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comparison fulfilled the band's mission
l think he's doing a disservice to him
self. though Distorted Lullabies is a
'-ery good album, and Ours is a group
with unmistakable talent II would be a
shame it it contented itself with being
some strange tribute band (8157 W
Third St . Beverly Hills. CA 90210)
Tom Bavis
Ours plays ai the Cotton Club m
Atlanta on Tuesday October 16
BJORK
Vespertine
Elektra
The word is that Biork's in love, or
that Biork's ditched the UK for the USA.
or that she's disappeared up the arse ot
her PowerBook All true by most
accounts, and the results are stagger
ingly evident in terms ol her latest
output But Biork's dilemma has never
really been the painful choices ot what
and how much to... ahem .. reveal
about her persona, rather what to do
now that you've long solidified your
post as the most compelling female
voice on the Pop planet 7 Walk away
with a Palm D'Or Irom Cannes 9 Good
move Then what 9 Best to sit still .
have an ice cream Or a cup of lea
Before she delivered the tricky
Selma Songs EP to accompany her
impressive him debut in Dancer in The
Dark. Bjork set the techno-pop bench
mark with Homogemc Engaging on
most if not all fronts, it was essentially
peerless She had the kind of traiedory
that causes even David letterman to
look up from his sports ledger and lake
notice, whether or not he understands
her swan outfits or semi-suneal inter
view babble
Known to faithful as “Oomestika."
long before it came out. Vespertine is
srveral parts Ms Gudmundsdoltir and
m<iny parts whoever happened to drop
by lor that cup ot tea her social circle
now includes the likes ol Matmos. one
ol the bigger iDM-heads out there IDM
i which unfortunately breaks out to
Intelligent Dance Music,") lives in the
vaguely noisy, largely abstract part ot
tne electronic music spectrum now cor
doned ott to the general public by Thom
Yorke So there's Bjork singing
nay intimately whispering on
"Cocoon.” to a backdrop of clicks, pops,
and random digital squiggles "Who
would have known 9 Who would
have known 9 " she sings with he
angle of her voice that lets loose so
much intimacy It's all coniugal bliss
just then, denuded to the point to where
it could redden your cheeks
But there are other places where
B|0rk is swathed in the heaps of sonic
finery that we'd expect her to appear in.
A choir of lemale voices lends “Hidden
Place" that glorious mid-'60s stereo
phonic easy-listening vibe that endears
us to things like the opening credits ol
the original “Star Trek" episodes
Midway through tneres a dreamy instru
mental (“Frosti") that sounds like it was
built up Irom a congress ot huge music
boxes The only thing that appears
missing is the big Pop hook She almost
gets there with “Heirloom." but when
you're busy rooting through tne poetry of
e e cummings (“Sun In My Mouth"),
and pushing the boundaries of the luxu
riant ("Harm Ot Will"), whos crass
enough in these days of war and rhetoric
to curse a swan for simply gliding by 9
(75 Rockefeller Plaza. NY. NY 10019)
JoE Silva
STEREOLAB
Sound-Dust
Elektra
t can t tigure out who still gives a
fur.K about Stereolab Biork outclasses
mem every time sne pulis back the
covers itjretv the last droning r
pall-reeMng collegial 1 - Slerecah
noiooui was sucn^d into the Can and
Neu 1 nostalgia boom montns ago and
realized he/sne was taken tor ? long
ride over the last eight vears Sure.*
Motei and Crippled Dick hot YYax nave
mined up enough swank old Eurooorr
soundtracks to demonstrate the tad
that Stereolab was never any more
original than Combustible Edison, just
so intimidalingly academic that no one
bothered to check its references Surely
Die Moulmeltes spread the knowledge,
al least on the old continent, that this
sort ot cosmopohtan-sippin ersatzia
can be pretty goddamn lun when i! isn't
so pompous and distant Surely
anyone who heard Jim O'Rourke's
Eureka was so charmed by the hint ol
melancholy showing beneath his
Bacharachian affectations that this sort
ol alool. abstract, supremely cynical
fluff is no longer necessary
Nevertheless, even Komeda and The
Cardigans out ot the picture, we get
another Stereolab record, containing
more defiantly uninteresting pleasant
ness. 1994 's Mars Audiac Quintet was
the last sign of a heart beating beneath
the group's plastic shell—the last lime
snapping lingers could be heard in Ihe
vicinity ol a Stereolab record—but Ihe
Lab keeps clocking in and bastardizing
its snotly pose
Good pop is al once furtively hedo
nistic and elegantly submissive By
contrast. Stereolab. even in its more
melodic mode (as last heard on ‘97's
Dots And Loops, or so I've been told),
is sadistically cold in its id-lessness
The wretched "Captain Easychord" is
the best example ol everything resigned
and frigid about Stereolab: whoever is
in charge of Ihe “arrangement" throws
in a slide guitar, horns and an abrupt
tempo change, all signifying nothing
but opaque desperation. It's hk#» ?*jS.ug
lipstick and a corsage on a work ot
photo-realism. Sound-Dust makes no
effort at inspired satire and fails even as
uninspired function. I doubt the voice of
Ray Charles could hold this calculated
gimmickry together, much less Laetitia
Sadier's fashionably detached drone of
a sigh
Like all Stereolab. Sound-Dust
floats but never dips or soars. It hovers
It s a lifeless daydream about graceful
pop Hark. Stereolab The day is fast
approaching when name-checking
Archie Shepp will no longer save your
vacant souls '75 Rockefeller c iaza NY.
NY 10T9
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
Circulatory System
Cloud
Like both proper Olivia Tremor
Control lull-lengths. Circulatory System
(the work of Olivia's co-lounder Will
Cullen Hart and most of his OTC col
leagues. with Ihe noteworthy exception
of sixth Lemon Piper Bill Doss) could
only exist as a double-album This sort
of groggy psychedelia rewards only
deep, unquestioning immersion. It's not
frisky, and its target audience is hardly
ticklish. (While more sensual and cere
bral than OTC at its best. CS pleads an
emotional nolo, like any good hallu
cinogen.) It bumps and sways bul never
rocks, not even in spite. With seemingly
every ass that ever indented a stool at
the Flicker Bar in the kitchen, and
lacking Doss' sense of (relative) thrift,
it's a molasses-glazed mess of a record,
an overbaked, sun-poisoned fever
dream It'll charm/convert approximately
zero casual listeners. However, with the
needed chronological and psychic
investment. Circulatory System pro
vides some ot Ihe juiciest rewards avail
able on Athens' increasingly fragmented
neo-psych scene
Total immersion: 1 Inherit a rickety
old house with broken shutters, hard
wood tloors and spiral staircases Or
squat in one. Live alone. 2. Start col
lecting old clocks Learn to fix the ones
that don't work Work only enough to
afford this hobby 3 Buy a bitching set
of headphones, with a cord long
enough to allow for liberal somnambu
lism 4 Learn enough about your own
physiology to know when that b;g
white sleeping pill wilt catch up with
those two mild psychedelics and engi
neer it to happen during Circulatory
System's "Now" during step 5 5 c a ! l
asleep to Circulatory System, set on
mtmite repeat 5 Wake up w>m ••v-
Headphone cora wrapped around vc „r
neck Analyze your results Repeat as
needed 'deseed
Circu atoi} System p'av> v r.
Watt on Thursday Octet-?’ t ■ r.t
morecr.p 0:
BASEMENT JAXX
Rooty
XL/Astralwerks
A pounding drive-thru carwash ol
"nderwater lunk holds up neo-bub-
blegum callout hooks abstracted into
no-context ether Like most ol what
you'll hear at a disco (lei's just give it up
and call this shit disco, want to 9 ), it's
bullshit, in all likelihood: Carefully
designed to sound simultaneously more
innocent and experienced than it is.
Still, it's certainly amusing bullshit, and
good buiishit beats hype every lime.
Irom every direction.
Air loo stufly 9 Daft Punk not flirta
tious or joyful enough 9 Basement Jaxx
brings the underwater Eurolunk with the
giddiness of Prince And The
Revolution's “Kiss," the friction of
Prince And The N.P.G.'s “Gelt OH” and
the eerily dehumanized teeth-grindmg ot
M/A/R/R/S Pump Up The Volume" (tor
extra credit) The intngumgiy synco
pated "Romeo.' the dizzying “Get Me
Off" or the intermittently ELO-ish
“Where's Your Head At" may be the ptr-
tect numerals tor you to cut a rug lo. file
away and gleefully rediscover years
later, when things get really humorless
PS Astratwerks desperately needs
a new art director Apply, and use me as
a reference
PPS I'll take you one further Any
sort of bullshit beats any sort of hype
Every time (104 West 29th St. NY. NY
10001)
Basement Jaxx plays at Earthlink
Live m Atlanta on Friday. October 12
13 GHOSTS
13 Crimson Ghosts: 13 Ghosts
Tribute To The Misfits
13 Ghosts
Punk owes as much to surf-rock as
it does to any genre of music (with the
arguable exception of polka, natch) The
Dead Kennedys were little more than an
overamped. politically charged surt
band, and any perceptive Misfits tan can
see the overlap between the cartoonish
sci-li pretensions of The Ventures and
The Tornadoes and Ihe cartoonish
horror pretensions of Glenn Danzig. In
the spirit ot unity, the beantown sur 4
combo 13 Ghosts submits, for your
liquor-swilling consideration, a clumsy
collection ol ocean-sprayed instru
mental Misfits covers
Sure, the Ghosts miss more notes
than they hit. and they don't always stay
on the same bar And. in the absence of
Danzig's comically grandiose ethos and
gripping rhino-m-heat bellow, these
tunes am i much. uh. compositionally.
Still, this is excellent ramshackle tun.
and there's undeniable revisionist cre
ativity beneath the likable amateurish
ness Fuck a bunch of lats and tees,
these |Okers are livinglde band and the
music they love. Look for them on
Cartoon Network, sooner than later
(PO Box 58. Boston, MA 02134)
Emerson Dameron
SERVING DAILY DRINK
SPECIALS
IN A RELAXED & INTIMATE SETTING
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
$ 1 .OO BUD LIGHT 6c MILLER LITE
HAPPY HOUR • 5 - 9 PM
MONDAY- SATURDAY
$ 1 .50 BUD LIGHT 8c MILLER LITE
$2.75 Well Drinks
Thurs. Oct. 11 Fri. Oct. 12
LADIES NIGHT no IT'C ^
$2 WELL DRINKS ULLA/L OPM
$1 Coors Light
105 COLLEGE AVE.» 227-0031
AitfMNI WKININD
@WUOG 90.5fm
Check it. The Alumni's are coming
back and taking over the airwaves.
Friday, 10/12 6PM - Sunday, 10/14 8PM
Studio 13
TATTOOS
& BODY PIERCING
OCTOBER 10, 2001 • FLAGPOLE.COM 33