Adjective City

BMX Bandits Theme Park (Big Deal) Great pop – not too sweet and not too tart. Think of your favorite smoothie down at the mall’s food court. Highlights include “Nuclear Summertime,” an updated Beach Boys tune without the choral treatment, and “Opel Mantra,” which could have been penned by Serge Gainsbourg. Cheering. (AW) • Bottom 12 Balderdash (Strap On) Bottom 12 – though not quite another Funkadelic – shares some of the same mentality as the children of the Mothership. Balderdash has great spazzed out speed funk, Tom Waits-like chants, and a whole other host of styles, all strongly held down by a beat. Interesting. (IK) • Congo Norvell Abnormals Anonymous (Jetset) Kid Congo Powers and Sally Norvell collaborate on this tour-de-force, an album of music centered around Powers’ guitar magnetism and Norvell’s powerful, sultry voice. Cynics will find it a bit too bombastic for their tastes, but fans of the Swans and Nick Cave will find something resonating in them with Congo Norvell. (KC) • Cornershop When I Was Born For The 7th Time (Luaka Bop/Warner) Over the years, I’ve come to realize that my taste and David Byrne’s (as demonstrated by the bands he releases under his Luaka Bop label) have about the same degree of eccentricity. So the fact that I like Cornershop – intensely – comes as no surprise. Cornershop shows no aversion to mixing its sources, gladly placing hip-hop beats and dub bass amidst a sample of calypso and a tambourine. Then closing things with a lovingly detailed “Norwegian Wood” (in Hindi? I’m no linguist… ). A highly individual record… (CG) • Eddi Reader Candyfloss and Medicine (Reprise) Eddi Reader presents a bit of a problem. She sings wonderfully and writes interesting songs, but she doesn’t really provide her listener with a jumping on point. Therefore, listening to her record is a bit like reading the middle of a book. You know what the words are saying, but it doesn’t mean anything to you. There are things about this record I liked, but I can’t say I liked the record. Her songwriting style, with it’s urban folk roots is quite nice, but still wasn’t enough for me to grab ahold of. Candyfloss and Medicine was ultimately intriguing, but unsatisfying. (PB) • The Frank and Walters Indian Ocean EP (Red Ink/Setanta) The opening notes remind me so clearly of Ultra Vivid Scene that when the rest of the album blurs by in a rush of melodic late-‘80s Brit-pop, I find myself hardly surprised. If you were listening to 4AD, the Bolshoi or the Jazz Butcher at their peak, The Frank and Walters are like old friends. Look them up… (IK) • Harmony Rockets I’ve Got A Golden Ticket (No. 6) Segueing from dreamy ’80s dance pop to distant wailings to a Vangelis tune (!) and ending with a couple remixes of the first track, this is a stunning disc that seems to hold nothing consistent except its own exploration of song and sound. Brainful. (AW) • Kow Kow () Kow features Anthony Cole, multi-talented sax player, oftimes drummer for Sam Rivers. It also features three other funk-pounding musicians, expertly mixing a bouncing beat against spiky guitars, punchy bass and Cole’s broad vocals. Kow works best when sticking to the business at hand, though any of Cole’s brilliant saxwork is always appreciated. Nonetheless, there’s not a second on this disc that isn’t shaking. Especially for groove are “To The Bone Pt. 2,” and the chunky organ swagger of “Slow Kitchen Chipmunk.” Slick. (MH) • Lab Report Excision (Invisible) Does anyone have any layers of droning noise to spare? I’m almost fresh out… Keep it mostly quiet and eerie-ambient and throw in some underlying rhythms now and then. Or just give me Excision. Thanks. (LG) • Mulu Smiles Like A Shark (Dedicated) The curse of the advance copy quote! “Like Cocteau Twins covering Björk” proclaimed Melody Maker. They have a point, but what I imagine that particular crossbreed to sound like is very different from this. Fidgety electronic beats with a deep, clear voice is not exactly what I was hoping for, but it’s not all bad. Only half. (CG) • Pfilbryte Imperfection (Ignition) Interesting and difficult to pigeonhole. Rhythmic in a tinny urban manner, and melodic in a seductive way, Pfilbryte could be said to be mostly about groove, and that groove washes over you in waves. Featuring a predilection towards fusing recognizable elements – Don Henley singing against a Paul McCartney bass line? – Pfilbryte’s a pretty taut rope in a stylistic tug of war, and something about that edgy tension is making me listen to this over and over again… (JP) • Slobberbone Barrel Chested (Doolittle) Heavy-handed, yet not without its grace, Slobberbone’s Barrel Chested is a jolly drive through the neighbor’s barn in your open-cab truck. American all the way… (MC) • Something Happens Alan, Elvis, and God (The Lizard Group) Maybe I’m hallucinating in favor of the implied metaphor, but I thought that years ago the band ended their name with a “!.” They were fairly decent back then, and they’re fairly decent now, too, in a “back then” kinda way. If you like Echo and the Bunnymen and similar British jangled pop, this is good stuff. (MC) • Ten Foot Pole Unleashed (Epitaph) More of the same from Ten Foot Pole. This is good at times, if you can get over the beez in the amps and cliché Epitaph generi-punk. Sounds like ALL/ Descendants at times. A better live band than on this evil, technological, lifeless CD. (BS) • Trainspotting #2 Music From The Motion Picture (Capitol) The soundtrack to Trainspotting has to be one of the all-time best combinations of disparate musical styles. Trying to cash in on that glory is this sequel, which might be appropriately compared to Jaws 2: while not necessarily as good as the original, it certainly stands far above the sequels that are yet to come. (IK) • 22 Brides Blazes of Light (Zero Hour) I was more than a little pleased to see this five song CD from 22 Brides come my way. I hadn’t heard anything new from the New York duo since their second album, Beaker, two years ago. Even though there is only one new song on the disc, “Purified,” it is quite wonderful. Libby and Carrie Johnson provide some solid songwriting and some of the best harmonies around. The other songs on the disc appeared on their first two albums, and there is also a cover of a Jeff Buckley song that was a cover of a Leonard Cohen song. (PB) • Unisense Unisensuality (Oar Fin) Unisense instantly hook you in with the odd-vocaled rhythmic funk of “Dad.” Think of 311 after much polishing and scrubbing. Think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers maturing without degenerating into maudlin balladry. Tight and jiggly, with more soul than you’d expect from five white guys. (JP) • John Von Ryan Organs Vs. Furniture (Load) Can you call eccentric musical and verbal ramblings on an ungodly variety of antiquated analog organs music? I can. Hell, I’ll even go as far to say that I enjoy it, though I can’t say why. Mr. Von Ryan seems to like composing when he’s close to falling asleep or right after waking up, because the riffs are simple and repetitive and simple and repetitive and work well to shape the uneasy monotony of his music. Did I mention I liked this? (AW)

Who Wrote Them:

Anton Wagner/Warner • Brian Shelley • Carl Glaser • Ian Koss • Jason Plender • Kurt Channing • Louis Goldman • Mark Chester • Matt Hass • Phil Bailey

Where To Get Them:

Big Deal, P.O. Box 2072, Peter Stuyvesant Station, New York, NY 10009 • Doolittle Records, P.O. Box 4700, Austin, TX 78765; http://www.doolittle.com • Epitaph Records, 2789 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90026 • Ignition Records, 2112 Broadway, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10023; • Invisible Records, P.O. Box 16008, Chicago, IL 60616 • Jetset Records, 740 Broadway, Second Floor, New York, NY 10003; http://www.sinner.com/jetset • Kow, 407.898.7204 • Load Records, P.O. Box 35, Providence, RI 02901 • No. 6 Records, P.O. Box 5037, New York, NY 10185 • Setanta Records, 94 East 7th Street, Lower Ground Level, New York, NY 10009 • Strap On Records, P.O. Box 4258, Malibu, CA 90264 • The Lizard Group, 110 Greene St. # 702, New York, NY 10012 • Unisense, 2725 E. 8th Ave., North St. Paul, MN 55109 • Zero Hour Records, 1600 Broadway, Suite 701, New York, NY 10019