Louis Armstrong

Highlights From His Decca Years
MCA / Decca

Louis Armstrong
Satchmo The Great
Columbia / Legacy

Satchmo: Straight from the Latin
for “Big Cheeked Trumpet Playing
Gruff Voiced Jazz Legend That’s Not
Named Dizzy,” these two syllables can
mean only one thing: Louis
Armstrong.

Most people know the man from
his ultrafamous What a Wonderful
World. Of course, Louis was a huge fig-
ure in the music business for many
years, and can boast one of the most
influential careers in music history.

Two recent collections attempt to
capture the overall genius of Louis:
Columbia’s Satchmo the Great: Music
and Extracts from the Film, and MCA’s
double disc set Highlights from the
Decca Years.

Upon first glance (and first listen)
the MCA offering is infinitely the bet-
ter deal. Spanning thirty-four years and
countless little known nuggets, High-

_ lights... does just what it should: It gives
the casual fan a way to access Louis’
career. Of course, it doesn’t compare to
owning a fistfull of complete Satchmo
albums, but it’s as close as some want
to get...

What the Columbia soundtrack
offers is something completely differ-
ent. Rather than attempting to put thirty
years of jazz onto one disc, it captures
a single evening. Energy and charm are
the key words here, and of the two, this
is the disc that'll grow on you.

When it all comes down, Louis is
a pleasure to listen to. He’s not preten-
tious, nor is he overproduced, he just
makes good jazz. Both of these offer-
ings give interesting peeks at a phenom-
enal career, both are incredibly differ-
ent perspectives. I couldn’t recommend
one or the other; just go buy some
Satchmo, whatever you do.

Jason Kurylo

slash’s snake pit
it’s five o'clock somewhere
Geffen Records

Slash has put together quite a va-
riety of musical styles on his new solo
disc, and the most surprising observa-
tion is it sounds nothing like his other
band, Guns N’ Roses.

Although Snake Pit is comprised
of former GN’R guitar player Gilbey
Clarke along with the Slashmeister
himself, five o’clock sounds more like
a creative outburst from a guitar player
who has been held in check for too long,
rather than something which simply re-
lies on a name and some talent to sell
some music.

Veteran screamer Eric Dover does
all the lead vocals for this disc, and all
members of this project are involved in
the songwriting, which is a good thing.
With a talent like Gilbey Clarke in-
volved. it would be a shame for Slash
to take the dominant rock star attitude
and pen all the tunes himself. Duff
McKeegan even gets a chance to lend a
hand at composition, (although he does
not appear on any instrumental credits).
Gilbey Clarke is the only other artist
besides the Slashman who is given the
distinction of writing his own tune, a
testimony to the respect Clarke enjoys
in the music industry these days.

The music on this CD covers al-

The Other Press

most every form of straight-ahead rock,
and even mixes some bluesy harmonica
into the fray as a catchy intro on more
than one occasion. As usual, Slash
doesn’t hold back where his lead guitar
solos are concerned, and the whole al-
bum is vibrant with energy thanks to
the Eric Dover’s vocal pipes.

I'll go out on a limb and predict
good things for this band if they stay
together long enough to put together
another recording.

Of course, most solo projects are
rarely together long enough to prosper,
considering the responsibilities these
musicians have with other recording
acts.

Paul Andrew

Various Artists
Club Cutz 6

A song that incorporates an elec-
tronic banjo sound throughout, allow-
ing me to ignore the deep ‘n’ meaning-
ful lyrics of “Okey Dokey... Okey
Dokey... Okey Dokey...” is called - you
guessed it - Okey Dokey. Enough al-
ready!

Another, more appealing, song on
this album is called Cotton Eye Joe. It
is a spin off from a traditional “down
south” American folk song. Being a
version created in Sweden, it does not
exactly adhere to the original lyricals
and music. Once again an electronic
banjo pulls this song together; “Where
did you come from? - Where did you
go...” is getting lots of radio play.

There are a number of other songs
on this album worth giving a listen to if
you like a jarring bass beat and some
pretty radical sounds reverberating
along with extremely simple lyrics. Al-
though I can’t say that I’d buy a replace-
ment copy of this tape if this one went
missing, I can say that it is good to hear
a compilation with bands from many
countries other than ours, (and our
friends south).

Tammy Coombes

 

Simple Minds

Good News From the Next
World
cd
Virgin

I suppose I’m just like everyone
else. I mean, I first heard about Simple
Minds through a little film known as
The Breakfast Club. All | remember
about them is that I really really liked
Don't You Forget About Me, and |
thought lead vocalist Jim Kerr
looked kinda odd.

Well, it’s another decade, and
we're all a little older, perhaps even a
little wiser. Minds has proven they
weren’t necessarily a one-hit wonder
(remember Alive & Kicking?), and
Kerr still looks like his eyes are
welded to the sides of his nose. So,
when Good News From the Next
World walked through the door, I
expected a half-decent, but overall
predictable poppy offering.

How wrong I was. Following in
the footsteps of U2, Tears For Fears
and REM, Simple Minds has taken
their music to a different level. Instead
of rehashing their past successes,
they ve gone fo a fuller, more mature,
progressive sound. There’s no one
track that’ll rip up the radio waves,
or anything (although And the Band
Played On could be the best
individual track of the year...) but as
a whole Good News is just that.

The bottom line is, this album
kicks ass.

Jason Kurylo

13

 

Facepuller

Anatomy of Noise
Bang On Records
7" Vinyl

Facepuller is well named. Their
sound is an abrasive blend of hardcore
energy, metal guitars, and
hyperprocessed industrial vocals.
Anatomy of Noise is a2 song sampling

only available on vinyl! that leaves me ~

with mixed feelings.

If hardcore punk were chocolate
and industrial/noisecore were peanut
butter, Facepuller would be like the
Reeses,bringing it all together in one
bad-ass peanut butter cup.

Bored With Beauty breaks
abruptly from a slow intro to a full-out
thrashing groove that has a crushing
steamroller riff. The downside is that
this one riff, cool though it may be, is
the core of the tune; there’s not much
else to hold up the song.

Here’s my beef: Riffs are the foun-
dation of this kind of music. They’ ve
gotta be cool, they’ ve gotta be heavy. If
you’ re going to base a tune around one
main hook, it better be big enough to

‘catch a shark. If you want to fish the

waters of the big boys (Ministry, NIN,
Pantera etc), you’ve gotta have more
than one good hook in case the first one
gets lost.

Reduction Box hits closer to the
mark. It’s built up around a mean 6/4
riff and is fleshed out more than Bored
With Beauty.

Facepuller is promising. While
they don’t quite pull my face as much
as I'd like, they are pretty cool.

Kevin Sallows

 

SATURDAY MITE

  

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