Jersey Beat Columns - Savage Slices

SAVAGE SLICES: Reviews by Eric Savage

STREET DOGS – State of Grace (Hellcat Records)

JIM BOGGIA – Misadventures in Stereo (www.jimboggia.com)

Given the melancholy which pervades the lyrics of this release, Jim Boggia’s newest CD would be pretty depressing but for the sure-handed pop touch and variety of styles that he uses to dispense his tales. Playing most of the instrumentals himself, a combination of acoustic guitar, piano, bass and drums, he is able to coax a range of tone colors and approaches which keeps the album from ever getting bogged down. In true pop style, most of the album is about loss and reminiscence, much of it fueled by music and the power that a song or band has to call back times and relationships.. “On Your Birthday” is a lovely recollection of a relationship tied together by memories of concerts and parties, and hinting strongly of Paul Simon’s early solo releases. “Listening to NRBQ” does much the same thing, but skirts closer to Fountains of Wayne style, although without the “look at me” cleverness which sometimes takes that band a little too far. Al Anderson ventures in from NRBQ to supply guitar for the Elton John-tinged “8track”. Listeners can actually have a pretty good time teasing out the influences at work here, which seem to include Harry Nilsson, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. Occasionally, the references are worn a little too much on the sleeve; “Chalk One Up For Albert’s Side”, the tale of a bullied boy who gets revenge, has harmonies so disturbingly out of “Our House” from early Crosby Stills & Nash. The album ends with the devastating “Three Weeks Shy”, about the death of a soldier in Iraq close to the end of his tour. By keeping the song personal and non-political, Boggia manages to make it stronger and more effective and bring home the horror of the war, somewhat like “The Home Front” and “The Man I Shot” from the most recent Drive-By Truckers CD. Overall, this is a very well-produced and thoughtful record by someone who has absorbed many influences and converted them into a distinctive personal and emotional message. It isn’t loud, but it makes an impact.

NURSE WITH WOUND – Huffin’ Rag Blues (www.jnanarecords.com)

A bizarre blenderizing of (mostly) jazz stylings represents the first record in many years for Steven Stapleton’s ongoing Nurse With Wound project. Over the thirty years since he first founded what was then a band, Stapleton has involved musicians who have formed such bands as Foetus, Organum, Stereolab, Strawberry Switchblade. By now, and bearing in mind this album was recorded in 2005 and 2008, the band, if it can be called that, is Stapleton and sound artist Andrew Liles. Many of the eleven tracks consist not so much of songs, but shifting musical reflections, many electronic with a dream logic sitting on a bed of free jazz. Sometimes this works, sometimes it don’t. The longest piece here, “The Funktion of the Hairy Egg”, works despite its fourteen minute length, and odd combination of tape loops, experimental jazz, a buried country song, and collection of animal noises. “Black Teeth” is the straightest song here, a Tom Waits-inspired rant and well done. Other selections find the group doing odd deconstructions of “All of Me” and “Thrill of Romance”, or original selections from Lynn Jackson, whose vocals call to mind Peggy Lee in highly depressed mood. By contrast, “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’” is a constantly repeated jazzy riff, punctuated with traffic noises and other urban dramatics and six minutes plus of this gets very old very quickly. Anyone looking for accessible rhythms or the like is going to turn this off very quickly, but a 2 a.m. sense of gallows humor and willingness to follow Stapleton into his musical subterranean impulses may find this hypnotically rewarding. - Eric A. Savage

WINDMILL – Puddle City Racing Lights (www.friendlyfirerecords.com)

This is a record of undeniable sincerity, and like listening to a long speech of undeniable sincerity, it gets tiresome after not too long. Windmill is, to all intents and purposes, a British singer-songwriter, Matthew Thomas Dillon, whose approach is, sad to say, frustratingly consistent from song to song. Pretty much every song is dominated by a very much up in the mix piano, with Dillon’s high-pitched vocals. The desired effect may be Neil Young, but it’s more like Thom Yorke speeded up a few RPMs and lacking the emotional depth. Neither the lyrics, with indirect criticisms of the vapid nature of modern life, nor the occasional use of strings, horns or backing vocals, elevate the CD past the stage of well-produced “nice idea” stage. The fact that there is little variation in the slow tempos or approach among the songs makes everything flow together in a way which sucks the interest out of the record after a few tracks. As an introduction to the world, this would have worked better as an EP where the earnestness would have counted for more than the repetitive quality of the disk. Good for parts of an indie movie soundtrack or a compilation, but an effort to listen to as a complete album. - Eric A. Savage

TAMMANY HALL NYC - Marathon (www.tammanyhallnyc.com) -

This is one terrific CD by a group which keeps getting better and is clearly worthy of national attention. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. First, although you can hear a lot of influences in the group's sound, including Sting, Eels, Jack Johnson, and Wallflowers to name a few, their feel is very original., regardless whether they go hard, or acoustic, or jazzy with a strong saxophone solo and very solid bass work throughout. The melodies are beautifully put together with a strong emotional pull without ever being sappy, sentimental or obvious. Second, and this may sound odd when talking about a power-pop style trio, the work of drummer Dave Femia gives the music an unpredictability. He manages to infuse what could easily be lazily constructed rhythm section work with island and funk beats which work seamlessly with the songs. This is clearly a band which has found a way to write seductive songs without taking the easy way out. Third, the lyric writing of lead singer Steven O'Reilly manages to blend real emotion with a New York City sense of place in a way which is almost irresistible. It starts with the title track, about a guy falling in love with his partner as they watch the New York City Marathon proceed up First Avenue, and proceeds throughout the album. There are no cheesy rhymes or descents into sappiness even when the lyrics are hopeful or positive. In fact, more often, they are thoughtful and genuine. It's hard to see any real weakness in the band or the CD or any reason not to buy it and play it and enjoy it a lot.

NEW ENGLAND ROSES - Face Time With Son (Doggpony www.dnp006.com)

This CD tries to find the space where Cat Power-type minimalist folk music meets ambient electronic sounds, although having listened to the twelve songs, it's hard to understand why finding the space is really necessary. The vocals are beyond deadpan and what occasional nice moments exist are overshadowed by unlistenable semi-rap and a totally funk-less, sex-less cover of George Michael's "Faith". Why - you may ask. Who knows? "Talking 'bout A Revolution", Tracy Chapman's signature number, is a great song, and since Living Colour breathed a different kind of life into it, the song is open to other interpretations, but an expressionless version like the one which closes this CD is painful.

MONKEY PAW - Honkey Kong (www.monkeypaw.net) -

The best word to describe this disk, the second from this Chicago trio, is "spiky". In the best spirit of punk tradition, it manages to stick its tongue out in lots of different directions, while still managing to be interesting and engaging. How so? Well, although the musicianship clearly has that DIY sound to it, at no point do they ever find a simple groove and stick with it from wire to wire. Instead, the band does a lot of shifting tempos and rhythms, and finds ways to inject off-beats into songs to keep you listening and not have your head banging the same way for an entire song. The singing is bratty, and almost obnoxious, and often seems to deal with various sexual acts, but somehow there's actually a fair degree of melody in the songs which has the album almost veering (but never quite reaching) a pop-punk feel. Add to that a crisp, generally well-produced sound, and you have a release which manages to take a bunch of diverse elements, as well as their opposites, and put them together so they work. I'm still not sure I can figure out how they did that, but it's good, so who cares?

THE DEACONS - Brooklyn Towne (Made In Brooklyn Records, c/o Stremme, 1005 Foster Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11230)

Well, the river of punk has grown plenty of little tributaries over the last thirty years, so here's a new one, family values punk. No, not Pat Robertson-style family values, but more like Bruce Springsteen, working class salt of the earth-type family values. There probably is some irony, or historical symmetry here, with the music starting off as a statement of ultimate anti-roots rebellion and, at least with this album, becoming a roots reaffirmation, laced through with a distinct and overtly proletarian political view. In any event, there's something admirable in the fact that the Deacons, a three-piece band with a pretty straightforward Green Day/Ramones approach, choose to sing about subjects bigger than their own neuroses and take on social and political issues, even on a small scale. Granted, we're not talking extremely sophisticated analysis here, but this is rock and roll, not political scholarship. The clearest moment comes n the band's ballsiest move, adding two verses and changing the chorus of "Ohio", which started its life as a bullet aimed right at the head of the Nixon/Agnew administration and has since become an item of political and musical nostalgia for a more engaged time. Whether you like their additions or not, and they tend to be bludgeoning whereas Neil Young was more cryptic, they get points for putting their hearts right on their sleeves. A little more variety in speeds and approach and not using the f-word on virtually every song would have made this a stronger album, but it's still pretty darn good.

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