Aural Fixations

CHUCK PROPHET
No Other Love
(New West)
The word "Americana" gets bandied about a lot by music critics and fans; it's even been adopted as a format by radio stations and trade magazines. What these entities usually mean by the term is music blatantly influenced by pre-rock American sources that have roots in acoustic music, especially country, blues and folk. The artists that fall under this genre designation tend to put songs before stylization, and sincerity before show business. That's the good news. The bad is that they also tend to be fairly predictable; if you see a description of a musician as "Americana," you pretty much know exactly what you're going to get.

What Americana should mean is music with its roots in the American musical experience, and there's a lot more to American music than country, blues and folk, legitimate as they are. Soul, gospel, the various shades of rock & roll, hip-hop, even electronica (which has its roots in house music, which was created in Detroit by an American DJ) are just as legitimate as anything "rootsy," and as such fodder for the artists' mill. Similarly, subject matter, lyrical imagery, even atmosphere could make music Americana. As musical inspiration for the Stooges, Iggy Pop took not only his beloved blues and soul music, but also the dissonant sounds of the auto factories in which his friends and family worked. Plus the point of view of bored, horny working class kids that informed the Stooges' music may not draw any influence from Hank Williams or Bill Monroe, but it's as American as apple pie and relaxed gun laws.

If anyone deserves the designation Americana, it's Chuck Prophet. He's a rocker who came up in the punk era and was co-captain to Green on Red, one of the 80s' most beloved psychedelic cowpunk bands. But for all his postpunk credibility he's also well aware of rock's past history and has a sure feel for pre-punk genres like soul, blues, country and 60s rock, enough to work with veterans like songwriter Dan Penn ("Dark End of the Street") and roots music darling Kelly Willis. Combined with his recent interest in electronics and hip-hop, Prophet has assumed command of the elements of a variety of American music forms, blending them with his expert songs to create a rock & roll hybrid that practically screams "Americana." (more)

Stagestruck

JETHRO TULL/TODD RUNDGREN
@The Backyard, Austin, TX; June 19, 2002
Classic Rock: the phrase sends shivers down the spines of most music critics. It's easy to make fun of the dinosaurs, the bands played endlessly on classic rock (or, as it's often being called these days, heritage rock) radio, simply because the constant repetition dulls whatever pleasures may have been found during the songs' initial spurts of popularity. Instead of ambitious and majestic, after the 100th play "Stairway to Heaven" starts to sound pretentious and goofy. It's like watching The Wizard of Oz 25 times; eventually any element of surprise or delight is gone and all you can see are the numerous mistakes that somehow made it on camera. Critics in particular take a great deal of venomous pleasure attacking the dinosaurs as they continue to stomp across the landscape. (Part of it, of course, is irritation that the same old bands maintain their popularity in the face of the alleged freshness of newer, more innovative artists. But that's a discussion for another time.), accusing them of being in it for the money rather than for art or fun. Many of these bands deserve it—after all, when was the last time the Rolling Stones actually gave a shit about "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as anything other than a big paycheck? But critical derision can sometimes blind us to the charms of an older, more experienced act which still enjoys what it does. Even if you've heard the songs a million times, there's something to be said for hearing them again in the context of a live show in which the musicians still find pleasure in performing them.

Such was the case with Jethro Tull at Austin's lovely outdoor amphitheater The Backyard on this balmy June night. Touring in support of its retrospective concert CD/DVD Living With the Past, the band assayed a seamless mix of crowd-pleasing standards and deeper album cuts with enough evident enjoyment to make even the hoariest classic rock clichés seem fresh. Opening with "Living in the Past," reworked into a jazzier, mostly instrumental workout, Tull served notice that it was going to give the audience what it wanted, but with its own twist. For the rest of the healthy 90-minute set, the quintet alternated between faithful, enthusiastically performed hits like "Cross-Eyed Mary," "Jack-in-the-Green" and "A New Day Yesterday" with more obscure cuts. (more)

Album reviews of new music by:

David Bowie

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Lost Goat

With as strong a grasp on melody as sludge, Lost Goat churn out a variety of metal moods that would sound diffuse in the hands of a lesser band. (more)

Lovespirals

Lovespirals cast aside much of the previous incarnation's psychedelic gloom while retaining its romantic angst. (more)

The Martinets

The Martinets sound like a punk rock band that's grown up and out of its anger: melodic but still explosive, wiser but still fierce. (more)

NDV

D'Virgilio uses the technical skill he needs for his prog work in the service of less complex, more straightforwardly melodic rock. (more)

Orquesta del Desierto

Dandy Brown and company choose to present these songs in a mostly acoustic format, with congas, piles of strummed six-strings and even horns...This approach results in sort of a heavy-grooved folk rock... (more)

Kevin Tihista's Red Terror

Don't Breathe a Word and Judo were originally meant to be one large double album, but if tasteful pop is your drug of choice, you'll want both hits. (more)

And explore the refreshed sounds of MFSB, Billy Paul, and the Trammps. Plus: Philly Soul Hits!