CD releases fall short of avoiding derivative cjuality
Artists including former
Eugenean David Jacobs
S train harness their genres
RYAN NYBURG
PULSE EDITOR
Rock 'n' roll is so rarely original that
often the music praised during the year
is merely derivative retreads of ideas put
forward years before. What we often end
up with are re
minders of better
( ) times rather than
D r\ 71 C\ a i rally calls for better
1\1. V 1 l.j V V futures. It all boils
down to the same
five or six ideas repeated ad nauseum un
til something breaks and a new sound is
created. We might be heading toward a
breaking point soon, if this collection of
new albums is any indication of what
passes for modem musical flavor.
First up is the latest from the Silos,
"When the Telephone Rings." Oh,
Tom Petty, what horrors you have
wrought. This band sounds like noth
ing better than a retread of a retread,
pedestrian rock music without a
single original idea. It's a light rock af
fair in the style of Joe Walsh, Bruce
Springsteen and other horrors of the
1980s. These guys want to be the Ea
gles so badly it's almost palpable.
The music is unoriginal and the lyrics
are bland. Senseless and unqualified
lines such as "Keep your heart innocent
of this world" abound, as the band un
leashes a message of hope and trust that
would be all fine and dandy if it didn't
make me want to vomit so profusely.
None of it is ever well-written enough
to be meaningful, and if songwriter
Walter Salas-Humara had been able to
squeeze out even an ounce of elo
quence, instead of simply reciting what
could be discarded bumper sticker lo
gos, this whole affair might have been
worthwhile. But what the hell, it proba
bly sounds a whole lot better to a
drunken audience than it does to mu
sic snobs such as myself.
Something you don't have to be ine
briated to enjoy is the latest from song
writer/guitarist David Jacobs-Strain (all
right! A local boy!). The former Euge
nean's new album, "Ocean or a
Teardrop," is a decent collection of
modem blues and blues-rock tunes,
featuring a few more decent licks than
some of the material deserves. Jacobs
Strain is a superb acoustic-guitar player
and an interesting vocalist, his voice
reaching into registers much lower
than his youth would lead you to be
lieve were possible.
The problem with the album is a
simple unevenness in the quality of
the songwriting. Some of the songs
just don't cut it compared to the high
lights. It isn't just a matter of Jacob
Strain's abilities as a songwriter; some
of the original material is fantastic,
while some of the covers plod on
without purpose. Strain's guitar work
is also often buried by the overbearing
backing band, as drums, guitars and
mandolins are laid over songs that
don't require much in the way of ex
travagance. Simpler instrumentation
and a more refined songwriting sense
could have produced a masterwork,
but what we have instead is worth
while for the highlights nonetheless.
Still uneven, but not so much so,
is the latest from the Pleasure Club,
entitled "The Fugitive Kind." The
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album is an amalgamate of post
punk influences mixed with Lou
Reed-style subject matter, all junkies
and hookers. Kicking off with the an
themic "Hey! Hey! Hey!," the album
sets itself up right in the middle of
the current dance-oriented rock
trend, with all the rap and disco bass
lines and catchy-as-hell choruses that
the sub-genera entails. But the band
is a little more eclectic than that, mut
ing a wide range of rock into the mix,
including My Bloody Valentine-style
guitars and a few tracks that are pure
indie pop gems.
The album's problem is less with
the material than with the weak pro
duction. The music has no bottom
and nothing really rumbles or growls
the way it wants to. Lead singer James
Hall's voice sounds like it's straining
against a weak public-announcement
system. This problem becomes evi
dent through the album's stand-out
track, the scary-ass funk of "Crooks,"
a song recorded at an earlier date than
the rest of the album and by a differ
ent producer. It sounds like the rest of
the album should sound like. An
excellent effort, in any case.
Last up is the Hentchmen, a
mainstay of the Detroit rock scene for
the past dozen years or so. Their new
album, "FormFollowsFunction," has
been tossed into the current trend of
modem, glossy garage rock. Though it
fits that definition, the band stands
out for actually knowing what 1960s
garage rock actually sounded like. The
album is a dozen simplistic rock
songs about the love of cars, the love
of girls, girls and cars, girls in cars, etc.
It's old-fashioned party music and en
joyable in its simple pleasures.
The album never proves why this
should be preferable to the original
garage rockers, except for maybe its
more sophisticated lyrical approach. In
the end it might be more rewarding to
pull out the old "Back from the Grave"
or "Pebbles" compilations. Basing its
sound on instrumental interplay and
sing-song melodies rather than speedy
riffs, the group is a refreshing take on
the old sounds of rock, even if not an
original one.
ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com
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