25 Reviews of Music

by dave heaton, paul jaissle, john stacey, dougie robb, scott homewood, john wenzel, anna battista

Click on a musician's name to go directly to the review, or scroll down and proceed through them all.

!!!, Alcove, And Academy, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Arkitekchur, Aspera, Sherry Austin, Beginner's Guide to Bollywood, The Black Keys, Blurred Images, Bonepony, Bottom of the Hudson, Branches and Routes, California Oranges, Clare, Colin Clary, The Clientele, Cosmic Rough Riders, The Cruzeros, Diana Darby, Daughter, Dead Meadow, DJ Ordeal, Early Day Miners, Elliott the Letter Ostrich

!!!, Me and Giuliani Down By the Schoolyard (Touch and Go)

Rudy Giuliani might have become a hero to middle America post-9/11 but the New York artists, punks, freaks, rebels and outsiders who found their city changed ("cleaner" but less exciting) from his crackdowns and strict policies have less kind things to say about him. But while !!!'s "Me & Giuliani Down by the School Yard" definitely comes from that perspective, it's less an assault on Giuliani in particular than a call for uptight politicians like him to shake their asses on the dancefloor. "Free your mind and your ass will follow," Funkadelic used to say, but !!! is hoping for the opposite, that dancing can lead to mind-opening. Or as they put it, "y'all could learn a lesson by losing inhibitions." Their tool for getting Rudy to cut loose is a 9-minute funk workout, with a propulsive groove. That track is paired with a spacier but still groove-oriented number, a remix of their song "Inensifieder." There's a certain amount of humor to what !!! does-"Me & Giuliani" includes them singing a line from "Footloose," for example-which just serves to amplify the fun factor. Which is what this is all about, ultimately: a call for everybody to relax, have fun, and stop judging each other so much.-dave heaton

Alcove, The Greatest Romance That Never Was (Best Kept Secret)

Pent-up longings and repressed infatuation find a voice on Alcove's The Greatest Romance That Never Was. A kiss you wish you'd given, a word you wished you'd said, a chance you wished you'd taken…all are revealed through relaxed swatches of mood and atmosphere. Jorge Martinez, who is Alcove, sings lyrics like "maybe the stars are lonely" and "on the rooftop we sit and stare forever" in a hushed voice that sounds like it's tentatively letting hidden thoughts out for the first time in years, more often than not these feelings are expressed through beautiful, melancholy guitar. While there's moments where Martinez gives himself over to explosive near-rock ("My Queen"), he mostly uses his guitar to fill the air with feeling, to convey hurt and hope in ways that words often can't. {www.mp3.com/alcove}-dave heaton

And Academy, Her and Hurt, Hearts (Best Kept Secret)

One of the greatest things about the Italian tape label Best Kept Secret is how far across the world they reach. Follow this label's 60+ releases and you're likely to hear music from Japan followed by Sweden, then New York, then how knows where. And Academy hail from Wichita, Kansas, USA, a place that in the popular mind probably brings up images of farms and tornados and not much else. Yet on Her and Hurt, Hearts they display a complex, deeply satisfying pop sound. Accenting their pop-rock sound with horns, new-wave keyboards and an experimental swirl of found sounds and noises, the group offers songs that are melodic and instantly pleasurable yet also rich with sonic layers. They're like a cross between a Brit-pop band, an orchestral-pop group with a 60s leaning (a la Elephant 6) and an orchestra from some far-off planet. "We Are Supernatural," the title of the final song declares, and they are. Their sound is at once catchy and hard to pin down; comfortable and strange. Which is the perfect mix really, music that mystifies you and makes you feel at home.{www.andacademy.com}-dave heaton

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, The Secret of Elana's Tomb (Interscope)

Since the critical triumph of Source Tags & Codes, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead have been lying relatively low, presumably taking lots of expensive drugs and working on their follow-up. This EP, a diverse slab of tangled guitar underbrush, earnest anthems and off-handed songwriting, doesn't so much pick up where Source Tags left off as it does wander off the side of the road and into the forest. Fortunately, there's lots to see in the darkness. The band's sometimes-overbearing taste for the extravagant (both lyrically and in their liner art) is reined in here, and production is far less overdone than on Source Tags. Opener "Mach Shau" plays like a Daydream Nation era-Sonic Youth cover, complete with Lee Ranaldo-esque spoken word interludes and the requisite mid-song drum/guitar freakout. It's got more than enough broken-bottled energy and probably rules in concert. "All St. Day" at first sounds like another Sonic Youth cover, but quickly segues into a rolling, epic guitar line with alternately smooth and ragged vocal melodies. Definitely the most exciting track on here. "Crowning of a Heart" is a loungy mid-tempo placeholder with a lovely bridge that blends cellos, backing vocals and chiming guitar interplay into a mellow whole. The slight acoustic number "Counting Off the Days" is probably a treat for hardcore Trail of Dead fans, but sounds like a cheesy throwaway to me. "Intelligence" is full of bloody-throated vocals, and its dark-noise dance-punk is worthy of The Liars. Overall, a great, diverse disc from our resident baroque/Victorian/medieval revivalists. They've thrown out enough carcasses to keep us well off their scent until the next full-length comes around. -John Wenzel

Arkitekchur, Should or the drawing boarded Colour target future theater
war(s)(s) (tbtmo)

The fact that Arkitekchur's new CD was recorded from October 2001 to today might give you a clue as to what colored its contents, especially when you see the cover photo of US soldiers walking across the desert in Iraq. Where the last CD by Arkitechur (essentially one Joseph Lisciandro, best I can tell) had the more inward-turned title Of Sounds, Climate and Homes, this one is all about the fear, sadness, confusion and paranoia that comes with war. And while both CDs are filled with instrumental soundscapes, this one is more sweeping and ambitious…fitting for its global themes. "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time," a voice ominously intones at one point, and the music throughout the CD-though calm and measured-carries with it that same sense of fear and impending doom. The music shifts from hyper-atmospheric, ambient mood-pieces into stretches of improvised jazz, with voices and mysterious noises always drifting in and out. Many of the pieces consist mainly of guitar, delicately weaved together, yet Arkitechur also has the ability to make you not know what instrument you're hearing (or not care). It's a beautiful album on one level; it's easy to hear hope and peace in the extended opening guitar piece, for example. Yet even then the music feels more like the moment of calm before the bombs begin to drop than any sort of lasting peace. As the album progresses, recurring percussion begins to resemble the rumble of incoming troops. And ultimately the album stands as a warning more than a dream. Apocalypse can happen if we want it to. The album leaves us with that very message. After an especially brooding (yet still beautiful) and dark instrumental, which includes a guitar sound that resembles a chime calling off the final seconds, there's a few minutes of silence, followed by a music box playing "You are My Sunshine." Is it lying in the rubble somewhere, giving and ironic edge to the ultimate destruction? Perhaps. But as dire as Should's vision is, it's also an exquisite album. Its beauty serves as both a message that peace might be possible and a reminder of how much we have to lose.-dave heaton

Aspera, Oh Fantastica (Jagjaguwar)

Rock n' roll chameleons, the Philadelphia-based Aspera is one of those bands that updates their sound from release to release. Starting as a shoegaze-ish rock outfit (then called Aspera Ad Astra) on their debut album Peace, Aspera shifted into stranger territory on their second album Sugar & Feathered, making off-kilter pop-rock loaded with the feeling and imagery of fairy tales. Their latest album Oh Fantastica takes off from that point, with songs that sound like out-of-time lullabies or folk stories run through a blender. Yet they've drained the "rock" out of their music, instead setting their against a complicated arrangement of beats, keyboards and unexpected noises. It's a psychedelic pop album with a very now veneer, a synthesis of sounds and styles that draws on underground hip-hop and Eno-esque ambient music, simple children's melodies and textured electronic instrumentals. In the cover photos, the band members look like they're trapped in a video-game version of the Aurora Bourealis; the music on Oh Fantastica makes you feel the same way, like you're experiencing something mechanical, organic, and unique. One song instructs you to "take it all in," and it's good advice. Aspera have constructed something new and dizzying, an album that feels like landing on the moon.-dave heaton

Sherry Austin, Drive-By Romance (self-released)

Despite Austin's car references and beyond-gutsy attitude, her voice resembles a more plaintive Kathy Mattea more than any old blues mama down at the roadhouse. Still, Austin's stance as a been-there-survived-that-choked-my-boyfriend-with-the-T-shirt survivor should ring true to anyone who's been out in the world for more than a year. Longstanding jokes about country music's cliched lyrical subject matter (my wife left me, the truck broke down, my dog's dead) aside, that stuff rings true because it is. All that crap has really happened to people. Austin knows the power of singing about real life and she does so with confidence and a certain amount of humor as well. While Austin's own songwriting is good, she (or someone on her team) also shows good taste in outside material, choosing songs like "455 Rocket" by Gillian Welch and "105" by Fred Eaglesmith for covers. Other covers on the CD include "Broke Down" by Slaid Cleaves and Rod Picott and "Love's A Word I Never Throw Around" by Robert Earl Keen Jr. All done well and sounding great. While the vocals could maybe use some fire, the CD as a whole stands out as quality work, and Austin definitely bears watching. Good stuff. {3 and a half stars}.--scott homewood

Beginner's Guide to Bollywood (Nascente )

Bombay, 10.00 a.m. - The air is pregnant with noises, the streets are crowded with people rushing here and there. In a few minutes' time there will be long queues at the local cinemas box offices to book seats for the first shows of the day, at midday. Slowly you walk up to the hills to the northern part of the city and find a hidden treasure, Bombay Film City, the Indian answer to Hollywood, Bollywood, the capital of Indian cinema that produces every year more than one thousand movies. This is the reign of the Masala Movie, a cocktail of love, sugary romanticism, brides in distress, catchy tunes, irresistible soundtracks and incredible choreographies. No wonder then that Bollywood influenced the world of fashion all over the world, especially in the last few years, with its Indian inspired dresses, saris and silks and invaded the dancefloors with remixes of Indian movies soundtracks. "Beginner's Guide to Bollywood" is a proper introduction to Masala Movies soundtracks, so no fancy remixes allowed, just classics spread all over three CDs. Starting with the Latin rhythms inspired "Diwana Parwana" (film: "Albela", 1951), passing to the infectious "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" (film: "Howrah Bridge", 1958), the listener will travel through classics such as "Anken Meri Maikhana" (film: "Sawan Bhadon", 1970) and "O Saathi Re" (film: "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar", 1978). For those of you who love the latest Bollywood products, there's the third CD mostly dedicated to the late '90s movies, from "One 2 Ka 4" (film: "One 2 Ka 4", 2000) to "Jumma Chumma De De" (film: "Hum", 1992), the latter used as soundtrack for the TV series "White Teeth", taken from Zadie Smith's novel. Packaged with images taken from the book "Bollywood - Popular Indian Cinema" (Dakini Books), this collection is a mish mash of sounds, including rock'n'roll, psychedelia, western movies soundtracks, dance, funk, hip hop, techno, ambient, Indian folk music and breakbeats. Bombay, midnight - Another day has gone. Tomorrow there will be new queues at the box offices, new sets to built, new choreographies to rehearse and new and amazing soundtracks to play. In the meantime just enjoy this compilation. {www.dakinibooks.com--anna battista

The Black Keys, Thickfreakness (Fat Possum)

There's two of them, one's hairy ones not. They probably drink corn liquor and enjoy spitting from distance into a can. They think all gangsta rapper are pussies. They play filthy, gritty and down right dirty southern blues. They are the black keys, and they make the White Stripes sound like they pumping out sickly sweet pop. Thickfreakness is 38 minutes of good 'ol sweaty blues tunes played like they're punk. And it sounds like it was recorded in a cupboard on broken equipment. Dan Auchbach yelps down the microphone, sounding like he's been living on a diet of gravel and skanky roll-ups, whilst Patrick Carney bashes away as if he's in a funk band. Who says blues isn't party music?--dougie robb

Blurred Images, Bridge Between Waters (self-released)

Jose Banuelos' first release as Blurred Images, On the Horizon, showed off his talent at using guitar to evoke moods, images, and feelings. On that CD his guitar was set against an ambient soundscape of beats and synthesizers. With his second release Bridge Between Waters he's moved that background to the foregound, limiting the guitar and focusing more on the overall atmosphere. The result is a brief but alluring collection of compositions that casts a luminous spell over you for about 20 minutes. Banuelos uses the same skill he displayed on the guitar-weaving sounds together to create intricate yet minimalist mood-pieces-with mostly electronics. On songs like "Morning Greet" the beat picks up and you get a brief look at how Blurred Images could go off in a more dance-oriented direction, yet Banuelos mostly keeps things gentle, encouraging you to sit back and let the music sweep over you. Bridge Between Waters is like the musical version of a fleeting moment of natural beauty, like when you see a comet or briefly spy a wild animal. It's gone before you know it or really understand it, but it leaves you with a peaceful feeling inside.-dave heaton

Bonepony, Jubilee (self-released)

I've been a fan of this band for a while now, if only for the wonderfully deviant imagery inherent in their name and everything it may imply. In fact, considering the underlying menacing aspects of their name and how it would probably offend many, the band creates a wonderful blend of rock and country that is decidedly accessible to everyone. While many so-called hipsters and those pretending to be "only about the music, man" might consider that statement an insult, I don't. Music is made to be heard and great music should be heard and enjoyed by as many people as possible. In turn, Bonepony's new CD deserves as much exposure as it can get as it is some of the best roots rock released this year, in my opinion. The talented three-man group writes all of its' own songs and, though the band enlists the help of some stellar musical help (Nancy Griffith and Jonell Mosser on vocals and Craig Krampf on drums), this CD is all theirs, another feather in their cap and yet another great CD more people should hear and hear about. If I were to make a real broad comparison, I would say anyone liking rootsy rock with solid songwriting juxtaposed with some Dave Matthews/jammy overtones will fall in love with CD in an instant. I did. {4 stars}--scott homewood

Bottom of the Hudson, The Omaha Record (Absolutely Kosher)

Wow. When you ponder the name of the band, you would think, well.....trash and crap at the bottom of the Hudson River. I was hoping in my heart for a listening experience that would be the exact opposite of something trashy and awful. Hoping against hope for the band to have picked its' interesting name as a joke, a little bit of self-deprecating humor. Thank God that is exactly what I got. This is a wonderful CD. The band shows an exhilarating talent for mixing disparate musical elements. The electronic and the acoustic are utilized very well here. Yes, while it may be common for the "hip" DJs and mix artists to use acoustic guitar riffs and blues samples in their songs to add a false sense of organic authenticity, its rare when someone can actually take an acoustic guitar and a synth or a piano and a synth and use them in a totally compelling way that isn't bordering on cloying. If I were to make a totally cliche rock journalism comparison here, I would say Ben Folds meets Moby. Or maybe the late lamented pop gods Jellyfish meet Moby. Somebody's meeting Moby, okay? And whoever it is can write one hell of a classic pop song in the Elton John/Beatle-y mode and then spiff it up. Not with a hip-hop beat or some trance crap, but with some intelligent modern touches more humanizing than machine-like. Besides all that nonsense, this is a fun, sing-song CD good for summertime playing or anytime you are looking for something fun to listen to. If there's more stuff under the river like this, I'm diving my ass in there right now! {4 and a half stars}-- scott homewood

Branches and Routes (Fat Cat)

Six years isn't that long of a time period, really, but Branches and Routes is a testament to how much amazing, adventurous music one label can manage to put out in that time. Actually, it's only a taste of what the label in question--FatCat-has done in that time period, limited as it is to 2 CDs. Starting with a typically eccentric David Grubbs song that asks "Are you ready?" (a perfect lead-off), the complilation from there takes listeners through 26 other tracks, all unusual and exciting. While it'd be unfair to summarize the FatCat with one phrase or category, it is generally true that these musicians are interested by mood and texture as much as (or more than) traditional song structure, enjoy working with electronic sounds and instruments (often in conjunction with more more conventional instruments), and are trying to push music into new directions, to find unexplored territories. That said, this is a diverse lot. Disc One alone travels from the space-funk of Mice Parade and atmospheric pop of Mum to the cut-up electronic wizardry of Matmos and Grain, with a Bjork remix and excellent tracks by Process, Transient Waves and more along the way. CD 2 starts with an enticing yet brief unreleased Sigur Ros instrumental and a gorgeous ghost of a pop song by laptop-artist Fennesz, before further subverting your expectations of what FatCat is about with an odd art-country song by Drowsy. The rest of disc 2 gathers an ecelectic bunch of modern-day adventurers together, including Team Doyobi, Com.A, Programme, Xintlisupreme, Giddy Motors, and Black Dice. More than anything else, Bridges and Routes is likely to introduce even the most devout fans of out-there music to new sounds. The compilation's title brings to mind a map of what's going on in music, yet this is a map where every road leads to another, where there's something exciting around every corner. It's an impossible task to get your grip around the world of music; Branches and Routes will help ensure you're heading towards something wild and new no matter which way you're trying to go.--dave heaton

California Oranges, Oranges & Pineapples (Darla)

With their 2000 self-titled debut release, California Oranges delivered a quick, snappy set of exceedingly melodic pop-rock songs. The group built on the knack at producing sweet, catchy pop songs that two of its members, John Conley and Verna Brock, had previously displayed in their band Holiday Flyer, while adding an extra dose of energy, putting more power with the pop. Their second album Oranges & Pineapples amplifies that rock n' roll sense of force without detracting from the melody and heart of their songs. Kicking off with "Broken Typewriter," a song that puts a Ramones-ish punch to a simple pop song about a typewriter, the album takes off in a ferocious way, even though the songs are at their essence gentle, lovelorn pop. More than just adding a layer of rock to their sound, the California Oranges have thickened their songs in general, giving them a weightier sound that helps pull you even closer to their melodies and lyrics. In other words, even easygoing pop songs can slap you in the face if they're played and recorded the right way. When Brock sings about a relationship that didn't work out on "So Many Days," the sentiment hits you harder due to the musical heft of the song (the way the song really picks up and takes off at the chorus, for example). Even a slowed-down ballad like the beautiful "Ticket Booths & Turnstiles" has a mood that's sonically rich, more satisfying than you might expect. It's hard to pinpoint the exact formula California Oranges have used to give their already potent and ear-pleasing songs feel more fulfilling. At times it's extra instrumentation, at times more speed and force, and at times somewhat more complicated melodies. Whatever they're doing, they're doing it right. Oranges & Pineapples is a dazzling work, a great pop-rock album with a confident, alluring sound and memorable songs.-dave heaton

Clare, Womb Fantasy (Best Kept Secret)

Lullabies and love songs fill this cassette release from the Japanese pop duo Clare. Recorded in 1999 but released now through the Best Kept Secret tape label, Womb Fantasy is a relaxed, gentle gem. The eight songs are centered on the lovely voice of vocalist Yoko, but also use not just guitar and bass but keyboards and odd noises to build an atmosphere that's filled with a sense of peace but also intrigue. Best of all, their songs have beautiful melodies that sound even better when sung so beautifully. Songs like "Winged Angel" and "Take Your Time" offer a vision of love filled with romance yet also a tinge of hurt. "Fill my room with flowers," the brief instrumental which closes the album is called. With such transifixing pop songs, Clare fills your room with the musical equivalent of flowers: something colorful, pretty, delicate.-dave heaton

Colin Clary, The Only Boy in Town (North of January)

Colin Clary writes and sings pretty little pop songs about people and how they relate to each other. On his album The Only Boy in Town the one song of the 11 which he didn't write is a cover of The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get Wht I Want," and that's fitting. While his delicate voice and low-key style don't match up to the drama of the Smiths, his songs share that group's concern for people's inner lives, for the way they think of themselves and others, and how that comes out in conversations and actions. The first line on the album is "'Always' doesn't have to mean 'all the time'", and it's one of a few places on the album where Clary sings about how words are understood or mis-understood. Other songs deal with heartache, confusion, and the way we use art to deal with these "("I'm sure it's not the last song that I'll sing you," he sings in one place, instructing someone to "put the letters on the page and make up a title/just like I do" on another song). Though supported by musician friends throughout (Jeff Baron and Sasha Bell of The Ladybug Transistor, and Chris Norborg), the album is essentially one person writing and performing personal songs. But as with the Smiths and so many other great musicians, a talented songwriter can sing about his life but reveal the feelings to be universal. The emotions on The Only Boy in Town are likely to be recognized by any one with a heart, and the melodies likely to be sung by anyone who loves a good pop song.-dave heaton

The Clientele, The Violet Hour (Merge)

The Clientele's gentle pop songs are imbued with the feeling and style of day fading into night, along with the beauty and loss which that experience suggests. All of their releases to date--7"s, EPs, and an album collecting many of their singles--have been gorgeous yet not just so. Their music is consistent enough that there does indeed seem to be a Clientele sound: relaxed, pretty pop songs with hushed vocals and an atmospheric haze. Their songs are about how you feel when you're in a certain place at a certain time, yet the songs themselves also feel occupied, by ghosts or memories. They feel simple yet filled with secrets. Their latest release The Violet Hour, basically their first proper album, takes all of these qualities and amplifies them in wonderful ways. In many ways, it sounds like every other Clientele release, yet it's also a considerable step forward. For while the basic style is consistent with the past (even though it feels in many ways like a perfection of it), the guitar playing is even more moody and seductive, in a way that better plays up the dream-like quality of the band's music, and there's hints of both more abstract composition and more out-there rock n' roll than the group has yet delivered on record. The Clientele has always tried to both soothe and mystify listeners, to make you feel like you've been transported somewhere, and then make you feel out-of-time. Here they do that spendidly from start to finish, while also delivering songs that are loaded with enough pure feeling to send chills up and down your spine. Perhaps the best example (among 13 great examples) is the album's final track, "Policeman Getting Lost." A series of seasonal evocations wind their way through a gorgeous love song and then, after just around 2 minutes, singer Alsdair MacLean gets to the surprising final line, at once dumbfounding and moving: "Inside the fog I saw a policeman getting lost." It's hard to put in words, but the feeling of grace, sadness and confusion in MacLean's voice as he delivers those strange words is the essence of The Clientele.-dave heaton

Cosmic Rough Riders, Too Close to See Far (Measured Records)

A lot has been written about this Scottish combo; about their (alleged) fixation with Teenage Fan club, their predilection towards so-called Californian Sunshine Pop (probably as a result of their last album title, Feel The Melodic Sunshine) and their harmonies/well-scrubbed acoustic guitars (what does a well-scrubbed acoustic guitar sound like, anyway?). People have said that CRR would suffer from the departure of lead singer Dan Wylie and that Stephen Fleming wasn't up to it, that his voice isn't as distinctive as Wylie's. Well, who cares? To my mind, Stephen makes an admirable replacement and, if anything, more suits the group's take on music. Top Close To See Far will not shake the world to its foundations, will probably not sell by the million, which is a shame, but will take pride of place in the record collection of anyone who likes finely-crafted, melodic (no irony intended) and essentially uplifting pop. For this isn't rock; it's pop for the New Millennium - refreshingly unoriginal, derivative and mindlessly enjoyable.-- john stacey

The Cruzeros, El Nino (self-released)

As a jaded music journalist, I've come across just about every musical hybrid and genre splice you could ever think of. Mongolian blues band? Heard that. Moroccan polka reggae? What, again?Brazilian space-rock? Been done. I've heard it all. Or, at least I thought I did. Until I heard the Cruzeros. Get ready.........the Cruzeros are a Canadian roots rock band who happen to favor a mexican sound. Of course, you might have realized this from the CD title and the band name, but, hey....I'm a little slow sometimes. Vocalist/guitarist Barry Mathers (And no, he's not The Beaver........) is pretty much the leader here, writing the lion's share of the songs with and without his bandmates. Mathers and the rest of the band craft a pretty solid CD of radio-ready country mixed with a substantial bit of cantina. In fact, it sounds more like authentic (whatever that means) Texas music than most of the country music currently coming from Texas. The production, by Bill Buckingham and the band is very good, nothing lo-fi here. If I were to make a comparison I would say a Canadian version of our own Texas Tornadoes. Very good and I hope they get the attention Stateside that they deserve. {4 stars}--scott homewood

Diana Darby, Fantasia Ball (Delmore Recording Society)

Diana Darby's Fantasia Ball album starts with her singing, "If I could be anything at all, I would step out of myself and never call." The fragility of her voice as she gets to the next line reflects that of the lyrics and is the perfect lead-in to an album filled with feelings of unease and sadness; the strings that complement her voice are similarly a great introduction to the haunting beauty of the album. Fantasia Ball is the singer/songwriter/guitarist's second album, and it's filled with folk-country songs that have the palpable atmosphere of a Cowboy Junkies album but also a dark, slightly bluesy edge and soulful guitar playing that's somehow reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's quieter moments. In the world of Fantasia Ball, all beauty is fleeting and no one ever feels completely comfortable in their own skin. "Why are all the flowers dying in June/and why do we all treat each other the way we do," she sings at one point. Darby has a rich, weighty voice that can also be high and spooky when she wants it to, and here it's recorded with startling clarity. In that way the album is a testimony to the remarkable things you can do with a 4-track recorder. It's also one more example that it doesn't take big money, hype, or sonic embellishments to create an arresting album. All you need is talent and honesty--Fantasia Ball exudes both, and then some.-dave heaton

Daughter, Skin (AUM Fidelity)

"And now I want to be erased!" Daughter vocalist M.L. Platt screams over and over on the first track of the group's debut CD Skin. And she sounds like she means it, to say the least. The CD opens with 4 rough, explosive punk-rock songs about sex and death and destruction before stepping into a psych-funk version of hip-hop that'll make you re-think your impressions of them. They sound as intense doing a trippy ode to getting high as they do screaming about suicide. There's a toughness and honesty at the core of everything Daughter does, though to my ears the closer they get to straight hip-hop the less compelling they get (see "Hands In the Pants," for example). Still, anyone at all familiar with music history knows that New York City spawned hip-hop and gritty punk both, so Daughter's mix of the two seems less like an anomaly than an authentic expression of the music of the city. But Skin has a way of subverting any conclusion you come to: check out the way Daughter takes their high-speed punk song "Misbehaving" and recasts it as an acoustic ballad called "Lonely Gauge," making it clear that they don't care that much about all of the genre talk. And when the album ends with an experimental piece that's some sort of lecture/meditation/rap on "the nature of sound," if your head isn't filled with question marks and your face contorted into a puzzled expression, you weren't paying much attention. -dave heaton

Dead Meadow, Shivering King and Others (Matador)

Like a Hendrix jam at is headiest or the mutant offspring of a handful of obscure psych-rock crazies from the past, Dead Meadow's third album Shivering King And Others is a thick cloud of glorious fuzz that'll lift you off into some alternate plane. The searing guitars and overall crunch come off like they're from some neglected rock classic, an underground release that's been hiding for decades in the dusty basement of the stoners who created it. Yet the starry-eyed vocals, like a dazed-and-confused American version of the Jesus and Mary Chain, and the sheer vitality running through the songs makes you know it's of today, not a relic from the past. "Golden Cloud," one of the songs is called, and that's what the album feels like, though the title of the song after it, "Me and the Devil Blues," seems just as fitting. Shivering King and Others will rattle your bones and put you in a trance-it's an evil-sounding rock n' roll juggernaut that also floats you along like you're stuck in the middle of a bruised but beautiful dream.-dave heaton

DJ Ordeal, "Ordeals Big Band/Phone Or Deal" 7" (Sparticus Stargazer)

I welcome a new DJ Ordeal release like little else these days, as I know it's going to be fascinating, a wild trip that synthesizes the music of the past into some sort of new, ghostly, timeless experience. The first side of this 7", "Ordeals Big Band," is, as the title indicates, a romp through big-band music. 17 classic big-band songs merge together into one, for a show-stopping number that captures the energy of a dance floor that's on fire while also having an odd, slightly out-of-step feeling to it. Horn sections come in and then shift sideways, letting someone else come through. Everything builds up but then momentarily slows down. Melodies repeat but never feel complete. It all sounds not like a mishmash of songs but like a big-band song that's been arranged by an eccentric, someone who likes everything big and bold but also wants it all to sound a little bit off. Side B, "Phone OR Deal," takes the sense of mystery that's in the air by the end of the first track and dives headlong into it. Here instead of instruments we have telephone rings. Some are loud, some are soft, and all sound like voices from the past, rings of phones that have long since been answered or ignored. We have footsteps, too, but are they moving towards the phone or away? It's hard to tell, for as soon as you try to orient yourself to this amalgamation of rings they're gone and you're left with silence. Arranged as carefully as a big-band piece, these rings tell you nothing in particular, but offer questions and mysteries galore.-dave heaton

Early Day Miners, Jefferson at Rest (Secretly Canadian)

Much like Secretly Canadian labelmates Damien Jurado and Songs: Ohia, Early Day Miners explore those dry, open spaces of middle America with a sort of romantic longing that most city dealers only wish they could understand. But where Jurado and Songs: Ohia frontman Jason Molina borrow heavily from Nebraska-era Springsteen, the Miners pave a more rock-centric approach. The pace is slow, and the mood is mostly somber, but songs like the opener 'Wheeling' and 'Awake' feature interesting guitar interplay that calls to mind such indie-rock outfits as Seam. Daniel Burton's words illustrate both the empty fields of the Midwest and the blackened smokestacks of industrial wastelands. Unfortunately, his voice seems too hollow and distant to capture any real emotional weight. Apart from the occasional backing vocal Erin Houchin or intriguing guitar melody, most of this disc lacks real substance, especially the almost embarrassingly generic sounding 'McCalla' which features predictable percussion and languid vocals. Still, there are some moments of interest on this disc, which may be worth the while of those who like their rock slow and don't feel that slow and gentle must always equal boring and dull. -paul jaissle

Elliott the Letter Ostrich, Coweta Android EP (Asaurus)

Elliott the Letter Ostrich sound like they were once a straightforward pop group-a Beach Boys cover band, maybe, or a pleasant folk duo that occasionally indulged its Duran Duran habit…but then they got abducted by aliens. When dropped back on the planet we call home, they still had a knack for melody and a love of playing catchy pop songs, yet something wasn't quite right. They sang in odd voices, whispering or whining when you wouldn't expect them too. They mixed their styles up into one offbeat amalgamation of new wave-folk-pop. And most of all, their lyrics just got plain weird. They'd sing about "Hasselhoff 3010" or "Gargles the Holy Spirit" as if they knew something about the future that we didn't. Look at them funny if you want, but their songs will still get stuck in your head and refuse to leave. Alien infestation? Maybe, but it sure is nice.-dave heaton

Issue 14, August 2003 | next article