From gajarsky@pilot.njin.netMon Mar 6 19:40:03 1995 Date: Mon, 6 Mar 95 19:08:09 EST From: Bob Gajarsky To: cc: ; Subject: Consumable Online, 3/6 ====================================================[March 6, 1995]= __ | __ _ _ ___ | || ___ | __ __ (__ | | | \/ | ____) |___ || |___) |__ (__) | | ___) |___| | | | |___| |___) || |____ Editor: Bob Gajarsky Internet: gajarsky@pilot.njin.net Sr. Contributors: Jeremy Ashcroft, Martin Bate, Al Crawford, Dan Enright, Tim Kennedy, Reto Koradi, David Landgren, Tim Mohr, Joe Silva, John Walker Other Contributors: Kelley Crowley, Tim Hulsizer, Melissa Pellegrin, P. Nina Ramos, Michelle Richmond, Jamie Roberts, Linda Scott, Ali Sinclair, Jon Steltenpohl, Jorge Velez, Scott Williams Technical Staff: Chris Candreva, Dave Pirmann, Damir Tiljak, Jason Williams Address all comments, subscriptions, etc. to gajarsky@pilot.njin.net ================================================================== All articles in Consumable remain (C) copyright their author(s). Permission for re-publication in any form other than within this document must be obtained from the editor. ================================================================== .------------. | Contents |-. `------------' | `------------' REVIEW: Urban Dance Squad, _Persona Non Grata_ by Tim Mohr REVIEW: The Roots, _Do You Want More?!!!??!_ by Jorge Velez CONCERT REVIEW: The Rake's Progress by Bob Gajarsky REVIEW: Dodgy, "Making The Most Of" (2 CD Single) by Tim Kennedy REVIEW: The Nonce, _World Ultimate_ by Jamie Roberts REVIEW: The The, _Hanky Panky_ by Tim Kennedy REVIEW: Little Axe, _The Wolf That House Built_ by Jon Steltonpohl REVIEW: Grassy Knoll, _The Grassy Knoll_ by Jorge Velez CONCERT REVIEW: Sons of Freedom by John Walker CONCERT REVIEW: Mama Kettle by Marni Rosenblatt NEWS: Adam Ant, Helmet, Martin Page, Wax TOUR DATES: Grenoble Jazz Festival, Joe Jackson, Liz Phair, Robyn Hitchcock/Jill Sobule, Van Halen/Collective Soul The Readers Write Back! (Who Are The Sisters of Mercy?) Back Issues of Consumable --- REVIEW: Urban Dance Squad, _Persona Non Grata_ (Virgin) - Tim Mohr Amsterdam's Urban Dance Squad gained worldwide attention with the single "Deeper Shade of Soul" from their 1989 debut album, _Mental Floss For The Globe_. Despite a subsequently marginal response from U.S. record buyers, the band has continued to gain followers in Europe. Capitalizing on the European success of their second record, _Life'n Perspectives Of A Genuine Crossover_, Urban Dance Squad opened for U2 during 1993's summer-long Zooropa Tour. Their latest album could easily bring back American listeners with its intensity and directness. _Persona Non Grata_ was recorded in England and Philadelphia under the direction of Phil Nicolo and Stiff Johnson, best known for work of a similar bent with Cypress Hill and Fishbone. With the departure of DJ/scratcher DNA and the startlingly lean production, UDS sounds stripped down and tough. As early innovators of cross-over music, melding hard-core and funk, UDS is, at least in Europe, canonized alongside the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers as among the greatest influences on the contemporary cross-over boom. Coinciding with the massive European success of Body Count and Rage Against The Machine, Europe has churned out a steady stream of quality cross- over acts. Clawfinger (Sweden), Whale (Sweden), Mr. Ed Jumps the Gun (Germany), Gum (Germany), H-blockx (Germany), No One Is Innocent (France), Sensor (England), and others have made Europe the center of the genre. UDS's early work in the field gives cross-over a European legitimacy that is lacking from music that is perceived as more openly immitative, witness the dearth of successful European hip-hop acts. Still, UDS tips their hat to past American greats, acknowledging influences from both sides of the cross-over fence: nods to Henry Rollins and Suicidal Tendencies from hard-core, and numerous old-school rappers from the funk side. They also thank fellow cross-over innovators like Vernon Reid of Living Color, Ice-T, and the Beastie Boys. But UDS isn't quite that easy to categorize, as name-checks of Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr., and XTC make clear. _Persona Non Grata_ leans toward the hard-core side of UDS influences. Aside from the rappy delivery of leader rudeboy, overt musical references to hip-hop are few and far between. Minus the DJ, UDS sounds similar to Rage Against the Machine - no samples, prominent riffs, and fast, catchy, live bass. Opening the album is the terrific "demagogue." The song skates along on a skittish guitar/bass riff - definitely rocking but extremely tight, with jittery, staccato guitar flourishes in the tradition of great funky rhythm sections. "Good grief" and "no honestly!" continue, though with more sturdy metallic riffing. Rudeboy cuts across the beats, checking in and out, sometimes syncopating dancehall style. The lyrics are quite strong, an engaging lyrical foodfight, with pop references, political and emotional pleas, and sing-along lines tossed all over the place. Best of all, rudeboy avoids dipping to the creative lows of Body Count and many other cross-over acts: he manages to fill an album with decent lyrics and great songs instead of resorting to shouting "motherfucker" as some kind of macho badge of rebelliousness used to divert attention from musical shortcomings. The usual pitfall of cross-over albums is monotony. The Chili Peppers revert to weird joke songs and ballads; Body Count just gets boring. But just as _Persona Non Grata_ reaches some threshold UDS deftly shifts gears - without relying on annoying novelties. The fourth song, "Alienated," is a slow, grinding psycho-blues workout riding a fat, fuzzed bass and guitars that are nearly indie-jangly. The next tune, "Candy Strip Exp," alternates fast verses with a molasses-chorus backed by slide guitar. The record continues to invent new ways to express the same UDS style. Completely bare production allows the musicians to come right into your room - and they hold your attention once there. Songs evoke brief images of Black Sabbath, some of Eddie Van Halen's crazier early licks, firehose, and Jimi Hendrix while rudeboy skats and rants and raps and infuses the whole band with manic energy - but not generic anger or bothersome crotch-grabbing. If you bought _Mental Floss_ relisten to "Fast Lane" and "Say a Little Prayer For My Demo" to get a rough idea how _Persona Non Grata_ sounds. If not, just picture a cross-over band that brings everything together in each track, and doesn't cause boredom after a few minutes. UDS seamlessly incorporates various tastes and influences on every song - but does so with nothing more than musical ingenuity and without any studio tricks. Like Rage Against The Machine, Urban Dance Squad can afford to dispense with elaborate production and varied instrumentation because of the freshness and originality they bring to their instruments and songs from the start. --- REVIEW: The Roots, _Do You Want More?!!!??!_ (DGC) - Jorge Velez By now you've probably heard of The Roots, Philadelphia's (and,to some, God's) latest gift to hip hop. They've been doing their collective thing for loyal area fans since roughly 1990, acquiring a rep for their live shows that amazes anyone used to the stale DAT-backed stage performances of most popular rappers. It is just this "collective thing" which places The Roots above and far, far beyond much of recent hip hop. The core of The Roots is comprised of Malik B, Black Thought and B.R.O.T.H.E.R.?, assisted by a whole mess of collaborators on the instrumental tip: everyone from saxman Steve Coleman (of Five Elements fame) to Cassandra Wilson and the outrageous Rahzel the Godfather of Noyze on various human beatbox vocal effects. All instrumentation is live (i.e. no sampling or turntables), which helps make _Do You Want More?!!!??!_ an often mindblowing listening experience. All the grooves are "live", all sound effects are produced by non-electronic means. Once the listener catches on to this (and believe me, it took me a few listens to remind myself of the fact), the ride is a constant pleasure. On tracks like "Mellow My Man", "Proceed" and "Datskat", Malik B and Black Thought flow abstractly over fly grooves rife with electric piano, horns, bass and drums. The rhyming is as accomplished as the musicianship, both playing off each other in true jazz and freestyle improvisational style. This is just the direction hinted at in, say, A Tribe Called Quest's "Low End Theory": a fusion of jazz and hip hop into a complementary musical entity. Whether it's picked up and approached as skillfully as The Roots have done on this debut (U.S.) album ( an earlier overseas-only album exists ) remains to be seen. Regardless, if ONE hip hop purchase is made in your fiscal year, make it this recording. You will be very happy as a result, I assure you. --- CONCERT REVIEW: The Rake's Progress, New York City, Feb. 22, 1995 - Bob Gajarsky America needs a new band to provide real rock and roll. Say hello to The Rake's Progress. Gregg, Stuart, Peter, Bob and Tim took the hometown New York crowd of several hundred screaming fans through 25 nearly all original selections. Even the cover of the Clash's "Magnificent Seven", which probably went unrecognized by most of the audience, had everyone dancing and hollering for more. The could-be fraternity theme song, "Annie Says She Can't", kept the crowd moving and jumping, while the better known tracks off their independent six song E.P. (_Cheese Food Prostitute_, on hifi Records) elicited strong crowd response. It's unusual to see a local band generate this amount of electricity with its only commercial product being on a small independent label, but The Rake's Progress isn't an ordinary band. Their first full length work will be release on the new Herb Alpert/Jerry Moss collaboration label, AlMo Records, in late May or early June. We'll keep you updated on one of the most refreshing new bands around. --- REVIEW: Dodgy, "Making The Most Of" (2 part UK single) - Tim Kennedy Dodgy's latest UK single release is a twin pack CD which, if one invests in both parts, amounts to a mini-album's worth of material. Apart from a revamped and translated version of the song "Making The Most Of", from the album _Homegrown_, there are five tracks from a recording session at a farm in Ludlow, near the English/Welsh border. The sleeve art features the fab three doing miraculous things with loaves and fishes. "Making The Most Of" makes use of a piano/keyboard intro rather than the headlong guitar that starts the album version. There is also a different guitar part, which includes some Clash-esque (!) riffing. The French version "Faisons au mieux" is identical except for the words. This is an impossibly good pop song and deserves to be a hit. The other - Ludlow Sessions - tracks are all extremely varied and experimental. "Watch Out Watcha Doin'" has a Happy-Mondaysish shuffling beat and guitars tune. The vocals similarly groove along. It has the feel of "Step On" all about it. "This Is Ours" is a slow-paced acoustic number reminiscent of the Stones in one of their more reflective, country moods, certainly a little lighter in feel than "Wild Horses" but more contemplative than "Girl With The Faraway Eyes". "Get Off Your High Horse" is a psychedelic funk-rock beast of cosmological proportions and one of the best things Dodgy have ever done. Is the lyric an anti-heroin diatribe? Who knows? It rages from 60s psychedelic soul into Hendrix/Zeppelinesque heavyiness and back. Taken with the Hendrixoid track on the (UK) Vox magazine March issue free cassette "Sylvia's Bedroom", indications are that if they choose to Dodgy can rock with a vengeance. It's not all sweet pure pop harmonies from these chaps. "Spent All My Time Running" has a bit of the late sixties Stones about it, from the Jaggeresque vocal through to the Ian Stewart piano style. There's a nice groove to it though it takes a while to gather a head of steam. They don't usually borrow from the Stones at all so this CD single pack is a bit of a revelation for Dodgy watchers. "All The Time In The World" begins acoustically, then a bizzare piano twiddley bit buggers it up a bit. The song regains composure and a there's a guitar solo. The vocal isn't Nigel, and it's rather shaky. This is messing round really no doubt under the influence of those illicit herbal tobaccos Dodgy have been promoting... All in all, this is an interesting pack and certainly intrigues the listener. Dodgy appear to have more styles than your favorite clothing store and are proficient at them all. --- REVIEW: The Nonce, _World Ultimate_ (American/Wild West) - Jamie Roberts Have you heard any seemingly wholesome rappers lately? What a concept! Not too many people coming correct over the airwaves, shouting out to "...grandma, up in the sky...". Nouka Base and Yusef Afloat make up this new West Coast Hip-Hop duo, The Nonce. Their sound is real, organic, and wholly West Coast/Old School. Their Old School stylizing in beats and rhymes creates a veritable Hip Hop time warp! The Nonce sound brings back shades of early Tribe Called Quest (with the jazz infusion), or for more recent reference... possibly a Warren G. persona with a sound akin to their "True School" contemporaries - The Pharcyde. "Mix Tapes", the first single off _World Ultimate_ peaked at number 6 on the Gavin Rap chart. Other tracks like "J to the I" and "Keep It On" should also find their way up the charts. For a blast from Hip Hop's past that is telling of Hip Hop's future, check this CD out. With its smooth, good-boy-rapper attitude, it should be the block party favorite for some time to come. --- REVIEW: The The, _Hanky Panky_ (550 Music) - Tim Kennedy Matt Johnson of The The has carved his niche in the world of contemporary music by doing repetitive, hypnotic lush rythmic soundscapes and crooning in his Morrisonian way (or is that Lindsey Buckingham?) over the top. He has decided to make a tribute to an early influence, Hank Williams, the bloke who was copying the blues from black artists years before Elvis and his chums copied their music from black blues artists. In fact if you really want to hear great rock music of that era, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson or many other bluesmen of the 20s-40s can give a far better account of their art than Hank did. Nevertheless he's not so bad, as country and western music was a joke before he came along; idiots in cowboy outfits running through maudlin ditties about four legged friends. Hank Williams gave country music a soul by imparting what he'd learned of the blues to it. Williams' tunes are significantly edited on _Hanky Panky_ in order for Matt's limited vocal range to be able to cope. The emphasis is thus laid on the lyrics. Some of the bluesier covers are among the better tracks of the album. "Honky Tonkin'" has a fine blues riff right through, which saves the song despite its other drawbacks. "Weary Blues From Waitin'" shows that Matt is not incapable of giving some emotion to a vocal performance and displays a Robert Johnsonesque solo acoustic acompaniment. "Your Cheatin' Heart" has a blues motif which again rescues an otherwise drab treatment of the standard. On the other hand, DC Collard's wheezy church organ puts in several annoying appearances. "Six More Miles", only a short piece, has just this as backing and "If You'll Be A Baby To Me" and "I Can't Escape From You" use it too. All these songs are marked by a curiously detached lounge lizard vocal performance. Why Matt feels these downhome songs need a Bryan Ferry delivery is anyone's guess. Another disconcerting feature of this group of tracks is the odd backing singing which is akin to a schoolchild singing along in harmony, set far back in the mix. Other of the songs here more than redeem the Hank project. "I'm A Long Gone Daddy" is a menacing rock song and this time Matt's voice gives vent to the ferocity implicit within the words, which are a denial of love. Also sinister is "I Saw The Light" which recalls "I Found Out" from John Lennon's _Plastic Ono Band_ album. This is a fine version and the production on the vocal intensifies the mood. The close of the song has echoes of late sixties garage psychedelia. The Phil Spector production on that 1970 Lennon album is mirrored in the echoey, often slightly distorted vocal on much of _Hanky Panky_. Possibly the best song on the album is "I Can't Get You Off My Mind", which has a varied structure and lush sad instrumentation complete with a full band backing Matt's almost moving singing. Too often though his singing is oddly uncommitted and the stripped- down backing serves merely to underline the incongruity of the voice and the rustic lyrical content. The way Johnson delivers "A Tear In My Beer" is so sober as to almost render it satire. "If You'll Be A Baby To Me" has a similar quality about it. If Johnson hadn't announced his devotion to Hank so loudly you might begin to wonder about his intentions. To the neutral ear this is a reasonable modern blues/rock album with some echoes of Lennon in it. While the languid style of some of the singing lays a possible charge of dilettantism at Matt's door, there are enough songs here rendered with true feeling to make this a good record. The Ferryesque style of some of the singing and the church organ may not be to some people's taste, but it is a worthy effort overall. --- REVIEW: Little Axe, _The Wolf That House Built_ (OKeh/Epic) - Jon Steltenpohl Ask someone to describe a song that features some blues samples and a few funky beats, and their answer will certainly be the song "Loser" by Beck. It seems that while samplers have plundered the precious ores of funk, jazz and rock, they seem to have forgotten about blues music. And, unfortunately, Beck's use of a blues riff was more novelty than substance. Luckily, justice has been served. Little Axe chops a niche for blues music in the world of beat driven music. Little Axe's first album, _The Wolf That House Built_, takes the passion and power of the blues and weaves them into an incredible fabric of funky, ambient rhythms. A listen to _The Wolf That House Built_ is a dream journey through the soul of a blues singer. When you lay back and open your ears to Little Axe, you find yourself guided on a spiritual trip from Robert Johnson's crossroads to the animal behind Howlin' Wolf. Each new song slips into your consciousness and reveals the struggle between right and wrong, sinner and saved. _The Wolf That House Built_ is a mind-expanding collection of tracks that is powerful enough to define a new genre: ambient blues music. It comes as no surprise that such an incredible work has been created by musicians and producers who have already defined some of today's most popular music. Little Axe is the creation of Skip MacDonald and Adrian Sherwood along with Doug Wimbish (bass) and Keith Le Blanc (drums). MacDonald, Wimbish, and Le Blanc were the core of the house band for the Sugarhill Records label. They added the groove to the early records of such classic rap acts as The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. After leaving Sugarhill, the three teamed up with English producer Adrian Sherwood. Sherwood's name is found as the production or re-mix credit on an amazing number of industrial and techno albums. Together, these four have been behind the sound of groups on Sherwood's On- U label such as Tackhead and Dub Syndicate. Skip MacDonald and Adrian Sherwood started Little Axe as a side project after listening to the blues collection of Tackhead vocalist Bernard Fowler. They decided that they would add the best of MacDonald's blues to the best of Sherwood's dub. And, the result is _The Wolf That House Built_. MacDonald's brand of blues focuses on the singer. The lyrics are the pleas of a bluesman who has been turned away from the gates of heaven but is given a second chance. The lyrics to "Hear My Cry" are simply 'I love the Lord, he heard my cry. Lord Lord Lord' repeated over and over again. The influence of gospel music is strong in MacDonald's work, but his true inspiration is clearly from the early blues artists. Sherwood contributes the perfect setting for MacDonald's pleading lyrics and pure blues. The rhythms and sounds he creates swirl and sooth much like the patterns of a kaleidoscope. And once he lulls you into a trance, the howl of a bluesman or the wail of a gospel singer is all Sherwood needs to bring you back to reality. Sherwood samples old blues and gospel tracks with uncanny skill. The mix is so cohesive that each element sounds as if it had never been sampled. In fact, it's hard to tell what music has been added by MacDonald, Wimbish, and Le Blanc. But no matter who did what, the result is still the same. _The Wolf That House Built_ redefines blues music for the nineties. With the guitars and voices dubbed into a funky groove, the raw emotion of the blues is stronger than ever. Little Axe will please both blues fans and dub fans, and the collections of both groups of fans would be incomplete without a copy of _The Wolf That House Built_. --- REVIEW: The Grassy Knoll, _The Grassy Knoll_ (Nettwerk) - Jorge Velez This cooperative venture hailing out of the San Francisco area cites as its influences the likes of Ornette Coleman and BITCHES BREW - era Miles Davis, among others. What is really being pursued here is the kind of mix of the traditional and the hi-tech that people like Bill Laswell do so well. There's tablas, saxaphones, trumpet, samplers, all doing their thing to particularly good effect. Though it's not anything like, say, a Material album, The Grassy Knoll's often achieves the sort of perfect union that one hopes will occur ( but rarely happens ) when you mix jazz stylings with, say, "alternative" or hip hop. Tracks like "March Eighteenth" and "Conversations With Julian Dexter" feature well done free sax over the kind of rhythm track you might expect to find on a Meat Beat Manifesto record. Believe it or not, it actually comes off. The influence of Miles Davis c. Bitches Brew/On The Corner/Jack Johnson is found mostly in the clarinet and trumpet playing on tracks like "Less Than One", where the rhythm loops away slowly as the two aforementioned instruments unwind and swing through the funky crags. The dark energy of Miles early '70's work is seriously evoked here, and if you're, like me, a fan of the sound I'm talking about, this is something to listen to. The one problem with The Grassy Knoll is the various permutations of the played-out-to-death "Funky Drummer" drum pattern that occur throughout this and many other recordings by non-hip hop musicians who cite said music as an influence. Guys (and ladies): "Funky Drummer" DOES NOT equal hip hop! Whenever the FD, or a version, pops up more than once on any recording, I think: "laziness". For a project that deals so openly with exploration and -- ahem -- fusion, I find this to be The Grassy Knoll's only drawback. Besides that, it's well worth checking out. --- CONCERT REVIEW: The Return of Sons of Freedom - by John Walker The magic of rock and roll usually strikes in some out-of-the-way place. It's just too hard to access the transcendental part of the self when you're packed into a football arena with 70,000 Stones fans, most of them there just to say they were there, to take part in some kind of "history" whose significance they would be hard-pressed to explain. But, in a hot, sweaty club, on any given evening, the magic can still be unleashed full-force, and at such times Lou Reed's line about someone "whose life was saved by rock and roll," far more than just a pseudo-religious image, becomes Truth. I once participated in such a neo-pagan event with a band called Sons of Freedom, also known as Canada's Greatest Rock Band. Admittedly, this title could be misleading, as many of the most well-known "rock" bands (we're not talking Young or Cohen here) my dear old country (Canada) produces are utter shite: Barenaked Ladies, anyone? Cowboy Junkies? Well, The Guess Who were good, anyway. So maybe we should dispense with national boundaries altogether and just say that SOF are one of the greatest rock bands in the world. With the appearance of their eponymous debut in 1988, featuring jagged hard-rock classics like "Alice Henderson," "Mona Lisa" and the raging neo-punk single "The Criminal," all of which pulsated with an outsider's fury, it was immediately evident that this was not the latest hyped-up example of musical mediocrity emanating from the Great White North, but a band capable of walking with giants. Fast forward to late summer, 1992. Just in the door after a 3 hour road trip, I get an excited call from a fellow SOF devotee telling me that "The Sons are playing tonight in Guelph!" The bar, a joint called The Trasheteria, situated in this pleasant little Southern Ontario town. We'd seen SOF before, as they flogged their second album, the wholly inspired _Gump_, in bar after bar on the Toronto to Windsor rock circuit. They were always great. Artistically, _Gump_ was and is the 90s bastard offspring of the unholy triumvirate of decadent post-60s rock: Bowie/Iggy/Reed, who joint contributions during that time have never been equaled. SOF's singer, James Jerome Kingston, aka Jim Newton (or JJK, as we call him), combines the surly vocal snarl of the Pop, the gutter-dandy glam of 70's Bowie, and the squalid lyrical vision of vintage Reed. The band, three guys named Don (Harrison-guitar; Binns,bass; Short, drums) play as if melded into a singular psychic space, a seismic hard-rock rhythm machine dispensing with any superfluous musical elements which would only serve to gum up the works. As they took the stage, the band looked halfways between pissed and pissed off, and JJK especially looked like he was staring into some kind of drug-induced abyss, focusing on something far beyond the confines of the steamy club. Were SOF ticked at having to play such venues when they'd just made a sophomore album--after a few years of management and record company hassles that virtually paralyzed them--that topped 99% of the competition? Couldn't blame them. Had they been on the road too long? Probably. But whatever was providing the Muse that evening, the ensuing concert's intensity level reached a peak that happens on very rare occasions (an evening with The Patti Smith Group at a bar in Ann Arbor, Michigan comes to mind). From the time that JJK snarled "Baby don't go rattling my monkey cage" from _Gump_'s sizzling "You're No Good" into the mike and the band fairly well exploded into the pounding riff that propels the song, you felt like the top of you skull was being shorn off from sheer passion, torment, and rage emanating from the band. A few songs into the set, members of the stunned crowd, packed into the bar like proverbial sardines, began exchanging knowing glances, as if we in realization that we were all participating in some kind of semi-secret tribal rite, with SOF as the shamanistic intermediaries between us and some unknown but beckoning realm. The band kept digging deeper into meat of the tunes, JJK pouring out tales of earth-bound debauchery and despair tempered by an ever-present search for spiritual transcendence: "Given a chance I'd crawl back up the womb/I can't stand the sight of another day/There's no relief in all the drugs I take/So just gimme a reason I should stay" (from "Jesus and Jim"). You kept expecting a let-up at some point in the show, a break in the stream of intensity surging from the stage, but this never happened. Everything eventually became a blur within the continuous maelstrom of monster rhythm. Finally there were encores: still no let-up. Then they were gone. Members of the crowd staggered from the place in a confused, but reverent hush, stunned by the fact that this hadn't been another mere night out at the local "alternative" club. Rock and roll, declared dead so often by jaded cultural observers, was "born again" this night at the Trasheteria. As of this writing, the Sons of Freedom are getting set for a return, after taking a hiatus for a couple of years due to more bad record company deals and frayed nerves. A new album, _Tex_, will accompany the tour--singer Jim Newton describes it as "a kinda bastard son" of the first two albums. "Some songs sit in a "son of _Gump_ spaced-out powergroove, whereas a couple others are nasty little brash punk assholes." Green Day and Offspring, look out!. "We've been enjoying playing the new songs live," adds JJK. With their current cultural influences ranging from William S. Burroughs to Charles Bukowski to John Coltrane, Newton and SOF are sure to provide many more nights of that elusive rock magic on the upcoming tour--I, for one, can hardly wait. --- CONCERT REVIEW: Mama Kettle (Deko) - Marni Rosenblatt As we sat in interview-mode at their Mercury Lounge show soundcheck I began to wonder if the profuse usage of the word "groove" by Mama Kettle's Steven Broderick had any place in what I would write about them. After the show, it all came together. "Groove" and the "integrity of the song" took on new meaning on this freezing Wednesday night. They might be compared to The Black Crowes on first listen; maybe they *are* kind of like The Red Hot Chili Peppers on stage. But upon closer inspection, Alan Stuart, Jordan West, Michael Felix, Marc Meisel and Steven Broderick take influence from these bands (and,less obviously, everything else from the Jackson 5 to Black Sabbath) but bring something unique to their surging, funky meld of musical styles. Mama Kettle's angle is their obvious passion for their music. About 10 months ago, they shook off their day-jobs and dedicated themselves to creating and developing their genre-busting rock-funk-soul music. The band now makes business of travelling the Northeast college circuit to get their music to the people. On this once a month trip to the city, they played an early show to a riveted industry audience at the Mercury Lounge. The small venue could barely contain the crowded party atmosphere. Their translation to performance shed new light and new energy on the songs from their debut CD, _Mama Kettle and the Exploited Freaks Travelling Sideshow Band_. Alan Stuart's music and Steven Broderick's lyrics with collaborative adjustment by Meisel, West and Felix comprise a "groove" that commands attention. Songs like "(Thank God We're) Not The Next Band" and "Love Is Wasted On Me" moved the crowd with the most memorable of melodic hooks. If only passion for your art and undeniable talent made one a success...groove is a really important lesson to learn, and with Mama Kettle on stage, school is most certainly in. --- NEWS: Adam Ant will be appearing at the Virgin Megastore in Hollywood, California on March 7 to help promote his upcoming release on Capitol Records, _Wonderful_. Helmet and Wax have both agreed to perform at BoardAid at Los Angeles' Palladium on March 12 along with an assortment of other groups. For further information on this concert, check the February 20 issue of Consumable. Martin Page will be performing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on March 8. His album, _In The House of Stone and Light_, and its title track are both spiralling up the charts. In all likelihood, that song will be played on the show. --- TOUR DATES: The 23rd edition of France's Grenoble Jazz Festival is set to kick off on March 14 arun until the 25of the same month. Big name jazz artists are interspersed wiindependents aunknowns on the streets of the town. Some of the bigger name artists are listed below for this jazz extravaganza. March 14 R. Galliano, D. Humair, J.F. Jenny-Clark, M. Azzola March 15 Martial Solal, Didier Lockwood March 16 Italian Instabile Orchestra March 17 Calvin Russell, Joe-Louis Walker March 17 Hadra March 18 Andre Ceccarell Trio "Jazz around the Beatles" March 18 La Velle March 20 Henri Texier "Azur" Quartet March 21 Joe Zawinul "Special Trio" March 22 James Blood Ulmer Blues Experience March 23 McCoy Tyner, Bobby Hutcherson March 24 H. Merrill, G. Peacock, R. Hanna and T. Clarke March 25 Ray Barretto Sextet + "Steel Brass" Joe Jackson is still out on tour. Canadian dates are set as follows: April 18 Montreal, St. Denis Theater April 19 Toronto, Massey Hall April 21 Winnipeg, Walker Theater April 23 Calgary, Jack Singer Hall April 25 Vancouver, Orpheum Theater Liz Phair is out on tour supporting her _Whip Smart_ album. Here are some more dates. April 7 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre April 8 Portland, OR Aladdin Theatre April 9 San Francisco, CA Warfield Theater April 11 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theater April 13 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre April 21 Milwaukee, WI Shank Hall April 24 New York, NY Town Hall April 28 Atlanta, GA Center Stage Robyn Hitchcock will be out on tour, with opening act Jill Sobule, at the following locations: March 25 Philadelphia, PA Tin Angel March 28 Washington, DC 9:30 Club March 29 Washington, DC 9:30 Club March 30 New York, NY Bottom Line March 31 New York, NY Bottom Line April 4 Piermont, NY The Turning Point April 5 New Haven, CT Toad's Place April 6 Providence, RI Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel April 7 Boston, MA Tt The Bears April 8 Boston, MA Tt The Bears April 9 Amherst, MA Amherst College April 11 Burlington, VT Toast April 13 Cleveland, OH Tba April 14 Ann Arbor, MI The Ark April 15 Chicago, IL Park West Van Halen and opening act Collective Soul have taken to the road. Here's their tour dates: March 11 Pensacola, FL Civic Center March 12 Jacksonville, FL Coliseum March 14 St. Petersburg, FL Suncoast Dome March 17 Miami, FL Arena March 18 Orlando, FL Arena March 20 Tupelo, MS Coliseum March 21 New Orleans, LA Uno Center March 24 Dallas, TX Reunion Arena March 25 San Antonio, TX Civic Center March 26 Houston, TX Summit March 28 El Paso, TX Special Events Buliding March 29 Albuquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum March 31 Las Vegas, NV Thomas & Mack April 1 Phoenix, AZ America West April 2 San Diego, CA Sports Arena April 4 Los Angeles, CA Forum April 7 Oakland, CA Coliseum April 8 San Jose, CA Arena April 9 Sacramento, CA Arco Arena --- THE READERS WRITE BACK (Sisters of Mercy) Q: One of my favorite bands is the Sisters of Mercy. Unfortunately, I can get very little information about the band. Can anyone give me more information about their current status? Thank you in advance. - Peter K., Saint George, Romania Here's our answers to your question. For a brief answer? David Landgren takes over: Eldritch and the vampy woman in the clips split from the rest of the band. The rest of the band were a bit annoyed at this, and so continued to keep the spirit of the band going, renaming it The Sisterhood. This pissed of Eldritch mightily, and so he promptly sued them. And, Ali Sinclair will take you deeper into that venture known as the Sisters of Mercy. Before I tell you what I know about the band, I feel I must warn you that by adding the Sisters to your music collection, you may well be installing a lethal weapon in your home: a repellent guaranteed to empty a room in less than the time it takes a dischord to fade from your ears: a powerful-in-the extreme emotional depth-charge, which can be used like a cattle-prod to disperse unwanted guests, or a land-mine to shatter the smooth peace of an afternoon with a loved one... The band was formed in Leeds, England, in 1980, by Andrew Eldritch and Gary Marx. They also created the Merciful Release record label in order to issue their first record, "The Damage Done/Watch/Home of the Hitmen". If you have a copy of this disk, be sure to mention it in your last will and testament, together with Aunt Peggy's diamonds and your Rolls-Royce. It's probably worth more than both. Andrew Eldritch (whose real name is Taylor) is the driving force behind, and vocally in front of, the band. On stage, he hides in black: sunshades and shadows, smoke and cynicism. In song, his powerful, self-deprecating lyrics bite through the dark, throbbing guitar and drums. "Get real - get another / I don't exist when you don't see me..." ("When you don't see me", Vision Thing, 1990) It's also some of the best dance music I know! The Sisters' line-up has changed, rearranged, fought and harmonized over the years - but Eldritch's vocal style, the lyrics and the drums remain strong anchors in a turbulent sea. Notably, there was a five-year gap between 1985 and 1990 when the band as the Sisters of Mercy did not perform live: despite this absence from the "live" scene, the band's popularity continued to grow, fed not only by powerful recordings such as "Floodland", but also fuelled by stories of Eldritch's 'unusual' lifestyle and rumours from Hamburg... "Is Eldritch Still Alive???" Since 1990, the Sisters of Mercy have played throughout Europe and the USA; the line-up has changed, and changed yet again - and Eldritch has recorded a new version of "Temple Of Love" (original single released October 1983) - this time with the Yemenite vocalist Ofra Haza. The music and lyrics have changed, too, by growing, flowing, maturing. But still they have big teeth...and you can still feel the hunger. Gather together several of your nearest-and-dearest. Press the PLAY button - light the blue touchpaper, stand back and enjoy the show. The results may surprise you. You may see friends turn to strangers and strangers to friends. Smiles may crack into frowns. People may yell and protest. And tears may be shed. But remember. Whatever happens, it's all worthwhile... More information: WorldWideWeb home page: http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Sisters.Of.Mercy/ This home page is excellent - includes a complete discography with samples, lyrics and tabs, a collection of interviews and reviews, the Sisters Of Mercy FAQ (frequently asked questions) - everything you ever wanted to know! The home page is maintained by Ian Grimstead. Mailing list: dominion@ohm.york.ac.uk (send a 'subscribe' message to dominion-request@ohm.york.ac.uk) Major recordings: First And Last And Always (1985) Floodland (1987) Vision Thing (1990) Some Girls Wander By Mistake (1992) A Slight Case Of Overbombing (1993) (compilation) Information service: The Reptile House Ltd., P.O. Box HP29, Leeds LS6 1LS, West Yorkshire, England --- To get back issues of Consumable, check out: FTP: eetsg22.bd.psu.edu in the directory /pub/Consumable ftp.etext.org in the directory /pub/Zines/Consumable Gopher: diana.zems.etf.hr Engleski Jezik/Music/Consumable or Hrvastki Jezik/Glazbena Rubrika/Consumable (URL) gopher://diana.zems.etf.hr:70/11/eng/Music/Consumable http://www.westnet.com/consumable/Consumable.html (WWW) http://www.westnet.com (Delphi) Music Fandom forum; GO ENT MUSIC Web access contributed by WestNet Internet Services (westnet.com), serving Westchester County, NY. Address any written correspondence to Bob Gajarsky, Consumable Online, 409 Washington St. #294, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030 ===