Music Reviews

Sugarbomb
BULLY
[RCA Records]

Somewhere between the bittersweet dissonance of Foo Fighters, the jolly eccentricity of The Beatles, and chic nerdiness of Weezer, somewhere between mod England and lonely American suburbia lies Sugarbomb, hailing from the unlikely location of Fort Worth, Texas.

The band's second album, Bully, is an approvable hodgepodge of instrumentation and style, which, made in conjunction with RCA and power-producer Mark Endert (Fiona Apple, Semisonic, Madonna), could very well be considered a second debut, since Tastes Like Sugar, the group's first project, was released by the smaller Rainmaker Records.

Sugarbomb is clever, and shows it by tiptoeing on the threshold of imitation before spinning off into unpredictable whorls of originality. These dizzying departures prove distracting enough to exempt the musicians from replicating several distinguished artists the way one would excuse a pretty chameleon from blending into its surroundings for the sake of survival.

Throughout the 11 tracks, lead singers Les Farrington (also keyboarder) and Daniel Harville (also guitarist) fully demonstrate their collaborative schizophrenic vocal abilities. In addition, drummer Michael Harville and guitarist Greg Bagby double as backup singers. When bassist Kelly Riley completes the mix, the result is a bunch of songs with landscapes as variant as Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (surprise-Queen is one of Sugarbomb's major influences).

Sugarbomb based its name upon the fact that "sugar" and "bomb" imply characteristics that contradict each other. Indeed, the band lives up to the duality of its name-and strays into more than just a couple dimensions. Bully may not be exulted as the greatest new Alt Pop development, but it provides ample diversion. In other words-the album: not an H-bomb, but a cherry bomb, perhaps.

Jia Jung

Garbage

BEAUTIFULGARBAGE

[Almo/Interscope]

Shirley Manson ain't no Britney Spears. Sure, she may preen and tease, she may even do that creepy voice filter thing from time to time. But where Britney has become cartoonish, deliciously naïve about the implications of her pose, Manson seethes pure emotion, cannily devoid of artlessness and a willing participant in her own objectification. On the third release from Garbage, beautifulgarbage, Manson and her grunge-tronic bandmates sharpen their nails once again, tearing into 13 tracks that range from seduction to self-immolation and back again.

Sometimes that trip takes place within a single song. On "Nobody Loves You," Manson admits that she's been "Coughing up feeling just for you," and gives her lover this counsel: "You know you'll always be my man/ But grab yourself sweetness where you can." On "Untouchable," over punchy keyboards, she croons "I swear I'll be the one/ To bring you down." And "Can't Cry These Tears Anymore," which sounds like some revenant of the Supremes, tempers post-breakup sorrow with a menacing promise to "settle the score."

This combination of devotion and destruction, of sweetness and cruelty, informs Garbage musically as well as lyrically. As its name suggests, every track of beautifulgarbage manages to be utterly beautiful despite dissonant chords and an undergirding of feedback.

Perhaps the poster-song for the album, and for Garbage in general, is the crunching, swooning, "Til the Day I Die." Over a muted gospellike chorus of "Farewell, farewell," Manson vows, in obsessive iterations, "I will love you till the day that I die."

Manson's delivery witnesses the bleak apocalypse contained within the romantic sentiment: that within each affirmation of love there is an equal and opposite recognition of catastrophe. On beautifulgarbage, Garbage continues in its commitment to the knife edges, exploring not the space between beauty and ugliness, but both simultaneously.

Kim Johnson

Kultur Shock

FUCC THE I.N.S.

[Kool Arrow]

Kultur Shock's CD is certainly a shock-it introduces a unique blend of music that no other group around has managed to come close to producing. FUCC the I.N.S. has thrown in sumptuous cultures, hypnotic vocals, drums, saxophones, keyboards, guitars, an accordion, and energy into one giant blender generating an incredibly impressive sound.

The sound, which the members so affectionately refer to as "gypsy rock" touches upon folk, blues, jazz, ska, punk, and rock, and pulls them into their songs throwing them into the faces of their listeners.

Five of the ten members originated from varying cultural backgrounds ranging from Bosnia to Japan, bringing a diverse approach to music. The members immigrated to the U.S., forming a rare brand of Balkan funk-folk. The addition of the final five musicians from Seattle completed the fusion, consolidating a ferocious harmony based on their mutual love for music and understanding of displacement.

What sets them apart from the mainstream of musicians who attempt to create a new sound and mix music genres, is that this band is actually in sync with everything they've involved into their music. Every song on FUCC the I.N.S. is composed entirely of the strong Bosnian, Bulgarian, Romany, Croatian, Serbian and English wailing's of lead singer Gino Yevdijevich. Yet no two members of the band speak the same languages. Furthermore, a powerful base and 12 string acoustic guitar accompanied by horns, intense explosions from the drums and saxophones, add a soothing texture to each of the songs.

Their music reinforces the idea of diversity: that bringing together such broad differences of life-whether its instrumental skills, musical interest, cultures or experience-can unite and definitely create a favorable result. FUCC the I.N.S. is definitely for those seeking an interesting type of music that's both fun to listen to and thought provoking.

Judy Phu

SI Futures

THE MISSION STATEMENT

[Novamute]

There are few things more tiresome than midget porn. Criticizing the sterility of business/technology and the use of the term eclectic to justify disorganized, directionless drivel, both of which just so happen to be central to The Mission Statement, are two such rarities.

The concept driving SI Begg's latest release under his new alias SI Futures is an attack on the vapidity of business conference culture. The Mission Statement rehashes the anti-consumer/mass culture, captured-by-robots, pig-in-a-cage kind of sentiment. The weekend business conference getaway is the inspiration behind the song titles, samples, and packaging. The CD booklet begins with a poorly written letter from SI Begg, CEO of S.I. Futures, describing what kind of things to expect during the weekend event.

Even more tiresome than the concept is the execution. SI Beggs is scattered all over the electronic genre. Sometimes he offers Amon Tobin/Roni Size stylized, cinematic drum and bass; sometimes he invokes the drill 'n' bleep sensibility of m-ziq, and other times he seems to be nodding to original electro artist Afrika Bambaataa. Sitting in the middle of the album is a Dr. Octagon-styled, quasi-sci-fi track called "All Terrain Aspects" featuring rapper Aspects delivering Kool Keith inspired rhyme flow. Preceding this track is a quirkier, more flippant Two Lone Swordsmen styled ambient techno, "I like that [Brand New]."

One might expect this wide range of influences to merge into some sonic gestalt, but that never happens. Rather than generating a quiltwork masterpiece, the eclectic recording points to an undeveloped, uninspired vision.

The indiosynchracies that electronic music produces so frequently are for the most part worthless gimmicks and empty tricks. An interesting irony is that the dominant trope of the genre is a critique of the sterile techno dominated culture. Yet, for the most part, electronic music (most of which, like The Mission Statement, is soulless arrangements of sampled beats, and beeps) seems to contribute the most to fulfilling this tragic techno world.

Maxwell Yim

The Verve Pipe

UNDERNEATH

[RCA]

The Verve Pipe, a quintet of musicians hailing from East Lansing, Michigan, entered the scene five years ago with "Freshmen." The hit single, refurbished from an earlier compilation, I've Suffered A Head Injury, vaulted Villains, their first major record label release, into double-platinum status. No matter how overplayed, few people tired of the catchy anthem, and its continued popularity overshadowed the anticlimactic release of a mediocre self-titled second album in 1999. But fuzzy memories can no longer deflect the blandness of Underneath, the group's newest endeavor.

Oftentimes, the redeeming factor of a mediocre album is the presence of at least a couple dynamite tracks. Unfortunately, Underneath blows its load early in track two with "Never Let You Down," which has already pretty much expired from the airwaves of mainstream radio stations anyway. The remaining nine songs of the album serve up much of the same-unmemorable riffs, formulaic and repeating lyrics, and predictable structure.

As if this weren't irritating enough, the songs are almost impossible to distinguish from each other, as they dribble together to form one large aural glob that sounds like a low-grade conglomeration of a hundred different staled songs performed by a hundred developing light alternative bands from the early '90s.

Don't get me wrong, the album isn't wholly detestable-one could leave it spinning while out of the dorm room so that the rest of the world can hear it wafting, without incident, out the doors and windows. However, Underneath is good for little more than this purpose, since it is composed of ... stuff-for lack of a more nondescriptive word-that has already been tried and exhausted by other bands, or worst of all, by themselves.

The Verve Pipe fails to outdo their own previous work, and thus recedes into the realm of the one-hit-wonders-for now, anyway.

Jia Jung

Tweaker

THE ATTRACTION TO ALL THINGS UNCERTAIN

[Six Degrees]

Chris Vrenna was almost moved to tears the first time he saw Joe Sorren's painting, "Elliot's Attraction to All Things Uncertain". In fact, the former Nine Inch Nails drummer and studio whiz was so moved by Sorren's piece that he decided to use it as the inspiration and cover art for his first solo album, recorded under the name Tweaker. Cover art can say a lot about a record, so it's not promising when a cover features the type of sophomoric painting usually produced by art school students who wish they were more depressed and just generally creepier.

But what has made Vrenna's career is aural, not visual. From NIN to David Bowie to Xzibit, Vrenna has done varied creative and technical work with many respectable artists. With The Attraction to All Things Uncertain, he sets out to see if he can be an artist himself.

The results are positive, if occasionally predictable and a little bland. There is no doubt that Vrenna is an accomplished technician. He coaxes a wide range of sounds out of his gear and always mixes his songs quite well, easily moving between the industrial beats of Nine Inch Nails, the ambient sweeps of Brian Eno, and the computer beeps and squiggles of Add N to (X).

Vrenna also knows how to use guest artists. David Sylvian (of British cult band Japan), Will Oldham (of Palace Music), and Craig Wedren (of Shudder to Think) all offer vocal tracks that serve as nice, but unremarkable contrasts to Vrenna's instrumental pieces, while a slew of guitarists help to make the album sound less like traditional electronica.

Vrenna has created a successful synthesis of sounds, but not much more. His solo work isn't as creepy (or accessible) as what he did with Trent Reznor for NIN, nor does it make a statement in the same way that the work of Add N to (X) does. Simply put, this album is just a nice example of how to do electronic studio work. Perhaps Vrenna should pick a more interesting painting as inspiration for his next record.

Ross Cuff

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