==== ISSUE 41 ==== CONSUMABLE ======== [May 30, 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 |-. `------------' | `------------' REVIEW: Sponge, _Rotting Pinata_ -Linda Scott REVIEW: Filter, _Short Bus_ - Al Crawford REVIEW: Pavement, _Wowee Zowee_ - Martin Bate REVIEW: Drugstore, _Drugstore_ - Tim Mohr REVIEW: Boo Radleys, _Wake Up!_ - Tim Kennedy REVIEW: Fugazi _Red Medicine_ - Martin Bate REVIEW: Gene, _Olympian_ - Tim Mohr REVIEW: Electrafixion, _Zephyr_ - Joe Silva REVIEW: Leftfield _Leftism_ - Martin Bate REVIEW: The Muffs, _Blonder And Blonder_ - John Walker REVIEW: Truck Stop Love, _How I Spent My Summer Vacation_ - Linda Scott REVIEW: Mercury Rev _See You on the Other Side_ - Martin Bate REVIEW: Irrestible Force, _Global Chillage_ - David Landgren NEWS: k.d. lang TOUR DATES: Better Than Ezra, Catchers The Readers Write Back! - Toad and Hootie Back Issues of Consumable --- REVIEW: Sponge, _Rotting Pinata_(Chaos/Columbia) -Linda Scott Sponge is a tightly knit alternative rock band from the Motor City, Detroit, consisting of Vinnie (uses no last name) on vocals, brothers Mike and Tim Cross on guitar and bass, Joey Mazzala on guitar and Jimmy Paluzzi on drums. All music is written by the band with Vinnie writing the lyrics. Formerly called Loudhouse, and signed/dropped by Virgin, the band was picked up by Chaos/Columbia. _Rotting Pinata_ is their first on the new label. The new label is paying them good attention. The album is very professional - from the striking graphics of the cd booklet to the mix by Tim Palmer (Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Tears For Fears). This spring they opened for Live, and they are currently touring clubs after two aborted tours (with the Manic Street Preachers and the Cult), and they are signed for Lollapalooza. Sponge is on the way up with a sound reminiscent of Midnight Oil, Pearl Jam and even Aerosmith. _Rotting Pinata_'s ten tracks range from the light pop "Molly" which became the second single off the album to the fast-paced rocking title track. What lies between are tempos creating a darker, downbeat feel. _Rotting Pinata_ is an album whose lyrics reinforce the disquieting mood of much of the music. The album title sets the mood - its inspiration was Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the right to die issue. Tracks "Giants" and "Neenah Menasha" sound like dirges while Drownin' tells of despair. The music keeps the album from sliding into clinical depression. Lyricist Vinnie says the album reflects his life during a transitional, down period. Perhaps the new album's success especially that of the monster hit "Plowed", will cheer him up. Sponge is an alternative rock band to watch. Commitment to the band and music have made the band pull together to get ahead. Vinnie says they work on their music and the set on the road all the time because there is nothing else to do. Instead of sinking into the road's excesses, Sponge is putting its energy into the next step. The band's devotion show as they are warriors rather than weekend musicians. With this focus, _Rotting Pinata_, and the exposure from the tour and Lollapalooza, Sponge looks like a sure thing. Get yours now! --- REVIEW: Filter, _Short Bus_ (Reprise) - Al Crawford Filter are going to be *the* big thing on the alternative scene this summer. Major label backing'll see to that. Do they deserve it? Alas, no. _Short Bus_ is unoriginal, uninspired and unimpressive, the bastard child of Nine Inch Nails and grunge. Filter come across as a reheated, TV dinner version of NIN, slick packaging and similar style, but the substance is flat, bland and one dimensional. Reznor food product. Speak the verse, shout the chorus, NIN by numbers. True, they've ditched the ludicrously overblown angst of the typical Trent Reznor lyric, but they've also thrown away the good bits. No texture, no depth, loud but sonically insipid. Nonetheless, heaps'o'promotion and the band's trendier than thou sound still guarantee that they'll shift units by the gazillion. They'll be hailed as the Next Big Thing, large numbers of highly individualistic alternative teenagers will suddenly sport identical Filter t-shirts, then they'll vanish into oblivion in the wake of the Next Next Big Thing. Sit back and watch, it'll be a lot more entertaining than listening to the album. --- REVIEW : Pavement, _Wowee Zowee_ (Matador) - Martin Bate _Wowee Zowee_ follows on from last years _Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain_, Pavement's highly acclaimed, skewed take on classic rock. Early reports suggested that this new album was Pavement shying away from this direction and looking back to the more difficult art-rock structure of their earlier works. However, stylistically, _Wowee Zowee_ is a bit of everything that's gone before. For those reeled in by "Cut Your Hair", "Range Life", et. al. there's plenty to get lost in on the 18 tracks. Indeed, for the first half, Pavement seem to have produced the logical progression to _Crooked Rain_, with a step further towards beautiful lackadaisical melodies and gentle, conventional song structures. Only "Brinx Job"s falsetto, looping cartoonish yelp of "We got the money!" and the Sonic Youth style punk squall of "Serpentine Pad" (a dig at Rancid according to singer/songwriter Steve Malkmus) hint at what is to come later. The rest is stark, simple beauty, :- the opening _Hunky Dory_-era David Bowie delicate sentimentality of "We Dance"; the gentle sad stroll of "Grounded" which drifts around the kind of heart-tugging riff that Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis writes too rarely these days; the sidewalk strum of "Father to a Sister of Thought" which features pedal-steel to make American Music Club green; and especially the glorious sly rock'n'roll of "Rattled By the Rush" which effectively makes a mockery of Malkmus' claims that there's no "Cut your Hair" on here. This is perfect pop and should-have-been/will-be a hit. But then the second half blows it. "Extradition" comes in at the half way mark sounding like three attempts before they get it right. "Best Friends Arm" is just as wilfully screwed, a bouncy melody masked by atonal fuzz and jabbered vocals. "AT & T" can't resist spoiling itself with Malkmus gibbering the chorus like he's forgotten the words. All this spoiling treatment would almost be excusable if there was a great song to speak of (see the mighty _Slanted and Enchanted_ debut for evidence) but one suspects that all the mucking about is here to detract from some uninspired songwriting as "Fight this Generation" and "Kennel District" sound like they were written on Pavement auto-pilot and the six-minute "Half a Canyon" is just plain boring. Of the second half, only the bitter _In Utero_ style sneer of "Flux=Rad", the cocktail-cool verse and _Slanted and Enchanted_ chorus of "Grave Architecture" and the closing outer-space pop of "Western Homes" are worthy of your undivided attention. Malkmus' lyrics throughout are the usual stream of consciousness stuff which aren't as impenetrable as some would have you believe; his relaxed, drawling delivery and occasional snatches of crystal clear imagery importing everything with a great feeling of depth and emotion. Ultimately, it's an album that every Pavement fan should have. When great (almost all of the first half), then Malkmus' song-writing soars easily past the heights of the already classic _Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain_. But when it's bad (most of the second half) then it approaches the depths of the wilfully difficult non-songs of the pre-_Slanted and Enchanted_ singles collection _Westing (by Musket & Sextant)_ that you were probably all disappointed by. Its a big, confusing album which too often sees Pavement slipping from being under-achieving geniuses to just simply being under-achievers, but hey, I still love them and forgive them and so should you. --- REVIEW: Drugstore, _Drugstore_ (Go!Disc/London) - Tim Mohr The name seems rather apt for this new English combo, and even if it gently tugs a reference to the film "Drugstore Cowboy" from deep within your mass-culture-stuffed brain (as it did mine), the added connotations won't be inappropriate: if Marlboro can be cited as a reliable source, the cowboy can be reduced to a series of weathered images of worn rawhide, creviced faces, and smoke. Isabel Monteiro's husky, leathery voice leads Drugstore through a set of songs that almost would have to be lip-synched if not coming from world-beaten faces clenched around cigarettes. Joined by Mike Chylinski on drums, and Daron Robinson on guitar and piano, Monteiro, on bass and vocals, unwinds exquisitely woebegone lyrics over songs that often trod slowly, sparsely, through austere, tambourine-specked regions. Although Drugstore are based in England, Monteiro moved there from South America. Prior to this album they released a few singles; fortunately they have included arguably the most touching song from the singles, a b-side called "Acceleration" that recalls Galaxy 500's highpoints. The album showcases Monteiro's voice, alternatively as full and rich as Lisa Germano or Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano, as catharctic as Courtney Love on Hole's "Doll Parts," or as meloncholic as Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. Stripped of the country-ish trappings of Mazzy Star but retaining a similarly slow, plaintive atmosphere, Drugstore occasionally explode with noise characteristic of PJ Harvey, the dynamic extreme from an unruly three piece band not technically equipped to grunge-out. The self-titled debut is characterized by Monteiro's textual malaise hitched to haunting instrumental backdrops dominated by acoustic guitar, idly tinkling piano, and, throughout, admirably restrained percussion. The album opener, "Speaker 12," lays out a fundamental thematic element, a marbling of sleep and death imagery: "These days time is dragging real slowly, not much I feel like doing. I just want to slip away...maybe I'll get myself into a coma, spend my whole life dreaming." Drugstore twist the words and music together on "Gravity"; "Funny how the stars look faraway, and it makes me sad to be surrounded...we are hopelessly waiting for the sky to fall down." The band bursts into a 20 second maelstrom that simulates the sky falling, then fades into a lonely slide guitar as if to say that the celestial shift was only a futile dream. "Fader" nearly could be the Jesus & Mary Chain, with the classic feel of a tambourine beat, tortured guitars, and "da doo doo, da doo doo" background vocals. Monteiro sings, "I'm gonna dig myself a hole and get my head inside, gonna keep eyes closed, feel my heart dripping by. Life can be so ordinary..." Similarly, on "Saturday Sunset", she sings that "life never changes and nothing in this world is new." To be sure, many conflicts, shattered dreams, and meloncholic sentiments have been repeated by each generation; Drugstore has drained away the ephemeral elements of such repetitions and molded the transcendant concentrate into what will surely prove to be a timeless expression of feeling like shit. --- REVIEW: Boo Radleys, _Wake Up!_ (Creation - Europe) - Tim Kennedy The Boo Radleys previous album, 1994's _Giant Steps_ was critically hailed in the UK for its 60s-based eclecticism with some people hailing Martin Carr, their songwriter, as a Brian Wilson of the 90s. Strong praise indeed. However despite this critical acclaim, the public thought otherwise and it only sold to the converted few. Maybe seventeen tracks was too many - after all Blur's _Modern Life Is Rubbish_ is easily better value than _Parklife_ but it was the briefer, more focused of the two that finally broke big. _Wake Up!_ is the gospel of the sixties as received on tablets of acid via the scouse psychedelic prophets of the early eighties. Although echoes of the Beach Boys'_Smile_ and the Beatles' _The White Album_ and _Sergeant Pepper_ haunt this album, the Teardrop Explodes are also forefathers of _Wake Up!_ as are Echo and The Bunnymen (who also recorded in the Rockfield Studios where this music was made). As with the preceding album, the band have used strings, brass, glockenspiels piano and much more to achieve their effect. A variety of styles are tackled within, even within the body of individual songs. The subject matter relates mostly to the songwriter Martin Carr's exile to the dour northwestern English mill town of Preston, where his partner had found a job. The band hail from Merseyside (Martin and singer Sice were childhood friends) but had set up camp in Camden, London for sometime before Martin's move which he clearly hasn't enjoyed, being separated from his mates in London. He bounces between guilt over his behaviour toward Rebecca his partner and his frustration at being away from his drinking buddies. Zany acapella elements that figure throughout this material bring to mind the Beach Boys tracks that were to have figured on 1967's _Smile_, such as "She's Goin' Bald" and "Vegetables". Elements of this can be found in the intro to "Wake Up Boo", the intro to "It's Lulu", the strange swirling coda to "Charles Bukowski Is Dead', to "4AM Conversation" and "Wilder". The soft intro to "Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock" reminds one of the gentle vocal styling that was to be on _Smile_, such as on the final sections of "Vegetables" and "Wind Chimes" respectively. Also close in spirit to Brian Wilson's original concept of the ill-fated _Smile_ are the variety of random sound effects employed throughout - e.g. "Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock", "Charles Bukowski Is Dead" and in "Wilder'". Amongst the effects are a collection of clocks, bells and spoken word samples and a bugle. One might point to the theme of staying in bed as another Wilsonian element here. The single "Wake Up Boo" has been _the_ standout UK chart hit of the spring, having a 60's Detroit soul driving beat and horns, and a tune to set milkmen everywhere a-whistling. This has brought our seemingly obscurist friends to the attentions of those who might normally be expected to buy Take That. But the band have always at least aspired to this kind of fame, if one is to believe their interviews. Other songs here are more in the indie guitar mould - "Fairfax Scene" for example is a gentle guitar ballad - albeit with a Love-esque lilt to it. Blueswailing harp opens the song "Stuck on Amber" but its steady, doomy verses - great tune and a rousing chorus point to the excellent work done in the past by this group and peers such as the Pale Saints - weird, distorted (yet unmistakable) indie pop tunesmiths. "Stuck On Amber" also boasts a rather fine overblown finale. "It's Lulu" has also got a heart of indie guitar pop. Teardrop Explodes are a major reference point - "Wilder" being also the title of the second Teardrop Explodes lp back in 1982. The horns at the ending of "Twinside" and "It's Lulu" owe a lot to the brass-drenched, footstomping Kilimanjaro album of 1980. The same goes for the weird-out horns on 4AM Conversation. Oddly "Twinside" recalls the Batman theme at its conclusion. The band have long been open admirers of the Beatles and different periods in the Fabs' career turn up constantly; such as "Twinside", "4AM Conversation" (strings a la "Eleanor Rigby") whereas "Wilder" relates to the end of the Beatles career, circa _Abbey Road_ a piano ballad - "Golden Slumber" style. The Beatles' (and Wilson's) building up songs from disparate elements is practiced widely - notably on the song "Joel". A weird psychedelic heaviness pervades "Joel" - at first it is part-mantra, then it becomes successively funky/indie rock/Lennon in whimsical mode. All the while the song is interspersed with odd, vague sound effects. Elsewhere the influence of the sixties continues unabated. "Find The Answer Within" is a Turtlesy pop anthem recast in '90s indie guitar terms. The end section of the song features extended backmasked vocals to weird effect. "Reaching Out From Here" is a magical excursion - 60s San Francisco meets Bacharach-David. The middle of "Martin, Doom!..." contains a flugel horn passage that would break the great Burt's heart. This is a CD which picks up strands from a glorious past and seamlessly co-opts them into an indie guitar present. You don't need to know the influences to spot the charm and the sheer class bursting out of this album. All you need is love, as somebody once said... This album is slated to be released in the United States this summer. --- REVIEW : Fugazi _Red Medicine_ (Dischord) - Martin Bate Fugazi, eschewing major labels and the machinations of the music industry conform to the old punk ethos of not fleecing the fans without being shackled by the conceived notions of what a punk band should sound like. Rumours since their last album, 1993's _In on the Killtaker_, have suggested that all was not well in the Fugazi camp and so it's come as a bit of a surprise for a few that _Red Medicine_ has suddenly appeared. On the strength of this, their sixth album, and their live performances in the UK the week after its release, Fugazi are back ripping things up in fine style. Their combination of punk moves with Gang-of-Four style rigid funk has got subtly more screwed up with each successive album to match their, more often than not, obtuse political and personal-angst lyrics. _Red Medicine_ continues the development - like all Fugazi albums not messing with the sound too much but never repeating past glories. If I had to pin down the change in the sound here, it would be that this album sees Fugazi getting a little bit older and wiser, sounding less angry and a little more world-weary. There's more of a leaning towards slower, creeping songs and Guy Piccioto's punk whine over Ian McKaye's hardcore snarl although to my ears its still McKaye that steals the show. Just my preference. The low-key opener "Do You Like Me" rocks past before giving way to the first of the album's gems - "Bed for the Scraping" is decidely poppy and utterly brilliant, built on a way cool looping, infectious riff and Ian McKaye's frantic vocals. It's Ian again who dominates the alternately eerie and crushing "Birthday Pony" with his maniacal laughs before the laconic "Fell, Destroyed" with Guy's ice-cool monologue flowing into the warning "Ring the alarm or you're sold to dying" chorus - its possibly the closest Fugazi have ever got to a conventional rock ballad structure. The lyrics to "Target" are another highlight - one of those moments where Fugazi become unerringly clear. "I realize that I hate the sound of guitars/A thousand grudging young millionaires" and the chorus of "If you want to seize the sound you don't need a reservation" shouldn't need explaining to anyone. Bassist Brendan Canty takes vocals on the excellent "By You" with its delicate picked interludes crashing in and out of drawled vocals and wrenched chords and feedback; there's the four-square punk of "Back to Base"; the instrumental "Version" where brooding bass is set off by bleak saxophone squeals, sounding like a 3am walk through the scary rain-soaked streets; and the closing, breathtakingly sad and hopeful "Long Distance Runner" where it's impossible not to freeze as Ian states "And if I stop to catch my breath" before almost whispering "I might catch a piece of death" - a hint at a mid-life crisis ? Like all Fugazi albums, it needs repeated listens to get into and, like its predecessors, it's not quite consistent enough to be incredible. But it is their sixth album in a row to be very, very good and I can think of few other bands that can claim that. --- REVIEW: Gene, _Olympian_ (A&M) - Tim Mohr There are a number of endearing qualities about Gene, most of which can be garnered from listening to their debut album, _Olympian_. The album, like the three U.K. singles before, is starkly different from most of the other British bands that have been hyped during the past year. For one thing, unlike Echobelly, Elastica, and Sleeper, Gene is not fronted by a woman. For another, the music that Gene generates is not at all high octane, instead winding through docile melodies with a tenderness not often found in a musical neighborhood ruled by Oasis. Still, Gene has gotten a lot of press coverage, largely positive, and the band may represent a continuation of a lineage sired by the Auteurs - one of the first bands championed by the British press as part of the continuing renaissance in British pop and rock. _Olympian_ is fundamentally good, but perhaps the easiest way to describe it is to bring up a few complaints rather than a list of hyperbolic compliments. The frugal production means that all the minor faults of Gene remain detectable; that said, the sonic honesty is more than tolerable since, for the most part, Gene is charming even without dense studio make-up. Singer Martin Rossiter still sounds a bit tentative at times, quietly flailing in a brittle vibrato, though this is worst on "Sleep Well Tonight," a single which was recorded earlier than the album material. Occasionally, Gene seems to have come up with a great chorus and then struggled to fill in the verses with much of musical interest. This pattern is most recognizable on the album's lead single, "Haunted By You," where a monotonous percussion line is initially rather invasive. The swinging chorus is repeated endlessly, however, and the choppy opening fades from mind after five or six repetitions of the chorus. "Truth Rest Your Head" has a similar structure, with the song essentially consisting of two separate parts: a couple of musically forgettable verses, then a tuneful chorus that is repeated ad infinitum. Criticizing songs on the basis of dependence on the chorus may be unwarranted: REM scored their first hit with "The One I Love," an extremely unambitious song when judged on such a basis. The highlights of _Olympian_ far outweigh the flaws. The chorus of the bisected "Truth Rest Your Head," after all, manages to induce finger- snapping and Morrissey-esque hip swivels. And most of the songs are put together much more handily. The dynamic range is more varied than on a Morrissey record, as Gene sometimes adopts a tame version of the soft bit/loud catharctic bit that Nirvana made so popular. The loud, unpolished guitars that occasionally break across the basically calm _Olympian_ beach add a welcome dimension to a band pursuing a potentially mopey, post-Smiths agenda. Lyrically, Gene steers away from the maudlin depths sometimes plumbed by Morrissey while shying from the shameless novelties used by Suede. Rather than swaggering around like Oasis, the band laments the violent climate of England's yob-tinged youth culture on "Sleep Well Tonight": "Yet trouble has sprung from the pubs and the clubs/We'll see blood soon, when the night's through...And sleep well tonight/Tomorrow we fight, would you like it in town?" Gene evokes fairly obvious musical references without being trapped by them. Gene is often referred to in the same breath as the Smiths, a connection not dispelled by the fact that the band name derives from a misspelling of a Smiths' b-side, "Jeane". In fact, Gene do not sound overly derivitive, and fans of mid-tempo guitar pop will hum along with _Olympian_ without being hit over the head with influences; the album is not limited to a dogmatic restatement of received history, and represents instead a new take on familiar musical themes. For people who like the Smiths/Morrissey, the Connells, the Auteurs, the Ocean Blue or other restrained guitar pop, Gene's version of it well worth trying. --- REVIEW: Electrafixion, _Zephyr_ (WEA - UK) - Joe Silva As I plumment into the dreaded third decade of my existence, I find more and more that my new wave heroes of old are once again girding themselves up to reenter the pop arena. The results have, of course, been mixed. Those of you who were taken in by the more subdued, Anton Corbin-ized version of Adam Ant that's appeared in the stores as of late know what I mean. There must have been something to all that paint and feathers after all. But while there was a limited assurance that Adam could rise to the glory of his _Frontier_ days, Electrafixion seem like a safer bet. Once known as the core of Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant are making a serious attempt to recapture the thunder the Bunnymen once had in their hip pocket in a new four piece. Soon to appear in the US on Elektra (no pun intended?), this single is probably the first on album reunion of the two since the Bunnymen disintegrated after the death of drummer Pete DeFritas. Sergeant temporarily took custody of the Bunnymen name along with their original bass player long enough to issue and to put together one listless collection of tunes and Mac dove into solo artist-hood with limited results. The four tracks that make up the UK CD single/EP are short on the Bunnymen's patented version of psychedelia and heavy with the fuzz driven garage riffs that Sergeant probably always had a penchant for anyway. _Zephyr_ shows that Mac has lost nothing in the way of range and attack and that Sergeant's stadium sized guitar sound is as wonderfully left field and effective as it always was. There's the same breadth of atmosphere that the pair had at their Albert Hall heyday in 1982. The rest of the tracks are wrought at the same forge but with a noticeable dip in the melody factor than the lead track. Still, as second winds go, this show promises as much as anything of late, and the dynamics laid down seem to indicate that the live incarnation might be stunning. More to come. Be wary. --- REVIEW : Leftfield _Leftism_ (Columbia) - Martin Bate Leftfield are a UK techno outfit commercially viable enough to en-trance the chart-buying public yet engaging and imaginative enough to still maintain underground respect. The opener, "Release the Pressure" is ragga-influenced techno which remarkably stays firmly on the right side of twee thanks to some Orbital style atmospherics mixed with the dance-hall melodies. Next up is "Afro Left", some African-influenced dance with accoustic guitar and tribal jabberings over thudding beats guaranteed to get your head bobbing. Two tracks in and already the breadth and scope of this album is clear. "Melt" is beautiful - trumpets floating across a "2001" synthesised landscape - and "Song of Life" uses the drum loop from the Beastie Boys "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" as the backdrop for a haunting female vocal and slo-mo sunrise before breaking out the more traditional techno beats. Then there's a dip as the first side runs out. "Original" sees Curve's Toni Halliday adding vocals, but both parties seem a little disinterested. This is followed by "Black Flute" whose harder beats and drones sit a little unconvincingly. "Space Shanty" gets things back on track though with some top spiralling synths and a bouncing beat. "Inspection Check One" is a close relative of The Prodigy's "Poison" - all juddering dark beats and scary atmospherics. And "Storm 3000" continues in the darker vein with a cool trawl through something approaching Jean Michel Jarre with break-beats. The collaboration with Sex Pistols/PiL main-man John Lydon, "Open Up" comes in at the end, sounding as fresh now as it did as a single 18 months ago, Lydon's caustic sneer married to an infectious techno brood. But the album ends on "21st Century Poem", a little bit of cod-politics despite a fine spinning and chiming backdrop. _Leftism_ is a varied and solid album which nestles comfortably alongside the last releases by The Prodigy and Orbital (although, sonically, it is closer to the open-eyed wonder of the latter than the adrenaline filled rush of the former). All three are albums demonstrating to the uninitiated just how human, exhilarating and mysterious dance music can be, away from the identi-kit pop pap that clogs the charts. _Leftism_ will be released in the United States the first week of July. --- REVIEW: The Muffs, _Blonder And Blonder_ (Warner) - John Walker Muffs lead singer/guitarist/ Kim Shattuck is the kind of spoilt girl who's constantly looking for attention: she'd rather show you her panties (as a recent _Details_ rock scribe found out) than be ignored. And of course, the name of her band is really a thinly-veiled "LOOK AT ME!," prompting un-PC people like me to regale my editor with a string of bad jokes upon receiving the CD for review. The really odd part about Shattuck is that she's a middle-class girl from Orange County who still lives with her parents at age 31, plays hard bubblepunk music and dresses like a little girl. Actually, maybe that makes her the quintessential Gen X'er. Except that she's actually sexy. Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love may have beaten her to the punch fashion-wise, but somehow Shattuck's second childhood seems more convincing. As she sings on her band's second album, _Blonder And Blonder_ (ironic Dylan reference noted): "I'm Confused." But happily so. This album is all Shattuck's show, from her--in turns--melodic, rasping, and howling vocals to her neo-punk guitar stylings. Shattuck may dress like Courtney, and at times adopts a Love-like scream (see "Red-Eyed Troll"), but her overall demeanour is free of the whining self-pity which has become a most burdensome cliche in current North American rock. Shattuck can also write a melody and carry a tune, which sets her apart from her aforementioned peers. Hum-along, hop-along fun abounds on _Blonder And Blonder_, which comes in at a little over 30 minutes, a refreshing change from the 70 min plus epics we've grown used to in the CD age. There's no excess here Shattuck has obviously committed the minimalist fury of the Ramones classic _Rocket To Russia_ to memory, and can call up those magic chord changes at will. Songs like "Agony" and "Oh Nina" do the blitzkrieg bop, while Shattuck and the other 2/3 of the Muffs (Ronnie Barrett-bass, Roy McDonald-drums) also display a facility for straight-up pop-rock ("Sad Tomorrow") Byrdsy guitar riffs ("End It All") and grunge-lite ("Ethyl My Love"), all the while never straying TOO far from what they do best. _Blonder And Blonder_ doesn't aspire to end-of-the-century significance or philosophical profundity: it just wants to (slam) dance. On that level, it succeeds marvelously. The Muffs would be a great band to spend a sweaty summer eve with down at your local rock club. What more do you do you need? Note to Kim: If you make it to Toronto, about those panties.... --- Review: Truck Stop Love, _How I Spent My Summer Vacation_ (Backyard Records) - Linda Scott Heard of the growing Midwestern music scene and sound? Four of its founders are Truck Stop Love and hail from the rural town of Manhattan, Kansas. _How I Spent My Summer Vacation_ shows Truck Stop Love doing that Midwest sound with its unique blend of punk, country and rock. The band is: Eric Melin on drums, Brad Hehmann on bass and vocals, Matt Mozier on guitar and vocals, Rick Yarges on guitar and vocals. _How I Spent My Summer Vacation_ is the band's first full length album, co-produced by Big Star alum Jody Stephens and Jeff Powell (Afghan Whigs, Primal Scream, Alex Chilton). Band members credit Big Star as one of their influences along with Husker Du and Hank Williams. With such diverse musical influences, you might wonder what the music sounds like. Like their Minnesotan contemporaries, the Jayhawks, the album has country tracks, hard rock tracks and even a punk rock track or two. Some tracks blend all or two of these styles together, but for the most part the listener will have no problem identifying musical style by track. There are pure country rock songs like "Whiskey Waltz", "Other Stairs" (where the harmonious style is a further Jayhawks reminder) and "Walton's Mountain" (where John Boy, Jim Bob and Grandma live). Other tracks like "Bitter Boy", "You Owe" and the title track are hard rockers with "Benny" and "Carolina's Eyes" being more alternative or punk. Can't forget to mention a hidden thirteenth track, an acoustic Stephens/Mazier duet. Truck Stop Love is representative of the new Midwestern musicians who combine country with other styles. _How I Spent My Summer Vacation_ is a good one if you like an album featuring country, rock, punk. The lyrics and style don't quite match up to the Jayhawks, but you can't go wrong with this impressive album from Truck Stop Love. --- REVIEW : Mercury Rev _See You on the Other Side_ (Beggars Banquet) - Martin Bate A few people seemed to have buried Mercury Rev before they've even heard this. The reasoning goes like this: charismatic and downright strange singer David Baker left last year after one too many arguments and pretty quickly came out with his Shady project which saw him working, among others, with members of the Boo Radleys and Swervedriver. The album, _World_, was a well balanced combination of the weird and the wonderful and seemed to contain a large element of the style that had endeared Mercury Rev's first two albums - _Yerself is Steam_ which in retrospect promised more than it offered, and the follow-up, _Boces_, which was the quite brilliant realization of that promise - to all that heard them. This then implied that David Baker was God and Mercury Rev would be scum without him. _See You on the Other Side_ is the evidence that this belief is a huge amount of bollocks. Mercury Rev are a rock band - with flute and brass and lots more, it should be added - that are unconstrained by form and style, blurring boundaries because they weren't even aware they existed. Previously, their beautiful pop melodies were smothered with feedback and found sounds and sometimes a distracting air of eccentricity as if they didn't want you to get too close. *That* is what has left with David Baker, as the rest of the band and their songs are now allowed to breathe in wide-eyed wonder. Guitarist Jonathan Donahue takes up vocal duties, his pure clear voice not being unfamiliar to Mercury Rev fans of any standing. The journey begins with "Empire State", a big-budget movie of a song, all gasping tales and flute, before it twists into more disconcerting waters and explodes with squealing sax, wndswept rock-opera guitars and the sound of the building coming down round your ears. This, let us not forget is just the first song. Next up is the fairly simple "Young Man's Stride" which rocks like a 90's T-Rex before "Sudden Ray of Hope", all summery 70's pop complete with flute, sax and "do-doo"s before it drops into a dirty pimp-funk organ hustle where most people would put a guitar solo. Bloody jaw-dropping. "Everlasting Arm" sounds like the dreamy recollection of childhood Christmases, aided by some whistling, sleigh-bell piano and chimes, and a lone sad trumpet and its chorus of "Up where there's an everlasting arm/that keeps us free from harm". Nonsense ? Of course, but no less emotionally affecting for it. But it's the trio of songs that open up the second side that are convincing beyond all reasonable doubt. "Racing the Tide" is a sad, accoustic piece in the tradition of "Frittering", which meanders beautifully for 7 minutes or so before some bongos start up as the whole thing starts to drift away and the disco-funk of "Close Encounters of the 3rd Grade" clicks in. A magical moment to say the least, and the fact that its soulful whoops are set off by someone playing a bowed saw (!) takes it to another planet! Minutes later it segues into "A Kiss From an Old Flame", a 30's romance set to waltz time finishing with some beautiful "da-da-daaa"s as the piano tinkles and your heart flutters. It all ends too soon with the piano-bar blues of "Peaceful Night", the perfect invitation to turn it over and start again. Not once do Mercury Rev come over as experimental or weird - the whole album sounds perfectly natural and wonderful. They're not ones to throw instruments and styles in for the sheer hell of it - everything is there because its part of the vision. Sure it'll sound too dewey- eyed romantic if you've just split up with your other half, but in any other state of mind it'll have you gasping and smiling and crying for joy. Magical! --- REVIEW: Irrestible Force, _Global Chillage_ (Caroline Records) - David Landgren Okay. Let's keep this short. This is ambient music. Of course, the title is a dead giveaway. So, how good is it? Before slotting it in, two points in its favour. This is a second album, coming three years after the well-received 1992 debut, _Flying High_, so that's a good a sign as any to pay attention. Secondly, there is an email address for the record company if you want more info. (For the curious: astralwerks@cyberden.com). Mr. Morris Mixmaster (the person behind the band's name) himself is far hipper, having his own page on the Web (see below). There is a lot to like about this album. As with a lot of ambient material, at first it is like staring at a random-dot stereogram: luscious colours and intricate details abound, but the overall structure remains hidden. After a few listens, however, a deeper appreciation emerges, and the individual pieces contrast themselves more. The overall aspect is that most all of the sounds on the album are purely electronic, or else, when they are samples of real-world phenomena, they have been so heavily altered and twisted as to longer resemble anything in the physical world. No gongs, birds, chimes or seashores. There is the obligatory TV documentary narrator making an appearance at the beginning, but it's really only "Sunstroke", with its breathy sixties girlie "da-doo da-da-da-da-dah-doo" loop that seems a bit unfocused. Head and shoulders about the rest of the tracks is the shimmering "Waveform" closing the album, which alone makes the album a worthwhile acquistion. You can file this one without shame along side The Orb's _Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld_, or _Lifeforms_ or _ISDN_ by The Future Sound of London. While we're on the subject, a resource page on the ambient music scene can be found at http://hyperreal.com/ambient/links.html. The webless can just ftp to hyperreal.com. --- NEWS: Fans of k.d. lang can now access information on the artist through the Obvious Gossip World Wide Web lang site. The address for this is: http://www.infohouse.com/obviousgossip/ --- TOUR DATES Better Than Ezra May 31 Boston, MA Local 186 June 1 Boston, MA Esplande June 4 Albany, NY Saratoga Winners June 6 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace June 7 Rochester, NY Horizontal Boogie Bar June 22 Nashville, TN 328 Performance Hall Catchers May 30 New York, NY Fez (Acoustic) June 2 New York, NY CB Gallery June 3 New York, NY Sin-e (Acoustic) June 7 New York, NY Under Acme June 13 Los Angeles, CA Luna Park --- The Readers Write Back! Thanks for the Toad the Wet Sprocket review. You were right on about "Crowing" - that was intense when they performed it in Seattle. In case your readers don't know, Hootie's name isn't actually "Hootie" - it's Darius Rucker. With his voice & Glen's songwriting, they could do some amazing things, eh? 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