 
earwax
The Jock Jams Ah, the thrill of the American competitive spirit: the beauty of an ostensibly homogenous American crowd, waving their figurative American currency above their noisy American heads in the steel bowels of a monolithic American sports stadium. ESPN and Tommy Boy Music have bottled this euphoria in a series of albums. Jock Rock Volume 1 opens with (what else?) the "Star-Spangled Banner," and gradually eases into the inevitable roar of a screaming crowd. This is, of course, the perfect segue into "We Will Rock You," by Queen. Unfortunately, the folks at Tommy Boy decided that ambient crowd noise would be a great device to employ between each song, resulting in an annoying virtual rock-sports concert. The album features several additional contrivances, including tracks with titles like "He shoots! He scores!" and "Who wants a hotdog?" To be fair, the Jock Rock discs are an impressive cornucopia of classic sports anthems, with contributions from the likes of Steppenwolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Jock Jams might be an even greater acquisition for comical purposes. Bust your booty to "Whoomp! There it is" or just groove to the C&C Music Factory. Montell Jordan is here, as is Coolio. The Village People are given the techno remix treatment, and we get vintage work by Snap and M/A/R/R/S. And just when you thought your stereo was safe, the Macarena rears its oh-so-ugly head. For an intriguing musicological study, play the techno version of Gary Glitter's "Hey Song" (Jock Jams 1) side-by-side with the original (Jock Rock 1). Both Jock Rock and Jock Jams are releasing volume 3 soon. Tommy Boy's producers have also released X Games Volume 1, self-proclaimed "music from the edge." Apparently, "extreme" athletes demand extreme music; groups like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Sepultura and Ministry. The angst-heavy disc also features classic whiners like Primus, The Beastie Boys and Faith No More (remember "Epic"?). Expect X Games II next month. It's gettin', it's gettin', it's gettin' kinda hectic.
Chris Rock Roll With The New (Dreamworks) Former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Rock is the kind of foul-mouthed wiseass that made sitting in the back of class worthwhile. Here Rock spoofs everything from stereotypical black comedians who can't get beyond making fun of their "bitches" to bad phone sex and Marion Barry - "If you get caught smoking crack while working at McDonald's, you don't get your job back, how did he?" Fast forward through the tepid studio sketches - such as Purple Rain: The Musical starring Urkel as Morris Day - to listen to the bits of Rock venting onstage. The references to Def Comedy Jam and Phat Beach will probably be dated in a couple of years, but for right now there's still plenty of locker-room laughs to be had. "You know what happens when you fuck around on your woman," he grouses, "you just gave her a 'get some dick free' card - you just don't know when she's gonna use it." Ah, brings you back the last row of homeroom, don't it?
They Might Be Giants Then (Restless) With their new release, They Might be Giants teach a lesson in evolution. The double CD set, Then, contains the music of those early New York club scene years before they climbed out of the primordial ooze and into the public eye with 1990's Flood. In all, there are 72 tracks, most of which had already come ashore on their first two albums, self-titled and Lincoln, and their 1991 collection of b-sides, Miscellaneous T. Some previously unreleased songs from these formative years sneak past the survival-of-the-fittest rule and onto Then as well. Most of these serve only nostalgic purposes, sort of a missing link between where the band was and where it's going - you don't have to be Darwin to figure out why these songs never made it onto an album before now. Like all God's creatures, TMBG has had to adapt to survive, and Then takes the listener back in time to those beautiful, grey old days of tape-recorder rhythm sections and accordion driven staccato that eventually turned them into the full-band touring machine they are today.
- Patrick Rapa
Tranquility Bass Let The Freak Flag Fly (Astralwerks) Strange, beautiful and hectic in a psychedelically ethereal, otherworldly way - that's how Chicago composer/producer Mike Kandel, the soul behind Tranquility Bass and the Insatiably Eclectic Hippie Free Form Freak Out Band, forms his fu-zak. With mystic intent, T-Bass (like Chic before him) fashions repetitive musical moments that linger like prayer. The vibrant combination of Latin vibey-ness and lovely new-age pluckiness (influenced by flighty flutist/percussionist David Amram and the early '70s breeziness of Airto & Flora Purim) together with Syd Barrett-style loopiness fires T-Bass' unique dance sound. Using slippery trumpets, sliding trombones, clavinets and multiflavored percussion, tunes like the wah-wah'd "Five Miles High" or the Afro-folk "La La La" become hauntingly epic and uplifting. "Never Gonna End," with its disco bells and unrelenting curving groove, is a roaring bit of funk-gospel that grows eerily quiet. Staying with one sound too long is simply beyond T-Bass' kitchen-sink aesthetic.
2 Foot Flame Ultra Drowning (Matador) The buzz around 2 Foot Flame's largely ungripping eponymous 1995 debut probably had a lot to do with who the band was. Mecca Normal's apocalyptic siren Jean Smith, New Zealand post-punk luminary Peter Jefferies, and the Dead C's Michael Morley ain't a bad lineup. The melody-bare 2 Foot Flame took us to the more inaccessible end of their collective predilection for avant-noise artistry. Ultra Drowning provides more to grasp, better presenting Smith's hard, emotive and sometimes quite beautiful vocals. Droning keyboard and minimalist, rhythmic guitar - and, of course, a whole lotta grey noise - fill out the sound scheme. Smith's vocals and guitar on "Sample Stars" waver hauntingly between melody and drone. "Pipeline to Vertigo" and "Salt Doubt" are, daresay, pretty, piano driven pieces with "Pipeline" underscored by Morley's signature wandering feedback. "Peacock Coal" and "Lunar Intuition" rock out as much as possible in this post-rock, no-art fray. Ultra Drowning is far from fun, but not entirely charmless.
White Town Women in Technology (Chrysalis/EMI) "Your Woman," the first single off of White Town's debut is making the airwave rounds. Its Bronski Beat-esque synthesized "drums" and kitschy keyboards play a blatantly purloined Star Wars ditty with unapologetic aplomb. The song's tongue-in-cheek techie flair gives it a catchiness that forces, and keeps, attention. Ironically, this saccharine spunk may prove too unique to be reproduced, even by the same artist. The rest of the album simply does not come close to the same energy and sardonic mall-organ notes of "Your Woman." White Town sounds drab when intending nostalgia and trite when opting for cheeriness.
- Elva Ramirez |
