Quick Hits

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DESCENDENTS: ’MERICAN (Fat Wreck Chords)

You can breathe a sigh of relief and relax. If this four-song EP—with two songs from their upcoming LP Cool to Be You (March 23) and two nonalbum tracks—is any indication of the quality of the aforementioned full-length, the Descendents have done nothing to damage their legacy. Not steering far from 1996’s Everything Sucks, ’Merican opens with vocalist Milo Auckerman’s upbeat, poppy ode to laziness, “Nothing With You.” The chorus is rather representative of the song’s sentiment: “I don’t want to move,/except sit here in my living room and see what’s on tube,/ while I’m hanging out with you.”

Following bassist Karl Alavrez’s Bad Religion–like title track, the mood slows down with the broken-hearted “Here With Me.” Closing out the advertised tracks is the “This Place Sucks”–reminiscent “I Quit,” a rather blunt middle finger to those out there who think that Auckerman should drop his microbiology gig and return to the nomadic lifestyle of a touring musician. “Go ahead and say it./Tell me I’m getting old./Tell me I’m a sellout./But it’s you that’s being sold./See, I refuse to think of rock ’n’ roll as my career./Tell me all my opportunities, ask me if I care.”

When you disregard the hidden track, which should have remained in the vaults of drummer Bill Stevenson’s Blasting Room studio, ’Merican is a definite sign of “Good Good Things” to come. (DL)

M ADCAP: UNDER SUSPICION (Victory Records)

Madcap is definitely one of those bands that wears its influences not only on its sleeves, but also probably on the buttons that adorn its jackets. The Clash, The Jam, The Ramones, and Rancid’s influence on this band is not subtle, but rather blatant. In the end, it doesn’t really matter because Under Suspicion is a mighty fine punk rock record, no matter whose sound the band might be borrowing. From start to finish, Under Suspicion is vacant of stinkers and full of tunes that one could actually dance to. On their third LP, this Southern California quartet waste no time getting the party started with the fiery “Keep Dancin.” This is a tune that’s almost impossible to forget, whose lyrics (“’Cause when the radio is on and the music’s playing, I just want to keep dancing”) will be stuck in your head for days on end.

While full of solid punk numbers (“Somewhere in the City,” “Youth Explosion,” “Turnaround,” “It Won’t Die”), Madcap does stretch out and show their ska and reggae influences in “Searching for Ground,” “Midnight Strikes,” and the title track. Under Suspicion won’t cause the earth to shake and send the Mississippi River running backward, but what it will do is put a goofball smile on your face by the time this record winds down. Topnotch! (DL)

K YLIE MINOGUE: BODY LANGUAGE (Capitol Records)

Body Language is quite a departure from 2002’s Fever, which may disappoint some of the club kids who long to wave their hands in the air in the middle of the dance floor. After 16 years of bestowing pop music to the world (she virtually owns the U.K. and Australia), Minogue can pretty much do what she pleases.

Granted, Body Language isn’t a straightforward disco record, but you can’t accuse Minogue of not offering some variety over the years. However, the variety is organized by the album, not by the tracks on the album. With that said, Body Language is an album of mostly down-tempo, soul-influenced electric pop, which sounds tailored for Soul Train’s mid-show couples’ dance parade.

The electro beats start and end midway through the record, fusing into soulful pop in its progression. The first single, “Slow,” uses the sounds that made Nintendo a household name

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back in the late ’80s. Centrally through “Body Language,” Kylie takes a more relaxed and cool approach. It’s not groundbreaking material to make somebody ponder the world around them because that’s not what she’s after. She makes simplicity go a long way. (CH)

T HE NARRATOR: YOUTH CITY FIRE (Flameshovel)

Despite the creepy mumbling of “Culture/ Counts,” which begins this five-song EP, Youth City Fire is an enjoyable listen from a fresh Chicago band. Led by what sounds like a punked-out Mick Jagger (no roles are defined on the CD), the band intones intelligent angst that’ll relight the rebellious fire of your youth. Rapid-fire drums only heighten the feeling of breakout.

Any album of youth is incomplete without its screamer (“All Are Assassins”), but it’s the slower, more thoughtful numbers that stand out: “We Call Police” and “The Electric Slide” (which is, trust me, nothing like the wedding favorite). The simplicity and repetition of “The Electric Slide” make its full-throttle rock parts all the more effective, ending the disc on an original, off-tempo, and ultimately harmonic note. (LH)

O CEAN SIX: SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DAY AND N IGHT (Shamballah Records)

It’s pretty clear after listening to this CD that Ocean Six is a local rock band that won’t be sinking anytime soon. This 16-track recording is a great showcase of the band’s solid guitar sound and strong hooks. Unlike the group’s all-electric live show; the recording is more melodic, adding acoustic guitar work to songs like “Beauty and Danger.” The smoothed-out sound only makes the hooks even harder to ignore than they are in concert. Tracks such as “Left Behind” and “Light Years Away” are catchy enough to be radio hits; Devon Allman gives a strong vocal performance throughout the whole CD.

Throughout the band’s live career, Allman has shown no fear in regard to entertaining the audiences. He can be seen from time to time at Mississippi Nights, actually going out into the crowd and walking along the ledge near the over21 area during the band’s cover of “Rebel Yell” or urging the crowd to yell requests to him. It may seem that this level of confidence and energy would be hard to reproduce on a recording, but Somewhere Between Day and Night is a solid and well-produced CD sure to please fans. (JK)

R OBBERS ON HIGH STREET: FINE LINES EP (Scratchie/New Line Records)

If, like me, you’re tired of waiting for the new Spoon album, you need wait no longer: we now

March 2004

have Robbers on High Street. I don’t mean that as a knock against the band, really; the EP is quite strong and not wholly derivative. But damn, if Ben Trokan doesn’t sound a hell of a lot like Britt Daniel.

With Fine Lines, Robbers give us more of a throwback New York rock sound than an Austin-based indie rock one. Besides Trokan (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Robbers consist of Steve Mercado (guitar), Jeremy Phillips (bass), and Tomer Danan (drums). Their press release describes them as looking “like four guys who could have met in a prep school detention hall.” The EP, catchy enough to grab you at first listen, is straightforward and unswerving, with a touch of retro and a dash of alternative. These six tracks are just a taste of what Robbers on High Street can do—a full-length is scheduled for release next summer—but they’re enough to let me know this is a band worth watching. (LH)

S EMIDIVINE: SEMIDIVINE

Gotta love local rock ’n’ roll. Semidivine isn’t one of our town’s bestknown bands, but here they’ve gone and put out a respectable full-length debut. “Turn Around” is an aching, guitar-driven pop-rock gem in the vein of Just Add Water; at times, Nate Edmonds’ voice even sounds eerily like JAW’s Steve Waller. “Burn My Name” is a gentle rocker; a stark burst of guitar adds a hint of unrest before the refrain opens to a gallop. “Good for Nothing” packs a harder punch, while “Yesterday” is a bittersweet look back at love gone wrong. “The Long Way” is another pretty number on which Edmonds ventures into falsetto and a fitting way to close out the disc.

According to the band’s bio, each of the members—aside from Edmonds (voice, guitar), there’s Rek Mohr (bass), Ryan Cooper (guitar), and Ben Miller (drums)—has a hand in creating the songs, though Edmonds is the one behind the lyrics. The CD is available from the band’s Web site (www.semidivinemusic.com) or at any of their shows. (LH)

V ARIOUS ARTISTS: MUSIC FROM QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY (Capitol Records)

You could call this compilation a tool for cashing in on the series that made Trading Spaces “so circa 2000.” As inevitable as it was, this disc won’t help you pick out the right candles for your living room or tell you why you shouldn’t bite off the plastic tag holders from the shirt purchased 30 minutes earlier. This assemblage offers a gaggle of tunes with something for everybody, though.

Fans of Duran Duran have been waiting impatiently for the new record from the original alliance of the five “metrosexual” members. In the meantime, the Jason Nevins remix of “Sunrise” will have to tide DD fans over with its contemporary style of guitar-based dance music. For spending as much time as the Fab Five spent in the studio, the song sounds as polished as it should.

The other common trend in pop music is the “mash-up,” in which a song from years past and another from the present are placed together in one. Barry Harris (of Thunderpuss and Kon Kan, for those who remember) summoned Billy Squier’s “Everybody Wants You” and Fischerspooner’s “Emerge” into “Everybody Wants You to Emerge.” In a nearly unsettling way, it works.

The assortment of songs on this soundtrack covers the main genres, including Basement Jaxx, Sting, Liz Phair, and Elton John. It’s a bit like placing a color wheel in the CD player—or a fruitcake, for that matter. (CH)

Contributors: Laura Hamlett, Cory Hoehn, John Kujawski, David Lichius.

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