. Lit From Within & Nettwerk Compilation proceeds to Canadian Rape Crisis Centra Sometimes you gotta look at Nettwerk and smile. This is one of those times. Two years ago, Nettworker Toni Maruyama had a dream. A wish, really. Nettwerk took one look at the idea and let her go do it. Well, Toni’s with Sony now, but her dream still came true. Tons of people put in tons of hours, and the resultant project is absolutely fabulous. Lit From Within, to be released September 19, is a compilation of the best Canadian female talent in contemporary music and spoken word. Any collection that boasts Veda Hille, Crash Vegas, and Lorna Crozier is an impressive disc. Add heavyweights like Sarah McLachlan, Evelyn Lau, and both halves of defunct Lava Hay (Michele Gould’s new band Taste of Joy and the now-solo Suzanne Little), and you’ve got one powerful offering. The benefactors of this record are many; all proceeds go to Canadian Rape Crisis Centres. The interesting thing about this cause is, there’s no central body to distribute funds to the various centres. Most crisis lines and/or groups are run out of basements or donated spaces, and operate on a week-to-week basis. This project will hopefully make it easier for the centres to stabilize. Maruyama was inspired by an incident ten years ago, when she stopped to help a woman at the side of the road. “Normally I wouldn’t have stopped, but for some reason I did. I rolled down the window, and I realized she was carrying her clothes, wearing only a jacket. She looked me straight in the eye, and said with an eerie, scary calm, ‘I’ve just been raped.’” “T just drove for what seemed to be forever... Eventually, we came across some police, and before I knew it they sped off, I assume to the site of the rape, with her in tow. In the confusion I never did get her name...But I think of her often, and wonder...” Statistics are mindboggling in their magnitude, all saying this mystery woman is all too common. In Canada, a woman is raped every 17 minutes. It goes without saying, this situation needs attention. Lit, as a listen, is extremely powerful. Mainly acoustic work, it highlights the intensity and diversity of our Canadian female talents. A few artists specifically reworked songs, tailoring their contribution for mood and continuity. “What we did for that record, it was special,” says Taste of Joy bassist Corrine Cuthbertson, whose acoustic version of Dear John is haunting, lingering. “We specifically took a song that we felt was appropriate, and did the whole thing to suit this compilation.” Lit also marks the first recording by newly signed Nettwerkite Tara Maclean, discovered and signed by Maruyama during a Sunshine Coast ferry ride last year. Let Her Feel The Rain, quite the promising debut track, is the song Maclean was performing when Toni approached her. How many rookies could slide in-between McLachlan, Taste of Joy, and Mae Moore without multiple contusions and abrasions? Luckily, Maclean is one of the few... Even the cover art, clumsily reproduced above, is phenomenal. A self-protrait by Vancouver photographer Beth Carruthers, it brings the brroding intensity straight off the disc and onto your optic nerve. If there’s one disc you buy this semester, this year, or this millennium, go with this one. To quote Toni, “you haven’t just bought a piece of music for your collection, you’ve actually contributed to something...” , And kids, this one’s worth every feelgood penny. dason Kursie The Vel) Healey Band Cover te Cover Arista Freshly harvested along with this year’s bumper crop of cover tunes, Cover to Cover is a cool collection of well-known and obscure blues and blues-based rock tunes ranging from the 50s to the 70s. While most people are moaning about artists they like doing throwaway cover albums (what’s the next trend, boxed sets of “unplugged” cover tunes?) I like this release because of its cover content. I’ve always thought Healey was a rippin’ guitarist but his tunes usually leave me cold. By applying a simple equation, Rippin’ Guitarist + Rippin’ Tunes = Rippin’ Album(3, Healey comes out on top. Aside from the equation, the secret to this album is the care with which each song has been selected. The band listened to thousands of tunes and furthered this research “just by playing in the studio and trying on songs like old gloves,” as bassist Joe Rockman puts it. Furthermore, according to Healey, each song “had to be instrumentally interesting, lyrically sensible and have a good memorable chorus. We went with our instincts.” Good move. Choices range from classic standards (The Yardbirds’ ‘Shapes of Things,’ Steeler Wheel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle’) to obscure gems (Hendrix’s ‘Angel,’ Cream’s ‘Badge,’ Lonnie Johnson’s ‘Me and My Crazy Self’). I was especially psyched on the instrumental version of Zeppelin’ s ‘Communi- cation Breakdown’ because it features John Popper (Blues Traveler) covering the vocal melody and a solo on harmonica. Kevin dallous Billy Childs [ve Known Riven Stutch Reeonds I’m not sure if my mother likes this compilation, I haven’t asked her. Many nights running she has heard the somnolence- inducing sounds of Billy oozing viscously from beneath my door. She may havean opinion on it, but quite frankly /’ve Known Rivers‘s only use, for me, is as a sleep aid. Way better than NyQuil. If at an early age I had liked Kenny G or lusted after Muzak- distorted jazz classics, I would love this CD...but I hate Kenny G, and flee in horror from elevators. You’ll find me tearing up the stairs. There are pretty lyrics embedded inside the jewel box, and that’s too bad. The poetry elevates, but is evidenced on the last track only and adds little depth to an interpretive vision that seems only to encompass shallow rivers. Not the rivers I know, that flow deep and never reveal their dead, except for decaying sturgeon. Mysterious, dangerous, and swift to flood, Billy’s River is not. Joxce Robinson Waltons Cock's Crow Wea What do you do? Where do you go? Let me give you a hy- pothetical situation. Let’s say you’re a prairie boy, and you’ ve got a couple of prairie boy friends. Y’all dream of makin’ it big someday, and practice your pickin’ and singin’ and drummin’ real hard. Then, you luck out and land a few gigs —there ain’t too many bands in town, you know — and BOOM!!! You’ve got an internationally successful release called Lik My Trakter. You travel, you see a bit of the world, and now the nice gents in suits that gave you all the money for pickin’ and singin’ and drumin’ want you to put out another album... (See opening questions). Well, if you’re Jason Plumb & Co., better known to the world as Waltons, you release Cock’s Crow. You follow some formula stuff that worked for you last time: Last album had a kid’s drawing of a farm vehicle on the cover, this time you use a Lite Brite to parody an old Eagles album. There’s still an uppity pop feel, even when the lyrics are nasty; the effect is interesting, and for pop, it’s strangely bearable. As the Lite Brite is to crayons, so is Crow’s music to Trakter s. Gone is most of the stark, three-guys-playin’ sound. This time around, you’re using four-part harmony and overdubbing; at one point you even use a cello and a violin or a “high-strung Nashville 6-string guitar.” Basically, what you do is put out a typical sophomore album. You at first alienate a few fans, who eventually learn to grow and love your changing sound, and then you put out a third album that justifies the middle ground in th second(whew...). So, that’s where you stand, Mr. Plumb. You’ve ga me sort of liking Crow, but not really. You do, however, hav me salivating over issue No. 3, whatever and whenever tha may be. Good luck. dason Kursk Massive Attack Hip, hypnotic, mellov yet provocative, simple ye open to close analysis; Pro tection is everything Muzal could be if this were a pet fect world. Moodier and more atmospheric than Massive Attack’ (MA) 1991 debut album, Blue Lines, Protection is my refug when I’m winding down and need a break from all the furiou funk, aggressive metal and hardcore rap that I subject mysel to. I don’t think I can stress strongly enough just how hip thi stuff is. MA isn’t really a band, they’re more of a studio project Sort of a Steely Dan for the 90s. And just as with Steely Dan one gets the sense that careful attention is paid in production t every detail, from the lush string washes to the choice of drun sounds to the smooth but insistent bass ostinatos-it’s all there This is some slick shit, without a doubt. Beautifully crafted songs are the focus of this deft pro duction. There is a wonderful use of space throughout the al bum and sparse arrangements on instrumentals ‘Heat Miser and ‘Weather Storm’ serve to intensify the simply stated pian melodies. MA know that it’s not always what you say (or play, so much as what you don’t. They also demonstrate a remarkable ability to seamlessl: fuse diverse musical styles, mixing it up with dub, rap, reggae laid-back Floydian ambience and ultra-slick British pop. Othe than a momentary lapse of reason on the live dancehall versioi of ‘Light My Fire’ which, at best, could be described as abys mal, MA once again stay within the boundaries of absolute cool This is the kind of album that bridges the gap betwee: music you pay close attention to and music you pay no atten tion to, so strap on the headphones and light up or turn dow: the sound and layer your evening over top. Taken either way Protection is one comfortable reality cushion. Kevin salloxi Spirit of the Wen Wwe beaded Warner Prepare for a dif ferent Spirit of thi West. Completing th evolution so evident ii recent years, tm - headed shows a matur SOTW, musically confident, and, as always, lyrically chal lenging. Unfortunately, one of Spirit’ main selling points their primary feature, was a certain unfinished quality abou their stuff. No matter how well produced, the drinkin’ son; will always sound like it’s a bunch a guys that put dow their beers for a second to write and record. Scour the House and the “dance version” of Politi cal, considered by many to be their kickass magnum op! had superb studio work. Even so, they still had that unre hearsed hate-on feel about it. Even faithlift, home to suc songs as and if venice is sinking, manages to evoke an eve ryday joe atmosphere. What results is a pop-esque Spirit, less unique ani less original than what we’ve come to know and love. tw headed is the first time I’ve thought these guys sounded over rehearsed and over-produced. ; The lyrics are still fabulous, for example examinin, the life of an underwear inspector in Mildred or attackin, the politically correct gestapo in Tell Me What I Think. Johi Mann still has the trademark trill, and Geoffrey Kelly stil plays a mean flute. But, in a very un-SOTW way, the play ful spontenaity is gone. What needs done here is an “Unplugged” type ex periment (by the way, there is a song with that title on headea but it’s far from ampless). Instead, they took to the Orpheur stage with the Symphony. sigh... Okay, I know I shouldn’t live in the past, and every one grows and changes. The fact is, while they’ re still bette than most bands out there, two headed knocks our favourit drunken carousers down a notch or two. dason Kurvii