Fortune Cookies
Various Artists
Fortune
Berkeley, CA’s Fortune Records has some impressive music in their arsenal, mostly along the lines of the more somber/heavier side of indie rock. Killian MacGeraghty, lead singer of the Gun & Doll Show, offers a much quieter, simpler, and more personal song than his band normally produces, which is really pretty charming and interesting, with background keyboard effects and a half-spoken chorus of “When your heart is unemployed/You fight over broken toys.” Other interesting gems include Etienne De Rocher’s “Out to Sea,” a slow number with a hearty groove and vocals almost adept to funk, and Twenty Minute Loop’s “She Hated Dogs,” an incredibly odd rocker with a verse of a male-female duo spitting out lyrics in front of a jittery guitar-based entanglement.
The compilation, while eclectic within one genre, also explores a bit past rock, most notably with an intelligent and original rap from Children of the Fog’s “Altitude Sickness” and Bart Davenport’s James Taylor-ish “New Cool Shoes.” Then there are a few sloppy mounds of music, like John Vanderslice’s “Bill Gates Must Die,” that provides nothing particularly special or new. Still, however, Fortune Records has a nice smattering of music to offer, and a number of new takes on rock.
Fortune Records, PO Box 11302, Berkeley, CA 94712; http://www.fortunerecords.com.
