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SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE The Rising Tide Time Bomb I popped in Diary, Sunny Day Real Estate^ firs! record, this afternoon. After listening to The Rising Tide for a week or so. the first thing that struck me about Diary was the production value: the guitars sounded thin and weak, drums trebly, bass buried. The musical arrangements, although they were responsible for launching an entire genre, were relatively simple, loud-soft- loud post-punk workouts with a couple of mellower tunes for balance. »j| Diaryms a black and white tele vision show. The Rising Tide is an I MAX surround-sound virtual experi ence. While the group has morphed into a three-piece fo r this record (with Jeremy Enigk often doing triple duty as singer, bassist, and guitarist), the arrangements sound more complete than ever before, making one of the best big-guitar-driven rock records to come out in a while. The usual two-guitars- bass-vocal set-up is augmented with steel guitar, piano, strings, sitar, and programmed sounds to make for a more lush and polished sound than SDRE has achieved on its previous records. Dan Hoemer's guitars are dense and pow erful, William Goldsmiths drums sound full and propelling, and Enigk's bass playing makes the new three-piece for mula make total sense. The Rising Tidds biggest weak point (depending on who you ask) is probably Enigk’s voice. He's started singing in a much higher register since Diary, and it can come across as insin cere or melodramatic. When the good people at WUOG were kind enough to play most of the Rising Tide over the air, a friend of mine thought it was Rush. Where I come from, that's a pretty serious criticism. While he often crosses the line into "Tow Sawyer“-ish whining, I think Enigk's vo'ce can work for you if you forget about Rush and associate it with one of his acknowl edged influences: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The almost spiritual power in Khan's singing comes through in many of Enigxs vocal flights. In the age of post-everything and neo-everything else, Sunny Day seems to have made a rock record, and a good one. It's dynamic in the moods it explores and the styles it utilizes, but still not a hodge-podge of tributes. Its aggressive without being hateful and sensitive without being fey. More power to'em. (6 West 57th Street, NY, NY 10019) Brandon Butler Sunny Day Real Estate perlorms at the 40 Watt Club on Saturday, July 15. THE CAUSEY WAY Testimony Fueled By Ramen The foreign music correspondent clears his throat. Cough, cough, ahem .. its only rock and roll— whethe r you like it or not. Funny dress codes and ever, funnier bleeps and blips from analog synthesizers do not exactly spell "the future of rock* in my book. This is times arrow reversed, and it is pointing towards the late-’70s and early- '80s when bands like Devo still thought that the year 2000 was quite a long way away, and there was still plenty of time for all that science fiction to become reality, with robots, monorails, missions to Mars, and IBM eventually replacing USA. Well, the year 2000 is finally here. but where are the robots? I hear they have too much work to do at General Motors, and they only get minimum wage so they can’t afford to go out and see bands like The Causey Way who are obviously pandering to their tastes. However, you can. Dress up, go out and puzzle a theme band! An identically suited audience will leave them speech less. (P.0. Box 12563, Gainesville, FL 32604) Votker Freitag The Causey Way plays at the Caledonia Lounge on Tuesday, July 11. SONNY ROLLINS The Freelance Years: The Complete Riverside & Contemporary Recordings Riverside The late 1950s witnessed the peak of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins' amazing career, an era of feverish cre ativity and improvisational brilliance when his skills were rivaled only by the rising star of John Coltrane. Know for his ability to twist and reinvent simple themes. Rollins could weave some cf the most melodic and r^pired sax solos of his era. Before his self-imposed three year retirement in 1559. Rollins recorded extensively while shunning exclusive recording contracts (henca the ‘freelance*), hopping from label to labei a! whim, recording such classics as Neck's Time and A Night at the Village Vanguard \oi Blue Note, along with the recordings collected on this five-disc box set. As a leader, this set includes such well know works as his masterpiece The Freedom Suite, with his landmark, 19- mmute suite inspired by the Civil Rights movement featuring extraordinary inter play between Rollins, drummer Max Roach, and bassist Oscar Pettitord Also in this set is his lyrical and whimsical Way Out West, with his versions ol “I’m An Old Cowhand’ and “Wagon Wheels,* cast into an improvisational jazz context as only Rollins could do. Rounding out his works as a leader are Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders. Sonny Rollins Plays, and The Sound ol Sonny—a series ot extraordi nary albums that otten get lost when looking at Rollins' extensive canon. This set also features his tenor on four selections from Thelonious Monk’s masterpiece Brilliant Comers, as well as an excellent record with trumpeter Kenny Dorham (Jazz Contrasts). The nicest surprise, one that’s rarely consid ered as a Rollins date, is the young singer Abbey Lincoln's 1957 album ThatS Him!, with drummer Max Roach and Kenny Dorham. This total package—recorded from December 1956 through October 1958—presents another facet of some of the inspired work by one of our greatest and most original tenor saxophonists. Gene Hyde w r s c: v 11 VERUCA SALT Resolver Vetvete;n/Be/on<j NiNA CORDON Tonight And The Rest 01 My Life Warner Bros. Two sexy chicks fronting a band that has pop hooks, witty songwriting and the rock muscle to back it all up? Sounds like a rock critic^ wet dream, and for a brief shining moment in 1^94. Veruca Sail was that nocturnal emission of a band The debut album. American Thighs, presented a remarkably assured quartet with a seemingly bright future. However, the group endured a near- instantanc^us backlash that painted them as candy-ass poseur dilettantes, and it wasn’t much longer before the cracks began to appear. First came the step-gap EP Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt, produced by King Cred Steve Albam. then came the sophomore LP Eight Arms To Hold You. the creative misstep that the oh-so-chquey Chicago scene from which the Verucas sprang had been praying for Produced by Bob Rock, a lite metal hack who usually earns his living working with cutting edge amsts like Loverboy, Bon Jovi and Metallica, Eight Arms had maybe three good songs and a whole lotta filler After recording a lackluster cover of ‘Somebody’ for the 1998 Depeche Mode tribute album For The Masses, singer/guitarist Nina Gordon bailed. Veruca Salt. R I P. Not so fast, said Louise Post, Veruca Salt’s remaining cutie-pie. After a sabbatical. Veruca Salt returns with an entirely new lineup and an entirely new album, only this time out. the creative responsibilities rest solely upon Post’s shoulders. For the most part. Resolver holds up remarkably well. Judging from the undercurrent of grumpiness that runs through the record, Post is pretty dam cheesed off at any number of people. Understandably so. Produced by Brian Liesegang, the guy who was thrown out of Filter for trying to share the spotlight with Richard Patrick, Resolver could have been subtitled “Revenge of the Second Bananas.’ Back in the day. Post was more often than not presented as Gordon’s second- in-command. even though when you add up all of the songs released during Veruca Salt Mk. Is lifespan, you'll see that Gordon composed 54.8% and Pest crafted a respectable 45.2% (percent ages are rounded to tne nearest tenth, mathematicians) of the band's material. Tnalts a more balanced split than Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding in XTC or Bob Mould and Grant Hart in HOsker Du. Heck, with those stats, Post carried more weight in Veruca Salt than Paul McCartney did in the Beatles. There's nothing like feeling under- appreciated to get those creative juices flowing. Resolver opens with the mis sion statement. “The Seme Person,* and plows through twelve more t-mes brimming with enough venom to fill a thousand cobras. It seems that the “Seether* was indeed Louise. “Wet Suit’ and ‘Hellraiser’ both recall the glory days of American Thighs. Gordon takes a few lumps in ‘Used To Know Her’ and “Bom Entertainer,' while Post’s exes get theirs in “Pretty Boys,' but the bile is couched in plenty ol catchy power pop (emphasis on the power). A spoonful of sugar and all. Nina Gordon may have left Veruca Salt, but she kept the band’s second drummer (Stacy Jones) and she retained the production services ot good ol’ Bob Rock Her resulting solo debut, Tonight And The Rest of My LJe, has crisp sound and a slew ot pretty songs that fairly explode with giggly delight. Lead-ofl track “Now I Can Die' finds Gordon so giddy in love with some lucky stiff that she figures she might as well kick the bucket because things can’t gel any groovier. Then again, Gordon gets angry in the anti love song “Hate Your Way,’ but proves she has a sense of humor by ending the album with a straightfaced cover of the old easy listening standard 'The End Of the WorIJ.’ Collaborator-to-the-stars Jon Brion. of Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann renown, adds considerably to the album’s user-friendly pop sheen and throughout the record, Gordon's voice sounds much more assured and less girlish than when she was a Veruca, a delinile change for the better. The press kit accompanying Gordon’s album refers to Veruca Salt in the past tense, as if the band cant pos sibly continue without her. Somebody should have told her that she wasn't the only member of Veruca Salt with some thing to say. Shame on you, Nina. No wonder Louise is so pissed. Taken together, these two albums demonstrate that Fost brought the rock and Gordon brought the pop to the Veruca Salt table. Both of these albums sutler because each lacks what the other has in spades—there’s a little too much indignant hostility on Resolver and more than enough girly musing on Tonight And The Rest ol My Life. Put both discs in your CD changer, hit the ’shuffle* button and you'll gel a reason able facsimile of what might have been. (Warner Bro.: 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank. CA 91505-4694; Velveteen/Beyond: 1540 Broadway, NY, NY 10036) Jay Ditzer Rum Runners DOWNTOWN ATHENS FRIDAY, JULY 7th IT’S DOUG’S 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! To Celebrate: M Beer s 2 50 Drinks SI 50 Shots ^ . ALL DAY LONCfff „ 400 E. Clayton St 369-8622 ED FLAGPOLE JULY 5, 2000