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MUSIC BOX
The Special Goodness
Land Air Sea
Weezer drummer Pat
Wilson's side project sounds like a collection of
Weezer outtakes, but in a good way.
Hoobastank
The
Reason
Do we have to keep flogging the
corpse of nu-metal, or whatever it mutated into?
Boring, creatively bereft hard rock.
Automatic Hotel
Firefly
Poppy, energetic rockers
from LA with some pretty darn catchy hooks and a
song about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That gets me
every time.
Josh Bell
Ishtar
Truly Emet
She's been billed as the next Shakira.
Listening to the few songs this Egyptian, Moroccan
and Hispanic hottie recorded in English reveals
she has a thing or two over Shakira—namely a
bangin' voice, one that's as powerful as it in
version anglaise as it is sultry. Maybe Shakira is
the next Ishtar?
Damon Hodge
The Pale
Gravity Gets
Things Done
Sweet, bouncy tunes that
could only be from the Pacific Northwest. For a
second, I thought "Big Dumb Smile" had a sinister
edge. Then I realized it was about a (loving)
brother and sister sneaking out for a joy ride (in
their folks' car) and then returning (safely)
home.
The Dirtbombs
Dangerous Magical Noise
Rumor has
it that this thrash band from Motorcity are really
just a bunch of sensitive boys who sit around
moping over girls they have crushes on and writing
poems about horsies and gumdrop rainbows. Then
they strap on their guitars, turn up the amps and
kick out garage-punk rock until your ears bleed.
Cathy Richardson Band
The Road to Bliss
Nominated for a
Grammy for Best Recording Package. Trust me, it's
worth the price just for that, the concept is so
cool and well-executed. Roots-rocker Richardson's
sound is reminiscent of Ricki Lee Jones, which is
a good thing except, of course, no one listens to
Ricki Lee Jones anymore. Did I mention the CD
package rocks?
Tierney Sutton
Dancing
in the Dark
LA-based jazz singer Tierney
Sutton unleashes her dulcet tones on this salute
to ole Blue Eyes. Her voice is smooth and sultry.
Maybe too smooth for this collection, because for
everything that Sutton's voice does have, she
lacks that eclectic sense of tempo that made
Sinatra's recordings such instant classics. But,
if you're looking for a love song dedicated to
Frank, look no further because here's a whole disc
of 'em.
Martin Stein
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The Black Jetts (2.5 stars)
Bleed Me
Local garage-rockers The Black
Jetts have gone through more lineup changes than
Fleetwood Mac, but frontman Gabe Stiff has a purity of
vision that transcends whomever his bandmates are at the
moment. On the Jetts' first full-length release (from
LA's Dead Beat Records), Stiff and his cohorts pound out
11 tracks of pure rock exuberance.
While the Jetts' raw, '70s-influenced sound has won
over local critics and hipsters, on record there's not
much to distinguish them from the legions of bands
unleashed ever since the Strokes and the White Stripes
first opened the garage doors. Even at just a little
over half an hour, the (deliberately?) low-fi production
quickly becomes grating, and the Stooges/T. Rex rip-off
riffs offer nothing that hints at originality.
There are some clever lyrics (see "Rehab Love"), and
some songs start with catchy riffs, but they almost
always devolve into repetitive bores. Unlike another
Vegas garage-rock band with lots of buzz—The Killers—the
Jetts don't add bring anything new to the already-tired
genre. They may very well be brilliant live, but this
album is best left in the garage.
Josh Bell
Ani DiFranco (2.5 stars)
Educated Guess
Ani Difranco's latest is
recorded in a house on an 8-track reel-to-reel, giving
it a roots flavor and an intimate sound. Educated Guess
is not just a solo CD, it's one-woman show—she wrote it,
plays all the instruments (primarily her trusty guitar),
and sings both lead and back-up. She's in fine DiFranco
form.
For better or worse, after more than 14 years, she
still makes a listener want to burn sage and write
letters in the rain to earthy college friends who had a
point to make about everything. DiFranco has an
opinion—about politics, about sexual politics, about the
environment, about commercialism—and she's made a career
of expressing her views sharply in her music. "I am an
all powerful amazon warrior / Not just some sniveling
girl…I know men are delicate origami creatures / Who
need women to unfold them…"
Her voice and her guitar picking are
engaging—sometimes jazzy, sometimes punkish, always
folk— moving at a twitchy, confrontational pace all her
own. But the political poetry is sometimes tiresome.
Still, if you're in need of a musical dose of poetry
night at the independent coffee house, DiFranco
delivers.
Stacy J. Willis
Phantom Planet (2 stars)
Phantom Planet
After a decade together,
Phantom Planet is entitled to explore more than catchy
pop and television themes. So, these good-looking,
well-connected LA boys have set themselves up as the
West Coast Strokes.
Of course, the Strokes' basic garage-rock sound is
ripe for franchising. But it is still a bit
disconcerting at how easily Phantom Planet's Alex
Greenwald simulates Julian Casablancas' vocals on opener
"Happy Ending." It helps that the usually uber-arty
producer Dave Fridmann has kept his talents in check and
left the sound and mix here more minimal and raw than
anything on the Mercury Rev or Flaming Lips discs that
are the foundation of his reputation.
There is nothing unpleasant here but nothing
compelling. In the end, Phantom Planet (who also seems
to have studied a few Weezer discs) prove themselves to
be an adequate garage band, thanks in large part to the
songwriting skills that made them an adequate pop band
on previous releases.
Richard Abowitz
