Heather Eatman's debut album, on John Prine's Oh Boy Records, has
the touch of a weathered, worldly storyteller. Her songs/stories have
bright and dark sides which aren't necessarily evident until one
really listens past her fairly bright and happy-sounding voice.
If you like songwriters who can paint pictures and create a story
that leaps into being (Tom Waits, Suzanne Vega, John Gorka, Christine
Lavin, etc) then you shouldn't miss out on Heather Eatman.
Oh Boy Records, 33 Music Square West, Suite 102A, Nashville,
TN 37203 (800) 521-2112. E-mail: ohboy33@aol.com WWW:
http://www.nashville.net/ohboy/ohboy.html
PJ Harvey meets Daisy Chainsaw and adds a little more noise just for the heck of it. Amalgamated, P.O. Box 1833, Los Angeles, California 90078.
These guys just may have listened to a little U2 at some point in their lives. Xemu, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 910, New York, New York 10111.
The Mudsharks straddle a lot of funk, ska and neo-jazz borders, but they don't seem to know exactly which way they want to lean. This disc has some good moments, but the band seems to be lacking the directional spark that would propel them forward. Mudsharks, 2260 Budrow Drive, Reno, Nevada 89509-3807, Phone: (702) 329-7878.
Industrial techno-pop - some neat stuff thrown in. Members of Ministry,
Revolting Cocks, Nine Inch Nails, Filter and Die Warzau all chip in
to aid the duo of John Elliot and Norm Rau. Fifth Colvmn, P.O. Box
787, Washington, DC 20044, Phone: (202) 783-0044, E-mail:
FifthColvmn@cyberden.com, WWW:
http://www.cyberden.com/FifthColvmn.html
The Real McKenzies are Scottish Pop/Punk. A few chords, vocals spat as much as they are sung, requisite songs about drinking and a fair amount of energy make this an interesting listen. IFA Records, 607 Eastlake E., Seattle, Washington 98109, Phone: (206) 622-7168, Fax: (206) 583-8109.
These guys definitely have that 'current' sound down. Nirvana, Stanford Prison Experiment, a little Pearl Jam, a little Primus and a healthy dose of their own creativity. If marketed right these guys could be huge. Backyard/Scotti Brothers, 2114 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, California 90405.
Nikki Lamborn's a definite Melissa Etheridge wanna-be vocalist! She's good, though. Music is a little less edgy than Melissa's, though it still manages to rock.
Blues-based rock that will inevitably be compared with Led Zeppelin. However, Big Sugar seem to be just as interested in the roots of an old blues song as they are in trying to update it. This makes for a much more true-to-the-roots sound, though certainly less innovative, than Led Zeppelin. Psychedelic blues rock almost always seems to be in fashion. Big Sugar bring a dose of it down from Canada.
Spaghetti Western guitars meet the the current lounge craze kids in
a French cabaret. Throw in a few Mexican-style riffs for spice.
And they cover Erroll Garner and Thelonious Monk to boot! Zowee!
Sub Pop, P.O. Box 10245, Seattle, Washington 98102, WWW:
http://www.subpop.com
Mix up the Beatles and the Clash and throw in some Little Richard or Chuck Berry for flavoring. Bring it into the 90s musically and what you have is Supergrass. Almost everything they do is borrowed from rock 'n roll's past. What makes this more exceptional than others who've done the same is the way they put it all together. It sounds fresh.
If the Cowboy Junkies were a grunge/punk band, they might be the Geraldine Fibbers. Which also means that it would be hard to really classify the Geraldine Fibbers as a grunge/punk band. Extremely interesting stuff!
Boston-based singer/songwriter. His style recalls Chris Smither and
James McMurtry, though with occasional touches from other realms and
other worlds. Dana Colley (Morphine) lends a saxophone hand on a
couple of tracks. Strong album. Eastern Front, 7 Curve Street,
Medfield, MA 02052, Phone: (508) 359-8003, Fax: (508) 359-8090,
E-mail: eastfront1@aol.com.
Catchy pop punk. Lyrics are a bit on the sophomoric side, but there are some rather funny semi-precious gems here. "Uma 14 Times", "Classic Rock Turned Me Into a Psychopathic Killer" and "All My Grade School Friends Grew Up to Be Jocks" all have some humor value. Sadly, the cover of "Greatest American Hero" doesn't take enough liberties to become a truly demented gem. Dr. Strange, P.O. Box 7000-117, Alto Loma, CA 91701.
Beefy, muscular psychedelic grunge. Though there's certainly a lot of derivation from current sounds there's also a lot of originality and vigor here.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion meets Julee Cruise/Twin Peaks. If that doesn't perk up your interest, then just find it and play the damn thing. Six songs, slightly under 20 minutes. One of the coolest releases I've heard all year. They were wonderful live, too! 16 Horsepower, Idledale Box 285, Denver, CO 80453-0285.
Poppy, but noisy, too. Akin to the distorto-noise-pop of Belly, Throwing Muses, Jennifer Trynin and others. There's some sweet stuff on this Windy City band's 21 track CD. Dirt Records, Knickerbocker Sta., Box 1053, New York, New York 10002-9998.
From Dublin, Ireland - They vary from shoegazing crossed with U2 sounds to dance-y gothic stuff that seems to be part Siouxsie and part Annie Lennox. They also manage some pretty much straight-ahead Irish pop tunes. Lime, 928 Broadway, Suite 405, New York, New York 10010.
Heavy rock akin to Jane's Addiction without, perhaps, JA's sense of irony and humor, but with occasional quirks. I think the Rake's Progress are starting a little closer to the mainstream than JA did.
Insistent alternative rock. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, though vocalist John Hamilton can be quite interesting. He recalls a little of Nick Cave and manages to give a somewhat gothic slant to fairly basic alternative rock underpinnings. Swirl Happy, 966 Minnesota St., San Francisco, CA 94107
Whiny vocals and a Beatles meets R.E.M. power pop sound pretty much sum up the Greenberry Woods. For some odd reason they make me think of the group Off Broadway, USA, too.
Melodic Punk that adheres to the ethos of brevity. Fourteen songs, a couple of minutes each. Their sound is guitar-driven and basic. Green Day's making all the money, but I'd rather listen to Hagfish.
Decent grunge. I'm guessing they've listened to a little Pearl Jam.
Mostly jangly, fairly sweet, almost-brittle pop. There's some gorgeous stuff on this CD. Dirt Records, Knickerbocker Sta., Box 1053, New York, New York 10002-9998.
Fairly lo-fi slacker-rock recording. Lots of influences floating around here. Perhaps if Nirvana and/or the Minutemen/fIREHOSE had gone the slacker route they might have sounded like Refrigerator. Very cool... Communion, 290-C Napoleon St., San Francisco, CA 94124.
Decent pop stuff from Finland. This stuff rises far above what one usually hears from small countries whose artists seem to be striving more for a win at the Eurovision Song Contest than for any actual artistic merit. There's still a Euro/foreign quality to their music, but perhaps they've been listening to some of their alternative compatriots from England and Germany. Incandescent, P.O. Box 22098, San Francisco, CA 94122, E-mail: incanlps@aol.com.
Solid stuff from this female-fronted band. They make me think of what Fleming & John might be like if they stuck with just rock sounds instead of exploring so many different paths. They recall, perhaps, a little more arty sounding Jennifer Trynin or Aimee Mann, a touch of Belly/Breeders, and maybe even a little Blake Babies.
Cross the Replacements with the Reverend Horton Heat or Sugar/Mould/Husker
with just a touch of the Cramps and you may come up with Supersuckers.
Hard driving stuff that just plain rocks with an occasional roll thrown
in to keep the listener off balance.
http://www.subpop.com
Not much of a name for a band, but their music is much better than the name. Two of the members were in Bouffant Jellyfish, who had a pretty good local buzz going a few years ago in Austin, Texas. Each member of El Flaco claims ZZTop as their favorite band and their favorite country music act. This adoration doesn't color their own music all that much. They have many more hard rock, distortion-laden, guitar-driven tendencies than the Texas-boogie that permeates much of ZZTop's sound. There's a little too much going on here to call it Texas Grunge, but you'll be hard pressed to come up with a better two-word description.
Germino's gone from a Springsteenian rocker to an Austin, TX influenced rock/folk/country sound not unlike Will T. Massey, Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely or even some of Lyle Lovett's work. He sounds like a cross between Springsteen, Zevon and Dylan vocally. Winter Harvest, P.O. Box 60884, Nashville, TN 37206.
Neat little rap/reggae/neo-metal sort of recording. It's more on the soul side than, say, Bad Brains punk/hardcore take on reggae. Rawkus Entertainment, 65 Reade Street, Suite 2b, New York, New York 10007, Phone: (212) 566-3160, Fax: (212) 566-5866.
Ex-Feelies Glenn Mercer and Dave Weckerman have teamed up with bassist John Dean and keyboardist Russell Gambino. What About it is Wake Ooloo's second album. There are definite similarities to the Feelies, but the music tends to be a little more upbeat and less droning than the Feelies. Pravda, 3823 North Southport, Chicago, IL 60613, E-mail: pravdausa@aol.com.
Wonderfully pure pop stuff that avoids over-production, giving it a rootsy pop sound not unlike some of REM's softer stuff. Indeed, this was recorded in Athens at John Keane's studio (Keane has worked with a myriad of Athens folk, including REM). This former Go-Between deserves much wider recognition with this, his third, album release. Excellent songwriting, clean, pure pop and 19 songs in 77 minutes. This is one of the top albums of 1995 and certainly one of the best values. Every song is worthy of being on this album. There is no filler.
This is a mostly minimalist rock recording that has quite a bit in common with Lois or Liz Phair, but is perhaps even more brittle than either. Yet there's reinforcement that makes this seemingly brittle recording stand up and weather most anything you could throw at it.
If you merged the Cocteau Twins and Sonic Youth you might come up with Morella's Forest. You could probably also mix together Lush and Galaxie 500 and come up with something akin to Morella's Forest. They've been described as "Fuzzy Dream Pop". That pretty well sums it up. Rather cool stuff. Tooth & Nail, P.O. Box 12698, Seattle, Washington 98111-4698, E-mail: Tooth1Nail@aol.com. WWW: http://www.toothandnail.com/
Not quite as slow or droning as Galaxie 500, Saturnine have a bit more jangle in their sound. Still, there's nothing terribly loud or fast here. Reference points are definitely Galaxie 500, Lou Reed/VU, Neil Young and Codeine. Rather cool stuff. Dirt Records, Knickerbocker Sta., Box 1053, New York, New York 10002-9998.
Cross Ween with They Might Be Giants and throw in producer Mike Deneen (Letters to Cleo). What you get is a mosre straightforward rock sound than either Ween or TMBG, though there are quirky musical points and vocals that recall those two groups. Crane Mountain Records, McCormack, P.O. Box 2177, Boston, MA 02106-2177.
There's some awfully good pop music being made here. They recall a little of what the Bee Gees were doing before they went disco and sucked. That is, well arranged, slightly brittle pop music. Witch Hazel fuzz things up enough in a few spots to remind the listener that this is the 90s and not the early 70s. Flydaddy, P.O. Box 4618, Seattle, Washington 98104.