Music Reviews 2.22.06

Various Artists

Sleepless in Seattle: The Birth of
Grunge

Livewire Recordings

Employing the word
“grunge” to describe the diverse noises that emanated from the Pacific
Northwest in the late ’80s was arguably the dumbest attempt at pigeonholing a
sound in the history of music (“emo” is not far
behind). Sleepless in Seattle is a
20-song compendium that pays homage to the pioneering new-wave, metal, and punk
bands that would inadvertently cause flannel shirt sales to skyrocket. Better
known groups such as Mudhoney (the awesome “In ‘n’
Out of Grace”), Screaming Trees, Green River, and The Melvins
are naturally accounted for, as are forgotten heroes (Blackouts, U-Men, Gruntruck) and fallen angels (Malfunkshun’s
Andy Wood, The Gits’ Mia Zapata, and 7 Year Bitch’s StefanieSargent). This
satisfying though possibly unnecessary collection serves two purposes: it gives
listeners a decent jumping-off point to discover more about these raucously
gifted innovators, and it reminds us that it’s Mark Arm’s world; we just live
in it.

— DaynaPapaleo

The Hi-Risers

The Fine Art of Making Mistakes

2-Bit Records

The Hi-Risers prove
once again you can be a first-rate cutup and still remain relatively clean-cut.
But don’t let the wholesomeness cloud the fact that this is a primo rock ‘n’
roll act. The trio routinely digs beats out of the jungle to palpitate beneath
an endless library of lush, twanging guitar. And the band blasts it out on
stages around the world. The songs on this brand-new platter are quirky, fun,
and easy as hell to sing along to by the end of the second spin. The Hi-Risers
are definitely Fab Four acolytes, but it’s nice to
see a detour now and then, like in the title track, where the band delves into
a beautiful Gram Parsons-esque landscape or “You Lie
in His Arms (I Lie Beneath the Bed)” where things get
a little dangerous and mean.

— Frank De Blase

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

Bloodsongs

Fat Possum

Fans of Gil Mantera and his creative partner Ultimate Donny’s goofy,
suggestive live show might be surprised by how this album presents the same
type of material but reveals the duo’s tender side. Like their concerts, Bloodsongs is
built on kitschy synth dance beats. But Mantera and Donny capture delicate emotions and colorful
sounds in their songs as if they were butterfly catchers roaming the jungles of
new wave and techno trashpop. They do a fine job,
too, making optimal use of melody, texture, and lyrics that come across a
little differently when Donny is wearing a funny suit and a shit-eating grin
and the audience is bouncing up and down to the beat looking for a little mindless dance-floor fun. Booming PA systems can
flatten Mantera’s music into a monotonic thumping
pulse, but Bloodsongs shows the pair’s range via spacious, refined mixes and songs that vary quite
nicely from one to the next.

— Saby Reyes-Kulkarni

3

Wake Pig

Metal Blade Records

In 2005 3 signed to
Metal Blade Records, and upon the release of Wake Pig, the Woodstock-based quintet’s new label is trying to
“double-dare any music writer to describe the sound.” OK, but no one said it
had to be concise: who knew an amalgam of the swaggering prog
of Dream Theater, the psychedelic jangle of the underappreciated Saigon Kick,
and the poppy musicality of King’s X could be so appealing? Joey Eppard’s reedy vocals sound best when he’s not competing
with massive guitars, and the imaginative 3 finds a way to accomplish this in a
startlingly heavy way. “Soul to Sell” has an obvious
Beatles vibe, and while the unplugged interlude “Bramfatura”
is easy to dismiss as masturbatory, it’s actually quite rhythmic and sublime.
Don’t hit stop at the close of the last track — the hidden remix of the anthemic “Trust” is the highlight of this rather intriguing
record.

—DaynaPapaleo

Jonny Lives!

Get Steady

Tenth Street
Entertainment/Alternative Distribution Alliance

Jonny Lives! is one of the few rock ‘n’
roll bands to motor out of the New York City garage with its pop veneer intact.
The driving brutality of The Mooney Suzuki and the post-Velvets psychedelic
meanderings of The Strokes are cool, but often the hook gets sacrificed for the
gunfighter stance. Jonny Lives! still
delivers the goods with guts, even incorporating help from Mooney Suzuki and
Strokes cats on the ode to sweaty one-night stands, “ClichÃÂ©.” Get Steady is pure guitar pop-rock
(think The Kinks, just not so British; or The Replacements, just not so
American or drunk) without too many surprises, except for maybe the doo-wop
vocals on “Lost My Mind.”

— Frank De Blase

Mastodon

Call of the Mastodon

Relapse

On its second
full-length album, Leviathan,
Mastodon gelled into something truly extraordinary, which only highlighted how
premature it was that the press had latched onto the band so soon after it
formed. Despite many high points, on the first full-length, Remission, Mastodon sounded like it was
still figuring out how to cohesively blend its Metallica,
King Crimson, Neurosis, and Southern Rock influences — or so it seemed at the
time. Call of the Mastodon compiles
the first recordings by the band — which features RochesteriansBrannDailor and Bill Kelliher, both of defunct but still-revered local band Lethargy — with vocals re-recorded shortly after the
departure of original vocalist Eric Saner. Five of these songs were originally
released on the band’s inaugural EP, Lifesblood, but, with four previously unreleased songs
added, there’s no longer any question: apparently, Mastodon always had the
stuff to keep audiences riveted over the course of an entire album.