John Hiatt - Perfectly Good Guitar
FLOP - Whenever You're Ready
Holly Cole Trio - Don't Smoke In Bed
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult -
Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Spinning Around the Sun
Various Artists -
EMI released a Jason & The Scorchers compilation, Are You Ready For the Country, sometime last year, but I saw little press on it and only recently found a copy. It was worth the search-these guys were one of the better bands of the '80s, stubbornly refusing to wimp out their countrified, punk-inspired rock...
Not getting a lot of press, but certainly worth investing in is The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957 (OKeh/Epic Legacy). A 3-CD box set dedicated to the music that came from jazz and blues and mutated into rock 'n' roll, this little dickens might as well carry a parental warning. Not that kids are gonna be interested much, but with titles like "Catch 'Em Young, Treat 'Em Rough, Tell 'Em Nothin'" (by the Bill Davis Trio) and "Poontang" by legendary group The Treniers, there's plenty of material here ripe for ballin' the wall. The set also contains cuts by Paul Gayten, Chuck Willis and Screamin' Jay Hawkins...
A one-time only concert has spawned Big Star's Columbia: Live at Missouri University 4/25/93 (Zoo Entertainment). The show was a reunion for the legendary '70s power pop band that sold few records but inspired many musicians. Posies Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, big fans who've covered the band themselves, joined in the inspired event...
A group of allied techno-whizzes called Northwest CyberArtists is staging a multi-sensory music/performance art thing called Synesthetics. The show, which runs October 21-23 at Washington Hall Performance Gallery (153 14th Ave.), features interactive music experiments that let you, the listener/viewer, help create electronic art. Sounds like a good show to see/do on your favorite stimulant. For more info, call 782-2094...
3:23 Records, the imprint of the Art Institute of Seattle, has issued another compilation, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings. The CD features nineteen cuts by local artists, including Sadhappy, Blackhappy, The Lemons, My Name and Maxi Badd. It's a little spotty, quality-wise, but so are most local bills...
A bloated sac of protoplasm? Record company hi-jinx? Both. You Eediot! , a compilation of tunes from the Ren & Stimpy TV series (on Sony Wonder/Epic/Nickelodeon) re-writes history by leaving creator John Kricfalusi out of it. He not only dreamed up the idea, but he's the one who wrote most of the early scripts, the great songs, and gave voice to Ren. Nothing against Billy West, who does a credible job here and on TV, but let's give credit where it's due. The verdict: forget this CD; go dub your old video tapes to cassette. Don't be an eediot! ...
Once upon a time there was a punk band called The Damned, with a lead singer, Dave Vanian, who looked very scary. He's coming to town October 26th with his new band, The Phantom Chords. The show, at the Off-Ramp, will probably feature songs from the group's '92 12-inch single that I've yet to get my hands on. Meanwhile, another former Damned member, guitarist Captain Sensible, who has had a mildly successful solo career, has released a new single. "Wot '93" (ZYX) proves he either never made any money at punk or he pissed it all away. The single's a sped-up, techno/dance rework of the original, which went to #26 in Britain in '82...
(A&M)
After Hiatt's last project, the quaint Little Village collaboration, this comes as a consolation prize: Hiatt can still rock. Like his early '80s output, Perfectly Good Guitar contains not only his wry satire and tuneful melodies, but a rock sound that perfectly complements his raw, beautiful voice. Beware of critics from other rags who say he sounds like he's trying to jump on the grunge bandwagon; they probably hopped on the Hiatt Express long after great early albums like Slug Line and Two-Bit Monsters or even '82's All of a Sudden (still, sadly, not available on CD). Trust me when I say: this hummer rocks and should be in your drawer.
(550 Music/Epic/Frontier)
The newest release by Seattle's punkpop band Flop, is a rowdy, catchy, quirky tour through a Mr. Science-inspired universe. The band has apparently been dosing up on the beautiful theories of both old and new physics - "En Route to the Unified Field Theory" (the main theme of which sounds borrowed from the old Turtle Wax TV commercial) and "Need Retrograde Orbit" juxtapose order and chaos, the sublime and mundane. The beautiful theories are not a salvation but a salve. At once worldly and wide-eyed, Flop is bursting with a desire to show and tell. And the telling rocks - tight, well-crafted tunes, all triumphs of power pop songwriting. Dead-on delicious vocal harmonies and imminently hummable melodies sit well with forceful, edgy playing, the way the band members sit with the world. Comfortable with being uncomfortable. Like Isaac Newton, asking not why, but just how.
(Manhattan)
Canada's other chanteuse, a woman with a gorgeous voice and the ability to make old, borrowed or blue songs her own. And without sapping the life out of 'em! Holly Cole takes tunes like "Que Sera Sera" and "I Can See Clearly Now" and imbues them with original interpretations that transcend the old ones, bringing new angles out of the woodwork. To call her music jazz or nostalgia is missing the point; this is Holly Cole music: stark, rich, satisfying either way.
13 Above the Night
(Interscope/Atlantic)
Well, another great band has been absorbed and castrated by the majors. Yes, I'm talking about the once great wall of noise and chaos, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. It must be some sort of prerequisite: having to remove the balls from a band once they cross over from independent to mainstream. 13 Above the Night might as well be titled Night Fever 1993: The Sixty-One Minute Mix. Not once does this timid CD break 50 b.p.m., let alone tread in the waters of the techno-rave-power music they once helped pioneer. If you're a fan, save your fifteen dollars and purchase something by the MLWTTKK's spin-off band: Excessive Force.
(Elektra)
Gilmore's second album for Elektra, Spinning Around the Sun captures the Texan's squeaky, creaky, almost-gentle voice with distinction. The vocals, lyrics and the arrangements-natural, acoustic-based, passionate-show that he's no slick Garth or Clint. This is the real thing, in the same class as Lucinda Williams (who appears here) and Rosie Flores. Just listen to his version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and see if you don't believe him.
Yesterday's Heroes: '70s Teen Idols
(Rhino)
It's a crock that history wipes out some great moments in rock: an impassioned 12 year- old Tony DeFranco belting out "Heartbeat-It's A Lovebeat," Little Jimmy Osmond's banjo-powered "Long Haired Lover from Liverpool." What happened to innocence? This collection rectifies the situation, covering the big guys (Michael Jackson) to the small fries (The Keane Bros. - who?). The flash of brilliance belongs to the Hudson Bros.' 1974 gem, "So You Are a Star," seamless pop as fresh today as anything Jellyfish or the Posies dish out. To capsulate the rest of the bunch: Bobby Sherman rules OK, Bay City Rollers always rocked, and Danny (Partridge) Bonaduce, Jack (H.R. Pufnstuf) Wild and Anson (Potsie) Williams were all incredible actors, but their 45s stunk. Come to think of it, what made these guys great was they didn't have tattooed or pierced anything! Well, not that I know of.
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Contents on this page were published in the October/November, 1993 edition of the Washington Free
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