High Bias aural fixations
May 4, 2003

BLUE CARTOON
The Wonder of It All
(Aardvark)
Returning after a prolonged absence and with a new lead singer, Blue Cartoon sings the praises of pure pop on its third album The Wonder of It All. This is not a band with a sociopolitical agenda, or a groundbreaking fusion of power pop styles, or anything other than what it loves: melodic guitar pop. Guitarist Jeff Tracy jangles, bassist Lee Elliott and drummer Barry Simon thrum, frontman David Loren croons and all join in on sweet harmonies. "DaVinci's Art," "Flying Cars (1959)" and "Idaho" motor ahead good-naturedly while "Before It's Over" and "When the Girl Makes Up Her Mind" want to slow things down a little; "Center of the Universe" goes all wonky and psychedelic. The sparkling clean production suits the group's goals, drawing attention to the songs without shorting the performances. There's little that satisfies the "power" side of "power pop," but melody is more important to this band than noise in any case. There's not a bad tune here; unfortunately, there's also not that one truly killer cut that power pop bands so often live and die by. The Wonder of It All is an unfailingly nice listen, if not a truly memorable one. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: the Rembrandts, Ron Flynt & the Bluehearts, Wondermints

THE NATURAL HISTORY
Beat Beat Heartbeat
(Startime International)
New York's Natural History doesn't fuck around on its full-length debut Beat Beat Heartbeat: eleven songs in 27 minutes. These aren't fragments or toss-offs, mind you, but fully developed, honest-to-Lennon/McCartney songs, with verses, choruses, bridges, breakdowns, riffs, etc. Singer/guitarist Max Tepper chops his lyrics and chords into jagged slices of melody, rather than flowing passages, but he definitely puts the tune first. Like the New Wave and postpunk era icons from which Tepper, his bassist brother Julian and drummer Derek Vockins take their inspiration, the Historians think a pop tune should have an edge to it, a rough quality that comes from nervous energy and impatience with artifice. Angular nuggets like "The Right Hand," "Run de Run" and "Watch This House" conjure an aura of discomfort, of unevenness, as if they're circles being crammed into square holes of smaller volume. Even "It's a Law," the closest thing to a ballad on the record, hesitates to be sweet and sunny. This isn't say that these ditties aren't catchy or won't inspire singalongs—indeed, Max's soulful croon, a dead ringer for John Wesley Harding, brings out the inherent tunefulness of the cuts even when they're at their ugliest. Beat Beat Heartbeat can't help but make your own organ thump faster. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: early Wire, Spoon, the Jam

OSI
Office of Strategic Influence
(InsideOut)
OSI is the latest in a seemingly endless procession of progressive rock side projects, most of which have enough entertainment value to make them worth the time spent, but rarely match up to the spawning bands' quality. Office of Strategic Influence marks a significant exception to this rule of thumb. Consisting of former Dream Theater keyboardist/current Chroma Key maestro Kevin Moore, Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos and DT drummer Mike Portnoy, along with Gordian Knot bassist Sean Malone (what, no one from Spock's Beard?), OSI pretty blows away the perfectly respectable work of its component parts, no mean feat. Matheos' lyrical six-string crunch combines with Moore's atmospheric melodicism and warm voice for a lushly appealing blend of silk and steel; Portnoy's versatile kit work and Malone's elastic throb augment the sonics, serving as bedrock support. Matheos and Moore's colorful music relies as much on aura as on riffs, adding ingredients of progressive rock, metal and ambient electronica for a meal that tastes like none of them, at least not exactly. You'd think with this kind of gathering of virtuosos in one place there would solos and showoffs everywhere, but you'd be wrong; each musician contributes only what the song requires and no more, even Portnoy, who's known for his busy playing. Moore's explicitly political lyrics give the project a distinctly salty flavor—tracks like "When You're Ready," "Hello, Helicopter!" ("It looks good on you but these things look better broken") and the title cut make it clear that there are messages buried under the candy coating. Only "shutDOWN" sounds out of place; with guest lyrics and vocals by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, the track sounds like it was tailored to Wilson's sensibilities, since it sounds an awful lot like Tree's heavier moments. It's quite a striking piece of work, but perhaps belongs on a different album. But that's a minor complaint, really, since the album overall is too good to withstand much carping. It would be too much to ask for OSI to become the primary project for these individuals, but hopefully this won't be the last document leaked from the Office of Strategic Intelligence. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Porcupine Tree, Magellan, early Peter Gabriel

TURBONEGRO
Scandinavian Leather
(Burning Heart/Epitaph)
Five years after splitting up, the members of Nordic rock pioneer Turbonegro reconvene to pick up where they left off. Sharpening the pop hooks of its masterpiece Apocalypse Dudes while retaining the primal rock power and tongue-in-cheek attitude that fuels its engine, Turbonegro cheerfully bares its genitals to the world on Scandinavian Leather. As usual, the band recognizes no boundaries between the dimensions of punk, metal, glam and arena rock; it's difficult to discern where the punk aggression and metallic riffery end and the headbanging hooks and cheeky humor begin. The Norwegians go about their smutty business as usual; guitarists Euroboy and Rune Rebellion splash breasts with their six-string spooge while bassist Happy-Tom and drummer Chris Summers keep the bedsprings bumping and keyboardist Pal Pot Pamparius puts gauze over the lens. The decadent king of this Dionysian nightmare is, as always, Hank Von Helvete, his enthusiastic exhortations to "Sell Your Body (To the Night)" and "Wipe It 'Til It Bleeds" delivered with gleeful conviction. How many bands can you name that put a singalong chorus and sparkling vocal harmonies on a tune called "Drenched in Blood (D.I.B.)," let alone get away with it? How many groups can manage to both parody and pay tribute to progressive metal with the queasily effective instrumental intro "The Blizzard of Flames" (Peter Gabriel by way of Porcupine Tree) and the ridiculous but brazen "Fuck the World" (which concerns arousal beyond any normal definition of the term)? How many artists would call for their own violent end, as in "Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed?" Sure, some of the more raging tracks ("Remain Untamed," "Locked Down," "Gimme Some") border on generic six-pack-and-an-attitude punk & roll, but even those sport indelible riffs and a surfeit of bratty energy. Turbonegro got its start in the early 90s, and thus qualifies not only as the primary inspiration for the Scandinavian rock revolution (not to mention the American one), but also as a contemporary rock & roll icon. Scandinavian Leather proves not only that the band deserves the honor, but that it will continue to earn its place in the rock star pantheon. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Alice Cooper, the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs, Cheap Trick

LAURA VEIRS
Troubled By the Fire
(Bella Union)
Seattle-based songwriter Laura Veirs updates the notion of folk music on her latest album Troubled By the Fire. While her songs sound as if they're based on folk and American roots music forms, they're not your grandfather's folk music. Veirs' poetic lyrics link modern imagery with old-timey cadences; combined with the electric/acoustic arrangements, her songs sound both traditional and futuristic at the same time. Not that the electrification of folk is anything new, but Veirs puts her own, very personal spin on it, making the folk rock form her own. A good example is "Tiger Tattoos," a gentle country waltz that celebrates "your purple hair" and the "sweet baby blues and steel-toed black shoes" of a punk rock beau, chorusing with "Will you come down/Down and deliver/And let me wash those earthly burdens free?" The electric rage of "Cannon Fodder" sits cheek-to-cheek with the staunchly old-fashioned string-band instrumental "Tom Skookum Road," and neither feels out of place. "Bedroom Eyes," the funny "Devil's Hootenanny" and "The Ballad of John Vogelin" are simply exceptional songs, stylistic indulgences be damned. Dare we hope that "Midnight Singer" will become a folk standard? Troubled By the Fire is a better class of music for folks. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Diana Darby, Kristin Hersh, John Cunningham

WE
Dinosauric Futurobic
(Black Balloon)
The Scandinavian rock invasion continues with Dinosauric Futurobic, the fifth album from Oslo's WE. The Norwegian foursome, like a lot of its Nordic brethren, does the 70s psychedelic heavy rock thing, with an emphasis on the first part of that recipe. Song titles like "Cosmic Bound" and "Organic Room" pretty much tell the story here, and Goshie and Krisvaag's leisurely rhythms, Don A Dons' effects-heavy guitar lines and Thomas Felberg's acid-laced lyrics ("At the higher ground/we're getting cosmic bound") and soulful singing whip up a suitably trippy atmosphere. "Jinxed" and "1971" continue the trend even more powerfully. WE is perfectly happy to simply rock out as well, as the upbeat "Carefree," savage "Toothgottago" and forceful title track loudly demonstrate. The band even experiments with funk on "Antidote" ("Demons out!" cries Felberg over a chunky choogle) and while WE's not likely to take the funk rock crown away from George Clinton, it doesn't embarrass itself the way so many others have. Admittedly, the music sounds stuck in the 70s, as if the last 30 years of progression never happened, but the band is so obviously in love with what it does its passion and skill easily overcome any objections to nostalgia-mongering. Dinosauric Futurobic just plain rocks. Michael Toland

For fans of: early Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin

LUCINDA WILLIAMS
World Without Tears
(Lost Highway)
After the fragile, luminous Essence, the follow-up to her slick commercial breakthrough Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams apparently felt the urge to put her fingers back in the soil with her seventh album. Recorded mostly live on the floor with no-nonsense production by Mark Howard, World Without Tears is the earthiest album Williams has made since her self-titled masterpiece. Backed by her seasoned road band (guitarist Doug Pettibone, bassist Taras Prodaniuk, drummer/keyboardist Jim Christie), Williams gives one of her most direct, unrefined performances. Letting her Southern accent come through full force; she's by turns sultry, serene and savage, depending on the mood of the song. The bluesy Pettibone answers her with stinging licks and undulating rhythm work, continuing in the tradition of the best roots rock guitarists finding a home in Williams' music. She meets the challenge of the no-bullshit presentation with a set of songs that cut just as quick to the chase, pulling no punches in their explorations of sexual, social and spiritual betrayal. As usual, moods and emotions get tied up in the locations in which they occurred in "Ventura" and "Minneapolis," coloring those places with bittersweet hues. Overt eroticism dances a pas de deux with loneliness and pain in "Righteously" and "Fruits of My Labor," while the sins of the societal macrocosm visit the sons of personal microcosm in "Sweet Side" and "American Dream." Williams looks for guidance from the universe in the title track, but if the angry tone of the ironically-titled "Atonement" is any indication, she knows she's never find it anywhere but here on Earth. Indeed, if there's a theme running through Williams' work, it's the devotion to that search, that quest for the kind of love that will kill the pain; a poet and romantic such has herself would never give up on it, or us. Her songs may not have discovered that healing balm for herself and her characters yet, but they've provided plenty of succor for those who listen. World Without Tears is a secular gift of grace. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Alejandro Escovedo, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Alvin

Copyright © 2003 High Bias