Album Reviews

NAGG
Nagg
(Dollar Record)
Bay Area quintet Nagg doesn't do anything fancy on its debut album— no guest stars or fancy producers, no complex song cycles. Instead the band just gets on with the serious business of asskicking rock & roll nuggets like "Gimme Somethin'," "Another Day" and "So Many Times." It's a covers-heavy album as well, with Nagg really giving Slade's "We're Gonna Raise the Roof," Chinn/Chapman's "She's in Love With You" and "Beauty of the Bitch" (origin unknown) the business. Singer Amy Ward is the main focus, but she couldn't razzle or dazzle without the support of the rest of the band. Nagg is a solid rock & roll album, though I bet it doesn't hold a candle to a live Nagg performance. Michael Toland [buy it]

RED GIANT
Devil Child Blues
(Small Stone)
As might be evidenced by the title, the latest album from Cleveland's Red Giant is a more earthy affair than previous, more space-rocking records. This isn't the result of dumbing down, however, but of streamlining. With boogeying melodies and shifting rhythms working in concert with Damien's molten lava leads and Alex's forceful snarl, the quartet stomps gracefully through a pollution-damaged urban landscape like Godzilla if Jet Li was in the rubber suit. (The Stooges' "Funhouse," covered here, is a good touchstone.) Originals like "John L. Sullivan," "Drip" and the title track bludgeon with finesse and some often spectacular guitar work, leaving whip bruises that will have you craving more. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE ROCKIN' PONTOONS
Beautiful American Dust
(The Rockin' Pontoons)
Beautiful American Dust is a skillful combination of American roots folk and country rock, with a definite bluegrass vibe. The band is completely in sync on the album, blending technical instrumentation with the effortless, airy vocals of Steve Coffey. Coffey is joined on several tracks by the wistful vocals of Laura Dees—these two combine for the best tracks of the album, which weighs in heavy at a whopping 16 cuts. Each of the 16 is capable of standing alone, which speaks to Coffey's songwriting as well as the band's fully developed sound. Lance Looper [buy it]

SIGUR ROS
Von
(One Little Indian)
It seems like it's taken a bit longer than necessary to finally get Sigur Ros' first album issued in the States, and I'm not sure the delay will help it much. Von presents a band that clearly has a vision in mind, but hasn't quite given it final form. The long, dreamy pieces undulate, vibrate and float along as on the Icelandic combo's U.S. calling card Agaetis Byrjun, but without the power and scope of that mini-masterpiece. Von is by no means bad, mind you—the combination of Ros' signature shimmering washes of sound and electronic tomfoolery with straightforward pop songs (!) like "Myrkur" would have found the group hailed as dream pop genius if this had hit our shores first. But it didn't, and heard after the fact, Von sounds like a sketch pad for the more fully realized painting to come. Michael Toland [buy it]

SKATING CLUB
The Unfound Sound
(Kimchee)
Skating Club is the nom de rocque of songwriter Aubrey Anderson, and I can't for the life of me imagine why he hides behind a pseudonym. His third album is quite simply beautiful, a lovely set of low-key pop songs that explore, as one song puts it, "Panic and Doubt." Leisurely tempos dominate, but the record never gets boring—tunes like "Pretty Soon," "Beach Tar Footsie" and "The Long Hot July" are simply too melody-laden and Anderson's intimate singing too soulful for interest to wane. Michael Toland [buy it]

SNATCHES OF PINK
Charlotte's Fucking Web
(Louds Hymn/Morisen)
The first in what is hopefully a long series of authorized bootlegs, Charlotte's Fucking Web documents one of North Carolina's finest rock bands at a club show in 1990. Besides having unusually clear sound for a bootleg (even if the drums sound like big buckets and you can't hear the bass), this disk also boasts a raucous performance. S.O.P. blazes through choice selections from its then most-recent album Dead Men ("Goin' Down," "Salty Dog," "Midway"), a golden oldie ("Ones With the Black"), an electric rock version of a song from their then-forthcoming acoustic record Bent With Pray ("Undead") and some Snatched covers (Dylan's "Odds & Ends," the Stones' "2000 Light Years From Home"). Even better are the handful of tunes that never made it onto any of the band's studio records—"Seven Winds," "Asylum" and "Bloodshot Blue" are especially fine. Best of all, Charlotte's Fucking Web is available as an absolutely free download, including artwork, from the band's website. If you're a fan, you'll plotz. If you've always been curious (and you've got the equipment), now you've got no excuse. Michael Toland [buy it]

TRACKER
Blankets
(FILMguerrero)
Here's an unusual project that I hope foments a wave of more of the same. Blankets is Tracker's soundtrack to Craig Thompson's graphic novel to the same name. And it is actual soundtrack music: instrumental, lightly melodic but nothing so ostentatious as to distract from the main action. (Assuming you're reading the book as you listen, of course.) There's even a closing-credits ballad with vocals. Performed mostly by guitar, bass and percussion, the music has rhythmic variety, a slight psychedelic feel and fistfuls of heart. Michael Toland [buy it]

22-PISTEPIRKKO
The Nature of 22-Pisterpirkko 1985-2002 Collection
(BB Island)
Finland's long-running 22-Pisterpirkko is barely a footnote in American underground circles, earning itself an entry in one of the Trouser Press Record Guides and little else. So this two-disk best-of is a handy introduction to one of Scandinavia's—and the world's—more distinctive musical entities. The trio goes from countrified garage rock to 80s-style new wave to an unselfconscious electro-psychedelic pop hybrid that includes everything the members have ever heard. (Living in a country that borrows its rock & roll culture has its advantages.) Everything's wrapped in catchy melodies and tied together by a playful sense of adventure. There's no reason in the world 22-Pisterpirkko shouldn't develop the worldwide cult following it richly deserves. Michael Toland [buy it]

VOLTAIRE
Then and Again
(Projekt)
Voltaire is known for reveling in morbid wit and coal-black slapstick humor while gleefully skewering every Goth sacred bat. But his prior album Boo Hoo found the evil smile occasionally replaced with a melancholy stare, and Then and Again continues the trend. Wrapped in his usual memorable melodies and crystalline acoustic sound (guitar and rhythm section augmented by cello and violin), Voltaire takes on war ("Crusade"), faith ("The Happy Song") and love gone wrong ("Born Bad," "Believe"). He pauses only to cover the Cure's "Lovesong" and inject some levity with "Goodnight Dragonslayer," a touching and funny lullaby to his son. I'm sure he'll reclaim his crown as the clown prince of Goth, but I gotta say, maturity suits him. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE VOLTA SOUND
Dandelion Wine
(Orange Sky)
On the one hand, the Volta Sound evoke the vibe of the late 60s psychedelic folk rockers a bit too closely; I keep thinking I should find a 1968 copyright date. On the other hand, there aren't nearly enough bands ripping off Buffalo Springfield and Love, in my opinion, and I'm a sucker for groups who do it fairly well. As this Cleveland troop does, though my favorite track is the lovely "Miss June '85," which has more in common with the 80s psych rock revival bands. Label Dandelion Wine derivative but entertaining. Michael Toland [buy it]

VARIOUS ARTISTS
It's a Trap Readers Companion Volume One
(It's a Trap!)
The great web site It's a Trap!, which focuses on Scandinavian music of all stripes, has put out a handy compilation featuring many of the acts it champions, most of whom don't have the profile of The Soundtrack of Our Lives or even Nicolai Dunger. High Bias is no stranger to the Nordic vibe, as loyal readers know, so it's not gonna be a surprise that I find this disk a delight. It's got a great mix of genres (power pop, hard rock, singer/songwriter stuff) from old friends (Thirdimension, WE, José González), recent acquaintances (David & the Citizens, Isolation Years, KVLR) and new faces (Waver, Lionheart Brothers, Peter Bjorn & John). All these folks make the frigid climes of Northern Europe sound like a very interesting place to be for hardcore music nuts like me. I wonder if Rolling Stone needs a Nordic correspondent? Michael Toland [buy it]