From: aruss@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Andrew Russ)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: Reviews of stuff -- mostly old stuff, but it's new to me
Summary: Leonard Cohen, Jane Siberry, Sonic Youth, Tom Verlaine, Fortune Cookie
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:39:47 GMT
Organization: Ohio University CS Dept,. Athens


Stuff reviewed includes:

    Leonard Cohen -- I'm Your Man
    v.a. -- Fortune Cookie Prize, a tribute to Beat Happening
    Jane Siberry -- Bound By the Beauty; No Borders Here
    John Valby -- Dirt
    Polyrock -- (self titled)
    Tom Verlaine -- Warm and Cool, The Wonder
    Chris Bell -- I Am the Cosmos
    Colin Newman -- A-Z (CD)
    Sonic Youth -- Dirty
    Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks -- Everybody's Rockin'
    v.a. -- Ruttles Highway Revisited (tribute to the Rutles)
    Talk Talk -- Spirit of Eden
    (Frank Zappa) -- Serious Music
    The Soft Boys -- Live at the Portland Arms


    Leonard Cohen -- I'm Your Man
    So i guess this is the new Leonard Cohen, Depeche Cohen, sounding 
much like the old Cohen.  Reliably morose, tossing off lots of great 
lines in his deadpan reading or singing voice (can you tell the 
difference?).  The synthesizer is my band approach is what hurts the 
songs most, as the lyrics here are up to the usual standards.  In fact 
there are some real classics here:  "Tower of Song" (which was nicely 
remade by the Jesus and Marychain), "Everybody Knows", "Ain't No Cure For 
Love".  "I'm Your Man" is good, too, but loses points for stealing the 
keyboard riff off "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".  One real loser, though 
in "Jazz Police", which sounds like maybe it's Leonard Cohen's attempt to 
make the Dr. Demento funny five.  And the idea of Leonard Cohen on Dr. 
Demento is pretty absurd, come to think of it.  

    v.a. -- Fortune Cookie Prize, a tribute to Beat Happening
    This was one of those cases of buying a record for some of the tracks 
(like Scrawl, Unrest, and a Sonic Youth spin-off) and liking just about 
all of them.  I guess that means its time to start checking out Beat 
Happening.  Fave tracks include Velocity Girl's "Tales of Brave 
Aphrodite", The Cannanes "tribute", and Kim Thurston + Epic doing "Black 
Candy".  

    Jane Siberry -- Bound By the Beauty; No Borders Here
    No Borders Here is a sort of breathy new-wavey pop record with 
relatively complicated lyrics with nice songs and some goofy lines, like 
"You can't chop down a symmetry".  Bound By the Beauty, on the other 
hand, is intensely complex, and parts of it are breathtakingly 
mesmerizing.  The long drawn-out singing of "The Valley", the eartherial 
country of "Bound By the Beauty", "Hockey" (which reminds me a bit of 
Joni's "The River", perhaps it's just Canadian women singing about 
ice skating).  I can't really tell you so much about these songs, because 
in most of them it seems like i'm confronted with some sort of mystery.  
There's something weird going on here, a bit out of the reach of words, 
her words or mine.  Maybe i'm even more deeply attached to this record 
for that reason.  You should definitely buy this one and listen to it, 
but if you're not ready to listen, then don't bother.  

    John Valby -- Dirt
    This guy is the 2 Live Crew of ragtime piano, in case you were 
looking.  Recorded live before a couple eager audiences in hotel lounges, 
John runs people through songs such as "Philosophical Bullshit" and 
"Shithouse Blues".  Reinterprets the "12 Days of Christmas".  Then he has 
to go and wreck the mood by playing two piano solos, just to proe he 
really can play the piano, i guess.  

    Polyrock -- (self titled)
    Imagine Devo without the jokes.  Well, maybe not quite that bad, 
but it's impossible for me to tell what made this new wave band so 
different from any other new wave band that Philip Glass would want to 
produce them.  Maybe he just likes to rock out sometime.  

    Tom Verlaine -- Warm and Cool, The Wonder
    Warm and Cool is a lovely, informal collection of solos backed with 
bass and drums.  The first time i listened to The Wonder i found it to be 
a real let-down.  It's grown on me some after a few listens.  
"Stalingrad" is a nice song, and there are others, but these songs seem 
more like rewrites of Flashlight than anything really new.  Get the 
"Kaliedescopin'" 12", which has two really interesting B-sides not on the 
album.  

    Chris Bell -- I Am the Cosmos
    I had real high expectations for this one after having memorized all 
the songs from the first Big Star album.  I was expecting lots of 
delicate numbers, like "My Life Is Right".  This disc is actually more 
rocking, sort of closer to "My Life is White", though there are some very 
mellow spots.  In the end, though, i wasn't as impressed as i wanted to 
be.  

    Colin Newman -- A-Z (CD) 
    A very nice rerelease:  the entire album, the 3 B-sides from the 
singles, and two demos.  A-Z was Colin Newman's first album after Wire 
went on hiatus in 1981.  It's a nice one, too, starting off with the 
classic "I've Waited Ages".  The songs are nice extensions of the pop 
consciousness of 154.  Sounds better on CD.  B-sides include two odder 
songs and a nice solo piano version of "B".  The two demos have a nice 
raw sound that makes me want to hear more of them.  

    Sonic Youth -- Dirty
    First I'll say I liked Goo a lot.  I'm liking this one even more.  
Short but intense songs with wild guitar stuff, if you listen for it.  
I'm note sure i can pick out real standout tracks, but i like "Sugar 
Kane", "Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit", "Youth Against Fascism", Creme 
Brulee".  One more recommendation:  get the double LP -- it's cheaper (i 
paid $9.99) and you get an extra track.  

    Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks -- Everybody's Rockin'
    I'm not sure, if Journey Through the Past was Neil's answer to Self-
Portrait, then is this an answer to Down In the Groove?  Neil is out of 
his metier here, as he tries to follow the Stray Cats to the charts.  
Talk about throwaway songs, here's "Betty Lou's Got A New Pair of Shoes" 
and "Kinda Fonda Wanda".  Wonderin' was thrown out in '72 and exhumed for 
this one, and it's the best song.  Actually, this record's kind of funny.  
But you can sort of see why Geffen was suing Neil over this.  

    v.a. -- Rutles Highway Revisited (tribute to the Rutles)
    Well, it was coming, the parody tribute album, or the tribute parody 
album.  Title swiped from Bob Dylan, cover from the Rolling Stones, and 
most of the music swiped from the Beatles by way of Neil Innes, who 
contributes the, um, descriptive liner notes.  Not having heard the 
Rutles, this is an interesting experience.  It's all pretty listenable, 
but favorite tracks include Tuli Kupferberg's "Living in Hope", The 
Tinklers "Blue Suede Schubert", Shonen Knife's "Goose Step Mama", and 
Bongos Bass and Bob's "Number One".  Most of the Shimmy-Disc bands put in 
an appearance.  

    Talk Talk -- Spirit of Eden
    I first heard of this one as being comparable to early Soft Machine.  
If you've heard both albums you'll realize the albums are totally 
different, but there are some striking similarities.  Mark Hollis sings 
like Robert Wyatt, and the percussion is peculiar, too, in a kind of Soft 
Machine way.  Then there's the guitar, which adds a mean edge to some 
pretty tranquil passages.  Unique and recommended and nothing like their 
boring MTV hit.  
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