Record Reviews
Archived
Bloodlet
Entheogen
Victory Records
I started the record and thought, ‘Oh yeah some good music finally.’ Then this guy’s voice came off the record and I thought OH no! This belongs to Written In Blood. Here’s the lowdown: I got the record and the review goes like this. Good music, bad lyric, blood… piss fountain, vocals sound like Cannibal Corpse to me, the record was too short to judge it well. The whole record sounded like one song, not in a bad way, that’s just how short it was. Bloodlet seems to be coming from that Florida Death Metal scene I heard about a few years ago. The guitar work is good and reminds me of Buzzoven, the rhythm is fair and sounds like, well, like rhythm. It’s not my cup o’ tea but if Decapitation and Urination are your ideas of great subject matter in a song, give it a try. —Sausage King
Mensclub
Comin’ To Take You Away
Bar/None Records
“We’re an American band.” Where did I read that this band sounds like Grand Funk? They freely admit it and they pay tribute to the band with their closing song, “GFMC,” Grand Funk Men’s Club. In between the opener “Comin’,” as American band as it comes, there is slightly more than Grand Funk going on. The band also claims MC5, UFO and Black Sabbath as influences. I certainly hear more Back In The USA MC5 than Grand Funk in tunes like “Nutcase” and “Wankenstein.”
Who can fault a band that pictures a half-naked redhead as the inspiration for “Nutcase”? “Ass, Gas, or Grass” is exactly what is expected from a trio feeling their testosterone. They were here recently, but due to some more important people bumping them to an opening slot, I arrived too late to see them. Take Mensclub for what they are: trash culture in an undiluted form. Now where’s that disco CD containing all the songs that are popular again? —Wa
Rage Against The Machine
Evil Empire
Sony
Many, many years ago, Rage Against The Machine released their first CD. Salt Lake City was instrumental in breaking that disc out from the thousands in the bins. Sony Music is too big to love Salt Lake as much as TVT. This is a secondary market to them, unless the music is of the hard variety. Rage is of the hard variety. I doubt that most of Rage’s fanbase understood the political nature of the first album. They are some nihilistic fuckers setting down their rhymes to that funky, funky hard shit. I like “Vietnow” for these lyrics, “(Oh) turn on the radio, nah fuck it, turn it off, fear is your only god.” I guess they won’t be playing it on your favorite “active” rock station. In between that song and the next, “Revolver,” they inserted some cow sounds. This thing with cows is getting out of control. I’m having some problems with the lyrics of “Revolver.” “His spit is worth more than her work” is on the mark, but the next line, “Pass the purse to the publicist,” raises some questions. Most publicists I know are women. “Don’t mothers make good fathers?” Is that a political statement aimed at the teenaged hordes from single-parent homes purchasing the disc?
Evil Empire is not a pleasant disc. It is grating, abrasive, rapping, rhyming, fucking noise! Listen to it with a hangover. For the kiddies, call your local fascist talk radio host and read the lyrics to “Down Rodeo” on the air. Then read all of the books pictured on the back cover (as if anyone educated in one of the most underfinanced public school systems in the United States can read) and join your local chapter of the Socialist Workers’ Party. —Wa
Warzone
Lower East Side
Victory Records
The mid-eighties were great for me, man. Flight Jackets, Docs with blue laces, and Pride. I met some great people and saw some great bands: Judge, Sick Of It All, Youth of Today, and Warzone. Unfortunately, shit changed and those bands all went away. Now we get a great revival record (and I’m sorry that’s all it can ever be) from one of the old school crew. The music is vintage and so are the lyrics. Despite that, though, it comes off sounding dated. Stick a fork in it, guys, it’s over. We lost the war. If you can remember the days when only the weirdos wore Docs, and preppy was in style. Or if you want to see what recent youth culture and mass media destroyed, pick the record up. If you want the next Bush record, well then move along. —Sausage King
Gone
Best Left Unsaid
SST Records
Gregg Ginn does it again. A great instrumental album put out by a great band. Gregg never seems to take a day off, though. I stand in amazement of people like this, the kind of work he puts into working on everything he does and he can still make a great record. Gone has been around since about 1985; back then they toured with Black Flag, Gregg’s other band at the time. They have grown dated with time like most bands, but have grown better. The guitar is all classic Ginn style — a menagerie of intense sound and lock rhythm. At times it sounds as though someone has put the cat in a blender, but hey, it sounds good. Do yourself a favor: get a job and buy the record. —Sausage King
Underworld
Second Toughest In The Infants
Wax Trax
The first thing to do is remove the staples from the CD booklet and attempt to piece the puzzle together. All the lovely pictures make a big one, suitable for framing. Next on the agenda is listening to “Second Toughest In The Infants” while trying to determine why there isn’t a “Doot Doot” remake. Are the royalty checks sufficient? The eighties are over, folks. Underworld has emerged from their long silence with the ambience in place and the dance floor mostly a dim memory. A talented DJ could easily turn nearly any piece presented into a mind-numbing disco hit. The BPMs are there, in places, but that bass needs some pumping. Rave on!
Dreamy, ambient soundscapes with barely whispered vocals concerning the life of Underworld. I don’t think Freur fans have matured quite enough to enjoy the new age yet. The slight edge is too progressive for “contemporary instrumental” categorization and what about the vocals? Call it a splendid disc of progressive electronic music that reaches the head instead of the body. —Wa
Holy Barbarians
Cream
Reprise/Beggars Banquet
An advance CD without a cover or a press packet. (Here’s a hint to the Atlantic arm of the WEA monster: Advance CDs sound better than advance cassettes.) How badly can I fuck this one up? The CD has a street date of May 28. The band is apparently getting some airplay someplace. The name brings two frightening images to mind—the New Barbarians fronted by Keith Richards and the original Barbarians fronted by a man with a hook named Molty. The Holy Barbarians seem to fit someplace between the two.
Things start off merely alright. “Brother Fights,” “Dolly Bird,” “Cream” and “Blind” are nice mid-tempo rockers. The last six songs are where the CD kicks in. It all begins with “Opium,” a blatantly sexual song featuring Middle Eastern guitars. A mediocre record suddenly becomes transcendent. “Space Junkie” follows. Some kind of Bowie/Ferry thing going on here, except whoever the vocalist is, he sounds like neither. “She” completes the trilogy of reasons to watch for the Holy Barbarians. It has to be the radio friendly song. The vocals have stadium rending power, the backing guitars and keyboards are warped yet exceptionally pleasing to the ear. This is the kind of song that can stand a few hundred plays before it wears out its welcome.
The band doesn’t fit into any little niche. No doubt copies of the CD have shipped to college, Triple A and commercial alternative radio. A full mailing to the press was completed when SLUG received its copy. Watch for the band in major magazines and on MTV. See if I’m wrong again. —Wa
The Goops
Lucky
Reprise Records
I saw Lucky written off in some major magazine. As good as the CD is, they haven’t made a million dollars yet. They come through town quite a bit and they thank Karen and Stormy in the liner notes, but so far they haven’t made a million dollars yet. The band comes from New York, and their first one was on Blacktop. Now that they are on a major label, the sound has been commercialized to the point of being vapid.
They’re a punk band with a girl doing the lead vocals. The amazing thing is that they sound like a New York punk band from about 1977. Eleanor Whitledge is strongly reminiscent of a blonde who played in a New York punk band before setting off on her own less-than-successful solo career. I doubt Whitledge is trying to sound like anyone except herself. When she sings “will you suck me like hard candy” as the rest of The Goops rock ‘n’ roll in an almost accessible fashion, it becomes clear why the record could break in a year. Possibly a little too hard – a little too nasty – from a band that does its best work on stage. No hardcore, no Descendents/All or Bad Religion ripoffs, and that voice singing over the sweetest punk has them all confused. The Goops “Don’t Want To Be Like You.” They will have to break this one on the road. —Wa
Karate
Karate
Southern Records
To like this or to break it into a million pieces? It’s college drivel, too bad because I’ve heard some killer shit from Southern Records. Not this time. Karate lacks passion; they just kind of limp along to wherever they are going. It’s like a whining child: at first it gets your attention, and then it gets on your nerves. There is potential, but it could go either commercial crap or underground geniuses along the lines of Slint. I hope they make the right choice.
—Sausage King
Steve Dansiger
Sensation Days
Akeldama Records
All the songs were written by Steve Dansiger except “Maggie’s Song,” which was written by Dansiger/Estep. What exactly does that mean? Did a singer-songwriter collaborate with Maggie Estep? All of my independent label reviews this month came without press kits. So I had a “meeting” with some people from the “Mountain” the other day. I learned that “adults” are slow to pick up on new music. They usually don’t respond to a new record until the station puts the second song into rotation. I find that information sad because radio programmers are forced to stay safe for those Arbitron ratings. Without ratings, there aren’t any advertisers, and without advertisers, there isn’t a radio station.
What this all means is that once again we have a quite beautiful record that can only be heard on community radio, or if such existed in the cloistered community of Salt Lake City, college radio. I won’t proclaim Dansiger the next James Taylor or even the next David Wilcox, but damn can he write a song. Along with his ability with words is his ability to set those words to music, mostly acoustic (tune out, punks) that can grasp short attention spans and keep them on the edge of the couch for the entire length of the disc. Call Sensation Days stunning. I think I’ll throw a total “monkey wrench” into the workings of SLUG and do an interview with Dansiger for next month’s issue. The grid profiled Touch And Go? I dare you f#%kers (grid spelling) to play the Bad Livers gospel cassette or Tar on the radio. The underground is hopping, and it ain’t all grid fodder. I’m thinking that Shaun Boy deserves five SLUGs to the face because he knows it, and they won’t let him play music on the radio. As SLUG enters the “mature product” phase and attempts to compete, I’m hoping that the “big boss” realizes he can’t. This magazine was founded on freedom of expression and underground music. As long as I’m here, my aim is to keep it that way. —Wa
Lead Belly
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Everyone knows a Lead Belly song or two. His material has been reissued and covered countless times. These recordings are from the 1940s. They were recorded by Moses Asch, and in most cases, the original acetates were used for the reissue. Modern technology brings the fifty-year-old acetates into the digital age. Vinyl geeks know that these songs were originally released on three 10-inch records. The sound is pristine. Lead Belly is captured at his peak. As anyone should know, Lead Belly spent much of his life in prison. He later traveled extensively around the South with John Avery Lomax and his son, Alan Lomax. He had the ability to instantly memorize a song after hearing it once. Along with his own compositions are those he learned while in prison or on visits to prisons with the Lomaxes. Prison songs, work songs, children’s play songs and traditional folk songs – they are all here. Sitting in at times are the likes of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Two of the better songs feature Lead Belly on button accordion. The booklet is packed with information and there is more to come; the disc is subtitled Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 1. —Wa
Gravity Kills
Gravity Kills
TVT Records
TVT’s sales staff is thinking of opening a satellite office in Salt Lake City based on the previously mentioned sales success of Gravity Kills and Sister Machine Gun. Combine those with the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat and anything from KMFDM to find that this repressed backwater ensures TVT’s profitability almost by itself. Throw in some Korn and Rage to find a city in love with hardcore.
Gravity Kills sits at #160 on the Billboard 200, “Guilty” is #29 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and #98 on the Hot 100 singles chart in the April issue. The national numbers don’t reflect the local popularity. The first single is a catchy little number that first appeared on the soundtrack to Seven. The second one, “Enough” is if anything better than “Guilty” — slamming dance-floor-filling industrial grind. “Goodbye” appeared on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. It is the darker of three standout tunes: kinda scary, kinda creepy and filled with digitally created washes of frightening noise. A kiss-off song is always required. In between those three are spooky noises, some of which work better than others. If the record label pulls another single from the CD, it will undoubtedly be “Never.” The disc has been out since January. TVT paid big dollars to boost sales by having a SLUG hack review the disc in May. I like it, but fuck, I’ve always been a closet industrial geek. Pick up the “Guilty” single for 60 minutes of remixes — an exceptional value in the days of music as a commodity. —Wa
Far
Tin Cans With Strings To You
Immortal/Epic
Far is from Sacramento, and Brad Wood did the production. They have the heavy metal/grunge thing going strong. Since they are on the same label as Silverchair and Pearl Jam, they will soon be commanding many dollars. Promotional blurbs compare them to Quicksand. I thought this entire genre would beat its way into the grave long ago. There’s always another teenaged youth and another band. In spite of the genre, Tin Cans With Strings To You is a good record.
For the Led Zeppelin reference, please check the intro to “Boring Life.” Doesn’t that sound like the “Immigrant Song”? Along with Led Zeppelin is every beloved trademark of heavy grunge. Soft singing prefacing raw throated screaming, eardrum shattering rim shots and kick-drumming, nasty dirty guitar chords played with Black Sabbath/Nirvana/Bush precision and mid-tempos ripe for headbanging or puberty in a mosh pit. The big question can only be: has Sony already exhausted the golden vein? Give Far credit for the equipment destroying finale of “Cut-Out.” This is a heavy, heavy record that is both well-played and enjoyable from start to finish. They have consented to do an all-ages show in the Cinema Bar basement on May 16. For all you kiddies who think Korn and Rage are the shit, don’t miss this Far show. They are next. —Wa
Epic Soundtracks
Change My Life
Bar/None
Epic Soundtracks is formerly of Swell Maps, These Immortal Souls, Crime and the City Solution and The Red Krayola. His latest album begins like a broadcast on a pink transistor radio transported to this world from a parallel dimension. The 60s never ended for the inhabitants of the dimension and they never ended for Epic Soundtracks.
For most, the misguided 60s mean “classic rock” — the Doors, Hendrix, the Stones and Zeppelin. Soundtracks’ 60s reflect the actual time: nifty little pop gems blasted from tinny transistor speakers. The promotional blurb mentions John Lennon, Phil Spector and the Fab Four (the dread Beatles). I’m hearing those as well as some Boyce and Hart, Monkees and even Tommy Roe. The Swell Maps were hardly a sweet-tempered pop band and Rolland S. Howard was also a member of These Immortal Souls and Crime and the City Solution. As things progress more of an edge comes into play. Sadly, it doesn’t last. By the time the beam reaches “Landslide,” he’s doing boogie blues, complete with a horn section, in a lounge. With that introduction to the lounge, the next song, “Ring The Bells,” is a string-filled lounge instrumental. Yuck. How can an album start out so perky only to finish as slumber? Might as well skip all the way to the end to the big star “Thirteen/Nighttime” medley. Epic Soundtracks is at his best with the up-tempo stuff. I found the ballads boring. He is touring, so watch for the name. —Wa
Barkmarket
L. Ron
American Records
I love Barkmarket. Gimmick was one of the best albums ever made, and although I only have a tape copy of the new record, I can tell you with great pleasure that it is another great record. And though it may start out sounding like Gimmick II, if you give it time it will grow on you like that fungus growing in your underwear. D Sardy is one of the best engineers in the field of music recording and he proves it yet again on this record. Sardy can manipulate a big sound like nobody’s fuckin’ business, but if it weren’t for the great music, it would just be a pleasantly-made album. This thing is kicking like a one-legged soccer player. The music is chaotic and original, and the lyrics are as always perplexing, if not indecipherable. The title is my only concern – why name a record about the leader of a religion for only the wealthy? —Sausage King
Dirt Merchants
Scarified
Epic/Zero Hour
Epic has hooked up with Zero Hour? The Dirt Merchants have the girl singer/guitar player in the person of Maria Christopher, and the songs are swerving in the pop direction. According to the liner notes, Alex Kisch plays banjo someplace on the disc along with his bass. Mike Malone is credited with lap steel as well as guitar. I can’t wait to hear the mixture, but lest the remaining band member feel slighted, John Malone is the drummer/percussionist, and he takes over the bass when Kisch picks up the banjo.
Sexual tension runs rampant all over the CD. Christopher has a breathy voice that brings to mind the moans that were so prevalent on techno discs a few years back; that’s when she’s singing and not panting as she does in places. By the time my player reached “Trip Trip,” there was little doubt that Zero Hour was indeed involved – as lovely a slice of pop music as anyone could desire. I wonder what “Buttercream” is about. Have the Dirt Merchants been listening to Amos Milburn’s “Keep On Churnin’”?
“Buttercream” is where the banjo and lap steel enter the sound. That is the most fucked-up banjo and lap steel I’ve heard to this day. If the Dirt Merchants somehow manage to break a single out from the album, I’ve already mentioned one candidate: the teenyboppers are in for a big surprise when the rest of the thing reaches their ears. Noise, noise, noise, give me more noise, and throw Christopher in with it. —Wa
Chris Haskett
Language
213CD
Chris Haskett is the guitarist for the Rollins Band. The CD is described as a “conceptual album of music with found sounds.” Haskett has this to say about the album: “This album is a marriage of music and vocal elements that came together very naturally, but is not easily digestible. You could call it hard listening.” Rowland S. Howard collaborates with Haskett on four of the album’s 14 songs. Howard is recognized for the extreme noise he brought to The Birthday Party and the tamer These Immortal Souls.
Pretty guitar mutates into atonality. The best and most abrasive song on the disc is “Railroad Piece.” Haskett hammers a guitar into the death throes of feedback. “Berlin Alley Soundtrack” reminds me of something from Australia’s Extreme label. Prepared guitars imitating the sound of whales as a train runs over them. “Retail” is a subject I know little about. Haskett provides a subliminal piece of grit to empty the pockets of shoppers and clerks alike. “Language” made me dizzy. “Be Thankful” is what else but a gospel instrumental in the tradition of Smoky Mountain Hymns.
Here’s the last blurb from the provided materials: “John Fahey meets ‘Revolution No. 9.’” In Salt Lake City, it can only be James Stewart meets Pijamas De Gato’s Appetite For Dysfunction with Thirsty Alley doing the spoken word. Most definitely not an album for skateboarding. “Sometimes the only word left in the language is no.” —Wa
Brian Setzer Orchestra
Guitar Slinger
Interscope
Yee-hah! Down at my day, job they say I have tunnel vision — I don’t look at the big picture. X96 isn’t part of my lifestyle. The Stray Cats are stereotyped as a rockabilly band – a rockabilly band with some talent if their post-Stray Cat output is any reflection. The bass guy fronts Lee Rocker‘s Big Blue and plays the blues. He is actually a classically trained cello player. Brain Setzer is working up big band charts for his band of former jazzmen, and yes, he can read and write music. His first instrument was the euphonium.
What happens when you take a rockabilly guitar, add five saxophones, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and Joe Strummer — big band rockabilly; swing-a-billy brass-a-billy or music for a “Kustom Lifestyle”? The whole thing is a little brassy for me. The disc is filled with swinging, jumpin’, jivin’ tunes but I had to turn down the treble in order to remove some brass. Setzer enters the lounge realm with a ballad. If that is the direction he’s headed, then I’m out of the fan club. Otherwise, Guitar Slinger is impressive. I’m thinking Rocker is the more creative of the two, but I’ve seen him in his post-Stray Cats phase a few times. Setzer is playing more fashion-conscious music. It was rumored that he was bringing the big band to town last year — he never showed. Bring that brass to Salt Lake City, Setzer; I’m curious to discover if you swing as hard live as you do on CD. Your old buddy Rocker certainly does. —Wa
Wormhole Star
Chicks Dig Scars
Roadrunner Records
It is noisy and not all that polite, yet user-friendly. Picture early Dinosaur without the searing guitar, and you’ve got Wormhole Star. Not a bad accomplishment on their part, but I’ve got the first Dinosaur record as well as the first Sebadoh outings. There is a weird trance quality to this record. It sucks your mind in and lets it just kind of sit there. It is a record I would make if I was in my room just trying to hammer out some lo-fi stuff. If it’s not your cup o’ tea, that’s cool. But I didn’t kick your mom outta bed either. Give it a try. —Sausage King
