High Bias aural fixations
October 27, 2002

BLACK NASA
Black Nasa
(Tee Pee)
From the ashes of the Atomic Bitchwax, one of the best of the current wave of underground heavy rock bands, comes Black Nasa, led by Bitchwax singer/bassist Chris Kosnik. Out from under the shadow of Bitchwax guitarist Ed Mundell, Kosnik has a chance to actually develop his voice, adding a soulful croon as backup for his high-pitched yell on his trio's self-titled debut. His songwriting has likewise expanded, with a stronger touch of melody complementing the aggressive riff-rock. Add to these virtues an unusually eccentric lyrical style—"Detach the one that's been forgotten/Attack the one who dares/My sleeping stone, I got the car to take you home/Is that the one you want" proclaims the catchy "Hot Van," which up until that point seemed to be about a road trip to a concert. Kosnik also adds touches of Moog synthesizer here and there, and it works. Don't worry, hard rock fans, there's plenty of six-string mania, ably provided by Duane Hutter, a man who knows his way across the fretboard with a bottleneck on his finger. Powerhouse tracks like "Ribeye Love," "Diamond Girl" (definitely NOT a Seals and Crofts cover) and the charmingly titled "Holy Crap" work that metal boogie mojo like a stock car racer handling a well-lubricated gear shift. It's a shame the Bitchwax had to die so that Black Nasa might live, but Black Nasa loudly eases the pain. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Monster Magnet, Halfway to Gone, Novadriver

THE FLAMING SIDEBURNS
Save Rock 'n' Roll
(Jetset)
Finland's Flaming Sideburns fit in well with the whole neo-garage/hard rock scene currently boiling over in the Nordic region of Europe. You'd think this whole movement would have started to peter out by now, with every other band in Scandinavia seemly dedicated to cross-pollinating Nuggets, Thin Lizzy and the MC5, but you'd be wrong. On their second album Save Rock 'n' Roll, the Sideburns are as good as any band in the region, rocking with the typical ferocity, volume and ocean liner-sized hooks. The quintet is a bit more devoted to the 60s than its peers, both in its beefed-up garage band riffs and the cheap, raw production it favors on the record. But it also sports a bit more variety in its approach.. "Street Survivor" and "Sweet Sound of L.U.V." pay explicit homage to young white 60s punks trying to play hopped-up R&B, while "Up in Flames" and "Stripped Down" add a dash of dark folk rock for spice. "Lonesome Rain" even explores a dusty Southwestern vibe to fine effect, and "I'm in the Moon" indulges in some mild psychedelia. Of course, the band spits out the usual raging rockers like "Spanish Blood" and "Loose My Soul" as well. Argentinian vocalist Eduardo Martinez (how he ended up in a Finnish rock & roll band is probably a story in itself) draws as much from Mick Jagger's upper-class slumming pout as from Iggy Pop's nothing-to-lose bawl, which allows him to handle softer songs like the Lou Reedish "Flowers" (featuring Ebbot Lundberg and Ian Person from The Soundtrack of Our Lives) as well as feral rockers like "Blow the Roof." Save Rock 'n' Roll is yet another high-quality explosive from Scandinavia. 'Nuff said. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: the Cynics, "Demons," the Hellacopters

FLORAPOP
Sunshine Saturday
(Jam)
The concept behind Florapop's Sunshine Saturday is almost so cute it's painful: a thematic album looking back on the Saturday morning experience of a certain generation of kids. You know, cartoons, the sugared cereals you weren't allowed to eat during the school week, afternoons dedicated to nothing but play or cheesy Japanese rubber monster movies (OK, maybe that was just me), etc. Mark and Lisa Flora make low angst, high gloss pop out of jangly guitars, warm keyboards and the pairs' soothing harmonizing, applying their lush sound to songs that are more innocence than experience. "You're My Baby," "A Good Cry," "Raystars!" and "Whatever Happened?" call to mind less frenetic, rarely stressful times, standing as kid-friendly music without being kids' music. Startlingly, even at an hour's length, Sunshine Saturday never induces a toothache, which is a testament to the Floras' melodic gifts. So snuggle up on the couch in your jammies with a bowl of chocolate-frosted sugar bombs and sing along with Florapop. Michael Toland

For fans of: Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, Jeremy, Chris Von Sneidern

THE GREEN AND YELLOW TV
Record X
(Records)
(Records) Sure, there are plenty of labels out there foisting all manner of crap on your poor ears and wallets. OK, not all of it is crap, by any means, but with so many imprints belching forth so much product it's easy to forget the independent musicians out there, making records just as good as anything with a budget and marketing department behind it. Case in point: Los Angeles trio the Green and Yellow TV's latest album Record X. The band melds the best of 80s underground guitar rock with the best of 90s same for an altogether fresh and shiny take on vaguely psychedelic power pop. Todd O'Keefe, Michael Francis Regilio and Justin "Dusty" Rocherolle rarely go for the obvious hooks with their writing, but that doesn't make songs like "Ineffable Blues," "In With You" and "The Moon Hoax" any less tuneful. The band's internal quality control must be ruthless. Crackling electric guitars and sharp harmonies are the trio's main weapons in the war against apathy, though it's perfectly willing to chill with wood guitars, as on the cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Benedictus." In truth, it's hard to pick highlights, as the whole record is amazingly consistent; there's not a track here that's anything less than good. The band's internal quality control must be ruthless. Record X is well worth search whatever search it might take to find it. Michael Toland

For fans of: the Cavedogs, the Red Telephone, the Lemonheads

IVY
Guestroom
(Minty Fresh)
The concept of the covers album is now so common it doesn't even count as a novelty anymore. Most of these kinds of LPs seem to be full of tunes by the same old artists, no matter what the style of the musicians themselves. Ivy neatly sidesteps that penchant on its fourth full-length Guestroom with a program of mostly (though not exclusively) 80s underground acts, from the days when "alternative" truly meant alternative. On sprightly takes on the Cure's "Let's Go to Bed" and Haircut One Hundred's "Kite" and a lovely version of Steely Dan's "Only a Fool Would Say That," instrumentalists Andy Chase and Adam Schlensinger take full advantage of the songs' inherent tunefulness with a combination of Brill Building popcraft and contemporary groove, while frontperson Dominique Durand skillfully applies her Gallic croon. Given the band's lounge-pop proclivities and Durand's native ancestry, taking on Serge Gainsbourg's "L'Anamour" is entirely appropriate, while covering Orange Juice's "I Guess I'm Just a Little Too Sensitive" gets points for relative obscurity. The band even makes manages to challenge the Ronettes' supremacy on "Be My Baby" by doing it in a much mellower, totally different style. The highlight, though, is undoubtedly the wonderful cover of the Go-Betweens' "Streets Of Your Town;" the combination of the bright melody and the glum lyrics fits Ivy to a "T." Not everything works: the stripped-down folk pop version of The House of Love's "I Don't Know Why I Love You" fairly wallows in its own preciousness, while the electronica-styled take on Papas Fritas' "Say Goodbye" buries any charm the song might have originally had. And no amount of talent on the part of the performers can save a piece of fluff like the Blow Monkeys' "Digging Your Scene." But those are the only missteps on what is otherwise a quite delightful record. Kudos to Ivy for taking the notion of reinterpretation seriously. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Everything But the Girl, Swing Out Sister, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

LOS NATAS
Corsario Negro
(Small Stone)
You want heavy? Corsario Negro, the fifth album by Argentina's Los Natas, is heavy, baby.

God what a beefy sound greets the listener on "2002," which is almost certainly some hellacious variation on the theme from the movie 2001. One might be tempted to call this self-indulgent, but that would be a mistake; the band rocks in unison, so they're sharing the glory. "Patas de Elefante" ("Elephant Paws") just murders the riff, and here and there guitarist Sergio Ch. (as he's credited), drummer Walter Broide and bassist Gonzalo Villagra harmonize sweetly. Somehow it lends even a sound this brutal accessibility; a singalong is a singalong, no matter the genre.

Despite the language barrier—and the Spanish isn't that tough for any self-respecting Texan who really ought to speak some anyway—Corsario Negro just feels like a concept album. But if it is, it's only in the broadest sense. "El Cono del Encono" ("The Cone of Bitterness") is not much more than dark descriptions of landscapes, as is "Contemplando la Niebla" ("Contemplating the Fog"). Yeah, there are passing mentions of war and epidemics, but really, the music is the message here: big, loud, thudding, driving—you know, all the good stuff.

Los Natas aren't afraid to stray from the beaten (bludgeoned, bulldozed, Napalmed) path once in a while. "Lei Motive" is straight from the stoner rock blueprint until the boogie piano kicks in, and the combination lends the song a grin-inducing shimmer. And "Hey Jimmy" is pretty and sad, and bears a resemblance to the instrumental "Sparks" from the Who's own conceptual landmark Tommy. For a band that describe themselves as "Latin heavy psyche," it's almost a surprise that it's only on the tenth song, "Americano," that Sergio whips out a synapse-arcing wah-wah solo. And the title track, an instrumental, is just pure huevos.

Corsario Negro, which was produced by Billy Anderson (Melvins, Helios Creed, Red House Painters, etc.), feels like a magnum opus. Whatever Los Natas hope to accomplish musically, it's hard to imagine that they'd ever execute the plan better than on this CD. Brian Briscoe [buy it]

For fans of: Kyuss, Spiritu, Black Sabbath

THE LOUD FAMILY
From Ritual to Romance
(125)
Former Game Theory leader Scott Miller's 90s combo the Loud Family released a slew of critically-acclaimed records without seeing much across-the-board success, which is pretty much the same story for most Clinton-era indie rockers. And, like so many others, the Loud Family deserved better, if this posthumous live album is any indication. From Ritual to Romance presents 20 in-concert examples of the band's eccentric psychedelic pop/rock, complete with the experimental audio collages that either enlivened or ravaged (depending on your perspective) their studio LPs, plus some intriguing covers. The band moves easily from catchy power pop ("Sword Swallower," "Baby Hard-To-Be-Around," Game Theory's "Curse of the Frontier Land" and "Not Because You Can") through moodier epics ("Good, There are No Lions on the Street," "Sodium Laureth Sulfate," "Asleep and Awake On the Man's Freeway") to some untitled excerpts ("DfD untitled 9," etc.) and treated weirdness ("Go Ahead, You're Dying To"). Also included are a faithful cover of the Pixies' "Debaser," an excerpt of Brian Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets," used as a bridge between two originals, and a rocking (but necessarily quieter) take on My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep." It's a fine summary of an underrated band, and the live feel eschews the insularity that sometimes infected the Family's studio work. Whether you want to take a first sip or raise a toast to its memory, From Ritual to Romance is a perfect pint to quaff. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: the Apples in stereo, Anton Barbeau, Rain Parade

Copyright © 2002 High Bias