Aural Fixations

CONCRETE BLONDE
Group Therapy
(Manifesto)
Take a bottle of red wine and a copy of Bloodletting, Concrete Blonde's 1990 dark manifesto, and you're set for an evening of maudlin glory, the sort of experience that probably prompted Poe to write "The Raven." The band released two more CDs after Bloodletting (1992's Walking in London and 1993's Mexican Moon), but both paled in comparison, and Concrete Blonde soon parted ways. Eight years later, the band members, inspired in part by an informal get-together as well as Roxy Music's recent tour, hit the studio to record a dozen new songs. Group Therapy is the sixth full-length release in what's actually a 20-year history.

"Roxy," a tribute to Bryan Ferry and company, opens with a gorgeous chord progression that's melded with Jim Mankey's apocalyptic guitar. Right off the bat we're treated to Johnette Napolitano's raw-nerve vocals and the band's smoky aesthetic. The song is a worthy successor to Bloodletting's "Caroline." "Violence" utilizes the same formula, working off of a chorus that features ominously layered vocals. "When I Was a Fool" is equal parts bittersweet memoir and confident kissoff. "And I drink and I think/How I don't even miss/My glorious past or the lips that I've kissed," sings Napolitano as nylon-string guitar lopes behind her. (more)

Refreshed

JOHNNY CASH
The Fabulous Johnny Cash
Hymns by Johnny Cash
Ride This Train
Orange Blossom Special
Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter
America
Ragged Old Flag
(Columbia/Legacy)
Music critics love to toss around terms like "Americana" to describe certain kinds of American roots music, but there's never been a nuts-and-bolts definition of the term. We're not going to offer one here, either, but instead submit to you a defining example: Johnny Cash. Rich veins of country & western, rock & roll, folk, gospel and the blues run through the legendary musician's work, and his iconoclastic individuality is beyond debate. This is a man who damn near personifies the American spirit, even when we're not entirely sure what exactly that spirit is. In celebration of the man's 70th birthday this year, Columbia is using its American Milestone series to highlight selected titles from their vast catalog of Cash items.

The Fabulous Johnny Cash, originally released in 1958, earns immediate distinction by being the first album Cash recorded for Columbia, after a successful run of singles for Sun. This album is a basic Cash primer, containing many of the elements associated with him to this day: reworked folk songs ("Frankie's Man, Johnny"), a train song ("One More Ride"), gospel ("That's Enough," "Pickin' Time"), a couple of Cash standards ("I Still Miss Someone," "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"), the distinctive cut-time chunk of the Tennessee Two (guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, augmented by drummer Morris Palmer) and, of course, the star's instantly recognizable, deeply resonant baritone. Don Law keeps the production appropriately spare, except for the unintentionally intrusive background vocals by the Jordanaires. This edition includes a half dozen bonus tracks, including formative versions of "Oh What a Dream" and "I'll Remember You" and the classic outtakes "Fool's Hall of Fame," "Mama's Baby," "Cold Shoulder" and "Walkin' the Blues." In retrospect, Fabulous is the blueprint on which Cash would build his repertoire. (more)

Album reviews of new music by:

The Atomic Bitchwax

Call what the Atomic Bitchwax does stoner rock if you must, or retro rock, or just plain rock—this band still does this better than nearly everyone else. (more)

The Boggs

Dedicated as much to bringing the sound of old-time American music into the new millennium as they are to preserving its traditions. (more)

The Candy Butchers

The Candy Butchers makes some of the wittiest, catchiest power pop available anywhere. (more)

Danielle Howle & The Tantrums

Someday, when Howle's remarkable voice has propelled her to arena-filling popularity, collectors will seek out these early CDs for hints of her early brilliance. (more)

Harry Manx

Wise and Otherwise shows solo bluesman Harry Manx continuing to develop his distinctive country blues-meets-Indian ragas sound. (more)

Niacin

When fusion is done right, it can be undeniably exciting. Niacin does fusion right. (more)

Pleasure Club

Those waiting for sex rock shaman James Hall to follow up his amazing 1996 album Pleasure Club need wait no longer: the man is back. (more)