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The Beautiful South

MIAOW
cd

GO! / PolyGram

I've always eschewed The Beautiful
South, thinking they were just another
English, dancey, house music band.
Wow, was I a dope.

Miaow marks the first time that I've
even listened to a South record, and I must
say I'm hooked. Clever and moody, not
to mention eclectic and diverse, Miaow
contains some of the best ... everything
... I've heard in quite some time.

Ranging from the embarrassingly
happy Good as Gold (“Good as gold, but
stupid as mud \ He'll carry on forever \
They'll bleed his heart‘til there’s no more
blood \ But carry on forever”) to the
disturbingly angry Tattoo (“When they
put that needle in me I'll scream your
name in pain \And I hope he spells‘ you
bastard’ right”), Miaow offers an
intelligent, well-rounded, and (although
I cringe to use the word) pleasant listen.

I’m giving The Beautiful South top
marks for this outing. And, difficult as it
is to admit, I’m planning on updating
my collection with a few of their earlier
albums.

See you at the record stores!

- Jason Kurylo

 

Lush

Split
cassette
4AD / PolyGram

It’s been two years since the last full
Lush album. With bated breath, I
unwrapped Split, knowing I was in for a
treat.

Now, some may say that my like for
the band would tend to colour any

review I may write. Of course, you're.

absolutely correct. However, write I
shall. And, since I've been told to avoid
being loquacious in this particular
review, I won't ... ahem .... wank.

Split is a good album. The sound,
for those unfamiliar with the band, is
like a very happy marriage between
Grunge Lite and The Cranberries.

In the end, in spite of all the
commercial forces trying to get me to
tell you to buy this album, I'd have to
say, with a clear conscience, “Buy this

album.”
- Bert C. Ennah

The Flying Bulgar
Klezmer Band
Agada
cd
Flying Bulgar

Here’s something for the musically
a iventurous. The Flying Bulgar Klezmer
Band is definitely not for everybody, but
for those with an open mind and an
open ear, they’re a treat.

You probably won’t understand a
word on Agada. In fact, unless you speak
Yiddish - yes, that’s right, Yiddish - you
definitely won't. You see, a bulgar
klezmer band is one that plays Yiddish
instrumental music. (Agada also includes
four tracks with vocals, supplied by the
talented Allan Merovitz, and yes, the
liner notes include both the Yiddish
lyrics and the English translations)

The unfortunate thing is that most
people wouldn't even give this genre its
fair shake, given the chance. They'd
much rather give it up for the next
Michael Bolton release, cleverly packaged
as something original, or some new top-
40 dance band consisting of a gyrating
pair of breasts for a lead “singer” and a
drum machine.

Well, it’s the mainstream’s loss, in
my opinion. While I wouldn’t want to
listen to Flying tunes day-in, day-out,
they provide a stupendous break from
the monotony of a somewhat stagnant
music industry.

The Flying Klezmer Band is appearing at
the Vancouver Folk Festival later this
month. (Check out the Summer Fun
Insert for a Folk Fest Preview.) You'd best
be served if you caught this breath of
fresh, Yiddish air.

- Jason Kurylo

   

Wild Strawberries
bet you think i'm lonely
cd
StrawBerry / A&M

These guys are really better than I
thought . The name Wild Strawberries
gave the impression that their music
would be really wild. Instead of wild,
Wild Strawberries plays excellent, mellow,
alternative music. Featuring top hit Life
Size Marilyn Monroe.

bet you think i'm lonely captures the
audience from the first song, The Way it
Goes to the last, Angel Came Tumbling Down.

I like the fact that the music itself
wasn't packed with too many
instruments. Overall, it served its
purpose well.

- Candice Lee

Other Press

Sarah McLachlan
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
cd
Nettwerk

Okay, so Fumbling Towards Ecstasy has
been out for months. Hell, it’s a 1993
release ... you'd think we could have
reviewed it by now, right?

Well, we haven't, and I’m going to
do it now, whether you like it or not.
I’m sure Sarah McLachlan won't mind
the extra publicity, and neither will
Nettwerk Records.

The fact is, Ecstasy is nothing short
of sublime. The vocals, as expected, are
absolutely phenomenal. McLachlan
owns one of the best sets of pipes in the
business, and nearly never disappoints.
In this, her fourth release, Sarah almost
effortlessly reaches those dizzying
heights of brilliance and beauty that are
now her trademark.

In the past, I've always felt Sarah’s
vocals were over-produced. Listening to
Ecstasy, however, is almost as if Ms.
McLachlan’s decided to step on over,
visit, and break into song right there in
your living room. The results are utterly
breathtaking, to say the least.

Sarah's writing has improved
substantially since her 1988 debut, Touch.
Of course, she was only 19 at the time.
It’s only logical that the romanticisms
of a teen would mature somewhat in a
six-year period.

And, thankfully, McLachlan can
finally write about something eluding
her for the longest time: happiness. I've
always found it tragic that a creature so
beauteous as Sarah was wracked with
depression so much of the time.

Anyway, check out Ice Cream (“Your
love is better than ice cream...”), and
Elsewhere (“I believe this is heaven to no
one else but me...”).

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy does reach its
nirvanic goal, but there is no
floundering along the way. Sarah gets a
9 out of 10 on this one.

- Jason Kurylo

   

The Frank and Walters

Trains, Boats and Planes
cd

PolyGram

The Frank and Walters. Who the
heck are they? Well, I am not a follower
of English pop music, so I had no idea
who these guys were. Apparently, they
are a bunch of street bums from Ireland
who write songs about their buddies.

So, how good are they? To my
surprise, I actually enjoyed their music.
The lyrics are about the everyday life of
their friends, and they're something that
everyday people can relate to. “Practical”
is the word to describe it.

If you look deeper than the surface
of the lyrics, you see a hint of humour
which makes their music even more
interesting to listen to.

Overall, I'd say that Trains, Boats and
Planes is an interesting mix of practical
music that would interest almost
anybody. ‘

- Candice Lee

Mushroom Trail
My Medicine
cd

LSD / A&M

What kind of metal bands come out
of North Vancouver? Motivated, good-
looking, moderately talented, wood-be-
glam ifitweretheeighty’s types like
Vancouver's new-to-the-scene Mush-
room Trail.

I must admit, I almost bought the
album solely for the purpose of the
inside jacket cover, which lists “magical”
mushroom varieties that you can’t find
in encyclopedias. Then I got it for free.

However, the band swears that they
didn’t name their band after natural
drugs. And their music is far from
magical.

Listening to their album made me
think of Skid Row in the mid-80's. Big
sound, characteristic lyrics of once-
upon-a-time societies image of “bad boy
rebels.”

Their one most interesting song,
Pigs, tells a tale of a drug bust gone bad,
and the powermongering of the boys
in blue. The rest of the songs belong on
a B-side EP from 1989. Sample lyric?
From FUS: “I ain’t proud \ can you blame
me \ when there’s so much crazy \
fucked-up shit goin’ down.”

Yep ... rebels.

Live, the band does create an
exciting show. Paul D’eath, Mushroom
Trail’s frontman, likes to bob up and
down, and sway his butt inches from
the nearest female groupie. The rest of
the band kinda stands stil], concentrating
on staying in tune to impress the record
guys that may be in the audience.

All in all, MushroomTrail doesn’t suck,
but they don’t have any great or unique
qualities to earn a record deal. They'd be
a good cover band. The CD’s definitely
not worth A&B’s 15 bucks.

- Scott Simmer

 

Sing Along With Tonto

The Rock Hits EP
cd
Epidemic

Sing Along WithTonto is little more
than a bass-heavy Toronto garage band
with delusions of grunge-dom.

With the independent release, The
Rock Hits EP, Tonto has combined bits of
Nirvana, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the
occasional Spin Doctors riff, achieving okay
results.

On the packaging and production
side, Hits looks great. Of the five tracks,
only I Walk is really impressive.

Most impressive about Tonto is their
ability to get quiet. Unlike most bands
in this genre, they're not scared to use
nuance in their tunes. That’s right,
‘nuance. If you're a contemporary music
fan, you may have to employ a dictionary
on this one. Go ahead; it’s a good word
to know.

And as for my somewhat negative
attitude towards this band, I remind you
that not many critics loved Led Zeppelin
upon first listen, either.

- Bert C. Ennah

       

P.O.W.E.R.

Dedicated to World Revolution
cd
Nettwerk

This album is just chock full of
incredibly negative music.

The lyrics on RO.WE.R.’s album,
Dedicated to World Revolution, speak
against capitalism, carnivorism, com-
mercialism, the American government,
white male domination, and almost
anything else politically incorrect. The
music supporting the lyrics are kinds of
generic drum machine beats without a
lot of originality.

While I like politically inclined
bands like Public Enemy,The Disposable Heroes
of Hypocrisy, and Rage Against The Machine,
PO.WE.R. just doesn’t seem to have the
primal energy that some bands do. After
listening to the CD, I asked myself, “Was
that music or preaching?” I imagine you
could dance to it, but if you think about
it, you could dance to the rhythm of an
unbalanced washing machine too.

Maybe I just hate this band
because I eat meat, like money, like
Americans, am a white male, and think
that political correctness is just a big load
of male bovine excrement.

I guess if you want to find out for
yourself, you could go blow the fifteen
bucks for their CD and then come call
me an idiot because you like the music.

PO.WE.R. are being distributed by
Nettwerk, a Vancouver based label that
also brought out the band Consolidated.

- Dug Hébert

 

Material Issue

Freak City Soundtrack
cd
Mercury / PolyGram

Let’s dispel some of the myths about
this record. It’s not a soundtrack. Got it?

However, Freak City Soundtrack is one
of the better records of the year. Crunchy
power-pop with an edge, it has had me
humming for a couple of months now,
and it also knows when to go home.

It finishes in a speedy 38 minutes.
The trend in the music industry lately
has been to jam as much music onto a
72-minute cd as possible, regardless of
the songwriting.

There’s a wad of cool songs on the
record. Odes to snoops (Goin’Through Your
Purse), songs about the women a guy
could only dream of (Kim theWaitress),and
other melodical morsels.

I just realized I talked about the first
two songs, and could essentially talk
about every one of them in a good way,
but I won't bore you with that.

I'll just tell you more about the
record. It’s very 70’s, down to the
bellybutton on the cover.

Oh, heck, I can’t say any more. I
don’t like brown-nosing. It’s a great
record.

- Tim Crumley