The Attic Tapes
LUCERO
Liberty and Lament/East West
While this reissue of the hip Tennessee alt-country band's first recordings — originally released on tiny Memphis imprint Soul is Cheap in the early '00s in extremely limited quantities — holds some great music, it chiefly serves as a historical document. Singer Ben Nichols' compelling rasp and the embryonic group's loose camaraderie are already in place on the lo-fi, accordion- and fiddle-accompanied acoustic tracks that made up the original release.
But only "The Blue and the Grey" really sucks the listener in like the best of Lucero's later, more rocking material, and of the three added-on demos, "Katherine and Me" alone transcends the debilitating production quality. The real treasure here comes in the form of an early version of "My Best Girl" and a semi-acoustic take on the live-favorite Jawbreaker cover "Kiss The Bottle," which were previously available only as a long out-of-print 7-inch. They're must-haves. 3 stars Scott Harrell
Karmacode
LACUNA COIL
Century Media
Italian Goth-metal act Lacuna Coil was the breakout act of OzzFest '04, the one whose album sales jumped precipitously over the course of the tour. That put its new record under the weight of some serious anticipatory hype. Unfortunately, it's fairly obvious that the expectation has influenced the final product. Karmacode finds the band's more adventurous and atmospheric elements buried under a slick, pop-masquerading-as-nu-metal production and the kind of down-tuned single-string guitar grooves that were tired by the second Korn album, but refuse to go away. Female vocalist/buzz focal point Cristina Scabbia is still a talented and evocative singer, and touches of baroque and Middle Eastern influences still rise through the gauzy, string-laden sheen from time to time, but the songs run anonymously into one another for the duration of the disc. An interesting version of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" provides the only real highlight, and you know what they say: If the cover song is the best track on your album, you're in serious trouble. 2 stars SH
Theme & Variations
PETE MALINVERNI
Reservoir Music
For his first solo piano outing, New York pianist Malinverni didn't want to fall back on the obvious: extended iterations of standards or explorations of his own material. Instead, he begins with his classical-esque "Theme: Da Solo" (Italian, not hip-hop-ese) and follows up the lyrical, one-minute piece with 13 short variations, all improvised. They range from probing to frenetic to quaint, and together become something of a primer on jazz piano. Despite their brevity, these excursions manage to be quite fulfilling. Further, Malinverni intersperses loving takes on some of his favorite tunes, among them a gospel-hued turn at Sly's "Everybody is a Star," the gleaming, Monk-esque original "In the Garden of Eternal Optimist," and a stately "These Foolish Things." Themes & Variations manages to be at once ambitious and ear-friendly. (www.reservoirmusic.com) 4 stars Eric Snider
Popular Music for Unpopular People
EAST WEST BLAST TEST
Ipecac
Avant-prog-metal grows with this release from bassist/guitarist Chris Dodge and drummer Dave Witte. The two collaborated while not even in the same state: Witte would record drum tracks in New Jersey and send them to Dodge in California to polish off. The songs that resulted are brief and odd little spurts of noise, with Witte's impressive array of fills anchoring things. This could easily have become yet another of those harder-than-hard metal shred-fests, but Dodge brings a wide variety of sounds to match Witte's work. The pair never quite gets over the hump that separates just intriguing from truly great, although a handful of tracks come close. 3 stars Cooper Lane Baker
Levittown EP
RETISONIC
Ascetic
The first four of these six tracks from veteran D.C.-area unit Retisonic are everything D.C.-area posthardcore is supposed to be: guitar- and odd-rhythm-driven, sinewy, vaguely dissonant, vaguely melodic, smart. They're not particularly innovative — at times, this could be any band that digs on Bullet Lavolta, Burning Airlines and the Dischord Records catalog — but they do the job well, and with a certain, cool rock 'n' roll sassiness. The group goes semi-acoustic for this disc's last two cuts; "Sweet Mess" scores heavily with an interesting drums-in-the-next-room mix and unbridled energy, but "Novacane (Sic)," which sounds like it could've been a throwaway from Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies, ends this largely satisfying listen on a low note. (www.asceticrecords.com) 3 stars SH
This article appears in May 10-16, 2006.