crowd had wound down a lot. They played the encore and left. After the performance, a little crowd gathered backstage. Soon after, I got the opportunity to approach Mike Watt. I asked him if his solo career marked the end of fIREHOSE which he denied: "No no...Of course not." Outside, a crowd waited to catch a glimpse of their favorite Pop stars (Like Pop music "Superstars" Eddie Vedder, Dave Mustane, and Dave Groll) But inside, it was just like a party. I got to see a side of the performers that fans often ignore, these guys are just people. Dave Mustane looked like someone I would hang out with at a party, if it weren't for all that money - and Eddie Vedder is not very impressive in person. All in all though, A good time was had by all. And, in cyberspace...to check out Mike Watt on the web - with a different take on things - set your World Wide Web browser to http://www.music.sony.com/Music/ArtistInfo/Watt/index.html --- REVIEW: Kate Jacobs, _(What About Regret)_ (Bar/None) - Courtney Muir Wallner Kate Jacobs' second album (What About Regret) is a true find, with a unique blend of folk, country and pop musical styles. Jacobs, with her small, wavering voice, delivers a sound which is pure and endearing, giving the listener much to enjoy. The enchanting melodies are really a collection of short stories, each tempting the listener to play her ballads over and over, in search for the subtle underlying meanings. The intricate combination of instruments, played by Dave Schramm, James Macmillan, Charlie Shaw, and Jacobs herself, include acoustic and electric guitars, dobro, lap steel, organ, piano, harmonica, tambourine, accordion, autoharp, washboard and triangle. Each sound is carefully layered one upon the other, allowing the music to weave effortlessly around Jacobs' clean, wholesome lyrics, revealing a quiet beauty one would expect to find on the first sunny, crisp spring day. The entire album sounds as fresh and honest as a grass-roots demonstration or a down-home picnic. Jacobs' voice does take a moment to get used to, but the adjustment is slight and only adds to the uplifting nature of the record. The variety of material covered in her writing is incredible, ranging from "Sister," a song about a little girl with six brothers experiencing early on the dangers of always wanting what you cannot have, to "3 years in Nebraska" about a married couple growing weed (and in turn losing what you treasure most by allowing yourself the freedom to slip into something so easy, so comfortable). Jacobs speaks of spiritual growth, death, and mourning in "George Says" : "...George reads what I won't read, he sees what I won't see, but sometimes later in the night, sometimes later in the week, when I wake up breathless with that loss that chases sleep I try hard to see this world that our friend George has drawn for me." The eloquence with which she writes is magnificent. Kate Jacobs is a talented author and musician and her album _(What About Regret)_ is a worthwhile investment for those who cherish the simplicity of quality music. --- REVIEW: Jill Sobule, _Jill Sobule_ (Atlantic) - Reto Koradi Some girls have all the luck. While some female singer/songwriters, like Tori Amos, have received their well-deserved attention, some equally talented ones have fallen short of commercial success. Jill Sobule is just one example; her wonderful debut album _Things Here Are Different_, produced by Todd Rundgren, was frequently found in cut-out bins. Now, 5 years later, Atlantic gives her a second chance, and we can only hope that it will sell well enough to not be the last one. While _THAD_ was a very intimate and mostly sad album, this one is more diverse. Jill says, "There's still angst and manic depression in the songs, but at least they have a sense of humor, and hope. I had a lot of life experiences and disappointments between records; at this point, I'm kind of hopefully jaded." Not that she completely forgot about her old qualities. Some songs, like "Houdini's Box" or "Now That I Don't Have You", are still very emotional, with sparse instrumentation. Another group of tracks, like "Margaret" or "The Couple On The Street", are also quite mellow, but the piano and Jill's vocals give them a jazz kind of feel, reminiscent of Nina Simone. "Train" and "The Jig Is Up", two of the highlight tracks, have a really groovy chorus, with a strong bass line in "Train". There are also a few simple, but beautiful tracks with a strong folk influence, most clearly in "Resistance Song" and "Vrbana Bridge", somewhat less pronounced in the great "I Kissed A Girl". Last but not least there are two tracks, the opening "Good Person Inside" and "Karen By Night" that would come less surprisingly from some of the hype alternative female rock bands like Veruca Salt. They're not noisy, but they have drive, and even some (slightly) distorted guitars. The lyrics mostly tell stories, about life, people, relations. No unusual topics, but Jill has a knack of describing feelings and creating pictures by words, with a good sense of humor. "Maybe I should jump, jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, but I don't live in Brooklyn, and I don't know how to swim". Despite the rather different styles featured on the album, it doesn't fall apart at all. The songs are held together by Jill's genuine talent as a songwriter and guitar player, but most of all by her beautiful, clear voice. People that like female singer/songwriters, or even just good music in general, should give _Jill Sobule_ a chance. --- REVIEW : Quicksand _Manic Compression_ (Island) - Martin Bate Quicksand's debut, _Slip_, was one of *the* debuts of 1993. They combined Fugazi's upbeat hardcore angst with Helmet's occasional yearning drawl (think "Unsung") alomg with the ferocity and dynamics of both bands to sound simultaneously extremely sad and extremely pissed off. Their second album, _Manic Compression_, doesn't change their style too drastically. There's a little more of a traditional punk edge and an increased knack for a big pop chorus, both of which could be construed as an Offspring influence if it weren't for the fact that Quicksand's hardcore credentials stretch back at least as far as Epitaph's biggest band. The opener, "Backward", is a melodious but off-kilter clenched fist clocking in well under two minutes before "Delusional" drops into gear on a chugging riff and Walter Schrieffel's mocking "You want to tell me so bad/Who is on your guest list". This then explodes into a soaring sneer of a chorus, "Save it for one of your/other friends/or your many fans". Wonder who he's talking about. The rest of the first side tears past - 6 songs in 15 minutes - in similiar cool fashion. In particular, "Divorce" is a speedy two minutes of screwed up and knuckled down anger and "Simpleton" uses an acoustic guitar on the verses that shouldn't work as well as it does, before the smeared sledgehammer riff on the chorus. All this is is even more commendable considering the songs manage to shine through a fairly awful production. For a major-label album, the sound is surprisingly cheap and one-dimensional with the drums in particular sounding weak - the snare drum sounds like someone hitting a biscuit tin. It is obviously the sound they wanted but I can't work out why, as the songs lose some of their potential power. Things go even more awry on the second side. "Landmine Spring" begins the side as a potential hit - a mid-paced, MTV-friendly, 'alternative' rocker, behind which lurks some bitterly disappointed, unfriendly lyrics like "Did not expect this shit at all/To go through this again". This is quickly followed by the tumbling hate-fuelled riff of "Blister" but then the album just seems to lose its momentum. There's a succession of songs which seem to have all the right elements in place but have lost some of the guts and passion from inside. The clincher is the awful closer, "It Would Be Cooler If You Did" - a six and a half minute dirge which sounds like a Candlebox ballad, albeit one played by Fugazi. So, the first two-thirds of _Manic Compression_ is an excellent album despite a slightly dodgy sound and the last third is listenable if a little uninspiring and disappointing. Lets just put things down to it being the 'difficult second album' and get our asses along to the live shows. --- REVIEW: Cravin' Melon, _Where I Wanna Be_ (Seedless) - Bob Gajarsky South Carolina's Cravin' Melon is currently an unknown band striking to make it big in the national arena, but their first full length release, _Where I Wanna Be_, aims to target the four piece electrified-acoustic band for a national spotlight. An initial listen to the disc prompts immediate comparisons to harmonizers Toad the Wet Sprocket and Hootie and the Blowfish; the latter comparison is particularly apt, as producer Dick Hodgin worked with Hootie's band before the Blowfish exploded on the national scene. Further listens reveal similarities to bands such as From Good Homes, 38 Special and Gin Blossoms. The feel-good sound is what links all these groups and Cravin' Melon deliver this in spades. Particular standouts include the pseudo-title track, "Sweet Tea", which sings the praises of the drink only truly available in the South and "Running", which is the kind of song that can be stretched out at concerts with an entire audience singing and clapping along. Hodgin's golden ear has picked up another powerful southern band which is on the road to national success. Check out why on _Where I Wanna Be_. Interested fans can purchase the CD for $14 ppd. from Cravin' Melon at 101 North St., Taylors SC 29687. The band can be contacted directly via e-mail at melonheads@aol.com --- REVIEW: All _Pummel_ (Interscope) - Scott Byron The elevation of California's brand of punk-pop to unexpected commercial heights in the wakes of Green Day and Offspring has, understandably, led major labels to try and cash in. Despite the inevitable cries of "sell-out" from indie-punk purists, how can one blame a band that's slugged it out for more than fifteen years (and could legitimately be credited with *inventing* the pop-punk form) from wanting to grab for the brass ring? One can't. (Shouldn't.) Especially since _Pummel_ rocks as hard and pops as loud as any of the commercial standard-bearers of the genre. A little history. Before some of you were born (1978) the first of many incarnations of the Descendents released their first 7". With various line-ups and labels, the band released a handful of vinyl (yes!) recordings that were as fun as they were raucous. When vocalist Milo quit for good, the the remaining three (the only constancy from the very beginning being drummer Bill Stevenson) formed All, who have now had three different vocalists (currently Chad Price). So here we are with _Pummel_, and the times have finally caught up with All. They have a well deserved place in the mid-'90s pop marketplace, and they're just pounding it out rough and ready, same as it ever was. The secret to this band's success has always been and forever will be great songwriting, and this album is chock full of amazing tunes. Everyone in the band writes well, and just about anything on this album will equal the pop smarts of Green Day. Skeptics are pointed toward the first single, "Million Bucks" ("Everybody says they want a million bucks/But I'd rather have a million days with you") as well as "Gettin' There" ("It takes a lot to piss me off/But you're gettin' there") and "Not Easy" ("I'll lay my head down on my pillow and cry myself to sleep/ It's not easy being me"). Instantly hummable, lyrically wry, smart and biting, this album is a joy from start to finish. Crank it up. --- REVIEW: Helmet, _Born Annoying_ (Amphetamine Reptile, Europe) - Martin Bate Those nice folks at Amphetamine Reptile have gone and gathered together all Helmet's hard-to-get tracks from the various limited 7"s the band put out with the label between 1989 and 1993, and put them on this one handy record. Thus, we're all saved a lot of searching and a lot of money and the anally retentive elitist record collectors get slightly pissed off. This of course is a good thing, as contrary to some opinions, music is made to be heard by as many people as possible - especially when it is as good as this. The first side is the 1989 "Born Annoying" single with two unreleased tracks from the same session. The sound is rougher and less rigid than the Helmet most of us are familiar with now with everything covered in a sheen of guitar noise. The sound is sort of art-punk, a hybrid of Sonic Youth and Big Black. "Born Annoying" itself features a bout of extended guitar abuse redolent of Thurston Moore and family while "Rumble" is a frantic chase instrumental built on a, uh, rumbling bass riff; "Shirley MacLaine" is literally one half warped drawl over disturbed rock guitar and one half speedy pop hardcore; and "Geisha to Go" is PiL meets Killing Joke and possibly the only song not immediately recognisible as Helmet. The rest are unmistakeably Helmet songs, and good ones at that, albeit without the distinctive approach which has come to be their trademark. By 1991's "Taken", though, the all-important space between riffs has started to appear and the guitars themselves have started to sound more clipped and urgent. "Your Head" from the same year is prime Helmet, a sung-drawl over minor chords played with hardcore intensity. By "Oven" and the instrumental "No Nicky No" the final pieces of the sound are complete as the incredible, skewed sense of timing comes firmly into focus. From 1993 there's a straight cover of Killing Joke's "Primitive" and a re-recorded version of "Born Annoying" which is nothing short of incredible. The original's noise atmosphere is replaced with the 1993-model Helmet's machine-gun precision and impossible-to-replicate timing and the pace is tweaked and the vocals intensified to complete the transition. At 10 tracks, two of which are "Born Annoying" it's not exactly prime value for money. I could say it's 'for collectors only' but there's *way* too much good stuff on here for even the casual Helmet fan to pass by. So don't. --- REVIEW: King Crimson - _Thrak_ (Virgin) - Joe Silva The Seattle loose fit set don't need much, if any, of a caffeine jolt to pay in-concert homage to their current heroes (i.e. - the resurrected Neil Young). Good java is better spent on bands that can momentarily forego their ability to "rock hard" and create some true musical tension. _Thrak_ comes way closer to emulating the same "so wired you could chew furniture" buzz you get from a sound dose of Colombian Supremo, than the latest young and slack pack of Crazy Horse clones. You can blur the genesis of 70's art rock between enough bigger bands (Yes, Genesis) to gloss over Robert Fripp's contribution, but the there'd be a significant loss in that sub-genre's substance. Once Fripp successfully co-opted drummer Bill Bruford from Yes, thus adding some serious rhythmic muscle to Crimson, the result was never anything less than provocative. But it was the 80's configuration, adding bassist Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, Lou Reed) and string wizard Adrian Belew (Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Bowie, Zappa, etc.), that gets the nod for being able to wed Fripp's skewed sonics to Belew's melody passion. As a unit, the two produced material about everything from Kerouac to Elephants, to the proper way to prepare a lark's tongue (should you have one at your disposal). On the new LP, the standard tunings are once more virtually abandoned, Bruford's rhythms are syncopated and mangled, and the worries they had about whether their ideas would be substantial enough to warrant a reunion have evaporated. With enough inherent skill to be fussy, bizarre, or straight up melodic, Crimson seem to be in peak form - scaling back the excess when necessary, and injecting enough vim into the contents to hold your interest firm. "Dinosaur" (the first single) wraps one of Levin's most stalwart and limber basslines around some pretty pop verses and Belew's howling angst-ridden chorus. Both "Walking On Air" and "One Time" show that Belew still maintains his facility for crooning an achingly sweet ballad. After his somewhat dicey collaborations with former Japan vocalist David Sylvian, Fripp once again liberally flexes of his avant-twang to blistering success. Solo projects, and one-off teamups taken into account, this is the forum where his six string stature is virtually uneclipsable. Having no clue as to the nature of the title, _Thrak_ plays as a suitable label. Electric, muscular, blissful and spatially correct. Not to be missed in performance mode. "Experience" just wouldn't be close to the appropriate term. --- INTERVIEW: Cinderella - Kelley Crowley The cliche of overcoming adversity has been used as a marketing tool for as long as record industry people have called music "product." The struggling artist who has a dramatic story to tell usually doesn't sell a lot of CDs. But, if suffering for your work could be measured in records sold, Cinderella's new release is multi platinum. The Philadelphia band, who rose to fame at the the end of the glam years, has struggled four years to release _Still Climbing_. The ooze of blues on this record only tells part of the long story. With names like Kenny Arnoff, Jay Davison and Andy Johns involved how hard could it have been to make this recording? Cinderella's lead singer Tom Keifer talked about the tough times and how long it took from his hometown of Philadelphia. "When we came off the tour from _Heartbreak Station_ album, I was suffering from unexplained vocal problems. No doctor could find a reason for what was happening to my voice. It just went away. I finally met someone who helped me. I had surgery and had years of vocal therapy and vocal exercises. That was our first set back; it only lasted two or three years". When Keifer's voice returned, the group made plans to begin recording the album. A new set of problems began as the group tried to straighten out their drummer problem. "We got into making the record and we were having problems with the drummer whom we started working with after Fred left. We started the record and we couldn't get any tracks cut. Every time we cut a track it wouldn't be right was it the drummer or the producer. Finally we said, get rid of Andy." Cinderella had problems with the world famous producer Andy Johns. Although he had produced the two previous Cinderella records, the group was unhappy with his work. "It just didn't work out with Andy this time. He has some substance abuse problems. It really messed things up. We worked with three different drummers with Andy and we couldn't find a groove anywhere. We knew we had a bigger problem". The group brought in producers Duane Baron and John Purdell to pick up the pieces. "Magically we started finding some grooves. Once John and Duane took over the project it really started to come together. Just as everything was working, smoothing Duane's wife goes into premature labor. He has to fly out to L.A. because she's bedridden. We eventually went out there as well and we recorded some stuff there." The band came back to Philadelphia to finish the record. When the record was finally finished, it was time to start "mixing hell" as Keifer put it. "We couldn't find anyone to mix the record to our satisfaction. They mixed it about four times. We eventually ended up having John and Duane come back. It came out the way we wanted it to. Despite all the time it was all worth it in the end." During the four years it took to make _Still Climbing_ Keifer received another blow when he learned that doctors diagnosed his mother with cancer. The first single off the record is his song to his mother "Hard To Find The Words." "I wrote that after I found out she was sick," says Keifer. "It's my way of saying thanks for all she's done for me throughout my life." Since one release took so many years to record, was Keifer worried about their record company Mercury dropping them? "They were great. The understood everything that was going on blow by blow and they were cool. Besides, they know that it's more important to make a good album. We can't make a good album if I can't sing, we don't have the right drummer or the right producer. When it started getting me down I would say "we are doing what we have to do to make this record right." --- REVIEW: Glenn Frey, _Solo Collection_ (MCA) - Bob Gajarsky The second most successful Eagle, in terms of his solo career, has been Glenn Frey. Although falling far behind the success of bandmate Don Henley, Frey has managed to blip on and off the pop charts, solo, for the better part of a decade. This time has been chronicled on the greatest hits collection for Frey, _Solo Collection_. The television show Miami Vice helped propel two of Frey's most popular tracks, "You Belong to the City" and "Smuggler's Blues", to #13 and #2 placings on the Billboard charts in 1985, and earned the rock star the ability to appear in episodes of the flamingo cop show. The Beverly Hills Cop song "The Heat Is On", Frey's other solo smash, also appears in the compilation. However, these tracks are atypical of the collection of Glenn Frey's works. Much more typical is 1982's "The One You Love" - which fits in right at home on most adult contemporary stations. Like Henley, Frey has mellowed significantly with age, and the spunk, energy and rebellion shown in the 1970's died nearly twenty years ago, with signs of a resurrection in the mid 1980's. One would assume that with only twelve songs entering the pop charts, each top 100 single would be represented here. Curiously enough, that is not true; his first solo single "I Found Someone" and the title track to 1984's _The Allnighter_ are two of the four singles which appeared in the Billboard charts, but not on _Solo Collection_. For those who are still humming Eagles tracks such as "I Can't Tell You Why" and "Best of My Love", the Glenn Frey _Solo Collection_ will fit right in. But, for those whose appeal from the Eagles is on their epic "Hotel California" or their rockin' "Life in the Fast Lane", the Frey collection should be better passed up. Track listing: This Way To Happiness, Who'd Been Sleeping In My Bed, Common Ground, Call On Me, The One You Love, Sexy Girl, Smuggler's Blues, The Heat Is On, You Belong To The City, True Love, Soul Searchin', Part of Me Part of You, I've Got Mine, River of Dreams, Rising Sun, Brave New World --- NEWS: The upcoming Morrissey album has had its release date pushed back to August 1. Congratulations to the winners of the Oasis contest (Consumable Online, Issue 38). These winners are: Joann Ball, Natasha Garcia, Jennifer Garvin, Patrick Tibbetts and Holly Wiseman. --- TOUR DATES Cravin' Melon May 26 Atlanta, GA Dark Horse Tavern May 27 Murrells Inlet, SC Sandpipers May 28 Isle Of Palms, SC Windjammer May 31 Statesboro, GA Blind Willie's Circle Jerks May 23 Los Angeles, CA Dragonfly May 24 Los Angeles, CA Viper Room Everything featuring Cameron DePalma May 27 Hollywood, CA Roxbury Offspring/Lunachicks May 22 Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom May 23 Springfield, MO Shrine's Mosque May 24 Springfield, IL State Fair Coliseum May 27 Tampa, FL Expo Hall May 28 Miami, FL AT&T Bayfront Auditorium May 30 Hampton, VA Hampton U. Convention Center June 2 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony June 4 Montreal, QC Centre Sportif June 5 Toronto, ON Barsity Arena June 6 Buffalo, NY Blind Melon's Outdoor Patio June 8 Indianapolis, IN Expo Hall, Indiana State Fair --- To get back issues of Consumable, check out: FTP: eetsg22.bd.psu.edu in the directory /pub/Consumable ftp.etext.org in the directory /pub/Zines/Consumable Gopher: diana.zems.etf.hr Engleski Jezik/Music/Consumable or Hrvastki Jezik/Glazbena Rubrika/Consumable (URL) gopher://diana.zems.etf.hr:70/11/eng/Music/Consumable http://www.westnet.com/consumable/Consumable.html (WWW) http://www.westnet.com (CIS) Compuserve, Lotus Notes users only: GO FORUM (Delphi) Music Fandom forum; GO ENT MUSIC Web access contributed by WestNet Internet Services (westnet.com), serving Westchester County, NY. Address any written correspondence to Bob Gajarsky, Consumable Online, 409 Washington St. #294, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030 ===