SOUND CHECK : ROCK.Cake/``Fashion Nugget'' Out of left field comes Cake, a quirky Sacramento five-piece band currently zipping up the albums chart on the strength of its mega-catchy radio hit, ``The Distance,'' a racetrack scenario employing an eerie keyboard line borrowed from Snoop Doggy Dogg. ``Fashion Nugget'' (Capricorn/Mercury), the band's self-produced second album, combines an interesting array of sounds, moods and grooves, sometimes enhanced by percussionist Vincent di Fiore's spectacularly cheesy cheesy (che´ze) caseous. trumpet. Cake brings to mind a meeting of 311 and Soul Coughing Soul Coughing was a New York-based alternative rock band active in the 1990s. They found only modest mainstream success, but had a devoted following and largely positive responses from critics; Steve Huey describes them as "one of the most unique cult bands of the '90s ... , without the former act's bombast. The quintet's goofy sensibility is further illustrated by its choice of covers: the '70s disco hit ``I Will Survive,'' the standard ``Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps'' and Willie Nelson's ``Sad Songs and Waltzes.'' Three Stars SOURCE: - Fred Shuster Merril Bainbridge/``The Garden'' If cute were fatal, Australian folk-pop singer Merril Bainbridge would be labeled a lethal weapon. It's not just her singsong sing·song n. 1. Verse characterized by mechanical regularity of rhythm and rhyme. 2. A monotonously rising and falling inflection of the voice. adj. Monotonous in vocal inflection or rhythm. little-girl voice or the bells softly tinkling tin·kle v. tin·kled, tin·kling, tin·kles v.intr. 1. To make light metallic sounds, as those of a small bell. 2. Informal To urinate. v.tr. 1. in the background. There's also the matter of lyrics. Typical lines: ``Little flower The phrase "Little Flower" can refer to: People
Still, if you're fond of Bainbridge's sweetly sexy top-20 smash, ``Mouth,'' you'll smile that silly smile at her warmly inviting debut disc, ``The Garden'' (Universal). Best tracks include ``Garden in My Room,'' ``Julie'' and an imaginative acoustic reading of the Pet Shop Boys' ``Being Boring.'' Three Stars SOURCE: - Fred Shuster Various/``The Rolling Stones Rolling Stones, English rock music group that rose to prominence in the mid-1960s and continues to exert great influence. Members have included singer Mick Jagger (Michael Phillip Jagger), 1943–; guitarists Brian Jones Rock and Roll Circus'' Originally intended as a BBC-TV variety special in 1968, the Rolling Stones' famous gathering of friends such as the Who, Eric Clapton and John Lennon Noun 1. John Lennon - English rock star and guitarist and songwriter who with Paul McCartney wrote most of the music for the Beatles (1940-1980) Lennon was never broadcast and the music unreleased until now. No great loss. More than half the 14 musical tracks on ``The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus'' (Abkco) are unlistenable un·lis·ten·a·ble adj. Being such that listening with comfort or pleasure is impossible: an unlistenable operatic solo; an unlistenable diatribe. , starting off on one leg with the insufferable Jethro Tull Jethro Tull can refer to:
After you've swallowed that, there's 4-1/2 minutes of Yoko Ono sounding like a cageful of anxious hamsters to look forward to. The raison d'etre for this tepid album are the live Stones tracks - ``Jumping Jack Flash,'' ``Sympathy for the Devil'' and four other tunes from the ``Let It Bleed''/``Beggar's Banquet'' era. Nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. One Star SOURCE: - Fred Shuster Lemonheads/``Car Button Cloth'' Evan Dando's Lemonheads practically defined alterna-rock in the days before Nirvana with a big, fat guitar sound and a nice line in pop hooks. After a three-year break and the addition of new members, the trio has surfaced with a warm, radio-friendly collection that never strays far from a winning formula. No matter how far off the deep end Dando might have dived over the past few years, ``Car Button Cloth'' (Tag/Atlantic) shows his quality control remains rigid. Memorable songs include ``It's All True,'' ``The Outdoor Type'' and ``If I Could Talk I'd Tell You.'' Three Stars SOURCE: - Fred Shuster Pop Chris Isaak/``Baja Sessions'' There is no one around today besides Isaak who could sing the Roy Orbison classic ``Only the Lonely'' and get away with it. Yet Isaak pulls it off with aplomb a·plomb n. Self-confident assurance; poise. See Synonyms at confidence. [French, from Old French a plomb, perpendicularly : a, according to (from Latin ad-; see - though with a south-of-the-border lilt - on his latest album, ``Baja Sessions'' (Reprise re·prise n. 1. Music a. A repetition of a phrase or verse. b. A return to an original theme. 2. A recurrence or resumption of an action. tr.v. ). He takes few other chances on the rest of this Latin-influenced collection, which nearly falls into the category of kitsch with its remakes of ``Yellow Bird'' and ``Sweet Leilani.'' But Isaak's don't-take-this-too-seriously-folks persona manages to rescue the disc, keeping it innocently enjoyable, especially for his fans. Some albums are meant to bang your head to; this one is meant to sway to. Three Stars SOURCE: - Rob Lowman Paula Cole/``This Fire'' This is the sound of a woman feeling the exhilaration that comes from being liberated and then yelling too loud about it. For ``This Fire'' (Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) .), Cole seems to have shed most of the vulnerabilities that marked the best material from 1995's ``Harbinger,'' in which she brought new emotional weight to the pain, angst and loneliness of growing up female in a demanding America. This time out, she's still bitter, but tougher and more direct. The disk opens with a tease and, it seems, a kind of dig at that first album's sentimentality. ``I left Bethlehem. I feel free. I left the girl I was supposed to be,'' seems a reference to her wonderful coming-of-age song, ``Bethlehem.'' In a precursor of what's to come, Cole's impressive vocals slowly build ``Tiger'' from a subtle pop song into a heavy rant, with plenty of techno pop, art-noise and lots of drums. She almost takes it too far, but the ending - her opening vocals played in reverse - seems to save it from getting too heavy. Still, there's a lot of overkill overkill Vox populi An excess of anything here as if Cole, who produced it herself, had a particular vision and tried too hard to get there. She seems to have wanted to avoid the sweet sensibilities that made her so compelling in the first place. This is admirable and even musically interesting, but in the end the songs that work best are the ones where she admits to her gentler side, like ``Me'' and ``I Don't Want to Wait.'' Two Stars SOURCE: - Elizabeth M. Cosin The Borrowers/``The Borrowers'' The inspired ``Mercy Bound,'' a kind of driving, Dylanesque folk-pop tune, makes great use of Mark Addison's talents as singer and main songwriter of this L.A.-formed foursome. It's also a brilliant song on a record full of pretty good ones. The strongest material on ``The Borrowers'' (Guardian) - the single, ``Beautiful Struggle,'' ``Broadway Mary'' and ``Uncertain Terms'' - is reminiscent of the Counting Crows or Gin Blossoms, but this multitalented band seems more interested in trying different things. ``Ophelia'' has a kind of funk r&b thing working in the background (and a cool jazzy jazz·y adj. jazz·i·er, jazz·i·est 1. Resembling jazz in form or nature; rhythmical. 2. Slang Showy; flashy: a jazzy car. saxophone solo in the middle); ``Over It'' has alternative written all over it. The players here are solid and make the most of their considerable individual talents on everything from the pump organ to the tabla tabla Pair of small drums, the principal percussion in Hindustani music of northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The higher-pitched daya, played with the right hand, is a roughly cylindrical one-skinned drum, usually wooden, normally tuned to the raga's tonic. , a percussion instrument from India. All and all, it's good fun, and even if they don't quite know which way to go, it seems like it'd be a hoot to follow. Three Stars SOURCE: - Elizabeth M. Cosin CAPTION(S): 5 Photos Photo: (1) Chris Isaak goes for a south-of-the-border fe el on his latest album, ``Baja Sessions.'' (2--5) no caption (CD covers) |
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