High Bias aural fixations
October 6, 2002

THE AGENDA!
Start the Panic
(Kindercore)
"Boredom is the rock that smashes the window of creative thought!" proclaims the back cover of Start the Panic, the debut album by Athens, Georgia's Agenda (excuse me, that's Agenda!). "We combat boredom the only way we know how, with the power of young lust and rock n' roll!" The manifesto seems a bit unnecessary, considering that the Agenda!'s stock in trade is raw, unrefined garage rock of the three-chords-and-a-bunch-of-screaming variety. But then, how raw can a band be when it carefully includes exclamation points on every phrase—song titles, musician credits, thank yous—except the title? "This is manipulation at its finest! It is style not substance you crave!" the inside cover notes. A return to rock's roots or a tongue-in-cheek art project? Catchy songs like "Crash! Crash!," "Shake! Shake! Scream!" and "Hot Pants!" argue for both notions at once. (Admittedly, the back cover also proclaims "No art was used in the making of this album!") Singer J.R. Suicide's wild abandon certainly seems too untamed to be merely an ironic concept, but the band slathers so much self-mocking humor all over the album it's hard to tell. Ultimately, garage fanatics may find Start the Panic a bit off-putting, while art students may not dig the crude sonics. The Agenda! is best appreciated by those who can look in both directions at once. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: the Hives, the Go, early Makers

"DEMONS"
Stockholm Slump
(Gearhead)
What is it with the Nordic region, anyway? Scandinavia seems to breed great rock & roll bands like rabbits: the Hellacopters, the Backyard Babies, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sahara Hotnights, the Mushroom River Band...it's getting ridiculous. Well, add "Demons" (yes, the quotation marks are part of the name) to that list. The Stockholm quartet's second full-length album may be called Stockholm Slump, but there's no slumpage here. The band, led by guitarist/songwriter Matthias Carlsson, pumps out a dozen rawhead rockers with enough fire in its collective belly to juice up a million jalapeños. Carlsson may look like a greased-up rockabilly, but punk and the Detroit-styled power rock of the Stooges mean more to him than Charlie Feathers, and tunes like "Degeneration Hotel," "Sabre Daddy-O" and the appropriately-titled "Hot Runnin' Blood" leave trails of flames in their roadburning wake. The power pop melody of "…Come a Day" and the minor-key melancholia of "Sparkle" prove the boys know about variety; that they can change keys without letting up on the velocity is a definite plus. There are no gimmicks or bullshit with "Demons," just pure rock & roll wallop. Long may they snarl. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: the Hellacopters' Supershitty to the Max, the Dragons, the Dead Boys

DOUG MARTSCH
Now You Know
(Warner Bros.)
Sometime before modern rock underdog Built To Spill recorded its masterpiece Ancient Melodies of the Future, bandleader Doug Martsch sat down in his home studio with a bottleneck and the Mississippi Fred McDowell records he'd been absorbing and made a solo record. Originally not intended for release, Now You Know is a wonderfully appealing hybrid of country blues and Martsch's angst-ridden alt.rock. With arrangements built around (but not relying upon) Martsch's voice and surprisingly strong slide guitar prowess, plus a sense of intimacy not found on BTS's widescreen efforts, the record sounds like Martsch is channeling his self-expression right into your skull.

Martsch is as comfortable with intricate, full-band confections like "Instrumental" as he is with to-the-bone solo concoctions like "Stay." Tunes like "Dream," "Lift" and "Window" balance melody and emotion perfectly, brandishing both Martsch's unusual hooks and the raw feeling of the best blues. Besides having a strong set of songs on Now You Know, Martsch is also at the top of his game here as a musician. From the acoustic bottleneck of "Offer" to the amazing Neil Young-on-slide electricity of the McDowell cover "Jesus," Martsch casually demonstrates how worthy he is of guitar-hero status (not that he wants it), and his singing is at its most expressive throughout the album. Of course, it wouldn't be a Martsch record without an epic of some sort, and "Impossible," a six-and-a-half-minute 6/8 tour de force that moves gracefully from shimmering acoustic balladry to passionate electric drama, with plenty of Mellotron spice and heart-on-sleeve emotional power, is one of his best. If there's such a thing as confessional prog, "Impossible" is it. Now You Know finds Doug Martsch's art is full flower, and it's a beautiful black-eyed Susan. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Beck's One Foot in the Grave, Mike Johnson, Varnaline

PARKER & LILY
Here Comes Winter
(Manifesto)
NYC duo Parker and Lily continues its evolution away from its jazz-rock roots on Here Comes Winter. The pair's second record fits squarely into a box marked "moody electro-pop;" fortunately, they don't have much company in there. Lily Wolf's Acetone organ provides the main sonic backdrop for Parker Valentine's simple drum machine patterns, sparse guitar and resigned mumble. Valentine and Wolf keep the songs short and simple, with elementary chord progressions and floating melodies; the duo has never made a record that concentrates as much on atmosphere as this. Unfortunately, sometimes that atmosphere dominates everything else. Rain cloud-covered tunes like "Planes in Clouds" don't pack any punch, and some of the instrumental pieces never really go anywhere. The lesser pieces aren't quite balanced out by superior numbers like "You Are My Matinee" and "Motel Lights," especially when some of the more memorable pieces like "Three-Day Life" have a bit too much of a lounge-music tinge. No one is asking the pair to go back to their swinging jazz rock days in the Valentine Six, but sometimes one yearns for Valentine to break out his saxophone and just honk. Parker and Lily remain a pair of musicians full of good ideas, though, so Here Comes Winter is merely a stumble, not a fall. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Air, Her Space Holiday, Magnetic Fields

JASON RINGENBERG
All Over Creation
(Courageous Chicken/Yep Roc)
All Over Creation, the third solo album from Jason & the Scorchers frontman Jason Ringenberg, is an apt title for such an eclectic record. Sort of a "and Friends" project, All Over Creation finds various guests joining Ringenberg in the studio for a roots music survey of sorts. Ed Hamell, AKA Hamell on Trial, adds fiery acoustic lead guitar to the country rockin' "Honky Tonk Maniac From Mars." BR549 provides appropriate backup for a tradition-minded cover of Loretta Lynn's "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)." Tommy Womack joins on guitar, bass and harmony vocals for his roots rock co-write "Too High to See," while Todd Snider sings a duet on the pop tune "James Dean's Car. "You get the idea. It sounds too eclectic for its own good, but it works amazingly well. Ringenberg is not only a fine songwriter and performer, but he takes a great deal of joy from this thing called music, and his fervor carries over to his co-stars. "One Less Heartache," a surging rocker recorded with England's Wildhearts, very nearly matches the Scorchers for power. The various acoustic hillbilly tunes made with singer Kristi Rose fairly shimmer with beauty, especially the ominous cover of Jeffrey Lee Pierce's "Mother of Earth." The luminous "Erin's Seed" finds Ringenberg backed by Nashville iconoclast Lambchop for a unique tune that neither artist might've quite pulled off alone. Best of all is an acoustic remake of the old Scorchers tune "Bible and a Gun;" the revised Civil War setting gives it both emotional and historical power, and co-writer Steve Earle's duet vocal is among his finest recorded moments. All Over Creation may not banish memories of the Scorchers' best music, but it's still an excellent record that showcases the potential still inherent in American roots music. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Webb Wilder, Rank & File, Mike Ness

SHIMMER KIDS UNDERPOP ASSOCIATION
The Natural Riot
(Hidden Agenda)
Back in the 60s, San Francisco was the hotbed of American psychedelia, and the Bay Area's Shimmer Kids UnderPop Association apparently wants a reinstatement of that status. Fortunately, frontman Josh Babcock and his various cronies don't traffic in Frisco psych a la Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead. The Natural Riot, the band's third full-length, fairly wallows in acid-drenched, post-Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper's pop music. Pianos, cheap organs, tambourines, theremins, bongos, melodica, bells, recorders, samples and, of course, guitars, bass and drums fill every niche found in these songs. Fortunately, the melodies are strong enough to impede any sense of claustrophobia. "The Soft Police," "Like Candy, Like Poison" and "Another Planet" (with its explicitly Beach Boys-styled harmonies) would be excellent pop tunes if played on an acoustic guitar, and Babcock's charmingly adenoidal voice, almost scarily reminiscent of Mike Love's, grounds the spacier moments. Babcock also throws in unusual touches like the Klezmer melody of the instrumental "The Pilot and the Gardener." To top off the checks in the "advantages" column, the band dedicates The Natural Riot to the King—no, not Elvis, Jack Kirby. How cool is that? Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: recent Flaming Lips, Olivia Tremor Control, the weirder Beach Boys stuff

STAR ONE
Space Metal
(InsideOut)
Holland's Arjen Anthony Lucassen has for the past few years made quite a name for himself as the auteur behind Ayreon, a concept album-oriented progressive rock project that brings in well-known (at least in the prog community) guest vocalists to give Lucassen's fantastic stories life. Lucassen has never made any secret of his devotion to science fiction and fantasy, so the sci-fi thrust of Space Metal, by his side project Star One, is hardly surprising. Each song is based on a different science fiction movie, not so much telling each story as looking through the eyes of various characters—a musical reinterpretation, if you will. (And no, I'm not going to note which movies; that would spoil the fun.) Lucassen recruits infamous prog metal singers for the project, including Symphony X's Russell Allen, Threshold's Damian Wilson, Edge of Sanity's Dan Swano and After Forever's Floor Jansen, all of whom trade vocals back and forth opera-style. Keyboardists Jens Johanssen and Erik Norlander add super-speed synth licks to Lucassen's six-string metallics. It's all incredibly cheesy, needless to say, but it works. There's a nice contrast between the singers, especially given Swano's guttural groan, Allen's testosterone wail (listen to Bruce Dickinson much, Russell?) and Jansen's creamy harmonies. Lucassen's songs are unfailingly melodic without losing anything in heaviness, with "High Moon," "Songs of the Ocean" and "Perfect Survivor" being standouts. The songs and artwork bring the movies to life without ever specifically naming them and the instrumentalists play off each other nicely. Finally, everybody involved seems to be having a great time. Eschewing the aura of seriousness that nearly consumes Ayreon, Star One revels in an atmosphere of B-movie fun. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Rush's "Cygnus X-1," Royal Hunt, Erik Norlander

Copyright © 2002 High Bias