Rock Around the World

Chris Whitley WORK . NR
Terra Incognita

A Singer/Songwriter of the first order. If these were feudal times, Whitley would be attached to a court attending to royalty in some kingdom.

It seems royalty had a penchant for entertainment back in the day. Talk about job security.

The lot of Musicains today is to struggle and the ones who've made it to the Big Show sing partly for those still tilling their lives as parcels of land. A portion of Whitley's tone echoes with that song.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Automatic, One Long Day, Aerial, Alien.

Sabelle WORK. NA
Sabelle

Dig the Cover of Def Leppard's "Love Bites"...part of the reason why this album flies.

Sabelle's bag contains some candy bars and lollipops from Madonna's sweet shop.

"Sugarless" is a chrome pole spinner.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Why Would I Lie, Love Bites, Sugarless, Faith.

Grey Eye Glances Parachute/Mercury. NA
Eventide

The Mercury A&R Man scored again. Joan Osborne's voice has got this intimacy to it and it appears to me that that same sort of intimacy rests on the voice of Mlle. Jennifer Nobel.

Jennifer's voice is like the longest, deepest soul kiss you've ever had. I bet this woman loves her man...Any way, dig on that thought for a minute then check out "Eventide" as it segues into "The Passing Of The Evening".

Pull the shades down on me, Jennifer.


Internet Listening Pleasure: There, Eventide, The Passing Of The Evening, Angel, Here.

Dan Bern WORK. NA
Dan Bern

Dan Bern is like Bob Dylan on laughing gas...what a sense of humour!

Thank God for Troubadors like Dan Bern.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Jerusalem, Kurt, Talkin' Alien Abduction Blues.

Redd Kross This Way Up/Mercury. NR
Show World

Redd Kross can stand toe to toe with the likes of Oasis, and could probably beat the shit out of Kula Shaker in a rumble...That's the impression I get from listening to the Kross' Music.

Jeff McDonald has got just a touch of John Lennon/"No Reply" in his vocal attack.


Internet Listening Pleasure: You Lied Again, Mess Around, One Chord Progression, Pretty Please Me, Secret Life, Sick Love, Stoned.

Dogma King/ral/Mercury. NA
Feeding The Future

The 1st Rock band signed to Def Jam...Put it this way...Mercury sent me a preview of a band called "Outhouse", but the cassette was a mislabelled advance of Dogma's album, "Feeding the Future".

My bet is that the dupe transfer happened by accident, checking my ears, since I got up from my Maxell Man chair and played the two tapes side by side and determined that the Outhouse tape was indeed a misprint.

What I'm getting at is, if Dogma weren't sonically different, I might not have caught the error in the first 30 seconds.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Unexpected Ways, We Talked For Hours, Seven Miles, Unsaid.

Protein WORK. NA
Ever Since I Was A Kid

Internet Listening Pleasure: Over My Head, I Own You.

Silverchair Epic. NR
Freak Show

A great 2nd album that does not disappoint. Get ready for the crunch of "No Association" which will kick the doors in.

These kids can literally avoid casualty in this ever fickle business, simply by allowing themselves to grow up and soak up what's out there.
Hopefully this will happen if their management kills for them.

Silver Chair has the potential to be a longevity player in this game.

Dig Nick Luanay's production and Andy Wallace's Mixes. Luanay shepherded INXS' "The Swing" album which really got INXS over stateside. Glad to see Nick's doing the same for fellow Aussies Silverchair.


Internet Listening Pleasure: No Association,Pop Songs For Us Rejects, Petrol & Chlorine.

Silver Jet Virgin. NA
Pull Me Up...Drag Me Down

This Los Angeles band has come out of the box with a refreshing, hooky, frank, funny and pop-laden album.

"Plastiqa" and "Kid" perfectly capture some of what it is like to live in this town.

Some of the girls I've hung out with in this town have only one active verb in their repertoire:
inherit.

Words like create, become, pursue, endure, and struggle are sadly missing from their given occupation: that of passive, static, jaded spectator. Yeah baby, your money gets you in, so you can look. Go to the zoo often? I've seen the monkeys you call friends...I'll take a woman with a Backbone anytime.

Damn, this band's material gets to me. Silver Jet makes the bitter pill of reality in L.A. easy to swallow. Dig.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Plastiqa, Kid, All You Are, That Call.

David Bowie Virgin. NR
earthling

Bowie's hip to the Jungle Mix thing and has taken that phenomenon, distilled it, and made it just a bit hipper, a bit funkier, put more English on the ball.

Cascading walls of guitar shimmer about trademark Bowie grooves. It appears to me that Bowie does not put out an album unless it's got the Jack Swing.

Case in point is "Battle For Britain (The Letter)". The guitars sound like the mighty, mighty Reeves Gabrels blowing like a tornado through four really hot-headed Marshall stacks.

The Jungle Beats sound like the exploits of a much, much deeper snare than the standard piccolo-y sounding snares in standard jungle mixes.

My guess regarding who could have played these break beats on a real trap for sampling and processing range from Peter Erskine to Steve Gadd to Dave Weckl to Omar Hakim.

David Bowie continues at the Avante Garde forming the vacuum that the rest of popular music gets sucked into 6 months to a years after Bowie's hipped us to it in his supremely intelligent, cogently prepared productions.

I do not have the benefit of any prepared publicity notes on this production...but I would not be surprised if some of this body of work was produced under the aegis of Trent Reznor. At least it feels like it, to me.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Battle For Britain (The Letter), Dead Man Walking, The Last Thing You Should Do, I'm Afraid Of Americans, Law (Earthlings On Fire)

L7 Reprise. NR
The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum

The Women of L7 care. I once worked the counter during one of the original Counter Aid events. During one of the days of Counter Aid, one of the ladies from L7 came up to me and asked me if this charity event was for real. Looking her right back in the eyes, I told her it was, then she happily paid for the cassette she was buying. Before she turned to disappear into the crowd, she grasped my hand and thanked me for making sure the money got to the Charity. Dig.

This L7 album bristles at times with the energy of The Stooges and/or The Ramones, and in an altered twist remarks the intensity of Judas Priest.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Drama, Off The Wagon, Bitter Wine, Bad Things.

Spice Girls Virgin. NA
Spice

A 5 member, all-woman band.

The song that flies the highest for me is "Mama". It is my choice for domestic spinner. Dig the beautiful, layered harmonies when the girls get to the punch line in the chorus.

Thank you for this song, Ladies. I think I'll send it to my mother for a sunny day in May.

Hallmark would be stupid to pass on this song for a commercial tie in. It's a slam dunk in my book. Give it to Chiat Day...They'll know what to do with it.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Mama, If U Can't Dance.

Royal Trux Band Virgin. NA
Sweet 16

The vocalist sounds like Vince Neil meets Perry Farrell in a spaced out sonic landscape provided by the band.
Probably an interesting band to see live.

..."May I land my pinky machine?..."


Internet Listening Pleasure: 10 Days 12 Nights, Roswell Seeds & Stems.

Thrush Hermit Elektra. NA
Sweet Homewrecker

If Alex Chilton needed to work these days, he might put out stuff like this to stay alive.

Thrush Hermit has a bit of the Alex Chilton vibe. "At My Expense" is a hit for the alternative mainstream.


Internet Listening Pleasure: North Dakota, At My Expense, Darling Don't Worry.

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