WFHB Music - Bloomington Community Radio: November 2006

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Tuesday, November 28

Cathi's Reviews - 11/26/06

Brown, Piney – “One of These Days” (Bonedog Records) B+

A really tight blues band (with horns and arrangements) backs up an old black dude. But this old black dude (84 years old) just happens to be the guy who wrote solid gold blues standards in the ‘’50s like “Just a Little Bit,” “Kokomo” and such. Wavery vocals (I hope I’m still in there at 84), but classy tunes, and great band.

Frost, Jackie, Ensemble – “Cold Lonely Blues” (Courthouse Rec.) B

Although the title says “Blues” in it – it’s a lie. This is some pretty cool lady singer americana music. Nothing to set your hair on fire, but some good morning mix stuff. Players are old-timers (banjo, mandolin, fiddle, etc.) with good chops and lady singer has a clean voice.

Harris, Odell – “Missing” (Broke & Hungry Records) C

Four whiskeys and an all-nighter in a seedy bar where a six-string blurs into 12, with the men too drunk to concentrate on hustling any women still up into bed. That’s literally what you’ve got on this disc. Odell seems to be the lost Robert Johnson only drunker and the backup duo weave doggedly along behind him. It’s actually pretty good, but very l - o - o - s - e musically. Kinda cool, but not really.

Hazamat Modine – “Bahamut” (Barbes Records) A-

Now we’re talkin’! I don’t even know WHAT to call this group, except they are excitingly different. With two harmonica players (!) and all manner of eclectic instruments (tuba, claviola), they try on an amazing amalgam of musical hats. They are clearly good at what they do which is surfing the waves of everything they’ve ever heard. Definitely what I would call avant guarde WORLD music coming right out of New York City. Cuts 3-9 will blow off your socks.

Imperial Crowns – “Hymn Book” (Triple J) C

I was already for some good gospel, but this one turned out to be a real stretched out psychedelic rock disc with not much to show for all that acid. Not recommended.

Issacs, Dave – “Old King Crow” (Shadow Box Records) C

They must have had a two-for-one sale at the recording studio. Not recommended.

JD & the Straight Shot – “Nothing to Hide” (JD Records) D

Keep the day job. Not recommended.

Mariana, Marguerite – “Wild Women Never Get The Blues” (Powerlight Media) C

Lounge-y vocals, velveeta arrangements. Not recommended.

Mark, Paul – “Trick Fiction” (Radiation Records) C

Unremarkable vocals over a George Thorogood wanna-be band. Bad Creedence steal; not so good Elvis cover, not really recommended.

Powers, Michael – “Prodigal Son” (Baryon Records) B+

This is a pretty good disc if you like the power rock blues. He puts a little electricity behind everything, including a rave up of Freddy King’s “Goin’ Down” to kick out the jams. He’s got funk, distorto guitar, a little Led Zep in the mix, and then just when you’re ready to drink about six more beers, throws in an interesting acoustic slow tune. He also occasional plays like he’s paid by the note, but hey, it’s power rock.

Simien, Terrance – “Across the Parish Line” (AIM) B+

Terrance Simien rocks on accordion and seems to follow several interesting veins/beats on this disc…melding Zydeco and African beats, hip hop and Willie Nelson. A spicy bunch of song styles put into his own particular gumbo. Joined by Marcia Ball, David Hidalgo, and featuring some old recorded pieces of him with Paul Simon and Rick Danko. Interesting, and also…very danceable.

Various – “Ecko Records Sampler 2006” (Ecko) B-

Soulful tunes along the R & B line, but every song is suggestive and dare we say it – about sex. Guess it would be good for the overnights, but not so good on the Sunday gospel hour – devil’s music ’n all.

Wright, Rusty – “Ain’t No Good Life” (Sadson Music) B-

This Michigan band is billed as a cross between Bonnie Raitt, the Allmans, and ZZ Top. Rusty’s wife sings with the band, Rusty plays a serious Allman style guitar and some of the tunes have some ZZ distorto rock thrown in, but I’d say this was a middle-of-the-road rock/pop band more than blues. There’s some guitar grand-standing, but nothing really new here.

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Wednesday, November 15

WFHB ADDS 11.13.06

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DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST: The Slip
TITLE: Eisenhower (Bar None)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: The Slip, a Boston trio known for their enthralling live act, turn in their jazz hats for radio-rock caps on their first album for their new label, Bar/None Records. Eisenhower isn't a sell-out album, it's a bust-out album, and these eccentric anthems will surely turn The Slip around the corner on their alt-jazz past to better things. With a smooth rock panache, The Slip feel like a normal, radio-friendly rock band on the surface, but any deeper, it's obvious that there's much more going on. Their production is the key that turns the lock. The way their anthem "Even Rats" starts out with sliding, blipping guitars and pattering, metallic drums before diving into the slower, stadium-core riffs is an example of how both accessible and atypical the album is. There's an array of drum experimentation on Eisenhower, such as on "Airplane/Primitive", where the beat seems to careen over itself on a loop. "The Soft Machine" is built on in-between half-beats that turn the song into a higher energy, more-compelling lap around the alternative pool. Uncommon guitar arrangements make up about a hundred of The Slip's multi-faceted sound. "Life In Disguise" is a jumbled acoustic track with cardboard box drums, but the melody steals the show like something the Goo Goo Dolls would do if they were actually cool. While The Slip's jazzy sound was often ignored before, Eisenhower should change that, and with touring, spotlight the trio's abilities to transform modern rock into something beyond.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9
REVIEWER: Megan Waters

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST: Gob Iron
TITLE: Death Songs for the Living (Transmit Sound)
GENRE:COUNTRY/ALT
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: Leave it to Jay Farrar, who has sung his share of grim folk and country songs with his current band, Son Volt, as well as his previous outfit, the alternative country pioneering Uncle Tupelo, to pair with Varnaline's Anders Parker in this oddly named group (British slang for "harmonica") and make an album about hard times and diseases so obscure you'll have to look them up in a medical dictionary. The duo's stark, yet elegant reimagining -- on acoustic instruments plus an occasional haunting electric slide guitar -- of songs such as the Rev. J.M. Gates' "Death's Black Train," the Stanley Brothers' "Wayside Tavern" and the traditional murder ballad "Hills of Mexico," is bloody brilliant. Make that bloody and brilliant.

RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 5, 9
NOTE: all the even-numbered tracks are nice instrumentals. There is really not a bad track on here...

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST: Miho Hitari
TITLE: Ecdysis (Rykodisc)
GENRE: rock/alt
GRADE: A
REVIEW: This is the very best project that either Hatori or Honda have been involved in since Cibo Matto's much-heralded first album, Viva! La Woman - it happily stands alongside that album as being a perfectly realized piece of dreamy electronic-ambient pop confections. And unlike Honda's last two releases, there isn't a single trivial or redundant track on Ecdysis - it all coheres together to form a marvelous musical expression of beauty, warmth, and of course eccentric (and thoroughly charming) originality. With its strong emphasis on ballads, it most clearly resembles Bjork's trip-hop masterpiece `Homogenic.' But Hatori takes her music and makes it definingly her own: `Song For Kids' is sung exclusively in Japanese, and numbers like `Walking City' and `Spirit of Juliet' reside entirely inside Hatori's own lyrical universe, yet are poetic and evocative enough to take you along for the ride. Hatori doesn't forget about the party, though - she gets her & our groove on in preposterously infectious fashion with `Barracuda,' `Song For Kids,' and most notably in `Sweet Samsara Part II,' where she actually seems to coin a new musical genre: Buddhist funk! Her delightful exhortation for us to "flow with me, flow!" might even get the Dalai Lama to hit the dancefloor in platform shoes. But the pure beauty of musical balladry is ultimately Hatori's finest achievement - the completely magical torch songs `In Your Arms' and `River of 3 Crossings' are as delicate and shimmering and transcendent as anything in Bjork's (or for that matter Cibo Matto's) entire repertoire.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10
REVIEWER: amazon.com

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST:Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
TITLE: Knives Don't Have Your Back (Last Gang)
GENRE: singer/songwriter
GRADE: A
REVIEW: In the liner notes of her solo album, Metric frontwoman Emily Haines displays an old textbook illustration of the human heart, blown up so that it fills the translucent X-rayed ribcage on the page before it. White arrows, a new feature added to an old drawing, penetrate the heart from all directions. The gamut of human emotions originate in the heart, so to speak, and for 45 minutes we are expected to see that organ as the body’s only operator; its only troublemaker; its only recourse worth noting. This is an old argument, but a lovely idea, and most rewarding if Haines can display for us the hows and whys of the heart’s grandness. The Soft Skeleton, the other half of the music-makers here, are “a few of my favorite musicians,” Haines explains, and their additions are indeed limber and delicate under the singer’s hand. Noted modestly in the depths of the liner notes, Haines, by the bye, “wrote the songs and played them on piano while singing.” And it’s the piano that does the brunt of the work. The Tokai String Quartet and all-male cast of guitarists, keyboardists, drummers, and brass players skirt around a handful of pieces like curious onlookers trying their hand at the performance—they’re just here to help. Knives is a quietly simmering LP, and it’s only on centerpiece “Mostly Waving” that the helper instruments bring any wallop. Much of the album’s pieces have such a precise contextual feel, which fights with a lingering sense of displacement. Written and recorded over four years in Montreal, Toronto, Asheville, and New York, there’s an episodic transience to each track that yet allows them considerable uniformity, owed to the mulled piano and Haines’ sandy-throated soprano. What Haines adds to this underpainting is the entire spectrum of blue.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 2, 5, 6, 7, 9
REVIEWER: stylusmagazine.com

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST:Rodrigo y Gabriela
TITLE: Rodrigo y Gabriela (Rubyworks)
GENRE: INTL/GUITAR
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Mexico's liveliest pair of pluckers is back with a follow up to their successful 2003 debut Re-Foc. There seems to be a bit more of style, substance and everything else on the new record, and while there's evidence of influence from rock, flamenco, jazz and metal - and The Shadows - the duo now have a stronger signature sound. Most of the songs are breathless, built on sublime reels up and down the frets and fast, Andalucian-style call and response. Perhaps it's relocating to Dublin that has made Rodrigo and Gabriel so free and easy with their own folk roots: they'll take on anything. Two tracks feature fiery fiddler Roby Lakatos, who brings his Hungarian gypsy soul into the mix, while a version of Stairway to Heaven re-imagines the song as a quasi-medieval meditation. Virtuosity is everything on this disc, and Rod and Gab will continue to appeal as much to guitar students as folk music fans. They have a youthful energy that is infectious and a winning, fresh-faced style.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7
REVIEWER: bbc.co.uk

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST:Anders Parker
TITLE: Anders Parker (Baryon)
GENRE: COUNTRY/ALT
GRADE: B+
REVIEW: The former Varnaline singer holed up for three days in a Los Angeles recording studio with Wilco’s Ken Coomer, Son Volt pedal-steel expert Eric Heywood and Dumptruck guitarist Kirk Swan to put together a “small-room”– sounding record, on which everyone plays together without thinking about it too much. Parker could use an extra shot of electricity here and there — as Varnaline’s swan song Songs in a Northern Key put forth so well — but overall this is an unassuming, casually cool record that will sound even better years from now after the songs have been committed to memory and then forgotten. All of Parker’s work sounds like a half-remembered dream, emitted from another room and another decade. He doesn’t trust the government (“False Positive”), and he’s a skeptic at heart (“Proof”). But he’s also something of a sentimentalist who wishes his friends could stick around even if he has to leave.
NOTE: Parker is also half of Gob Iron, the Jay Farrar Son Volt offshoot that was also added at WFHB this week.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 4, 5, 7, 9, 11
REVIEWER: orlandoweekly.com

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST:Eleanor McEvoy
TITLE: Out There (Moscodisc)
GENRE: singer/songwriter
GRADE: A-
REVIEW: Back with an album even more stripped down that Early Hours, and on which she's taken charge of the arrangements and plays pretty much everything you hear, this finds the South Wexford singer-songwriter variously mediating on ecology, economics and, in songs about relationships ended, lacking and desired, female strengths and vulnerabilities. Opening in k.d.lang mood, the smokey lounge ambience, brushed percussion and vibes of Non Smoking Single Female offers a witty plea for romance written in small ads style but with a sub-text about consumerism. In more serious moods, she moves on embrace the bitter hurt of To Sweep Away A Fool, masculine commitment phobia on Quote I Love You Unquote (co-penned with Dave Rothery of The Beautiful South), the wounded heart sarcasm of the mandolin and fiddled based Suffer So Well, the marimba tinged So Much Trouble's tale of a woman discovering her husband's infidelity and, by way of a mirror image, temptation resisted in the Gaelic infused folk of Wrong So Wrong. At least Little Look looks on the brighter side of holding fast to a relationship in the face of everything.It doesn't always work, the use of programmed drums and synths at odds with the more organic nature elsewhere, but, again drawing on a musical cocktail of jazz, folk and blues, and never compromising her accent in the phrasing, for the most it's another quiet triumph for one of Ireland's most golden yet far too unappreciated talents.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8
REVIEWER: netrhythms.com

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST: Badly Drawn Boy
TITLE: Born In The U.K. (Astralwerks)
GENRE:rock/alt
GRADE: B
REVIEW:After a bout with writer's block left most of what would have been the fifth Badly Drawn Boy album on the scrap heap, Damon Gough regrouped by writing a set of songs inspired by growing up in the United Kingdom. The results are Born in the U.K., an album that, of course, nods to Bruce Springsteen's rousing-yet-searching Born in the U.S.A. (the Boss is also thanked in the liner notes), but also feels like it's trying to win -- and impress -- as big an audience as possible. At times, Born in the U.K. is impressive, but not necessarily with its most ambitious moments. After the relatively restrained One Plus One Is One, Gough returns to the elaborate, heavily arranged sound of Have You Fed the Fish? for most of the album, and too often, his words and melodies end up drowning in their busy surroundings. To be fair, Gough does harness the album's widescreen sound effectively at times: "Degrees of Separation" is the closest Born in the U.K. comes to clearly elaborating on its concept, setting memories of the Thatcher era to rock that nods to "God Save the Queen," both the national anthem and the punk anthem. "Journey from A to B" is another standout that makes the most of its Springsteen and Phil Spector homages. As the album unfolds, Gough seems to get his footing; it's as though he spends the first half of the album trying to wow his audience but only proves impressive once he gets rid of the pretense. Enough of Born in the U.K.'s second half works well that it makes the album's early missteps even more mystifying: "Walk You Home Tonight"'s hints of blue-eyed soul and Motown nail the sophisticated but accessible sound that Gough strains for in other places, as do "The Way Things Used to Be"'s slight country twang and "Long Way Round (Swimming Pool)"'s Burt Bacharach-style pop.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 3, 5, 8, 10, 11
REVIEWER: allmusic.com

DATE: 11.13.06
ARTIST: Nellie McKay
TITLE: Pretty Little Head (Hungry Mouse/Sony)
GENRE: singer/songwriter
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Pretty Little Head, the Nellie McKay record that Columbia refused to release in early 2006, is remarkably similar to Get Away from Me, the record it released to wide acclaim in 2003. Like McKay's debut, it's a two-disc album packed with brash wordplay, passionate causes, and a diverting variety of New York music locales, from the Brill Building to Cafe Carlyle to the South Bronx. If it sacrifices some of the humor and precocious flair of her debut in favor of more social criticism, it's still a very entertaining and occasionally beautiful album that allows space for McKay's continuum of emotions, from gleeful to melancholy to furious. A key part of her charm is that few of her activist songs are dour or academic (although a song about food, and titled "Food," is the most delightful song on the record). McKay, who sits in the production chair, sounds as musically astute as her predecessor Geoff Emerick (a large feat), and her band, resourceful and economical, again functions as an excellent vehicle for her eccentric songwriting. As on her debut, no songs are obvious highlights, although they're all good or great. In the bitter relationship song "There You Are in Me," McKay prefaces the title with "Everyone you meet secures a wretched seat within your memory/Wipe their filthy feet upon the yearning of your soul," but sings it with such energy and insistency that it doesn't sound maudlin or depressing. "The Big One" may make commercialism sound as terrifying as apocalypse, but "Columbia Is Bleeding" (about allegations of animal cruelty at Columbia University) is a quietly bewitching song quite apart from its subject matter. Although she may not strain for the humor of her first album, she summons a quiet beauty that's new for the elegy "Gladd" (which honors peace activist Gladd Patterson). Pretty Little Head sounds like a record from a woman coming out of girlhood -- more confident, more wise about love, and more focused about her concerns, if no less passionate.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
CD1: 1, 3, 9, 12
CD2: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8
FCC: CD1#5, CD2#9 (both contain “shit”)
REVIEWER: allmusic.com

also added (see Cathi Norton's review): Buddy Guy Can't Quit the Blues (Silvertone)

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Sunday, November 12

CD Reviews--Cathi 11-13-06

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Daddy Mack Blues Band - “Bluestones” (Inside Sounds) - C

Growly vocals over very run-of-the-mill blues. Bass is mixed in a bit too loudly and distorted. Instrumentalism so-so. Relentlessly average. Produced by Billy Gibson.

Gibson, Billy – “Southern Livin’ (Inside Sounds) – C+

Serviceable blues, serviceable vocals, add really FINE lady backup singers, a funky bass player and horns, and you’ve got a little-better-than-average blues record. I liked the fixin’s, didn’t like the main dish.

Guy, Buddy – “Can’t Quit the Blues” (Silvertone) A+

What a cool compilation! Forty-seven songs of great, great stuff from a wonderful blues guitarist who has a great singing voice. That’s a tough thing to find these days. There are a couple of great tunes on here from his pairings with Jr. Wells, but mostly it’s pure Buddy…stinging guitar, gritty vocals, sometimes screaming, sometimes just talking his way through, but always engaging. Great stuff. I wrote home to mama about it.

Strifler, Volker – “The Dance Goes On” (Blue Rock It Rec.) B+

German guitarist best known for his guitar work with Robben Ford’s Band, Stifler carries on here with some great guitar work and a surprisingly supple voice. All tunes self-penned except a couple by Willie Dixon, the material is more pop than blues, but I ain’t complainin’. His vocal treatments sometimes falter, but there’s nothing wrong with the guitar work. Nice treatment of Dixon’s “Evil” on resonator guitar, and an interesting popish tilt to “Spoonful.” It’s easy to see how this player would complement Ford, both guitar- and vocal-wise.

Wood, Charlie – “Lucky” (Inside Sounds) C+

Piano man Wood adds fairly nice vocals to an okay selection of tunes with nothing either terribly bad or terribly good about them. Nothing to complain about, yet nothing that really kicks behind. Liked his one very New Orleans-ish (#3) tune, and even got a little worked up over “What’s It Gonna Take” (#4), but then he added in “ass” and ruined it (smile). Not bad, not great.

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Sunday, November 5

CD Reviews-Cathi 11-5-06

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Canned Heat – “Instrumentals 1967-1996” (Ruf) C+

Canned Heat made it big on the boogie groove. This is a live album which lots of crowd noise and some very uneven playing, marked by extra distortion, unbalanced sound, and bristling with old-time druggie guitar.

Ford Blues Band – The Butterfield/Bloomfield Concert” (Blue Rock It Rec.) A-

Big horns, three guitar players (Robben Ford, Chris Cain and Volker Strifler) rave it up, yet manage to respect each other’s space in a live performance/tribute to Michael Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield.” The latter two musicians were blues inspirations, and the Ford Bros. pay flattering tribute. Love that Robben’s guitar attack. Some songs are mighty, mighty long, but for a live recording, the sound is good. This band, AND Robben Ford will tear your socks off when they’re in the same room; it’s harder to get that excitement on record.

Guy, Buddy – “Can’t Quit The Blues” (Silvertone) A

I love it when Buddy records, because he does complete songs with no show-off grandstanding. And when Buddy decides to do his thing it is incredible. This is a radio sampler of his stuff, I hope of a forthcoming album but I don’t know. He does great work with Bonnie Raitt on a slow one, and an interesting thing with John Mayer. And I never thought I’d miss Nixon, OR “Mustang Sally,” but when Buddy sings so great over Jeff Beck’s BARELY CONTAINED, blistering guitar, I got my white go-go boots out again. Wow. All alone, Buddy comes through with a pure gold delivery on “Nobody Understands Me But My Guitar” (guitar players unite), and then delivers a very broken-sounding “Done Got Old” just to give you the shivers. Wow—can I get a witness.

Hummel, Mark – Ain’t Easy No More” (Electro-Fi) B+

Hummel and his “Survivors” have been cranking away at it for a long, long time, and the craftsmanship of this disc testifies. A surprising improvement in Hummels vocals hit me throughout. He’s also got interesting song change-ups for blues which keep any record from getting dull. Journeyman harmonica work. Nice effort!

Lynn, Trudy, w/ Calvin Owens Orch. – “I’m Still Here” (Sawdust Alley) B

Calvin Owens certainly has a good orchestra. Trudy Lynn is a sturdy blues singer who leans occasionally toward some soul belting. This disc is bluesier than the typical Owens disc in my view. Liked the vocals, and really liked guest vocalist Nelson Mills (#4 & 11) to break up the set. Nice for Big band blues lovers. GREAT female vocal backups.

Phantom Blues Band – “Out of the Shadows” (Delta Groove) A-

This is a great band, made up of session/side players with serious chops, who back Taj Mahal on the road, but these are weathered journeymen in a band of their own, and the change-up in styles, managed with ease, the incredibly tight musicianship, and the good-to-great vocals makes this one a disc to write home about. Denny Freeman on guitar is highly under-rated; Joe Sublett was a stable horn player on the Austin scene for years, and these other guys have covered the waterfront with a LOT of big names. The Delta Groove label strikes again – recording cats who know what they’re doing. Keep it comin’.

Turner, Ike – “Risin’ With the Blues” (Zoho Records) A-

Well, I think Ike’s about had it with his “bad boy” image a la Tina. He steps up here with some angry protest tunes (#6, 7 & 10) as if to say enough is enough. Meanwhile, the disc quivers with funk, tight-tight rhythm section (all veterans of the Ike Turner boot camp) and great stuff. Ike might be a bad actor, but he sure can play, write and lead a dang good band. His singing is starting to get quavery, but hey, I think he’s earned it.

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Wednesday, November 1

WFHBADDS 10/31/06

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DATE:10.30.06
ARTIST: Willie Nelson
TITLE: Songbird (Lost Highway)
GENRE: COUNTRY
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: Willie Nelson, at 73, could be the grandfather of his first-time producer, Ryan Adams, who turns 32 next month.
They share several traits: They issue albums with a dizzying frequency; they regularly mix the transcendent with the forgettable; and they shift styles and collaborators with no apparent pattern. "Songbird" may be credited to Nelson, but it's truly a joint effort. Adams' band, the Cardinals, lays down the tracks, and the arrangements sound more like Adams' album "Jacksonville City Nights" than anything Nelson has ever recorded. Moreover, the song selection shows Adams' predilection for the sounds of the '70s, as Nelson covers the Grateful Dead's "Stella Blue," Gram Parsons' "$1000 Wedding" and Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird." Still, Nelson's the only voice we hear, and his sly, mystical intonation and jazzy, heavy-string acoustic guitar blends well with the Cardinals' loping Americana sound. The covers, with their complex emotional themes, fit with Nelson's sage perspective.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10
REVIEWER: Michael McCall, Associated Press

DATE: 10.30.06
ARTIST:Mosquitos
TITLE: Mosquitos III (Bar None)
GENRE: INTL/WORLD FUSION
GRADE: A-
REVIEW: They’ve been together for a while now, and the Mosquitos have their stuff together. The songs on this album float—think of an exact midpoint between indie-pop and bossa nova, and you’ve got an exact mental picture of “Love Like You” and “One” and any number of these tracks. It’s all light and smooth and fresh, like organic creamy peanut butter. Stalbach’s voice is a pretty thing—it doesn’t soar, but it flitters and flutters beautifully in and around their gorgeous settings. “Mama’s Belly” is a lovely surreal thing about being in love and/or gestation and/or breaking through to a new level of consciousness. The best thing about the Mosquitos is the fact that they’re not afraid to get psychedelic. “UFO” starts off with “I know a girl who has her head up in the clouds / she’s always up, she doesn’t want to go down / but she knows that it’s almost over.” The song gets deeper and darker, as the girl ends up curled into a ball, “a million miles away, daydreaming”; the music just gets lusher and lusher, with new strings and sitar synths and all manner of echo, until...well, gosh, it’s over, and where did it go, and what happened, and I GOTTA HEAR THAT AGAIN.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
REVIEWER: Matt Cibula popmatters.com

DATE: 10.30.06
ARTIST: The Lemonheads
TITLE: The Lemonheads (Vagrant)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: B
REVIEW: Mindful of the meltdowns that made him a punchline a decade ago, Evan Dando has handled his career resurrection with caution. 2003 saw a solid solo album, Baby I’m Bored, while last year Dando quietly reclaimed the Lemonheads name in order to perform 1992’s It’s A Shame About Ray in its entirety in London. The Lemonheads, produced by Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson (he also co-wrote several songs), is, at barely over a half-hour, another cautious step, but it’s a good ’un. Tracks such as the soaring “Black Gown” and powerpop anthem “No Backbone” are brawny, tuneful and infectious, the former featuring Garth Hudson on keys and the latter with J Mascis on guitar. Dando’s no fretboard slouch himself, frequently getting his inner Mascis on, and his vocals haven’t lost any of their offhand, smoky charm. Somewhere, infamous anti-Lemonheads fanzine Die Evan Dando, Die is no doubt planning its own resurrection, but really, Dando, and his music, is all grown up now. Don’t hate him because he’s beautiful—that would be, like, sooo ’90s.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 4, 7, 11
fcc: 3 “MF”
REVIEWER: Fred Mills/Harp Magazine

DATE: 10.30.06
ARTIST: Gary Lucas
TITLE: Coming Clean (Mighty Quinn)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Guitarist extraordinaire / Grammy-nominated songwriter Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley) delivers the goods with "Coming Clean"-- a new studio album featuring his longtime psychedelic rock band Gods And Monsters --and it's a killer, tying together all the diverse musical threads and then some of the man The Guardian calls "the legendary left-field guitarist". “Coming Clean" showcases Gary at the top of his game, featuring his New Wave super-group Gods And Monsters (Billy Ficca from Television and Jonathan Kane from Swans on drums, Ernie Brooks from the Modern Lovers on bass), plus special guests David Johansen (New York Dolls), Richard Barone (Bongos) and sultry French superstar Elli Medeiros along for the trip. From the title track (mixed by Talking Head Jerry Harrison) to the wild blues-rock showstopper ‘One Man's Meat’, it's a total joy and a total knockout. and includes covers of everything from Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ theme to Springsteen's ‘Ain't Got You’. Lucas plays the guitar like nobody else AND writes original, haunting songs (he-co-wrote Jeff Buckley's ‘Grace’ and ‘Mojo Pin’ and Joan Osborne's ‘Spider Web’)-- a rare talent indeed, and here at his most accessible-- a classic album from one of the most creative minds in modern rock.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13
REVIEWER: interpunk-

DATE: 10.30.06
ARTIST: Dirty Martini
TITLE: Tea and Revenge (Pampelmoose)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Dirty Martini is a blissful union of three of the Pacific Northwest’s finest singer songwriters Lara Michell, Stephanie Schneiderman, and McKinley. They each had successful solo careers when they decided to do a Portland Valentine’s Day show together. It was a songwriter-in-the-round format and they each played their brutal love-will-kick-your-ass-and-leave-you-bleeding songs. The embittered, mostly single audience loved them and when they booked their next show together, they haphazardly named themselves Dirty Martini since they’d been sideways on the salty drinks during their first gig. When Gang of Four’s bass player, Dave Allen, came along and met them, he suggested they get out of the songwriter-in-the-round format in his subtle, blue collar British way, “Why don’t you stand up and be a proper band already?” Dirty Martini is now one of Portland, Oregon’s most successful groups and their second album Tea and Revenge is loaded with gorgeous harmonies, big stick-in-your-head choruses and unshakeable images. Tapping deeper into their Americana roots, there is no doubt that Dirty Martini intended to make an album that is easy to like.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 4, 5, 6, 8
REVIEWER: SPECTRE promo review

DATE: 10.30.06
ARTIST: Chris Theile
TITLE: How to Grow a Woman From the Ground (Sugar Hill)
GENRE: COUNTRY/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: On his fifth solo outing How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, Thile again proves that he’s willing to try anything once. In tackling both The White Stripes’ Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground and The Strokes’ Heart in a Cage (WARNING! FCC #12), he improbably converts the former into a bucolic back porch romp and the latter into an easy-going country ramble. Elsewhere, Thile more convincingly tackles Jimmie Rodgers’ Brakeman’s Blues, but his own compositions — the jam-friendly instrumentals Watch ’at Breakdown and The Beekeeper, each of which features some of the album’s most intricately intertwined instrumentation, as well as the beautiful devastation of You’re an Angel and I’m Gonna Cry — are what serve as the collection’s highlights. Though there are a few tunes that fall completely flat — most notably, Stay Away and I’m Yours If You Want Me — the bulk of How to Grow a Woman from the Ground is remarkably engaging. Not only is it Thile’s finest outing to date, but it also compares quite favorably to Nickel Creek’s own canon.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 6, 8
FCC: 12
REVIEWER: John Metzger/Music Box

DATE: 10.30.06
ARTIST:Dan Bern
TITLE: Breathe (Messenger)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Though he makes reference to some of the more memorably audacious claims from his previous recordings (declaring himself the returned messiah on his debut, for instance), Dan Bern finally reconciles his brazen wiseass side with his insightful, empathetic folksinger side on Breathe. Whereas albums like 1998's Fifty Eggs, on which he boasted of having balls "big as the swing of Tiger Woods," and 2001's New American Language never found a workable balance between Bern's two distinct MOs, Breathe finds Bern using his extraordinary observational eye and his wry humor within songs that give voice to fully-realized protagonists, each finding reasons to hope in a confusing, hostile world. This finally make good on all of those "next Bob Dylan" tags that Bern has picked up in the last decade. If Breathe isn't as start-to-finish exceptional as Dylan's own Modern Times, it's still as smart and catchy as most any other folk-rock album, and it's absolutely Bern's most accomplished, vital album.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 2, 4, 7, 8, 10
REVIEWER: slantmagazine.com

ALSO ADDED THIS WEEK:
Aterciopelados Oye Naciional
Ratatat Classics XL
Los Amigos Invisibles Superpop Venezuela Gozadera

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Cathi's Reviews - 11/26/06

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CD Reviews--Cathi 11-13-06

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CD Reviews-Cathi 11-5-06

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WFHBADDS 10/31/06

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