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BUILT TO SPILL
Keep tt Like A Secret
Warner Brothers
Archers ol Loal always had the
potential, and Pavement dipped Iheir toe
in the pool with ‘Type Slowly,” but Built
To Spill is the only slacker band going
that is willing to indulge a full-tilt (ones
tor iam-rock Keep It Like A Secret
keeps this tendency m check more than
Perfect From Now On. but the *1 Want
You (She's So Heavy)” ethic is present
nonetheless. It's Built To Spill's virtue as
much as its their vice
Some people will blanch at Keep It
Like A Secret vrtiile others will eat it up
(soda like pork rinds) I usually can t
stand anything remotely close to iam-
rock ('Sister Ray excepted), but this
album works lor me. thanks to songs
that bound lorward like AT-ATs, Doug
Madschs whiny/passionate vocals, and
guitar tills that pile up like autumn
leaves on a suburban lawn
It s classic rock m the lines! sense,
most obviously with 'You Were Right *
which features lyrics made up almost
entirety of lines trom Rock 103 7 staples
- classics both deserved ('Manic
Depression*) and regrettable ('Jack and
Diane”) Rock radio will probably con
tinue to ignore Built To Spill They re too
md'e in ethos (it not »n actuality), but
you can be pretty sure that grad stu
dents everywhere are going to be
playing air-guitar to Keep It Like A
Secret
James Blount
RUSHMORE ORIGINAL
MOTION PICTURE
SOUNDTPiACK
London
No movie has used pop music to
greater effect since GoodFellas. and this
collection does not disappoint, coming
oft like the best of oddball mixed tapes
trom a Iriend who does more rock and
roll homework than you
The resurrection of forgotten British
act Creation is the most obvious stunner
here — it was their "Making Time” that
accompanied the blitzkrieg scene cata
loguing the character Max's extracurric
ular activities m the film Listening to
the song at home underscores its cine
matic energy, you'll leel like Chow Yun-
Faf making up the bed. David Carradme
chopping vegetables
The rest ol the album is heavy on
'605-era British pop. with a few period
living room cuts for that authentic J D
Salinger vibe (the best being the inclu
sion ol "Rue St Vincent” by Yves
Montand) Cat Stevens' early, innocent
Here Comes My Baby* is a glimpse of
his infectious talents before he turned to
the Big Questions ('Peace Tram”) and
How To Answer Them (calling lor the
death ot Salman Rushdie) John
Lennon's *Oh Yoko” and The Kinks'
'Nothing In This World" are more inno
cent still As an added bonus, snippets
from Mark Mothersbaugh's longue-in-
cheek soundtrack — most ot which
sounds like a game show taking place
in an Anglican church — are inter
spersed throughout
The album's centerpiece is The
Who's multi-part ‘A Quick One While
He's Away ’ It's bombastic, dorky, sar
castically aware ot its dorkiness, and
wildly ambitious — the perfect sound
track to a serious high school comedy,
and probably the one and only listen-
able attempt at rock opera in the history
ot the genre
Richard Fausset
TONE DEAF RAOIO
Mowahi Mohladi
Hep Cat
Okay, big Flagpole secret revealed
right here when a CD comes m. Ballard
will usually throw a small Post-lt Note
on it with a brief description ol what lies
within One ol these Post-Its is lingering
around my computer right now with the
tag 'Freaky. Acoustic. Tnppy” it's in ref
erence to the Beta Band CD but it might
as well be about Tone Deaf Radio's
Mowahi Mohladi Tone Deaf Radio is
the brainchild oi Christopher Harrison, a
former iarhead and present-day Ireak.
the type ot lad who includes his astro
logical sign in his press kit (he$ a Libra.
ius' like me) He wears his influences on
his sleeve, not a bad thing considering
the influences — World Parly. Robyn
Hitchcock, the Waterboys especially —
but he manages to make this approach
his own with a distinctively individual
vision Mowahi Mohladi (the title came
to him in a dream) spans two discs, but
in general the songs are neither odd nor
lively enough to demand your attention
It works like a while lolkie version of
Prince's Emancipation with the high
points drowned out by the sheer volume
ol material It's the sort ot album you
respect but seldom play again and
again In three words Freaky. Acoustic.
Tnppy (PO Box 1761 Athens. 6A
30603)
James Blount
SONG OF THE CROOKED
DANCE
Early Bulgarian Traditional
Music 1927-42
Yazoo/S hanachie
Here, thanks to the research ol
Lauren Brody, are some of the most
powerful Bulgarian recordings ever
made Between the two World Wars and
before the communist takeover ot
Bulgaria in 1944. local and West
European labels taped piles ot tradi
tional lofk music right alongside opera
excerpts, military marches and popular
tunes of the day
The instrumentation varied from
urban instruments such as clarinet,
accordion, trumpet and mandoim to
such rural devices as the giada (bag
pipe). gudulka (bowed lute) and kaval
(end blown flute) This inspired compi
lation runs the gamut trom folk
orchestra to solo performance What it
lacks is much of the wonderful a cap-
pella styles (to be found on Topic
Records field recordings trom the
19SOs) and the overbiown pseudo-iolk
ol the popular compilation series Le
Myslere des Voix Bulgares Here we
have a sort ol East European hub lor
styles seemingly, but not necessarily, on
their way from Central Asia to Northern
Alrica The musicians on this disc per
form the rare teat ot matching virtuosity
with depth and warmth There are
(lowing, free-metered vocal pieces
alongside frantic 11/16 trumpet and
accordion duels and the droney
Macedonian influenced oboe-like Zurla.
Brody painstakingly transferred
this music to disc in 1990 during a
maior Bulgarian economic crisis.
Electricity was rationed, forcing the
work to be done trom midnight to
dawn And because ol the political
changes of the mid-'40s, information
on the musicians was hard to come by
as. trom 1950. alt the early record
labels were squeezed into a single
entity known as Radioprom
It was then that Stalin propaganda
replaced waltzes, tangos and other pop
ular music, and a centralized govern
ment controlled what could and couldn't
be played It's a situation Bulgaria has
yet to fully recover Irom However, tor a
decade or so. traditional music thrived
in such a way as to suggest imperma
nence The tunes here are full of vigor
and intensity unmatched by later record
ings (13 Laighl St.. Sixth Floor. New
York. NY 10013)
Bruce Miller
TAKAKO MINEKAWA
Cloudy Cloud Calculator
Emperor Norton
Finally, an electronic album from
Japan that doesn't sound like an hour-
long toothpaste commercial I find it
ironic when bands like Pizzicato 5. Cibo
Matto and Cornelius spend thousands
of dollars in state ol the art electronics
only to make a computer generated
Martin Denny album
That's not to say Takako Mmekawa
doesnl delve into the kitsch spectrum, it's
lust that it doesn't dominate the entire
album Cloudy Cloud Calculator is a
much more eclectic album, mixing cutesy
Shonen Kmte pop songs along with abra
sive Krautrock influences such as
Kraltwerk. Faust and Can The opening
track, 'Micro Mini Cool.* sounds like a
lost Silver Apples song washed down by
a cool swig of “Milk Rock ”
But it’s this tine counterbalance
between the artsy fartsy Sprocket-like
seriousness of songs like "Krattpark*
and the generic appeal of other tracks
like 'Cal House” that keeps things inter
esting I love albums that are hard to pm
down because the influences ol the
artist just bounce around Irom track to
track. Ween and Beck are masters of this
stereo schizophrenia The only problem
is that this album doesnl seem to trans
late Irom influence into individual
artistic expression very well, which is
my No 1 complaint with most elec
tronic music
That's not to say that there is no
aesthetic value to this album On the
contrary, it is this total lack of aesthetic
that makes Takako Minekawa's songs so
damn catchy When Cloudy Cloud
Calculator holds the collective pop-cul
ture conscious hostage with Gary
Numan blips and bleeps, it is the
musical equivalent ot Campbell soup
cans Remember that scene in
Groundhog Day when Bill Murray keeps
waking up to Sonny and Cher's Tve Got
You Babe” and this tame little love song
turns into an anthem from hell 7 Well the
same idea applies here I listened to this
album a week ago. and Takako
Minekawa's songs are still tirmly
planted in my brain Until I hear a Kinks
song in a Burger King commercial. I see
no relief in the near future (102
Robinson SI.. Los Angeles, CA 90026)
Stephen Miko
FLAGPOLE MUSIC DIRECTORY
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