This Is The Glamorous
NEW WET KOJAK
Beggars Banquet
NWK is the long-running, less weighty side project of Girls Against Boys vocalist Scott McCloud and bassist Johnny Temple. And, at four or five releases in, that's exactly what it sounds like — a lighter, jazzier, slightly more subtle version of GvsB. With saxophone.
Not that that's a bad thing at all; This Is The Glamorous is a great listen. NWK's dark sensuality is as palpable, if more understated, as that of McCloud and Temple's parent company, lending the groovy, dynamic tunes an intriguing propulsion. And this quintet's sonic palette is more varied, ranging from the thick, throbbing disco-gone-bad pioneered by GvsB ("The World of Shampoo") to quasi-anthemic rock ("Something Easy," "This Is The Glam"), Morphine-esque weirdness ("Nothing You Can Say," "Bad Things"), volcanic slow-burn (the highlight "Real World Tonight") and spare meditation ("Jealous").
But McCloud's gravelly voice and seedy night-style obsessions, Temple's oft-propulsive bass lines, and the perpetual electronic noodling forcibly recall latter-day Girls Against Boys throughout. Which, again, is a good thing, though one wonders why the desire to collaborate outside one's regular gig, for years, hasn't yielded something a little further afield than what could arguably be called the GvsB take on a comedown. 
1/2 —Scott Harrell
Rizzudo
RIZZUDO
Moodswing
Atlanta trio Rizzudo's debut disc puts a new spin on the sort of technical, aggressive and mostly instrumental noise-rock usually associated with Chicago's fertile indie scene. While their guitar-driven, Moog-accessorized tunes are at times as muscular and intense as anybody else's, they possess an inherently less serious vibe — it sounds like it was played with plenty of big grins and head-nodding, as opposed to the standard maniacal grimace. When Rizzudo locks into a groove (which, given their scattershot arrangements, is fairly rarely), it bounces organically rather than chugging along like a machine. Their uniqueness is also their weakness, however, because some of the material here seems light to the point of insubstantiality. For every agile anthemic hook or clever dynamic change, there's something that seems tossed off, a trifle. A creative, well-played and occasionally bruising trifle, sure, but somehow uncommitted nonetheless. Rizzudo is an OK listen, and thankfully brief; so many bands of this stripe go far beyond the point where it all starts to sound like noise. But the trio might benefit from taking a stand for either the abrasive or the quirky, or risk getting lost somewhere in between. 1/2 —Scott Harrell
Break Your Mother's Heart
TIM EASTON
New West
Being a singer/songwriter is an occupational hazard — one that's frequently misconstrued as a somewhat negative stereotype wrought with sophomoric lyrics, redundant chord structures and cheesy faux-sincerity. But in recent years, this mentality has been successfully challenged by several emerging artists, among them Athens-based musician Tim Easton. On his second New West release, Easton shows remarkable growth as a writer and performer as he mines both the internal and external world for provocative and thoughtful material. He plays most of the instruments as well, with help from drummer extraordinaire Jim Keltner, bassist Hutch Hutchinson and keyboardist Jai Winding. Combining a folkie sensibility with contemporary energy and a dash of urban blues, Break Your Mother's Heart tells stories and elicits deep emotional responses. Though Easton's sound is quite unique, his influences are obvious. There's a bit of Nick Drake in the haunting "Hanging Tree," and the slow, driving rhythm underlying "Lexington Jail" is straight out of the Delta blues lexicon. And even when the lyrics tend to be tangential (as on "Hummingbird"), the yearning quality in Easton's voice conveys a sadness that emphasizes the emotion in his songs. —James Kelly
So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness
JOAN OF ARC
Jade Tree
The latest from uberhip Chicago indie outfit Joan of Arc finds its principal Tim Kinsella (Cap'N Jazz, Owls) returning from the futuristic experimentation of recent efforts to a slightly more organic sound. But neither that nor the presence of a ton of other underground heroes (including members of Califone, Ugly Casanova, Owen, Red Red Meat and many others) ends up making this collection of leftovers, one-off session highlights and newly finished languishing concepts much more listenable than the rest of the band's jarring, meandering catalog. Now, exploration is commendable, and Kinsella's lyrics are often intriguing and/or disturbing. Musically, however, this disc is just too scattered for anyone other than diehard scientists of sound. Certain tracks ("Perfect Need and Perfect Completion," "Participation Billy," "Mean to March") insinuate themselves; too many, though, serve as petri dishes for growing those broken-glass guitar noodlings that made the Owls disc so irritating. A more subdued Joan of Arc is not necessarily a much more ear-friendly one. —Scott Harrell
Shot Down on Safari
BAD COMPANY UK
BC/Human/System
Partnering drum 'n' bass producers Jason Maldini, Darren "D-Bridge" White, Dan "Fresh" Stein and Michael "Vegas" Wojicky, Bad Company UK have nothing but a name in common with the like-monikered classic rock group. Generating voluminous sound at convulsive volumes, Bad Company UK's only rock 'n' roll fantasy involves rolling bass lines designed to wrack — not just rock — bodies. Shot Down on Safari is a two-CD collection: the Safari album is nine original productions, while the accompanying Best of the Bad mix is a well-greased segue of 21 older tracks. Both Safari discs comprise a dark-step barrage of epileptic snares, belligerent bass and turbulent, menacing synths that will surely have speaker diaphragms fibrillating as if at the receiving end of a taser. Shot Down on Safari proper is the more varied disc, its content ranging from upfront ragga roller ("Mo' Fire") to stabbing scuzz-buzz ("The Hornet," "Snow Cat") to bouncy disco hustle ("Jellybean") — the crisp chatter falling somewhere between Renegade Hardware, Virus and V Recordings. Weak, however, are the samba-swing-meets-sheep-bleat of "Dr. Shevago" and sci-fi-dialogue-sampling "Torpedo." Meanwhile, the second CD is a throttling showcase offering no reprieve for the first 12 of its 21 tracks. The Bad Company of Shot Down on Safari may not make you feel like makin' love, but they'll fuck your head. 1/2—Tony Ware
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2003.