Robyn Hitchcock . Beautiful Queen/Royal Queen Albert & Beautiful Homer
[Robyn plays Dylan's 1966 Don't Look Back Tour set-list live at the
Borderline, London]
This went out to radio stations only, so good luck finding it. I'll try to make
you feel good about missing it by being negative.
The idea of playing an old Dylan set list is an interesting idea (all ten
minutes of "Desolation Row" for example). Some of the shorter songs
can be thought of as a sort of lo-fi post-punk. But the Dylan originals
are better; if you don't happen to be a radio station, go rent D.A.
Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" for the original doing the originals.
It's recorded live in a club anyway, and the audience keeps talking
throughout the set; also, we shouldn't live in the past.
The Caulfields . L
This is almost listenable; it's certainly well produced, a 'major label debut',
and they even have their own glossy website.
Very 'Better than Ezra-esque.' The sticker on the front suggests they're
proudest of tracks 1, 2, 4, and 5.
1 and 2 are catchy; I can imagine the kids listening to this sort of thing.
4 aims at being a sappy little romantic ballad in the vein of that annoying
Verve Pipe "Freshman" song; kill it in the womb.
I don't remember the names of the songs, just the numbers. Oh well.
blithe . verse chorus verse
These guys are evidentally Scandinavian, which means almost by definition
that the lyrics are fun(ny). For example, "loner" rhymes with "boner"
rhymes with "phone her" . . .
On the other hand the guy's voice is kind of nasally and weird, which
could be a strike against them. On second thought, it almost certainly is.
The arrangements are nice, but his voice is immensely annoying.
Trailer Bride . self-titled(?)
This is somewhat similar to the Cowboy Junkies only more "down home"
and much more genuine (they don't hide behind the label "cowboy" or
"junky").
2 and 5 are intimate and slow but atmospheric and nice
7 has good chorus and is a good view into a lifestyle (white trash, North
Carolina style) that many of you may only have wondered about.
track 10 is a delightful novelty militia song
"Sorry Times," the opening track, is okay too . . . but we don't need to
dwell on it.
Mark Eitzel . West
Mark Eitzel, of American Music Club, teams up with Peter Buck,
of a band called REM. Very folk rock, very laid back and moody.
Many of the songs apparently started out as REM rejects.
The fastest, most upbeat song on this album is . . . not very
fast or very upbeat.
"If You Have To Ask," the first track, is good but over-all the
album is not exactly hook-laden; it sometimes comes across sounding like a
weak Counting Crows album--which there are enough of already.
Static 13 . eye won't fool i
Has there ever been such a stupid title? This CD is bombastic, pointless,
and unintentionally hillarious; which is not
to say that it's painful to listen to . . . I just can't see why you'd want to. Lots
of heavy metal wanking with all the requisite "emotional" chords. Yes, they
play their instruments well, deftly recreating the sound of
everyone from Live
to Pearl Jam to a hundred faceless big-haired bands of the eighties whose names
I would not even admit to being able to remember, but is that enough?
The last song (there is a bonus track of static and white noise) almost
qualifies as the heavy metal ballad but the singer becomes
so emotional that he just can't make it through. Hilarious.
Agnes Gooch . blind
is Nirvana/is not Nirvana . . .
okay, it's fairly likely that they've listened to some of the aforementioned
band (most songs go from quiet soothingly-flanged guitars to loud soothingly-
distorted guitars and back), but that's not highly unusual;
"pretty" is pretty good; tho' maybe it should've stopped at 3 1/2 minutes . . .
"wish" is slow but nice
Win a prize: pick out the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sound-alike!
Material Issue . Telecommando Americano
It's about time for eighties nostalgia to kick in, one fears, though too late for
late lead singer Jim Ellison, who commited suicide a few months after
recording this new album in some guy's garage. The sound is more "nineties" than "eighties"
though, as befitting any good garage band.
"Two steps" is bouncy and "You were beautiful" is poppy, but the eighties are dead and so is the singer so I don't
reckon there will be tour dates forthcoming.
