Indigenous “Circle”
Indigenous “Circle” Pachyderm
Records
Finally, the lost Stevie Ray Vaughan/Hootie and the Blowfish
jamming album has emerged! Well, not really. In truth,
“Circle” is the product of a hard-rocking, Native
American blues quartet out of South Dakota, but man, if it
isn’t an amazingly similar product to what the aforementioned
artists might have made in a really weird recording session.
It’s got the Texas grit that’s been sorely missed since
Stevie Ray made an early exit nearly a decade ago, but,
unfortunately, it’s also got the goofy soul-rock that really
hasn’t been missed at all since the Blowfish first showed up
on the pop charts with “Hold My Hand.” It’s no
real shock that “Circle” sounds a lot like Stevie Ray,
seeing as how it was produced by his frequent collaborator Doyle
Bramhall. You can almost hear him saying, “All right, folks,
now turn the amps to “˜9,’ just like Stevie used
to,” as the band rips through scorchers like “Little
Time” and the standout “You Left Me this
Morning.” Lead singer Mato Nanji has both the alley-cat yowl
and the amazing guitar skills a hopeful bluesman needs, so tracks
like this are a refreshing return to the greats of the past.
Inexplicably, the band strays from this can’t-miss formula
numerous times, heading into Hootieville with reckless abandon.
“Can’t Keep Me From You” and “You Were The
One” could be dropped onto any Blowfish album and no one
would even notice. They’re not terrible songs by any means,
but they definitely remind you why Hootie used to be popular, but
no longer is. It’s really too bad that Indigenous saddles
itself with sub-par tracks such as these, because it’s
capable of much better. If the foursome stuck with straight blues
instead of getting all touchy-feely, it deserves to go far.
Brent Hopkins Rating: 5
Underworld “Underworld Live: Everything,
Everything” V2 Records
From the sounds of the smooth-as-silk, trancey flow of
Underworld’s new record, it would have been impossible to
guess that this electronica-virtuostic trio started out as a New
Wave group in the late ’80s. Three huge genre-redefining
albums and several anthemic club smashes later, the UK trance band
is finally ready to release a testament to its live act.
“Underworld Live” includes beat-heavy versions of songs
off Underworld’s previous three 1990s releases, plus a great
performance off the “Trainspotting” soundtrack,
“Born Slippy,” that possibly started the whole trance
craze. Although most of the songs bleed into each other a la DJ mix
compilations, there are occasional pauses for lead singer Karl Hyde
to address the audience and mutter his
stream-of-consciousness-style poetry, which abounds in his lyrics
and CD booklet inserts. Also included on the album are stellar
versions of “Juanita” and “Kiteless,” from
1996’s “Second Toughest in the Infants,” which
segues beautifully into the hard-house temblor “Cups,”
from last year’s “Beaucoup Fish.” Another track
from “Beaucoup Fish,” “King of Snake,”
sounds straight out of an after-hours French discotheque, with
Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer taking over the synth flashes and
leaving the beat up to DJ Darren Emerson. With undeniably dancey
tracks like these, Underworld almost sounds like Eurodisco all over
again ““ this time in a classy sense of course, as Underworld
redefines the word as applied to clublife with each new album.
Emerson, who has since left the group to pursue a career as a solo
DJ, mixes up some great beats for his effervescent version of
“Born Slippy,” which goes on just long enough to trance
down to before retiring into yourself the chill out room.
Hyde’s vocals are usually processed as unintelligible,
serving to add as another instrument to the mix rather than being a
separate entity of its own. The closers “Rez” and
“Cowgirl,” both from 1994’s dance masterpiece
“Dubnobasswithmyheadman,” leave the crowd and the
listener with a warm glow, the kind you might get after witnessing
an immense thunderstorm in the middle of the summer. All in all,
Underworld does a near-perfect job of selecting such a wide variety
of tracks from its 10-year career as a dance act, and recreating
the rave experience as well (if turned up loud enough), without
making it necessary to consume overpriced, impure psychoactive
substances in a stuffy, sweaty atmosphere. Cyrus McNally
Rating: 8
Green Day “Warning:” Reprise
Once upon a time, owning “the new Green Day album”
was just about as cool as it could get. You were immediately punk
rock, hip and, of course, tres cool. Having the
fresh-off-the-presses copy of “Dookie” was just about
as good as it got. Then, unfortunately for the Bay Area trio, Green
Day started making stupid records. “Insomniac” was
pretty good, but a lot of it was just re-hashed earlier sounds.
Then came “Nimrod,” which should have been really
exciting, but really wasn’t. While the threesome had once
been shocking and quasi-alternative, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong
started penning god-awful radio-friendly sap like “Good
Riddance.” The result: the much-dreaded overexposure, which
turned Green Day into a synonym for boring mass-production. With
this in mind, “Warning:” seems like it would be a
cynical music critic’s dream ““ a fat target ripe for
the insulting. But, unfortunately, it’s not. Though the
latest disc is a far cry from the good-ol’
“Kerplunk” days, it’s actually not too bad. While
the band has pretty much completely shed its punk label and crossed
over into the mainstream, it sure sounds good doing it. Call
’em pop or whatever else you want, Green Day’s evolved
from a bratty bunch of teenagers to, well, a minorly less-bratty
bunch of middle-aged men, but ones who can write a nice tune,
nonetheless. Tracks like “Blood, Sex and Booze” and
“Fashion Victim” chug along with the old familiar
sound, but Armstrong has definitely broadened himself. Usually, in
the case of the Gyspy-esque “Misery” or the folky
“Macy’s Day Parade,” this newfound breadth is a
good thing. In the case of the lamely rocking “Hold
On,” which showcases Armstrong’s unsung talents on the
harmonica, listeners will find themselves cringing and wishing
he’d go back to being punk. While “Warning:”
isn’t the band’s best effort, it comes across far
better than expected. If there’s one thing for certain,
however, it’s that when Armstrong sings, “I want to be
the minority,” on the lead single, he’s lying. You
don’t make catchy records like this if you really want to be
part of the underground. Whatever his true allegiances lie, at
least he’s making some snappy tunes. Brent Hopkins
Rating: 7