Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Nov. 1, 1990, edition 1 / Page 15
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DTH Omnibus Page 5 Thursday November 1, 1990 MUSOC Enjoy pure listening satisfaction Blake Babies Sunburn Mammoth eoo 12 perfectly dreadful Farrah ill Fawcett flick. Pinched fj shoulders and a hot neck. a A dog pulling at a little girl's bathing suit on a cracked plastic sign. These are a few of my least favorite things. But, unlike those other "sun burns," the second Mammoth release by Boston's Blake Babies is a lovable little gem of a pop record. Taking their name (homage to poet William Blake) on the advice of beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the Blake Babies have been spinning out infec tious snippets of hook-heavy power pop since 1985. Following the direc tion of last year's Earwig, Sunburn is pure listening satisfaction as it whirls through 12 solid cuts. The Blake Babies are ready-made for college radio. They jangle. They weave glorious vocal harmonies. They stack hooks on hooks over a tight, driving rhythm section. They explore angst, pain or politics with ease. Singer-songwriter-bassist Juliana Hatfield fronts the band with verve and a girlish charm often at odds with the Blakes' deeper lyrical and instru mental wrinkles. Drummer Freda Where have those The Connells One Simple Word TVT Records OO 12 ri fter playing the Connells' I l catchy, slick dance track U "To Gone," the radio bel- lwecl out something about """ playing the "future classics," the best new music. Unfortunately, the only dance grooves that might become '90s classics are being made by the Stone Roses and other promis ing Brits, like the Happy Mondays and the Charlatans U.K. Oh, how I long for the Connells to return to the Darker Days, the days of deep, intense college rock whose melodies soared with haunting pop grandeur. But wishing for a band to confine and limit itself to its old sounds is like crying over spilt milk. Promising tal ents want to explore, imagine and experiment. And good bands can af ford to. Furthermore, stepping beyond its roots is sometimes necessary to expand a band's audience and sell more records. Contrary to cult belief, the glamor of club status wears off in time. Bands are human. They need money, Brian Springer Boner (whom everyone compares to Mo Tucker, but only because female drummers are rare) works with Hatfield's rather simple basslines to keep John Strohm's firey guitar style in line. At times, Hatfield's breathy vocals and the band's full-steam-ahead approach sound so much like the Primitives or the Sugarcubes that it's positively scary. The lead-off cut, "I'm Not Your Mother," sets the tone for the entire album big drums, lumbering bass and overdriven guitar set to fast tempos with frequent change-ups. "I'm Not Your Mother" sets a verse that literally drips hooks up against a rave-up chorus: "You're a big guy But you're cut down to size When you're left all by yourself I'm not paid to babysit Don't ask me to help," Hatfield sings as she raids the melody refrigerator. "Train" and "Watch Me Now I'm Calling" find the Blakes in a decid edly AOR mood, turning up their guitars and turning down their tem pos. "Gimme Some Mirth" is the best example of pure Blake Baby hard rock, running full throttle but leaving no skidmarks. Lyrically, Hatfield makes things interesting, whether quoting Wimpy Charles Marshall and they want to make it big. The Connells' new album, One Simple Word, is definitely a pop record, but fortunately it's not a shallow, money-making spectacle. It manages to be an intelligent, thoughtful and musically stimulating record. But it won't take you back to the soothing intensity or rhythmic poise of previ ous Connells efforts. The disappointments come in a variety of stylistic areas. First of all, the Connells have stretched their di versity to new but less lively extremes. On Boylan Heights, aHammond organ added a placid, lulling effect, and a trumpet was used as a colorful the matic introduction. But these new anti-garage elements are no longer used sparingly. Many of these added "attractions" dominate the songs, of ten, though not always, drowning Mike ConnelPs standout guitar work a brave and rollicking jangle-derivative sound. On "Link," George Huntley plays a resoundingly hazy keyboard as his only background noise and sings a humble melody for all of about 70 seconds. Technically and creatively, there's nothing wrong with the song. HA ,,-,-.,,Jv,A..,.iK. Blake the "Popeye" hamburger guy ("I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a ham burger today" in TllTake Anything") or considering the environment ("A heavy metal rain upon your head A burning blast to bring you back from the dead" in "Sanctify"). Like their, poetical namesake, the Blakes make every word count. The only problem here is that the album lacks variety! For the most part, producer Gary Smith (Connells, Pix ies) fails to give the band any diver sity of sound. There are exceptions, though, the most noteworthy being "Girl in a Box" (you can guess what it's about). Darker Days gone? But like the 12th track, "Waiting My Turn," an acoustic number with Doug MacMillan on lead, it's just not stimulating. The song lacks the ever present enticing hooks and makes you wonder what's happened to the group's grit. As on Fun and Games, MacMillan shares the spotlight with George Huntley, while Mike Connell head lines the inside sleeve. Huntley's vo cal additions on Funand Games, songs like "Sal" and "Inside My Head," did nothing more than pay homage to early Beatles and Monkees tunes. This was a marked departure from the gritty, exhausting MacMillan-led "garage pop" inhaled by college kids in enor mous doses. This time, Huntley adds more grind to one of the album's high spots, "The Joke," which is driven by drummer Peele Wemberley and fea tures the rigorous guitar phrases of both Mike and Dave Connell. "Stone Cold Yesterday" is an at tractive opening anthem. The rous ing electric bop-pop of the melody emerges after quiet, crescendoesque origins, a style that emulates some of the band's previous battle-call an thems "Something to Say," "Scotty's Lament" and "Hat's Off." "Set the Stage" is like a follow-up to "Uninspired," a grueling, glowing tune that builds itself piece by piece. It's a rock ballad that moves with live feeling, something noticeably miss Babies Strohm takes the vocals in this tale of true love and sexual fetish, achieving more with subtlety and humor than anything Luther Campbell has ever done. Strohm offers the soon-to-be-classic portrait of American Gothic gone "Married ... With Children" "I hope I die in the nighttime With my TV on and a beer in my hand And you by my side." In short, with Sunburn, the Blake Babies ease the pain of the decline of American pop music. This is a band that seems ready to break into the mainstream. For a quick fix of melody, guitar firepower, or just plain fun, take your Blakes, baby. ing on the other tracks. As for MacMillan, he's still a standout vocalist. He expands his range as a pop singer, leaving the throes of Darker Days, but soars be yond the song's original construction, capturing his feverish live sound on record. But as the styles of One Simple Word change, MacMillan is forced to submit to hollow-sounding vibes that come across as more stale than the band may have wished. Listen to "Speak to Me" and "All Sinks In," and you'll find songs that have the feel of incomplete anthems, songs that just miss the pleasuredome but continue to stab at it. A more subtle approach to pop, something like earlier works "Fine Tuning" or "Home Today," would have fit more appropriately in their place. Many of these songs aren't dressed in typical Connells sound garments, but after getting used to the group's new pop experiments, the sound be gins to grow on you. Nevertheless, the catchy, ear-pulling appeal is miss ing, and the inconsistency between some of the tracks cause the album's downfall the need to use the fast forward and rewind buttons as much as the play. The Connells are still Triangle superstars and may make it as an in telligent, aspiring pop band. But as for their college appeal, the imagina tion is there, but the feeling is gone. MUSIC BRIEFS Dreams So Real Gloryline Arista O 12 . Leaving the whispering murk and modern texture of "Golden," which was featured on the 1986 moviesoundtrack, Athens, Ga.: InsideOut. , Dreams So Real pulled in hotter-than-hellfire reviews with the burning, passionate pop of Rough Night In Jericho. The les son to be learned on Gloryline, however, is that pop hooks can't burn by passion alone. Driven by dynamic rhythmic tension, electrifying choruses sown with firey harmonies and polished, biblical allusion-filled pop, the anthemic sound of Gloryline is not in itself a bad idea. But trying too hard to overwhelm doesn't work as well as one might think once you've hit the right chord to perk up the ears, you've got to do something to keep them peeled. Otherwise, the music loses its ef fectiveness. Go see them live it's much more memorable. Charles Marshall The Stone Roses One Love (12") Silvertone OOO 12 These guys have stirred up more early acclaim and hype than any group since Led Zeppelin or U2. The Roses follow admirably in the footsteps of earlier '80s British gi ants like the Smiths and the Cure, releasing new material rapidly enough to feed the hungry ears of the press and of fanatical fans. "One Love," the successor to "Fools Gold," keeps the" house-based groove intact, modernizing '70s disco beats and adding a linear melody, all the while wrapping vocals into the midst of a seven minute, post-modern, psychedelic warp a feat that has managed to mesmerize the alternative and dance circuits, as well as carve a sizeable swath through a host of Floyd and Zeppelin fans. The two b-sides include a shorter version of the title track and "Something's Burning." Look out for a new album. Charles Marshall mam" mis
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 1, 1990, edition 1
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