HEARING AIDS

MUSIC REVIEWS
BY
LANCE DAVIS




If you haven't yet bought -- or at least taped from a friend -- the new Liz Phair, Nirvana or R.E.M. albums, do so ASAP. But these have already been heavily covered, so I thought I'd concentrate on some less publicized releases for this year's holiday gift list. Here are this year's nominees for Best Album for a Holiday Gift:

Beck - One Foot in the Grave
K Records

Misunderstood genius, maybe not. Misunderstood talent, definitely. In the wake of the "Loser" phenomenon, it was easy to dismiss Beck as mere hype, not to be taken seriously. However, anyone who can come up with the line, "Give the finger to the rock 'n' roll singer, as he's dancing upon your paycheck," has to have some water left in the talent pool.
Aside from a couple of songs, One Foot in the Grave is a minimal, understated album. It's understated in that the arrangements are sparse and the recording is very lo-fi (at its cleanest, it sounds like it was recorded on a four-track). It's also understated by being acoustic guitar-based, with only an occasional electric guitar lead or steel guitar slide. Most of the songs are either Beck alone on his acoustic guitar, or on an acoustic with spare accompaniment from the bass and drums. While these songs are fairly simplistic, most of them have devastatingly catchy melodies.
Sitting on top of this melody are lyrics which tend to veer toward the cartoonish-- not necessarily inane or irrelevant, but absurd. (I guess this is what happens when a folksinger has a sense of humor). Every now and then, though, Beck does turn a phrase which gets under the brainpan. The opening lines of "Girl Dreams," in fact, are killers: "She's just the girl of my dreams, but it seems, my dreams never come true." Likewise, the final lines in the song "Hollow Log" plead, "Walk till you're restless, sleep till you're tired/ Wake up without thinking you're the one that I desire."
Other times, Beck's imagery is enough to make a song memorable. In "Cyanide Breath Mint" he sings, "In the afternoon, riding the scapegoat, burning equipment, decomposing/ Cool off your jets, take off your sweats/ I got a funny feeling, they got plastic in the afterlife." Or this gem from "Painted Eyelids": "I wake up, and look upon your painted eyelids/ The world is your oyster, and the trash bags are your kids/ The ceiling is invisible, there's a bird sinking through the sky/ And every hour that passes, is teaching me how to cry."
Throw in a couple of old folk songs and a blues ditty and you have one of my favorite releases of the past year. You might also want to check out his excellent album on Flipside, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, which leans more toward the experimental flavor of Mellow Gold, but also manages to get the folk out in a cold ass fashion.

Fastbacks - Answer the Phone, Dummy
Sub Pop

The Fastbacks have been around so long, they were playing Seattle before there was a Needle. And they're as great now as they were then. Their formula, too, is relatively unchanged: Heart-stabbing, "what the hell's goin' on with my life?" lyrics, dressed up in Ramones-inspired three-chord punk. Of course, if you throw in Kim and Lulu's bittersweet vocal harmonies, Kurt's sex wax guitar heroics, and clever arrangements of what are essentially pop songs, you're gonna have a band that rises above the punkis generica crowd.
Highlights include: "Trumpets are Loud," a two-and-a-half minute pop heater with one of Kim and Lulu's best vocal melodies, and a jazz break that Wes Montgomery would appreciate; "And You," a song featuring this bit of wisdom for the angst-wanker in each of us: "You can talk about a lot of things to try and make yourself feel bitter now/ Because it's easier that digging out of the trap you fell into"; "Went For a Swim," a furious, two-minute punk blast; and "On Your Hands," a FBX classic-in-waiting, if only for the line, "The scene you want to disappear, goes on and never ends." If you like Green Day, you'll love this.

Spearhead - Home
Capitol

When Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy broke up last year, rap music lost one of its most amazing live acts (a quality for which they rarely received just due) as well as its most intellectually charged. But Michael Franti, DHH's co-founder/lead rapper/lyricist, quickly rebounded, forming this seven-piece outfit. Steeped in soulful grooves that Tribe Called Quest and Arrested Development fans should appreciate, Spearhead also drops in some reggae and 70's R&B flavor (Sly and Stevie, e.g.). And where DHH's CD sometimes suffered from an impersonal, almost antiseptic tone, Home more closely approximates the warm and laid back (though not stoned) feel of the group's live shows.
So, with the band providing the groovy backup, the lyrics-still politically direct and aware-tend to sneak up on you rather than slap you in the face. Mike remains controversial and outspoken, it's just that his anger seems tempered by wisdom, compassion, and (gasp!) love. In fact, on the DHH leftover, "Positive," he assumes the role of the vulnerable protagonist who's scared of getting an AIDS test ("How'm I gonna live my life if I'm positive?/ Is it gonna be a negative?"). How about that, vulnerability in rap! "Caught Without an Umbrella" concerns a guy who discovers his love for life after a failed suicide attempt. In many ways this an ol' fashioned rite-of-passage fable, complete with Vernon Reid's dissonant guitar phrasing. "Hole in the Bucket" is a personal take on panhandling, with a resolution that's disarmingly funny.
For the most part, the other songs on Home seem to follow this approach. Heartfelt sociopolitical sentiments are presented so it feels like a real person-not a militant propagandist-is underneath the words being spoken. As Mike admitted in a recent LA Times interview, "I don't feel like I've backed off politically, I just think I'm talking more about life than just about the external side of politics."

Silkworm - Libertine
El Recordo

For the love of God, would you put that Smashing Pumpkins CD away and go buy this!! With a huge guitar sound that tips the hat to guys like Neil Young and J Mascis-part wall o' sound fury, part rubbery, snakelike guitar leads-these Seattleites provide some heavy, gut-wrenching tunes, but without the uber Angst that other bands have cashed in on (can you say, Stone Gossard Pirates?).
However, as heavy as these songs are, they're not only melodic (in a scream-along sort of way), they're downright anthemic, which is actually surprising, because their song structures are very loose and off-kilter. Think Pavement or Thin White Rope. But any band that uses feather-and-sledgehammer dynamics like this band does probably can't help but write anthems. "Yen + Janet Forever," "Grotto of Miracles," and "Wild in My Day" are all absolute rock guitar classics.
Perhaps the key to Silkworm, though, is bassist Tim and drummer Michael. Whether providing quiet backup when the songs either slow down or come to a near halt ("Yen + Janet Forever" and "Bloody Eyes") or providing fat, propulsive drive when the songs rise to another level ("Wild in My Day" and "Cotton Girl"), their bottom is heavy enough and fluid enough to let guitarists Joel and Andy explore sounds weaker bands cannot. The first release from Seatttle indie El Recordo, this will be a tough album to follow. Libertine is superb.



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Contents on this page were published in the December/January 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1994 WFP Collective, Inc.
Lance Davis