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Music Reviews - 23. page

ANIMAL KINGDOM: THE LOOKING AWAY

(MOM AND POP RECORDS; 2012)

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The lead single to the new Animal Kingdom album, “Get Away With It,” suckered me in and, as I’d read nice things about the band, I thought… “Why Not?” Well… hows’bout I am not a little girl or an old woman or an emotionally fragile 20-something in need of a hug?

The album’s lead track, “The Wave,” actually had me thinking that I was in for a real treat! With “Get Away With It” (and how apt a title that proved to be) up next, I was really starting to get into THE LOOKING AWAY! Song number three, “Strange Attractor,” had a freaky, cloying vibe – kinda like that annoying Bruno Mars song (pick one, they all pretty much fit the bill). Still, it was only one song out of three, right? But “Straw Man” was worse! However, I was bound and determined to stick this thing out and find the good hiding amongst the goo! “Skipping Disc” and “Glass House” had me checking to make sure someone hadn’t slipped me a mickey in the form of that twit, the Bieb. “No,” I thought, “That can’t be it. Even the Bieb has more balls than this!” I’m fairly certain that somewhere toward the middle of “Glass House,” I started to lactate. I managed to make it through “The Art of Tuning Out,” something which I became adept at early on in the tune.

Even if I was concerned about looking hip and “with it,” there is absolutely no way on earth that I would ever sink low enough to listen to THE LOOKING AWAY again! Besides, I thought the government outlawed this kind of torture.

ANT-BEE: LUNAR MUZIK

(DIVINE RECORDS, UK; 1997) A REVIEW FROM THE VAULTS (UPDATE BELOW)

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The entity known far and wide (and just around the corner) as Ant-Bee is actually a mad genius named Billy James, who has managed to cozy up to an unimaginable group of rock stars, including Gong’s Daevid Allen, every member of the original Alice Cooper with a name other than Alice Cooper (including the late Glen Buxton), and a slue of ex-Zappa sidemen who occasionally go by the name “Grandmothers” (Bunk Gardner, Motorhead Sherwood, Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada, and Don Preston, among others). James himself is sort of a rock everyman: He plays drums, guitar, keyboards, bass; he writes… music and books (he’s written or co-written books about/with Peter Banks, Michael Bruce, Grand Funk Railroad, and – his latest – Todd Rundgren); he produces and, occasionally, he slices and dices (just like Sean “P. Doh-Wah Diddy-Daddy” Combs, only with talent); he promotes other musician’s releases. And, regardless of the involvement of the ex-Mothers, he has a definite Frank Zappa sensibility toward songwriting, production, and arrangement. Listen, for instance, to the album’s opener, “Snorks and Wheezes,” with its bizarre time changes, obtuse vocals in a psuedo-doo-wop middle section, and Ruth Underwood-style percussion, and tell me that you are not having a late ’60s-early ’70s Mothers flashback.

“Child of the Moon” is a pretty straight take on the old Jagger-Richard B-side, with some nice orchestration and vocals. It also features some nice acoustic work. Later, James and his uber-minions give the same treatment to Mike Nesmith’s amazing psychedelic country hit, “Love Is Only Sleeping.” There’s a wicked guitar solo – performed by Roy Herman – that weaves its way throughout “Love Is Only Sleeping,” adding to the overall psychedelic feel of the tune. Again, like Zappa, compositions/ideas tend to run together. The triptych nestled between “Child of the Moon” and “Love Is Only Sleeping” wanders between lunatic rave-ups (with a couple of wild backward guitar solos – which always seem to sound more impressive than they probably are – and a percussive coda repeated from “Snorks and Wheezes” on “Blew a Banana Thru the Sun”) and introspective balladry (complete with harpsicord, gongs, and lilting vocals on “The One Who Is Gold”) and back again (“Silicone Hump,” an ancient Don Preston piece of Turtles-esque lunacy). The album’s centerpiece, “By-and-By I Touch the Sky,” is a composition in four parts, encompassing Harvey Bainbridge’s (he of Hawkwind fame) “The Swan and the Horseshoe” and Neal Smith’s (he of Alice Cooper fame) “The Platinum God” sandwiched between original James music. The nearly ten minute piece continues LUNAR MUZIK’s thematic make-up: Pretty, almost pastoral vocals interspersed with manic percussion and noisy rock guitar. Bainbridge’s part is an almost ambient synthesizer wash, leading back to the main theme before giving way to “The Platinum God,” which features the four ex-Coopers – Neal Smith, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and some trippy guitar from Glen Buxton, undoubtedly one of the last things he recorded before his death.

Ant-Bee/Billy James (publicity photo)
Ant-Bee/Billy James (publicity photo)

The album ends – much as it began – with songs running together, themes repeated and overlapping into each other. “Diva Gliss (Are You Sirius?),” which flows out of the final movement of “By-and-By I Touch the Sky,” is by Daevid Allen and features him on guitar; the tune leads – seamlessly – into “Tears That Fall Unto the Sky,” a return, as it were, to “By-and-By… ,” which leads into a Michael Bruce/Billy James composition called “Return of the Titanic Overture.” The piece features themes and pieces of music culled from the very first Alice Cooper album, PRETTIES FOR YOU. It, like “Tears That Fall Unto the Sky,” features Bruce’s guitar work. “Son of Snorks and Wheezes” closes the proceedings with an even more bizarre take on the opening track. It features most of the Grandmothers, with Jimmy Carl Black’s prominent Indian chants and attempts to extort money and beer from the producer. Boys and girls, this is the type of inspired lunacy that one could regularly expect to find in the record bins as the 1960s phased into the 1970s: Nearly virtuoso performances coupled with adventurous arrangements, melding rock with jazz, doo-wop, classical instrumentation, and big-band phrasing. Though the album has been out for awhile, it’s so hard to come by that I only recently acquired this CD-R copy from James himself and I just had to tell you about it. Oh, yeah… the album artwork is by some guy named Syd Barrett! (Check out Billy James’ “Web Bizarre” at www.ant-bee.com and, if you’re really nice to him, you may be able to pick up your very own copy of LUNAR MUZIK… before it’s too late!)

(UPDATE) Gonzo Multimedia’s reissue of LUNAR MUZIK was released in June 2014. For ordering information, check Billy’s site.

AMBROSIA PARSLEY: I MISS YOU, I DO

(SELF-RELEASED DIGITAL EP; 2012)

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This is what Elvis (the dead, fat one) would sound like if he were a lot younger, a lot hipper, a chick and not dead. The latest from former Shivaree front-woman Ambrosia Parsley, I MISS YOU, I DO, offers a divine taste of her next full-length, WEEPING CHERRY. Listening to the five songs, it’s easy to understand why the thing was originally going to be called FOUR FUNERALS AND A WEDDING.

The first track, “The Other Side,” features a teen-angsty ’50s kinda vibe, but with bigger drums (think Phil Specter’s Wall of Sound) and a fuzzy, tremelo-laced guitar leading the charge. Ambrosia’s sweet voice almost gets lost in the bigness of the musical backing. Nonetheless, a great opener!

A gloomy, plaintive minor key piano backs Ambrosia to start “Whispering Pines,” an elegantly doom-laden little number. Eventually, a church organ, bells, acoustic guitar and bass join in. As a male counter-vocal enters at about the 2:30 mark, the song hits a third, separate feel – somehow more crushing and claustrophobic than the first two.

Ambrosia Parsley (publicity photo)
Ambrosia Parsley (publicity photo)

Nighttime” is a duet of sorts, featuring the same male voice (sorry… wish I had names to go along with voices and instruments, but all I have is music!) from “Whispering Pines.” Even though the music (featuring guitar – both acoustic and electric, piano and eventually, drums and bass) and vocals sound breezy at the start, by the time Ambrosia sings “Get me outta here/Get me outta here/I hate it here/Get me outta here,” a phobic paranoia settles in. The creep factor is high on this one which, even at only two-and-a-half minutes long, makes it an instant favorite around here.

With more loud guitars and drums, “Losing the Holiday” offers a more “modern” feel to the proceedings. Again, Ambrosia’s vocals are nearly lost in the din during the chorus. She does shine through brightly on the verses, in which a sense of hopelessness and loneliness and a certain tired resignation are evident. The fact that these songs are presented with an almost lighthearted airiness makes the underlying tone of despondency that much more ominous. This is GOTH music without the black backdrops and eye-makeup.

The Answer (Tim and Becky’s Wedding)” is supposed to be the happy song, but with lines like “When my hands are tied and my hair’s a mess” and “There’s no chance at all, I confess/The answer’s yes,” the picture painted is of a victim succumbing to her tormentor (rapist?). The song again hearkens back to that ’50s teen drama sound (almost a doo-wop feel, except for the presence of instrumentation).

I MISS YOU, I DO has definitely whetted my appetite for more. Bring on WEEPING CHERRY!