Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / March 20, 1998, edition 1 / Page 9
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The Guilfordian March 20,1998 NEW MUSIC =>Brownie Mary Naked Rating: 9 BY JEFF IRVING Features Music Critic When I looked at the cover to Na ked, I knew what this band was going to sound like. A female singer and three male instrumentalists were depicted in the I-went-to-school-naked nightmare sce nario. This usually denotes a power-pop album. You've heard it before many times. Familiarity isn't a bad thing at all if the music is done well and presented imaginatively. Brownie Mary deliver an energetic pack age that will prob ably get put in heavy rotation and Buzz-Clipped to no end, but they actually de serve the airplay Their sound is halfway between Eve s Plum and Belly with a few touches of Alanis here and there, but these com parisons can be brushed aside, as this band mixes their influences together well enough to make some pretty original songs within the genre's boundaries. The album kicks off powerfully with a little bit of feedback and lunges straight into "Like I Really Do," a song about a smothering relationship. The title track swings along with wah-drenched riffs and Kelsey Barber's slightly raspy voice al ternatingJbetweenjDlam _ Hill i ■ 1 ill 31 ?v, I 9 pfp BEa&sJ ~ Jmu \ i i i#ir w,,,8 ' i TB n 'Z? PHOTO COURTESY OF BLACKBIRD RECORDINGS Rating Sy/lcm 10 Essential 9 Superb 8 Excellent 7 Very Good 6 Above Average 5 Good 4 So-So 3 Ho-hum 2 Gawd awful 1 I didn't think Bon Jovi was still together! Features lii&i Z'jMtzzJ: V******* SCTfWTXSTSTO BIW * lKt -P # Tkc of I *IV of EIEfTKO*/ A\icßOSCo(£ ° n& Y"* KA jirWoi WPorJ '"leik>*" To G College l.aAgwxge * T>sC. erf Uwtuivi+v +M"I* OucAu*lly I* intellicjenoc of WQFS otfrtiiAC \7 f a U*a •AO ' Mi'oh i'n My &xkff cW©tei •Vo pW.fNq 0 -1 f 41^ clasS 7 r r k TK*. rv*4*rf poofe |* zc 0 f JZ£*~ "IT^— —7 uJiy) xc4tAaUy bo one. |GolAer\ U)ij.s , iT , 7 C -,/>.. X Sf>&\4 one j^ otQcri X .rpWi _Ua growling. "I'll Be The One" rocks hard with a swagger rarely brandished con vincingly in power-pop. "Wonderful Enough" is a delicately textured ballad that could be the soundtrack for poignant friendships. "Blind Obsession" show cases Rich Jacques's playing skills with a Pat Metheny-like solo over a semi-ethe real melody and that sounds vaguely like a less excessive "Tell Me Lies" by Fleetwood Mac. The cho rus to "Stop Me" has a slightly off-kilter feel that sug gests something that Failure might w have done. "Silver" closes the al bum with a ragged, weary tale of emo tional exhaus tion. Nearly every song could be a worthy chart-top per. This album will make lots of adoles cents very happy, and the songcrafit is strong enough for jaded listeners to enjoy it. Coming from someone who generally doesn't like to listen to a lot of "modern rock," this is a damn good album. =>Pure Feverish Rating: 1 BY JOHN CLINTON Staff Writer Pure's not pure because Pure's purely constipated. Everything about "Feverish," their new release, reeks of redundant mediocrity. The beats, the licks, the lyrics, and the half-assed elec tronic attempts —it's all enough to make me pan the latest try from yet another all-male quartet. The lead singer, who is so bad that they leave his name out of the liner notes, sounds just like one more Eddy Vedder/Shane MacGowen/Dave Pirner hybrid. To top it off, the lyrics he squeals are terri bly shallow. The prevailing lyrical theme of this album bounces from teen angst to the ever popular cure for such melancholy— Draize Train cocki ness and slacker ambivalence Take the lead track, "Chocolate Bar," as an example of Pure's bum. This tune comments con descendingly —but only sort of —on a white guy's venture into the hazy urban night to pick up a black prostitute: "You wanna get some...chocolate bar/ Keep your tricks to the other side." The only thing that Pure tells us about this guy is that he's a pathetic slink. But, by singing about him negatively, they make it seem as though they're better off because they, after all, are upper-class rock stars. It's like they consider themselves better people just because they have an advan tage —being set up so that other people must pay to listen to their stupid credos and rudimentary but not minimalistically pleasing instrumentals. The mechanical impression of this lead track actually depresses. Pure are experts at creating an industrial-alterna cock-rock shlock sound. And the rest of the tunes are so much more low-key! (They are worse than the first and so I will hesitate to waste more words on them.) It's as if they try to impress the 99 j5 BBC r^T^^P!3^jPCi^jLZM PHOTO COURTESY OF MAMMOTH RECORDS listener with their ability to produce a pro totypical catchy tune. What Pure fears most are those of us who listen to more talented and inte gral bands like Transam, Tortoise, the Sea and Cake, and so are not enticed by their ridiculous menagerie of just-for-kicks money-grubbing musicianship. For if it were not for such selective ears, Pure might someday rule the world like Michael Jackson! DON'T IAU&H- THEWS &OlN& TO 6E SCUMBLE TOUKNAMCft' WHICH S-MRTS TOMORROW- ' % WHERE?- TME VNOEKOeoVND. AT \TJOT.K PLAY W ILL SES/AJ PROMPTLY AT -Tl* -ROOENAMENT is open TO THE CO/UM cCHECKOUT THESE PRIZES S lit prize: S4O gift certificate at Borders 2nd prize: S2O gift certificate at the Chinese Kltche 3rd prize: Five passes to Quaker Cinemas 4th prize: $lO gift certificate at PieWorVs sth prize: One Scrabble Crossword Game 6th prize: The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary 7th prize: The Official Scrabble Players Wctlonar Bth prize: A 1998 Scrabble Calendar 9th prize: A 1998 Scrabble Calendar 10th prize: A 1998 Webster's Calendar POD. MCEE INFORMATION, CALL ZACK H AMPLF ~ I 9
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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March 20, 1998, edition 1
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