Mike
Bennett
Reviews:
Part III:
November,
2001

Scroll down for reviews of the latest releases from Gripweeds, Orange Alabaster Mushroom, Garbage and Fugu.

Click here for reviews of the latest from The Wipers, Receiver and Dave Rave.

Click here for reviews of the latest from Sloan, The Knack, Paper Airplane Company, Elton John as well as an Ian Dury tribute.

The Steamkings
Marmalized

(Not Lame Limited)

notlame.com

steamkings@marmalized.fsnet.co.uk

Perhaps a Not Lame release and Jon (The Posies) Auer's production will turn more of the spotlight on a band that tosses pop conventions into a kaleidoscope and scatters the same old colors into brilliant new patterns. You've heard this '60s inspired Britpop before, yet you haven't heard it Steamkings style, and you really should.

Mark Richardson's trilling gentle falsetto, which shares qualities with Paul Heaton (Housemartins/The Beautiful South) and Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals), is the focal point of the band's sound - it's not particularly rangy, but it's distinctive and inviting. A lot of the unique wrinkles in The Steamkings songs are a result of the voice - it sounds at times like Richardson and bass player Simon Young construct the melodies around Richardson's unique phrasing and then fill in the rest.

Take a tune like "Piano Song", which could be mistaken for a collaboration between the most recent vintage of Lilys and The Dentists. The melody ascends where it should descend and vice-versa, though sometimes it goes where you might expect. The band just seems to let Richardson navigate - that the rhythm section can keep up without going nuts is to its credit.
This isn't to say the songs are not well-structured - just full of pleasant surprises. These idiosyncrasies are drenched in a joyfulness that is nearly as infectious as the plentiful hooks. Take the summery "Golden Song". The sprightly piano, the subtle guitar fills, and the sumptuous string arrangement create an environment that is breezy and verdant - combining the intimacy of the garden Richardson's singing about with a grandeur as abundant as the beauty and warm feelings he is describing.

Fans of classic Britpop might want to advance to track 6, "Rickenbacker". It has a classic jaunty gent rhythm and tells the tale of buying a bass "just like Paul's" with the proceeds of an inheritance but having it "nicked" after bringing it to a gig - the loss of the bass forces the narrator to focus on the more profound loss that got him the bass in the first place. The upbeat nature of the tune is balanced by guest trombonist Adrian Fry's trombone line - the music matches the lyrical combination of excitement and sadness.

Admirably, though the band has a delicate nature about them, much like The Kinks in their Village Green heyday, the Steamkings never let their pastoral and music hall vibes become cutesy or twee. Tunes like "Surprise Yourself" and "School Friends" allow guitarists Richardson and Justin Cunningham to show their rock prowess. And though the band is quirky, much like XTC, they are never less than accessible.

This is a rich album full of musical and lyrical inventiveness. Prior Steamkings efforts indicated that they were capable of greatness. They are fully tapping that potential now.

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The Grip Weeds
Summer Of A Thousand Years

(Rainbow Quartz)

rainbowquartz.com

gripweeds.com

Release Date: October 23, 2001

If ever a band was deserving of wider exposure, it's The Grip Weeds. The basic Grip Weeds concept is combining the jangle-pop wonders of The Byrds with the rocking rhythm sections of The Move and The Who. The band executes this concept to perfection aided by an abundance of talent. Rick Reil, Kurt Reil and Kristin Pinell have a splendid three-part harmony sound and are all adept lead vocalists. Pinell is a spectacular lead guitarist, who is given a gigantic canvas to work on, as Michael Nattboy is a dexterious and melodic bass player and Kurt Reil merits favorable comparisons to skin pounders like Keith Moon, Clem Burke and Brad Elvis. If this quartet got a chance to open for Wilco on a national tour, the buzz would quickly become deafening.

Because The Grip Weeds also have the songs. Oodles of them. The most sublime is "Rainy Day # 3", a folk-popper with bouncy Beau Brummels-style verses that travel a bridge to a breathtaking harmony filled chorus. Pinnell's pithy harmonica fills and economical lead guitar are just further ornamentation on this jewel of a tune. An instant classic.

The title song is another hallmark, an epic disc closer, with a balls out vocal by Kurt, ominous verses, a great psych-folk chorus and a general build of passion throughout the tune. Andy Burton contributes some spooky mellotron business midway through the tune that adds to the atmosphere. The instrumental breakdown at the end (while the mellotron is stuck on the 'eerie' setting) is a welcome release of tension.
The convergence of the band's instrumental talents is fully spotlighted on "Changed". At its heart a simple mid-tempo number, the song is elevated by the rumbling bottom provided by Kurt Reil and Nattboy, Rick Reil contributes a fine lead vocal and layers of rhythm guitars, while Pinnell dazzles the way a lead guitarist should -adding to the song's vibe, not overwhelming it. Oh, and she plays sitar during the song's ending coda.

The band's reach never exceeds its grasp, whether it's the pretty "Future Move" ("when I caught your eye/I felt the future move" - great lyric!), the rocking "She Surrounds Me" (with Pinell's guitar line doubling the vocal melody) or the jangle-chug of "Love's Lost on You". Pinell's lead vocal turn is a winner, on a well-chosen cover of The Who's "Melancholia", a song that fits perfectly within the Weeds' sensibility.

While The Grip Weeds remind me of a lot of bands, there is no band that sounds quite like The Grip Weeds. I wish more bands did.

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The Orange Alabaster Mushroom
Space & Time: A Compendium Of The Orange Alabaster Mushroom

(Hidden Agenda)

parasol.com

Near the end of the liners, there is a list of the instruments played on this record. Vintage stuff - names like Vox and Farfisa and Ace Tone. Orange Alabaster Mushroom is the name and psychedelia is the game. And boy do they do it well. Or should I say he - Greg Watson is the tripmastermind behind this project. The disc compiles various tracks he has lovingly recorded since 1991. While Watson doesn't reveal his studio equipment choices, whatever he used, he has come up with the most vintage '60s recorded sound I've heard in ages. By way of comparison, The Resonars' Bright and Dark sounds like a Garbage record (OK - that's wee bit of an exaggeration!). Play this for your local acid casualty and ask him where he was when he first heard "Mister Day" or "Crazy Murray" and he'll probably tell you on that 8-track he was playing on the way to Woodstock or Monterey Pop.

Watson, who plays almost all the instruments on these tracks, has a sure songwriting sense, and sings with a pinched nasal tone familiar to anyone who has spent enough time with music in a Nuggets vein. Watson also manages to put together dense arrangements chock full of sonic detail, as guitars and keyboards create tie-dye patterns, while still having a playback quality akin to a beat-up stereo in a commune's front room.
Some of the songs seem to have found a nifty midpoint between garage rockers like The Lyres and psych-pop in the mode of The Orgone Box, with the organ-fueled rhythms married to some really fetching melodies. This combo is exemplified by the sublime "Tree Pie", with careening verses (reminiscent of The Fuzztones' classic "Ward 81"), and a super memorable bridge and chorus duo, as Watson intones lines like "close your eyes/and look to the skies".

This is followed by the dramatic "Crazy Murray", which manages to be foreboding and wistful at the same time. "Sunny Day" is a silly music hall jaunt, with through-the-looking-glass chord changes to give it the appropriate shroomy feel. But where are the sitars you ask? Well, on the instrumental "Aim the Vimana Toward the Dorian Sector", of course.

The disc also has some more atmospheric tunes, like "Sydney's Electric Headcheese Sundial" and "Space & Time", which has some of the trippiest lyrics on the disc, and that's saying something: "But space it's so prevalent/in the objects that I see/and time is benevolent/and so circular to me." The more straight psych tunes dominate the second half of the disc, which has the tracks recorded in 1998 and 1999, while the first half, with 1991 and 1992 recordings, is more hooky and playful.
Whether you decide to forego Sherman and Peabody and buy this disc instead of going into the Wayback Machine is up to you. But whatever you do, stay away from the brown acid.

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Garbage
Beautiful Garbage

(Almo/Interscope)

interscope.com

garbage.com

With its third album, Garbage continues to show off a mastery of sample happy pop and rock, a direction that Butch Vig and Duke Erickson have pursued since their initial experiments with using sound effects as percussion in their powerpop outfit Spooner. Meanwhile, Shirley Manson proves again that she deserves to carry the torch once held high by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde, with her versatile voice and ability to wear different masks.

Twelve tracks seems to be the standard number for CDs nowadays - there are 13 here, but since the opener "Shut Your Mouth" is lunkheaded bombast for fans who still hunger for the good ol' days of alternative rock, it's like having the bonus cut at the front of the album. From there, things get much better.
Fans of pure pop should turn to "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)" and "Can't Cry These Tears". The former has percolating synth-pop verses that sound like Nikka Costa meets Erasure, but the chorus reminds one of Blondie with a dollop of Spector. Manson is quite the coquette. Speaking of Spector, "Can't Cry These Tears" is a brilliant girl group pastiche, which shows Garbage's absolute mastery of melding classic pop forms with the most contemporary production techniques.

Two other numbers sound a great deal like prime Eurythmics. "Cup of Coffee" is a moody number on par with the Dave Stewart/Annie Lennox composition "Who's That Girl". "Til the Day I Die" starts off with some turntable scratching before hitting more melodic '80s synth-pop territory. Never has Manson sounded more like Chrissie Hynde then on this track - in fact, you might be able to fool some friends in a blind listening test.
In addition to these tunes, there are a couple ballads and a couple songs that give a nod to aggrorock, while still maintaining the band's basic melodic virtues. The record sounds great when it's on, but doesn't demand repeat plays. I think that despite the flat out catchiness of the band from a musical standpoint, they offer nearly nothing in the brain department.

I'm not saying that Manson needs to get a Ph.D. in literature - it's just that the songs need some sort of lyrical center to hang one's hat on. What separates this hook driven record from, for example, Myracle Brah's debut, is that the Brah has basic, upfront lyrical themes - it helps if you can bring the music together with some verbal context. Hell - The Lemon Piper's "Rice Is Nice" succeeds on that level. The one song that really does stick lyrically, the single "Androgyny", is kinda stupid, but not in the stupid-but-fun manner of The Pipers.

This is true ear candy that should be even more. This will sound better after the radio deservedly picks up on a few of these tunes.

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Fugu
Fugu 1

(Minty Fresh)

mintyfresh.com

fugumusic.com

Mehdi Zannad - remember that name, folks. Zannad is the leader of this French soft-pop congregation. Zannad writes the tunes, arranges the instruments, masterminds the production, sings his compositions and plays keyboards. This is simply a terrific debut that shows that there is more gold to mine from this genre of music.

The disc has a High Llamas vibe, but without the slavish devotion to Brian Wilson. So the approach to the material is similar, the influences and inspirations somewhat different. Some of the songs have a regal feel - they ring with the importance of military music or religious pomp. This feel is balanced by smooth melodies, yielding songs that are inspiring yet are as sweet as dulce de leche. "Monocorde" is a prime example of this style, evoking a pre-20th Century European celebration.
On "Tsimbalon", Fugu gets into the time machine on a delicacy that smacks of the playfully quiet sides of Split Enz and Godley-Crème era 10CC - though neither of those bands sported such a robust brass section. Another beauty is "Various Fitzwilliam", which starts with a simple piano figure before hitting a yearning melody, and finds a couple nifty variations within the melody. Fans of The Ladybug Transistor and Heavy Blinkers will really appreciate this tune.

Zannad breaks out a Farfisa and a bit of Brazilian bop into play on "Vibravox" - the combo of the "96 Tears"-type organ line with some of the best layered harmony vocals on the record is intoxicating. On this track, Zannad shows a real flair for intertwining a few basic instrumental parts (the organ, the piano, the brass, the bass) and then layering some other nifty sounds on top. This is somewhat akin to what remix DJs do on dance singles, and is a great way to make a good tune that much more ear friendly.

Zannad's vocals are pleasant and appropriate, but take a backseat to his writing, arranging and production skills. This means that although the songs certainly strike a chord just through the music, which touches the ear and the heart equally, they don't fully achieve the resonance of which they are capable. Perhaps he should find a lyricist to help guide him. If this area can improve, then this great debut will be the first chapter in the tale of a legendary artist.

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