Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
WILCO
Nonesuch
Wilco's last two records — 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and last year's A Ghost Is Born — are often described with terms like "groundbreaking" and "experimental." And while the former country-rock band's most recent work is certainly outré by mainstream standards, it's difficult to peg the band's work as all that provocative, coming as it does a full half-century after John Cage.
This, of course, takes nothing away from Wilco's prowess as a first-class rock band, a fact amply demonstrated on this live double-CD stitched together from a four-night stint at Chicago's Vic Theatre earlier this year. The performances by the band are tough and energetic, passionate and noisy. Listen to the electric guitar work on "Handshake Drugs" — from Born — and you know that lead singer/guitarist/principal Jeff Tweedy and guitarist Nels Cline can rock the joint out.
The album is not unanimously terrific for a couple of reasons, however. First, the material leans too heavily on songs from Born, one of the band's least impressive efforts. Second, the group sometimes relies too heavily on washes of feedback, a problem evident during the group's visit to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center last February. Placed properly, dissonance can be a gleeful thing, but it can also become a crutch, as it does for Sonic Youth during that band's lazier moments.
Nevertheless, the album remains a revelatory live document of one of the finest bands around. And while it may not be avant-this or avant-that, when Wilco kicks off the album with "Misunderstood" — one of the finest of the band's career — and Tweedy starts singing "You're back in your old neighborhood," you're humming along. How could you not? 3.5 stars.
COOPER LANE BAKER
Mr. Xcitement
U-God
Free Agency Recordings
The least well-known and prolific member of Wu-Tang Clan is also its least innovative and interesting. U-God's second full-length solo album boasts a small handful of bright spots — the snappy beat and guest raps by Boo Kapone, Squeak Ru and MC Eiht on "Get Down;" the acid-rock of "I'm Talkin' To You"; the hilarious ego hyperbole of "Get Pretty Like Me" — but mostly consists of militantly plodding gangsta throb and cheesy, dated club tracks. The featured attraction seems confident he'll get by on his trademark gravelly baritone; it's not enough to carry many of these one-dimensional formulas, and when he starts to sing, it only gets worse. (www.freeagencyrecordings.com) 2 stars.
SCOTT HARRELL
Fall Heads Roll
THE FALL
Narnack
The Fall's umpteenth set of buzzing and clattering punk rock, Fall Heads Roll is a capable effort that proves that lead singer — and sole constant band member — Mark E. Smith still has plenty to snarl and slur about. Most of the songs work a niche long comfortable for fans, but the exceptions are what make the record: the surprising acoustic track "Early Days of Channel Führer" and the sparse, mellow "Midnight in Aspen" (and its reprise). Do you think The Killers will be this good in 2030? Me neither. 3 stars.
COOPER LANE BAKER
Hazardous Mutation
MUNICIPAL WASTE
Earache
This Richmond, VA outfit plays breakneck old-school thrash from the early, D.R.I.-dominated days of metal/hardcore crossover, and they do it exceedingly well, with just the barest hint of groovy contemporary metalcore thrown in for good measure. Hazardous Mutation boasts 15 occasionally complex but mostly just blistering tracks that blow by in well under half an hour, and feature excellent titles like "Nailed Casket," "Abusement Park" and "The Thrashin' of Christ." There're no death-rattle vocals or melodramatic ambience here, just a lot of shouting, airtight riffing and sweaty top-speed fun. 4 stars.
SCOTT HARRELL
Descended Like Vultures
ROGUE WAVE
Sub Pop
Rogue Wave's sophomore album arrives to strengthen power-pop's hold on the indie-rock imagination, offering up 11 succulent yet muscular melodies. While the band's first release was essentially lead singer Zach Rogue all by his lonesome, this one features contributions from the full band that Rogue has toured with over the past couple years, and the difference shows. Rogue's smooth voice is as pretty as ever, but it's the pounding rock behind him that really sets this release apart. 4 stars.
COOPER LANE BAKER
Mercurotones
THE BUCK PETS
Island
Just a couple of years prior to the early-'90s grunge/alt breakthrough, Dallas drunk-rock quartet The Buck Pets rode a reputation as "the next Replacements" to a major-label deal, a loyal cult following and ultimately, nothing else. This sophomore effort — and Island Records' last-ditch attempt to break the band — tempers its equally amazing predecessor's slabs of riff and smart, free-associative lyrics with acoustic guitars, keyboards and a slicker production, but the melancholy wasted-youth poetry and idiot-savant arrangements shine through. Anyone who loves Westerberg and early Soul Asylum would do well to seek out this woefully out-of-print gem.
SCOTT HARRELL
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2005.