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REVIEW!
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STARPOINT ELECTRIC
Bad Directions
Plastique
As one ol the lew acts hailing from
Chapel Hill that doesn't dabble in folk ol
experimental/ambient music, Starpoint
Electric promises to be a fairly inter
esting band. Lead vocalist-guitarist Ted
Boyer has a charming snarly Iggy Pop-
influenced growl, and the band's posl-
allemalive-but-not-quite-grunge sonic
attack is fairly sharp, if not all that
groundbreaking. Songwriting-wise, the
band's tunes are nothing new as far as
structure or lyrics go. but at the same
time they’re fa'rty catchy and enter
taining in a “been there, done that’ sort
of way.
Throughout the band's new platter
Bad Directions, there's this eerie feeling
of having heard it a!l before but it's
pretty good anyway, so what the hell.
Everything on this album sounds ter
ribly iamiliar. To be fair, one really can't
draw any sure direct connections and
it's iiot like Starpoint Electric is blatantly
ripping off one band or another. At the
same time, however, Bad Directions
revisits the early “90s, just after Nirvana
drove the final nail in hair metal’s coffin
and just before Matchbox Twenty
blandly did the same thing for the alter
native revolution.
The title hack packs a sonic punch
and there's plenty of vocal bile perco
lating through the nasty jilted lover tale
“Write You Off.* Boyer's raw vocals
shine on vaguely threatening “Bitter
Happiness.* which rivals the Stones'
“Under My Thumb* or The
Replacements' ‘Color Me Impressed* in
terms of “don't tuck with me. little girl-
attitude.
Really, there's only one problem
with Starpoint Electric: there's nothing
new here. So. if your idea of fun is in
hearing something never belore heard,
well, this isn't a disc that should be on
your shopping list and wail for whatever
the hell the Flaming Lips do next With
seven songs clocking in at a little over a
half-hour total. Bad Directions is a bit
too long for an EP. not quite long
enough for an album, in no way sur
prising. but fairly entertaining anyhow.
Good, solid hard rock with crunchy gui
tars and trampling rhythm. Starpoint
Electric may not be sowing the seeds of
a sonic revolution, but it's rockin’ out
and. in the end, that’s really all that mat
ters. It's got the guns, but time will tell
just what Starpoint Electric can really
do. (P. 0. Box 223, Chapel Hill. NC
27514)
Matt Thompson
BLONDE REDHEAD
Melody Of Certain Daniaged
Lemons
Touch & Go
A twisted, mysterious love story
winds through New York trio Blonde
Redhead's fifth album. A look at the lyric
sheet tells a story of a dangerous attrac
tion that is ultimately accepted in spite
of the past's conflicts. “Guess we're both
damaged,* guitarist Kazu Makino sings
toward the end. where the debilitating
codependency seems to turn into s
bruised solidarity
Guitarist Amadeo Pace plays the
confused man, puzzling over himself
and continuously running to find an elu
sive freedom, become more and more
distant to the woman whose adoration is
so strained. “This Is Not* tells of the
woman running away and finding two
brothers who offer a destined haven tor
her. perhaps giving an insight into the
band themselves, as Kazu sings as the
abandoned man barely concealing
jealous spite for the pair that has
replaced him.
The music itself untolds operati-
cally, the songs parts ol a whole rather
than free standing, and the titles run
together like a sentence Except for “In
Particular" and the lo-fi hardcore closer
"Mother,* the songs stay in a melan
choly mode, the occasional poppy key
board sounds unable to dispel the
despair and weariness in the guitars and
voices. The Irio sticks to a medium
tempo with understated piano and fine
drumming from twin brother Simone
Pace
Even if the lyrics aren't completely
intelligible, the sinning voices of Kazu
and Amadeo. so different both from
each other and just about anyone else
you'll hear these days, are full of torture
and sorrow, the push and pull as “the
mind keeps wandering from desire to
contempt, from contempt to desire * All
in all a lovely, intricate downer (P. 0
Box 25520. Chicago. IL 60625)
Jay Nagy
MARY TIMONY
Mountains
Matador
In the space of lour or five records.
Mary Timony went from Sonic Youth-
inspired riot grrrl in her Boston-based
band Helium to J.R.R Tolkien-inspired
witch-queen.
Whether this change could really be
called “evolution* or “progress
depends on wiio you ask. but her career
thus far has followed a certain traiectory.
substituting keyboards for distorted,
detuned guitars and Magic Cities for
Pirate Prudes.
H's good to see that Timony has
taken a slight detour on her first solo
album It almost leels as though, in
recording Mountains, Timony literally
climbed up on a mountain somewhere
and took a break to write whatever felt
right, eschewing preconceiveo notions
ot what Helium should have been and
focusing, instead, on whatever she. per
sonally. wanted to do at the time The
inexorable march from grunge-ish femi
nism to renaissance-flavored fantasy
play seems to have paused for a minute
so that the maiorette could jot down a
tew diary entries This is not a return to
an earlier style musically or lyrically—
Timony is still firmly entrenched in
medieval lyrical and musical themes—
yet Mountains manages to be simulta
neously refreshing and nostalgia
inducing by virtue of its stripped-down
arrangements and less grandiose
vision.
Helium fans won’t be shocked or
surprised by the album, but they'll
notice that at least some of fhe mythos
of the band has been replaced by the
pathos ol Mary Timony herself I think
it's a refreshing reprieve for both Timony
and her fan:, (625 Broadway. Ste. 300.
NY. NY 10012)
Brandon Butler
BEACHWOOD SPARKS
Beachwood Sparks
Sub-Pop
When my friend heard this album,
he commented b> singing “Truckm?* I
don't know much about the Dead, so
that's up to you. The names Buffalo
Springfield and The Flyino Burrito
Broiners get mentioned in connection
with this hand as well What you'll hear
on this album is country pop baked in
Southern California sun Again, the defi
nition of “baked* is open to your inter
pretation.
Beachwood Sparks consists ol two
former members of L A indie band
Further—Brent Rademaker and Chris
Gunst on bass and guitar/vocals
resjiectively—along with a college DJ
Dave Scher on slide guitar and key
boards and The Lilys' drummer, Aaron
Sperske The Volkswagen Cowboy motit
ol the album's artwork certainly gives a
big hint as to what's in store, but the
band throws in some late Velvet
Underground-style urban pop and more
traditional honky tonk harmonizing as
well.
Scher's slide work especially adds a
lovely element to the songs alongside
tangling R.ckenbackers without
sounding gimmicky or forced, and the
two lead alto voices are always pleasant
without becoming coy.
The one problem here is that this
could have been an EP. It's easy to lose
track of the songs, is this ‘Desert Skies’
or “Canyon R'de 7 * The band's bag of
tricks is very nice, but the songs tend to
stick to very similar melodies and
tempos so there's no real sense of pro
gression or dynamics. It's simply a
series of pretty good songs. This can be
forgiven being that this is the band's
debut and probably wasn't assembled
as an album per se. but rather it's best
songs to date compiled. That shouldn't
dissuade one from picking it up. but a
little time and live experience will prob
ably sharpen up the band's presentation
tor a much better follow-up (P. 0. Box
20645. Seattle. WA 98102)
Jay Nagy
U.S. CRUSH
U S. Crush
Virgin
The self-titled debut by Oakland-
based rockers U.S Crush is 40 straight
minutes of radio ready rock and roll.
The band fuses modem rock riffage and
vocal narmonies landing it somewhere
between Bush and The Offspring with
maybe the attitude ol Buck Cherry
Remember the anthemic lyrics. “ Yes I'm
all lit up again/1 love the cocaine/1 love
the cocaine* 7 Well U.S Crush's answer
to that is its first single “Jimmy Crack
Rock.* Does anyone care 7 Evidently
folks on the West Coast do, the single
was a pick ol the month on L A's
famous KROQ radio station, which
could mean radio play on the East Coast
as well.
The album d f ags from song to
song Some of them are catchy, but
overall I -ust hear the same sound I've
heard on 99X the last five years, over
produced riff-rock with the singer who
doesn't play an instrument and looks
like Mark McGrath from the band Sugar
Ray Maybe these guys will get their 15
minutes, maybe they won't. Good luck
boys. (338 N. Foothill Rd.. Beverly Hills,
CA 90210)
Joshua Lott
JURASSIC 5
Quality Control
Interscope
In hip-hop schools, the “under
ground* designation can go many ways
Consider thn case of Jurassic 5. While
the Los Angeles sextet's initial release
has sold several hundred thousand
copies. J5 still proudly wears its under
ground status on its sleeve. In the world
of Jurassic 5 however, “underground*
refers more to an attitude or a philos
ophy rather than a level of notoriety. The
philosophy of underground pits a return
to soul, substance and musicality
against increasingly shallow and sensa
tional trends in hip hop. This under
ground philosophy is thoughtfully exe
cuted in the group's first full-length
release. Quality Control.
Jurassic 5!s greatest distinction is
its strong group sensibility While fhe
conventional mic-passing individualism
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