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Consumable Online Issue 063
==== ISSUE 63 ==== CONSUMABLE ======== [December 4, 1995]
Editor: Bob Gajarsky
Internet: gajarsky@pilot.njin.net
Sr. Correspondents: Jeremy Ashcroft, Martin Bate, Al Crawford,
Dan Enright, Reto Koradi, David Landgren,
Tim Mohr, Jamie Roberts, Joe Silva, John Walker
Correspondents: Dan Birchall, Lee Graham Bridges, Scott Byron, Jason
Cahill, Eric Hsu, Tim Hulsizer, Daniel Kane, Mario Lia,
Sean Eric McGill, P. Nina Ramos, Linda Scott,
Ali Sinclair, Jon Steltenpohl, Courtney Muir Wallner,
Britain Woodman
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: John Shiruba of Eskimo - Dan Enright
REVIEW: Cypress Hill, _III: Temples of Boom_ - Martin Bate
REVIEW: Green Day, _Insomniac_ - Eric Hsu
REVIEW: Various Artists, _Saturday Morning_ - Bob Gajarsky
REVIEW: The Jesus And Mary Chain, _The Jesus And Mary Chain
Hate Rock 'n' Roll_ - Scott Byron
REVIEW: AC/DC, _Ballbreaker_ - Linda Scott
BRIEF MENTION: Ash - Tim Mohr
REVIEW: Ruth Ruth, _Laughing Gallery_ - Mario J. Lia
REVIEW: Randy Newman, _Faust_ - Reto Koradi
REVIEW: The Residents, _Gingerbread Man_ - Joe Silva
NEWS: Dave Matthews, Drivin n Cryin, Our Lady Peace,
Sonicnet, Ultra Magazine
TOUR DATES: Anthrax, Better Than Ezra, Neal Casal,
Donovan, Mary Ann Farley, Natalie Merchant, Phish
Silverchair
Back Issues of Consumable
---
INTERVIEW: John Shiruba of Eskimo
- Dan Enright
It was late last summer when San Francisco's Eskimo slipped around
the country "under radar," playing small clubs on the east coast. Touring
to help Mammoth (who'd picked up distribution from the band's label Prawn
Song) promote their 1993 recording _Der Shrimpkin_, I was fortunate
enough to see them perform at NYC's Knitting Factory. I also had an
opportunity to talk to one of the members, John Shiurba. Time constraints
kept me from transcribing the conversation until recently, but I think it
was worth the wait. So, without further ado, here's a bit of our conversation.
Consumable: Your press kit claimed you started out busking
[street performing]. How much of your style was evident then?
John: When we played on the streets, we were really horrible. It
was just a way to be able to play, because we didn't have anywhere else
to. It was out of frustration, almost. We took our instruments, sat out on
the street, and made complete fools of ourselves. And passerbys would see us.
Then eventually, just because we were so wacked out, people
started asking us to play in clubs. We tried translating that to clubs and
it was kind of difficult at first. We were a three piece group, we didn't
have a bass player or the trombone. It was just marimba, guitar, and
drums. It wasn't very good, really. We didn't write many of our own
songs, it's hard to describe how bad it was. But eventually we started writing
songs and becoming a real band. I think the wackiness was always there, the
more serious side of the dichotomy wasn't there until the late '80s. And we
started in '86."
C: So it took you about three years.
J: Yeah, it took us that long to get a sense of direction that
actually made any sense to anyone, even though it wasn't quite where we're
at now. We had a group sound that was reasonably coherent.
C: Then another three years until you recorded _Der Shrimpkin_.
J: This actually our second album. Our first album we made
ourselves and if you're one of about 500 people that are lucky enough - or
unlucky enough - to have it, or to have seen us during that time
and bought it from us. It's not easily attainable. But we made a record in
about 1990, or '89 I think was our first record. Then we played for a couple
years and made the other record in about '93, I think. Then there was a
period of inactivity where the record was sort of finished, then Prawn Song
came along and offered to put it out.
C: How has the band changed during the two years since the release?
J: Well, the personnel has changed a bit. But I think we've
sort of been waiting for this tour. We haven't done a whole lot
as a band. We've all pursued other musical projects and tried different
avenues a little bit. As a band, we've been on hold, a little bit. So,
it's kind of fun, because you can come back to something you really love
and be able to do it again.
C: Did the solo projects change your approach to the material?
J: I think so. Personally, I try to bring something a
little more direct and not so totally left field to it now. My perspective
is always walking a fine line between being, on the one
hand, really intelligent or intellectual and on the one hand, being
totally retarded. And on the one hand, being really accessible and on the
one hand, being for the music connoisseur. I think it's important to keep
both sides of that... tightrope [laugh] happening, so any person who
happens to be in the club can really enjoy it. Even though it might have
some elements of advanced music that's not something people are used to,
it does have elements of stuff that they can grasp on to and have fun with.
C: How much of the band's sound is due to the "environment" of San
Francisco?
J: This is an interesting question. We sort of existed outside
and inside the mainstream club circuit. Because we were a rock band, we
did play rock clubs, but we were always the sort of jazzy, weird, rock
band. So we didn't get the shows opening up for the more straight forward
rock bands. Then the whole jazz scene comes along... in the past couple of
years in San Francisco, it's really hit big time. And it's like, "ESKIMO!?
Those guys aren't jazz..." [laugh] and now we're outcasts of that scene, too.
So, there's a lot of really nice musicians we hang out with, but I
don't know if we're really affected by the sound of the groups around us.
I was lucky enough to see Snakefinger three or four times in the '80s in
clubs, just because he was in San Francisco and he played clubs. He wasn't
a big deal when he played. He played the same clubs we played [chuckle].
C: The bands you're compared to - Beefheart, Zappa, the Residents,
Fishbone, Snakefinger - all have cult followings that seem to result from
having a vision and staying true to it. Is that desire to challenge yourself
and your audiences as opposed to being popular, true for you also?
J: I think those are important questions. I think, sometimes
for me, the question becomes not, should I challenge the audience, but how
much [laugh]. And how much is too much. I think we do have a vision.
Whether or not we would all agree on what it was is probably another question.
I think the band does have a sort of group consciousness that
they're not really aware of, that kind of defines our sound. And I think
we would take it to most anything we did. Even when we play cover songs,
we try to play them, what we see as, "the right way." What we hear [laugh]
as the elements of the song, that make it important. You can listen to a song,
hear your own version of it in your head, and hear certain elements that
define the song for you. So, when we cover a song, we try to play it right.
C: Not necessarily the way it was originally performed...
J: Right. So people think we're deconstructing it [laugh] or
something, but in reality we're just trying to play it right. It's just
that different people hear different elements. I think the fact that when
we do covers, it still sort of sounds like Eskimo, is evident of the fact
that we do have a group consciousness. Whoever knows what it is, I'm not sure.
C: What are you covering this tour?
J: On this tour, we're doing the theme from "You Only Live
Twice" - a John Barry composition that Nancy Sinatra sang - and we're
doing the covers that are on the record, which are the Snakefinger -"Kill
the Great Raven" - and the Duke Ellington [Blue Pepper (Far East of the
Blues)] we're throwing out there every now and then. Once in a while we do
"Happiness is a Warm Gun" - the Beatles song.
That's an example of a song we tried to play as right as we could
and people thought we were deconstructing it [laugh]... but I don't know.
I guess that's what happens when you put a vibraphone and a trombone in an
arrangement of a typical rock song. If you're really doing a cover, you
should be doing something different I think. But, then you get into the
dangerous territory of ruining the song. I think somebody said, "In order to
do a cover, you have to totally ruin it." [chuckle] I don't know if that's
true or not.
---
REVIEW: Cypress Hill, _III: Temples of Boom_ (Columbia/Sony)
- Martin Bate
Fucking incredible!
_Black Sunday_ turned Cypress Hill into a Premier Division hip-hop
act although the band are now quick to criticise the album they saw as
being written and recorded too quickly under record company pressure.
Unfair - it was a fine album, if not the ground breaker the warped funk
of the self-titled debut was.
But this....this is jaw-dropping - a *huge* leap forward. Anyone
who can write this off as being "more of the same" patently got the wrong
CD in the sleeve! DJ Muggs has obviously been taking in the dark,
creeping, bass-led paranoia of the east coast scene led by DJ Premier and
the Wu-Tang clique. But also, more surprisingly, he seems to have been
paying attention to the Mo'Wax label's dope-laden instrumental jazz/hip-
hop grooves. Combine the two with the on-form, wired-to-explode nasal
whine and jitter of B-Real and watch things get scary.
From the low-key throb of opener "Spark Another Owl" to the
tingling piano and ghostly orchestral wails of "Stoned Raiders", B-Real
stalks the soundscape. More sneering than ever, syllables clipped till
the words are spat out like maching-gun bullets, Sen-Dog is reduced to
little more than a ghostly presence for most of the album. But it doesn't
matter. Cypress Hill have found a new level of scariness (only "Cock the
Hammer" comes remotely close to the atmosphere here) and produced possibly
raps first real 'headphones' album, with an immaculate, *spacey*
production with a 101 things going on deep in the mix that takes listen
upon listen to unravel.
An obvious stand-out is the collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan's
Rza, "Killa Hill Niggas", in which B-Real's squealing judder (this is
*NOT* the cuddly cartoon gangsta of "Insane in the Brain") meets the
Rza's calmly malevolent flow squeezed between gruff psycho-Latino threats.
But it's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the Eastern
flavoured "Illusions" where sitar meets xylophone behind a first-person
detailing of a downward spiral more real than anything Trent Reznor
could dream up. No money, dead girlfriend, family have turned their back
on their 'hoodlum' son : "I'm trying to find ways to cope/But I ain't
fucking around with the gauge or a rope" and "I'm having illusions/All
this confusions fucking me up in my mind" sung in a chilling sing-song
tone.
There's the *huge* Ice Cube diss of "No Rest for the Wicked" which
takes all his rhymes and poses, spits on them and throws them back in his
face, the argument being that Muggs has never been paid for his production
work for Cube a few years back, and worse, has been biting their stuff
behind their back; listen to his "Friday" track back to back with the
first single from _Temples of Boom_, "Throw Your Set in the Air" for
evidence. If I was Cube, I'd be scared.
And so it goes on, almost every track a highlight. The chillingly
laid-back elevator-jazz-with-breakbeat that is "Boom Biddy Bye Bye". The
moment that Samuel L. Jackson's biblical Pulp Fiction rant ends in gun-
fire and the *hugest* beat kicks in behind *that* voice again on "Make a
Move". The creeping piano and looped string section of "Killafornia".
The Woah! of "Locotes", with the story built around some cinematic sound-
effects pieces. The hammer-horror drone of "Let It Rain".
Cypress Hill - Yes good ol' Lollapalooza-alternative-rock-friendly
Cypress Hill - have just gone and turned in probably the best and scariest
(no mean feat considering the stuff that's oozing out of the east coast
just now) hip-hop album of 1995. It's the biggest fuck-you to the
mainstream since Nirvana's _In Utero_, and wipes out the majority of the
underground and overground hangers-on in one fell swoop. Phenomenal.
---
REVIEW: Green Day, _Insomniac_ (Warner)
- Eric Hsu
"There's no return from 86", goes one of the new Green Day songs,
and it's true. Once you are "86'ed" from the Gilman music collective you
are banned from the club for life. And when Green Day signed with Warner,
they knew that they were basically 86'ing themselves from the community
they loved and helped build.
Even when Green Day started, many dismissed them as girl-song pop,
but their energetic music was a refreshing break from the ultra-heavy dirge
Neurosis punk dominant then. And as they passed into more and more
mainstream surroundings, their music has become less pop, faster and more
stripped down, almost as if they tried to be contrary to whatever the
prevailing musical current was. _Insomniac_ doesn't change the pattern:
the songs still have a strong pop sensibility but they don't seem to go for
the pop-hook jugular the way "Longview" and "Basket Case" do, or even the
way older songs like "Welcome to Paradise" and "2000 Light Years Away" do.
This is not to say there aren't wonderful moments on the record. On
the contrary, the playing is tight, the double-tracked Marshall-distorted
guitars are full and fat (Maybe a little too fat? Some nice bass lines are
nearly inaudible.) and there are a number of memorable songs. The opener
"Armatage Shanks" stuck in my head for days, "Stuart and the Ave." is a
pretty, irresistible song and "Bab's Uvula Who?" is a full-speed rave that
will (unfortunately) trigger mosh pits in stadiums across the country. The
hooks are familiar (after all, how many three or four chord hooks exist?),
but pleasant and well-done. For instance, "Stuck With Me" opens with the
"Tattooed Love Boys" hook, but does it proud, especially the way the hook
sneaks back into the song at the end.
Unlike _Kerplunk_ and _Dookie_, the title of _Insomniac_ is not a
toilet joke, which is a tiny but real symbol of maturing. Their explosive
rise to the top ranks of music acts has brought a new sense of
responsibility that comes with power. Their first post-megasuccess concert
in Oakland was a benefit for a number of worthy Berkeley activist groups
like the Berkeley Free Clinic and the unfairly-persecuted group Food Not
Bombs. They asked the proudly gay Pansy Division to open for them, thumbing
their nose at the new mainstream audience they'd won.
With each album, Billie Joe's lyrics seem to gain new confidence.
He's always had a knack for finding very singable phrases and _Insomniac_
is full of them. "I'm a loner in a catastrophic mind" and "I get myself all
wound up" just roll off the tongue, and when "Panic Song" hits the end with
the ringing "I wanna drop out", it's nearly breath-taking.
I say "nearly" because the half the album is in the "Basket Case"
school of first-person confessions of defectiveness. The attitude towards
the targets of these songs ranges from total scorn to a trace of amused
sympathy, and if some of the songs weren't so catchy, the album would just
be a parade of contempt. As it is, the songs are similar enough that the
recurring testimonials of self-lameness become wearying. Only the "he" of
"Stuart and the Ave." and "she" of "Westbound Sign" have the least bit of
hope of action and change.
It's almost as if Billie Joe feels a responsibility to be more
"relevant", whatever that means, by changing topics from young angst and
love to more "serious" and general topics, which means in this case a
number of darts at self-destructive youth. And while he can't be totally
blamed for the inevitable dimwits who take "Geek Stink Breath" as a
glorification of speed, there is a significant lack of affirmation on this
record. Green Day covers the Operation Ivy song "Knowledge" in concert,
and there's a telling contrast between the Op Ivy song "Jaded" ("I won't
burn my bridges and become just another jaded fool") and the Green Day song
of the same name ("I found my place in nowhere... Hooray! we're gonna die")
and it is the difference between hope and sarcasm. There are also an
unusually large number of Berkeley references (Tightwad Hill, Stuart, 86,
and more) and in-jokes in the lyrics, as if they were trying to maintain a
personal connection to the serious songs by putting in near-nostalgic
references to the past that they are now cut off from.
The denouncing of Green Day as "false punks" seems ironic,
especially since now-iconic bands like Op Ivy and the Gilman scene as a
whole were similarly denounced by older (and more violent and alcoholic)
punks. Unlike minority groups in the US trying to avoid assimilation,
music collectives have no genetic bond, rather a bond of ideals, and a
built-in promise of musical and social freedom. The natural enemy of this
spirit is elitism, clique-forming and musical orthodoxy, and these enemies
usually win, unfortunately, with local music scenes stagnating. Most of
the anti-Green Day-ers are either consciously or unconsciously encouraging
the destruction of good punk values. This elitism is often cloaked in
anti-major label arguments, and there are a definitely a lot of problems
with the existing monopoly major-label system. But these arguments seem
less truthful when the same self-righteous elitist vitriol is directed at
Rancid (indie label) and AFI (super-indie), the latter simply because they
got played on the local alternative station.
Punk is not a Casio synthesizer beat setting. If it's true that the
spirit of punk is that music is a vital part of life and community that
everyone should have access to, as performer or audience, and if it's true
that the other promise of punk is the freedom to make exactly the kind of
music you love and that's important to you, and if it's true that the
artifacts of punk should be available to everyone and not an elite few,
then the punkest thing Green Day can do at this point is kick back, take
their time after their current tour to write songs, and turn out an
unbelievable straightahead and heartfelt pop record.
Because listening to this record, I can't help but feel that they
are suppressing their pop side to defend a preconception of the sound of
punk, especially when you compare the Warner records with the earlier giddy
and energetic Lookout! pop records. And there's some hope that they're
about to make a breakthrough. Songs like "Brain Stew" and "Panic Song"
point towards some new musical territory for them, and the band members are
entering fatherhood and familyhood. There's no question that they have a
spark and charisma and are important to a lot of Americans. The question
is whether they are going to become the next Ramones, becoming irrelevant
and embarrassing after a few promising albums, or whether they will
continue to grow and make better and better music. There are a lot of
catchy songs on _Insomniac_, but I have hope that it's a transitional
stepping stone towards a full hearted and honest Green Day music.
---
REVIEW: Various Artists, _Saturday Morning_ (MCA)
- Bob Gajarsky
To anyone over the age of 25, Saturday mornings used to be
the time to stumble out of bed and, in a slightly comatose state, watch
the lunacy of Josie and the Pussycats, the Banana Splits, and that
trans-galactic family, the Jetsons. The compact disc series of
_Television's Greatest Hits_ brought the these theme songs to our stereo
players - and now, the _Saturday Morning_ compilation has introduced the
best of these songs to a whole new audience through some of today's top
modern rockers.
The collection leads off with the Chicago pairing of Liz Phair
and Material Issue covering the Banana Splits theme, "The Tra La La
Song". Because it hit the charts in its original form (back in 1969),
and became one of the Dickies biggest hits in 1979, it remains
one of the most popular and well-known morning theme songs. Material
Issue's music has always offered a tip of the hat to the music of the 60's,
and they perform this track as if they were a garage band auditioning
while playing at a fraternity party. They pass the audition, by the way.
Matthew Sweet doesn't bring anything new to his rendition of
the Scooby Doo theme, but his sugar coating of the song does stick
in the mind. Sponge gives an almost grunge feel to "Go Speed Racer",
leaving the 1994's techno dancers, who forgot / never knew the theme
song, left in the dust.
Juliana Hatfield and Belly's Tanya Donnelly, and this is said in
only the most positive of comparisons, sound exactly like studio singers
on "Josie and the Pussycats" - it can only be assumed this is deliberate,
but in contrast to their normal styles, both singers alternate *their*
musical voices to fit this song. Meanwhile, the Violent Femmes' Gordon
Gano does alternarock justice to the Judy Jetson intergalactic alien
love song "Eep Op Ork A A (Means I Love You)".
As with most compilations, a few of the tracks miss their mark.
Most of these songs are from shows which were on television in the 60's
and 70's; why ruin it with bringing in Wax's version of "Happy Happy
Joy Joy", from The Ren and Stimpy Show? It's one of the songs that really
can't be done differently, and Wax should stick to their originals.
Likewise, "Sugar Sugar", first recorded by studio musicians calling
themselves the Archies, has been covered to death, and Mary Lou Lord
doesn't do anything to distinguish this version from the others which
are out there.
All in all, however, it's fun to have these artists romp through
the morning theme songs from our childhood. This makes _Saturday Morning_
entertaining listening, no matter what day or time it is.
TRACK LISTING: Liz Phair with Material Issue - The Tra La La Song,
Sponge - Go Speed Racer Go, Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic - Sugar Sugar,
Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donnelly - Josie and the Pussycats, Matthew
Sweet - Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, Collective Soul - The Bugaloos,
Butthole Surfers - Underdog, Helmet - Gigantor, Ramones - Spiderman,
Reverend Horton Heat - Jonny Quest / Stop That Pigeon, Frente! - Open Up
Your Heart and Let The Sun Shine In (From the Flintstones), Violent
Femmes - Eep Op Ork A A (Means I Love You); Dig - Fat Albert Theme;
Face to Face - I'm Popeye The Sailor Man; Tripping Daisy - Friends/
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters; Toadies - Goolie Get Together; Sublime -
Hong Kong Phooey; Murmurs - H.R. Pufnstuf; Wax - Happy Happy Joy Joy
---
REVIEW: The Jesus And Mary Chain, _The Jesus And Mary Chain
Hate Rock 'n' Roll_ (Blanco y Negro/American)
- Scott Byron
There's little in modern rock with the visceral, gut-level appeal
of The Jesus And Mary Chain's trademark fuzz-drenched pop. At its best,
it transports the listener to a parallel plane, where melodies and words
and noise and fuzz weave in and out of each other and ones ears. But
while the group's trance-like psychedelic rock has led to much of its
attention, what elevates The Jesus And Mary Chain's music are the
melodies. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find it -- and too many
listeners unfortunately don't make the effort -- but each track has a
catchy tune at its base.
As the band has developed over the last eleven years (yes, it's
been that long since the brilliant -- and utterly perfectly titled --
_Psychocandy_ was released), on occasion they've departed from their
trademark sound. Often this was done on B-sides, soundtracks and such,
but the band's previous album, _Stoned & Dethroned_, was toned down quite
a bit, and helped them to a major alternative hit, "Sometimes Always," a
duet with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval.
_The Jesus And Mary Chain Hate Rock 'n' Roll_ is a collection of
tracks from various sources that could have been overlooked, but which
genuinely deserve attention. (The band's done this before, with the
_Barbed Wire Kisses_ album in 1988.) Four of them are relatively new,
having been released on an EP in the U.K. in 1995. These tracks represent
something of a return to their fuzzier roots, especially on the wigged-out
"33 1/3" and the pummeling title track, which rips at MTV and the BBC as
representatives of the horrid side of the music biz.
While the four new tracks act as the focal point of this
collection, there's lots more worth your trouble. "Snakedriver," the
band's contribution to _The Crow_ soundtrack is here, and it's got a truly
seductive groove. One of the cooler, more interesting cuts is the dance
mix (by Grand Exalted Poobah) of "Teenage Lust -- Desdemoana Mix."
There's even an acoustic track.
Part of the fun of this collection is its eclectic nature, so
it wouldn't be fair to spoil the fun of discovering it for yourself.
Lose yourself in it.
---
REVIEW: AC/DC, _Ballbreaker_ (EastWest)
- Linda Scott
AC/DC's legions of fans have waited five long years for
_Ballbreaker_. Was it worth it? You bet! AC/DC is a hard rock mainstay
loved by everyone from author Stephen King to Beavis and Butt-Head.
Suggestive lyrics and titles in an all rock, no ballads portfolio are an
AC/DC signature with _Ballbreaker_ keeping close to that path. Rather
than offend, the lyrics seem a natural part of the rock tradition.
_Ballbreaker_ is just the latest in the AC/DC series where it's difficult
to tell one album from the next. Brian Johnson is back singing in his
high, straining register with brothers Malcolm and Angus Young setting
the power and precision of the music. Original drummer Phil Rudd
returns and hasn't forgotten how to hammer out the AC/DC sound.
"Hard As A Rock", the first single from _Ballbreaker_, is the best track
on the album with other good rockers being "Cover You In Oil", "Burnin'
Alive" and the title track. With this in mind, AC/DC fans and hard rock
followers can confidently add _Ballbreaker_ to their collections.
_Ballbreaker_'s release comes at the start of AC/DC's third decade.
Formed in Australia in 1974, the band's debut album was released in 1976
in the U.S. The next decade saw the release of twelve albums from _Let
There Be Rock_ in 1977 to _Blow Up Your Video_ in 1987. AC/DC barely
paused when lead singer Bon Scott choked to death following a drinking binge.
Brian Johnson was recruited and the band released _Back In Black_, their
biggest selling album to date. "Highway To Hell" and "Back In Black"
were selected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum as two of the
greatest rock songs of all times. _Back In Black_ pushed AC/DC sales hard
with the band selling 80 million albums worldwide prior to the release of
_Ballbreaker_. Trademark driving rock beats and riffs, sexual lyrics,
and Johnson's distinctive vocals made them millions and the band is
unlikely to tinker with this successful formula. Frontman Angus Young
has been known to say that if people want meaningful lyrics, they should go
listen to R.E.M. AC/DC is about, well, fucking.
First purchase to make is that single "Hard As A Rock". Like that
one and you'll want to rock all night with _Ballbreaker_. AC/DC begins a
world tour in January 1996 and tickets are on sale now at many US venues.
AC/DC puts on a great show. Even though he's 35, Angus Young will be
wearing his standard schoolboy suit. Phil Rudd will be making the tour
along with other band regulars, Cliff Williams on bass and Malcolm Young
on rhythm guitar with Brian Johnson nearly stripping his vocal cords. Get
out and see them, rock fans, for AC/DC's _Ballbreaker_ is a sure cure for
the winter blues.
---
BRIEF MENTION: Ash
- Tim Mohr
Ash hail from Northern Ireland and are unabashed fans of punk gods
like the Undertones and the Ramones. In many ways Ash functions as a Green
Day for Europe, tossing out a steady supply of catchy singles combining the
best of punk energy with spritely Britpop structures.
Ash's album _Trailer_ yielded a catch of sloppy punk-pop songs, loud,
fast, and fun. The band is proud of their lack of polish, certifying that the
album was made by real teenagers and that certain songs were written in 5
minutes.
Since the album, Ash have released two successful singles. The first,
"Kung Fu," is a tribute to the Ramones written the day after Christmas.
Lyrics include obvious references to the Ramones warped humor, and the
gutteral chorus is better than most actual Ramones songs. The b-side
continues the laugh with a song called "Day of the Triffids."
The latest is by far their best work, with Ash's "Girl from Mars"
sitting alongside Pulp's "Common People" as among the best singles produced
this year by the much-hyped British pop renaissance. Ash are on their way up,
and their material will appeal to fans of Elastica, Green Day, and a host of
other comers in the punk-pop categorie, bands that eschew the metal element
built into punk-grunge acts like Therapy? or Offspring.
---
REVIEW: Ruth Ruth, _Laughing Gallery_ (American)
- Mario J. Lia
"We're not trying to change anybody...we're just showing people who
we are." says Ruth Ruth's Chris Kennedy. The band's album _Laughing
Gallery_ not only shows people who they are, but knocks them out in the
process.
At time when mindless punk is in its abundence Ruth Ruth comes
along to break the cycle. The music of Ruth Ruth is a Ramones type punk
with more musical diversity and better lyrics. Lyrics like "Bleeding in
the dirt, I hear them laughing at me." from the song "I Grew Up", a song
about the life of lower education. Making things harder are the parents
saying things like "I've reared a faggot and I'm afraid he'll look like
me". Another great song is "I Killed Meg The Prom Queen". Why would you
want to kill a lovable cheerleader prom queen? The answer is "...she blew
me off cause I couldn't get it up. She'll tell the whole town...I had to
shut her up."
Going from playing in front of no one to having the
hit single and video for "Uninvited", Ruth Ruth is well on their way to
be a huge success.
All this and more from a band named after a movie character in "The
Incredible Shrinking Woman", you gotta love them!
---
REVIEW: Randy Newman, _Faust_ (Reprise/Warner)
- Reto Koradi
It sounds like a great idea: Randy Newman, master of cynicism,
makes a rock musical, based on one of the masterpieces of world literature,
Goethe's "Faust". The cast couldn't be better: James Taylor (Lord),
Don Henley (Faust), Linda Ronstadt (Gretchen), Bonnie Raitt (Martha),
Elton John plays an angel, and last but not least there is of course
Randy Newman as Mephisto.
There's something for everybody: gospel sung by James Taylor
("Glory Train"), almost classical tracks ("Gainesville" by Linda Ronstadt),
orchestral rock ("Bless The Children Of The World", Don Henley),
Bonnie Raitt gives a wonderful ballad ("Feels Like Home"), Elton John gets
to sing a track in his own style ("Little Island"), and there are some
typical Randy Newman songs ("Can't Keep A Good Man Down", or the rocky
"Happy Ending"). While variety is a good thing, Newman has gone one step
too far, trying to pack everything into 60 minutes.
A short version of Newman's adaptation of the story is in the
booklet of the CD, and this is probably how the stage production looks.
He made some interesting changes to make it fit into our time, e. g.
Faust is not a scientist striving for the ultimate wisdom, but a student
keen on money, power and control. But the songs on the album seem to be
just singular pieces of the whole thing. Besides the recurring big topic,
the fight between the Lord and the devil, it's difficult to find a
connection and make much sense out of them.
It's hard to imagine that a large audience will jump for _Faust_.
The music is just too diverse for most tastes, and Newman fails to make his
version of the story understandable on the album. As Elvis Costello sang:
"It was a fine idea at its time, now it's a brilliant mistake". But since
brilliant mistakes are still much more interesting than boring imitations,
it's a good thing that Newman tried this ambitious project. Despite the
problems, it has good moments, and deserves to find listeners.
---
REVIEW: The Residents, _Gingerbread Man_ (ESD)
- Joe Silva
With the Beatles now having committed their "virtual" reunion, it
seems that we might truly have reached a glut in terms of the
number and scope of performers caught up in self regurgitation.
Every decade gone by seems to a handful of its musical icons trying
to have the listening public buy into the notion that their current
incarnation mirrors a fair amount of the validity of their heydays. So
it's a peculiar thing in such a climate to contemplate the two
decades plus of the Residents steady existence. The perpetually
anonymous San Francisco quartet have been ever-present on rock's
true periphery, looking on literally/symbolically with huge eyeballs
without anything approaching wide recognition to fuel their modus
operandi.
Recently extolled for their pioneering feats in the world of CD-
ROM based entertainment, the Residents have gone from being the
sponsors of those queer little mail order blurbs in the slush advert
sections of mainstream rock mags to the gentile halls of modern
day Prague where as of this writing the Czech orchestra is currently
involved in an operatic staging of their 1993 "Freak Show" project.
And if you bothered to sit through the whole of Starship's pukey "We
Built This City" video figuring that MTV would eventually follow up
with something palatable, the Residents are the eyeballs in
tuxedo figures that do a cameo in the clip's closing moments. The
Residents often tend to interfuse with the mainstream in this
manner.
Musically, they could bear resemblance to scores of other avant-
garde work that also remains largely unknown, but not having
much footing in that realm, the only vague comparison I can draw
to the likes of _Gingerbread Man_ is a similarity it bears to the
broadcasts of the Church of the SubGenius that I've heard at profane
hours of the night when the truly odd and decadent rule the earth.
Done up in near-symphonic synth tapestries, a dash or two of
marimba flourishes, and based on a collection of tortured narratives,
_Gingerbread Man_ is like a walk through David Lynch's
neighborhood (or at least the one we imagine he'd like to live in) -
a spookhouse soundtrack for the unhinged and the fringe walkers.
The music is almost formally a sub-text to what the characters
portrayed are trying to convey. All caught in varying states of bitter
social decay, the Residents take you to the parlours of the weird and
the dispossessed and swear they'll be back to pick you up after they
run down to the corner for some smokes. The voices, abstract and
sometimes unearthly, mumble and groan and bitch about failed
experiences as the listener also negotiates a brief tune that's the
melodic glue of the whole enterprise. The Gingerbread Man warbles
in on occasion with the "Can't catch me" refrain and as the only
unifying element to the piece, it's probably the Residents honest
attempt at offering to bridge the gap between their world and ours.
According to the credits, Todd Rundgren is somewhere inside all
this, but in what capacity is anyone's guess. But that's the nature of
the Residents beast. The seemingly principal intent is to envelope
and to cloak experience in enough anonymity that purpose or the
mode of construction is somewhat obscured and only the vibe is left
standing. The sounds serve as an extended incantation, that once
drawn to, leaves the listener in a realm where the gratification does
not come at Wal-Mart level of immeadiacy. Nothing cheap or easy
or fashioned to a greater state of disposability. Perhaps that's why
for the moment they view the CD-ROM as the higher medium,
because until we can all afford VR helmets, it's one of the more
accessible technological expressways to the viscera. And while they
continue to hover unabated by an excess of fame, they can continue
to advance masked and gender free, unencumbered by a concern for
who and how many are watching. Like the anonymous voice says
on the 1-800 info line as it speaks out to touch tone users
everywhere, "Press firmly and with great deliberation." Or was it
"Press onward...?"
---
NEWS: > Dave Matthews fans will have some good news soon. Although
the band's proposed live EP has been scrapped, they have just finished
up the recording for their next record, which will be released in May.
> Drivin n Cryin fans now have two more sources of news on the
Internet. The group's unofficial mailing list can be joined by sending a
subscribe message to dderrick@hiwaay.net and, there is a newly formed
Usenet newsgroup called - what else? - alt.music.drivin-n-cryin
> To join the Our Lady Peace mailing list, send a message
with a subject header of subscribe to: olp-request@tfm.com
> Upcoming Sonicnet online chats: Dec. 5, Coolio (5 pm);
Dec. 6, Moby (6 pm); Dec. 7 Producer Christine Vachon and
production Kevin Thompson, both with the movie KIDS (5 pm);
Sonicnet is at http://www.sonicnet.com
> Ultra Magazine, the first Belgian web music magazine, has
recently released its first issue. WWW surfers can find Ultra at
its home page of: http://www.provinet.be/ultra
---
TOUR DATES
Anthrax
Dec. 12 Denver, CO Ogden
Dec. 14 Dallas, TX Deep Ellum Live
Dec. 15 Houston, TX Millenium
Dec. 16 San Antonio, TX Sneakers
Dec. 18 Phoenix, AZ Electric Ballroom
Dec. 19 San Diego, CA SOMA
Dec. 20 Los Angeles, CA Palace
Better Than Ezra
Dec. 11 New Britain, CT Sting
Dec. 13 Winston Salem, NC Millenium
Dec. 14 Charleston, SC Music Farm
Dec. 16 New Orleans, LA Saerger Theatre
Neal Casal
Dec. 12 Atlanta, GA Chameleon
Dec. 13 Columbia, SC Elbow Room (with Rearwindow)
Dec. 14 Atlanta, GA Smith's Olde Bar
Dec. 15 Asheville, NC Gatsby's
Dec. 16 Wilmington, NC Skylight
Dec. 19 Nashville, TN 12th and Porter
Donovan
Dec. 13 Redondo Beach, CA The Strand
Dec. 14 Santa Cruz, CA Catalyst
Dec. 15 San Francisco, CA Fillmore
Mary Ann Farley
Dec. 5 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's
Dec. 7 Stanhope, NJ Stanhope House
Natalie Merchant
Dec. 11 Buffalo, NY Shea's Center
Dec. 13 Pittsburgh, PA Palumbo Center
Dec. 16 Hartford, CT Meadows
Dec. 17 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid Hudson Civic Center
Phish
Dec. 11 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center
Dec. 12 Providence, RI Civic Center
Dec. 14 Binghamton, NY Broome County Forum
Dec. 15 Philadelphia, PA Spectrum
Dec. 16-17 Lake Placid, NY Olympic Center
Silverchair
Dec. 12 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
Dec. 13 Washington, DC TBA
Dec. 15 Dallas, TX Bomb Factory
Dec. 17 Phoenix, AZ Party Gardens
Dec. 18 Los Angeles, CA TBA
---
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===
