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Check out
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around Winnipeg tonight! |
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Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
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Tift Merritt
Tambourine
(Lost Highway)
B+
Website: www.tiftmerritt.com
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She’s nominated
for best country album at the upcoming Grammies, but Tift Merritt
ain’t no Martina McBride. This singer/songwriter from Raleigh,
N.C., is happily steeped in the alt-country scene of her home
state (which spawned Ryan Adams) and she knows the way to Muscle
Shoals, too. On her second album for Lost Highway, Merritt enlists
roots/rock producer George Drakoulias and heavyweights such as
Heartbreakers’ guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont
Tench to bring her swampy, soulful vibe to fruition. Far from
being overwhelmed by the company, Merritt takes over the proceedings
with both her songs and her singing, which is powerful but never
overwhelms. Opener Stray Paper and Plainest Thing are the best
songs, while closer Shadow in the Way is the full-on soul workout
almost required on an album such as this.
John Kendle |
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The
Midget$
Morning Wood
(Indie)
B-
Website: www.themidgets.net
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Rising to the occasion
on this debut disc are four Langley, B.C., oddballs who call themselves
The Midget$. Spewing a blend of indie punk and hard rock, the
quartet’s greatest asset is the don’t-give-a-shit
attitude of its members. Along these lines, Morning Wood is charmingly
lo-fi and devil-may-care as the boys rant about boners and rock
through The Next Song, Midget Themed Bong and Excelsior. Some
tracks are pretty weak (a cover of Whip It and Songs About Really
Big Spiders...), but one section of the accompanying DVD makes
up for it. While assaulting the Langley Arts Alive festival, The
Midget$ actually capture on camera a scene in which they anger
an authority figure, offend a senior citizen and make a child
cry. If you can’t recognize punk behaviour when you see
it, get thee to the Albert.
Mike Warkentin |
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Johnny
Dowd
Cemetery Shoes
(Bongo Beat)
B+
Website: www.johnnydowd.com |
Memphis madman Johnny
Dowd is one of those eclectic oddballs who will strike a chord
with music fans craving a wee brain tickle with their tunes. Dowd’s
lyrical bent crosses well over into that special zone which will
have you wondering what mental state this guy dwells in. Wedding
Dress, for example, weaves a tale of a curious boy, perhaps Dowd
himself, who enjoys wearing his mom’s dresses as well as
helping his pop with his butchering chores. Whisper in a Nag’s
Ear plays out equally well as a spooky, somewhat somber ditty
and as the soundtrack to the included video for Lust, produced
by Dowd’s wife, Kat Dalton. Musically it’s a low-key
but wonderfully creative Americana throw-down with Dowd’s
twisted guitar skronks delivering much of the underlying angst.
Unrepentantly twisted and almost completely unique.
Jeff Monk |
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Death Angel
Archives and Artifacts
(Restless/Ryko)
B-
Website: www.deathangel.com
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Metal fans have all heard
of the Four Horsemen of Thrash: Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax and
Slayer. Also shredding near San Francisco in the ’80s were
Exodus and a band of kids called Death Angel. Made up of five
Filipino cousins — the youngest of whom was 14 at the time
of the band’s debut release — Death Angel kicked out
a brand of heavy and melodic speed metal that attracted interest
from the likes of Cliff Burton, Kirk Hammett and eventually Geffen
Records. This three-CD-plus-DVD collection contains two remastered
versions of the band’s three classic releases, The Ultra-Violence
and Frolic Through the Park, as well as a disc of rarities dug
up from dusty boxes in Bay Area basements. As a bonus, the 1986
demo produced by Hammett is included on Disc 1. Track highlights
include Thrasher, Bored and Devil’s Metal, all of which
solidify DA’s spot squarely between the galloping riffs
of Maiden and the ultra-speed thrash of Slayer. The palm-muted
riffing and soloing of Gus Pepa and Rob Cavestany provide the
backbone of the band, and Mark Osegueda, though a decent singer,
knows when to shut the hell up and bang his head to instrumental
mayhem. When the boys aren’t going high-octane — as
on tracks such as Open Up and the cover of KISS’ Cold Gin
— they approach a raw Mötley Crüe vibe, something
the Crüe is currently struggling to resurrect. It’s
too bad that the band’s stellar 1990 Geffen release, Act
III, couldn’t be included to make this set more complete.
Rarities is composed of old lo-fi demos and unreleased tracks
that will only please those with Death Angel tatts on their girlfriend’s
forearms. Similarly, the short DVD isn’t much to look at.
It’s basically just a bunch of kids talking out their asses,
banging their heads and dancing around in striped tube socks —
but it is shocking to see how young the metal kids were when they
made this balls-out music. Fans will already have all the DA albums
that matter, but this is a good place to start your thrash revival
experience.
Mike Warkentin |
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Millimetrik
Deeper Transmissions
(Statik)
B+
Website: www.millimetrik.com
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Nothing says creepy like
a crazy guy darting out from the bushes on an old, abandoned street.
If Twin Peaks were revisited, Quebec-born Pascal Asselin would
be a shoe-in for the score. When I first listened to Millimetrik’s
ambient follow-up to Variety is the Spice of Life, my imagination
got the better of me, but I figured the ominous thoughts were
due to my overactive mind. A few days later, while watching the
accompanying DVD, the crazy guy from my thoughts materialized
onscreen. The minimal, all-instrumental sounds summon repetitive,
dreamlike images that are portrayed in the gritty, washed-out
videos. Mad scientists giving injections, skies clouding over
in quick-time — and the crazy dude on the road. For a good
night’s sleep, don’t listen to this disc before bed.
Shannon Ander |
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Greg
Ridley
Anthology: All I Ever Need
(Angel Air)
A
Website: www.gregridley.com
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Bassist/guitarist Greg
Ridley (1947-2003) is best remembered as the whisky-voiced foil
to pint-sized Steve Marriott in ’70s rock-hard rock movers
Humble Pie. This collection amasses a good portion of Ridley’s
post-Pie solo sides as well as many of his great Pie compositions.
The lanky player got his start with moody, progressive bluesers
Spooky Tooth and was picked by Marriott to help front the original
version of the Pie along with mod-about-town Peter Frampton.
Classic Brit-rawk ensued, and when that band initially dissolved
Ridley left the music scene to build furniture. The solo Ridley
tracks here are near faultless — his voice, though beginning
to be hampered by a worrying throat condition, is as rough and
masculine as it was when he co-fronted the hard rocking HP.
A superb package that serves as a fitting memorial to another
under-appreciated rock titan.
Jeff Monk
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Tegan
and Sara
So Jealous
(Universal)
B+
Website: www.teganandsara.com
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The changes that occur
between 15 and 25 are the most dramatic of anyone’s lifetime.
So it’s rather amusing to read the varying reactions to
the newest album from these identical twins, who were just 23
when So Jealous was recorded. Some reviewers seem shocked by
the bravado of the duo’s rockish pop appeal. Others seem
to think this album’s penchant for hooks is just a bit
too Alanis — i.e., kind of dishonest and constructed.
So Jealous is indeed a construction but also stands up as a
damned fine pop record which sonically echoes much of the work
of the twins’ co-producers, John Collins and Dave Carswell
(New Pornographers). The orchestration and ambition of this
retro sound (which harkens back to the ’60s and ’70s
as much as it does the ’80s, which everyone seems to think)
is matched only by its hooks. Just check Where Does the Good
Go, I Know I Know I Know or You Wouldn’t Like Me.
John Kendle |
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Ani
DiFranco
Knuckle Down
(Righteous Babe)
A-
Website: www.righteousbabe.com
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Has it really been 15
years? Yes it has, and Ani acknowledges her career arc in this
album’s title cut, ruefully admitting she’s “done
gunnin’ to get closer to some imagined bliss.” While
I doubt this righteous babe is anywhere near done, her point is
that with maturity comes knowledge of life’s impermanence
and awareness of its special moments. And so Knuckle Down becomes
a clever and wistful collection of reflections on time, space
and place in the world. Ani is still flying solo, so she and Joe
Henry have anchored these songs simply, relying on her raw/tender
voice, her incisive lyrics and her tremendous guitar ability (she
is underrated) to move this album forward. The result is DiFranco’s
most fulfilling effort yet.
John Kendle
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