Music

 

 

Lily's Siren: Elegant Cool

by Michelle Malik

The last show I saw of Lily's Siren was an energetic rock fest nearly a year ago at the Hard Rock Caf  at at City Walk. The band - Lucy, Dina, Mark, Dan, and Steve have grown roots since then, taking up different instruments and trying out new digs and new sounds. Their most recent adventure was at the classy Sherman Oaks restaurant Café Cordiale playing two acoustic sets of songs from their CD Take the World and a few new surprises.

                        To warm up, the crew caught us off-guard with a taste of their rocking version of the Erasure song, "Take a Chance on Me" with lovely harmony from lead singer Lucy and keyboardist and bassist Dina, followed by their own Beck-tinged tune with a country-western twist called "Picture Frame." Lucy reaches right out to her audience with the poignant "Standing Alone." A new age keyboard and soft guitar bring us into "Here Again" with moving lyrics like "I saw the future here in the doorway. In you I search for the answer. In you I find the way."

                        The Siren started grooving to "Tidal Wave," one of their newer, up-tempo songs with a smooth high-low harmony and potent drums followed by the mellow rock favorite, "More of the Same" and the popular "Keep Driving" about plugging away at your dreams. The funky title song "Take the World," "Fall" about the pitfalls of falling in love, "Two Days" about finding the strength to leave your significant other and the topper, "We Are America"  in tribute to our country after 9-11, rounded out the first set.

                        Band friend, George Bendele appreciates the new avenues they are taking their music and their collaborative writing efforts. E-mail the band for future show dates at lilyssiren@aol.com.

 

 

 

CD Review - The Coup's Party Music

The Coup is one of the groups that most people tend to sleep on.  If you're one of those people, stop that!  They are one of the most consistent groups in the game, dropping solid album after solid album.  In fact, Party Music (the group's latest release) contains two of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time, "Wear Clean Drawls" and "Heven Tonite."  The first is a song Boots wrote for his daughter passing on some of his fatherly advise.  With lyrics such as "This is for you and the woman that you finna be/Tell that boy his wrong/girls are strong/next time at show and tell play him our song," Boots not only starts his little girl on the road to empowerment but also reaffirms women's worth within our culture. Something that is not done often enough within hip hop.

                        Throughout the album the Coup speak for people living under dire conditions here in the U.S.; the ones whose social conditions may have been forgotten after our declaration of war against terrorism, making Party Music the most important album of 2001. The album is full of conscious - often revolutionary - lyrics put together to beats that are so funky you almost break your neck nodding your head to them.

 

 

 

Marcus Miller at Catalina: Pastel Funk

Story by Nick Burns; Photo by Jay Matsueda

 

A barely perceptible struggle wages between jazz and its venues. Since jazz has left the mainstream and become high culture in the minds of the middle-classes, club and restaurant owners have modified the images of their businesses according to the images of the preferred modern clientele: yuppies. Not the poor. (Duh.) And not the authentically weal-thy (who would more likely have the gall and wherewithal to complain about any artistic or culinary shortcomings). So how to please yuppies? By making highly visible efforts at pleasing. Bourgeois sensibilities stereotypically dictate the simple desire to have seemingly arrived at a state of luxury. Venues are painting themselves as that destination. Catalina Bar & Grill is no exception to the trend, and they've got the pastel atmosphere to prove it.

                        Enter Marcus Miller. His Feb 5 show spotlighted his enthusiastic efforts to connect with an audience scrubbed clean of the slightest upstarts of funkiness and relaxing in surroundings that lull listeners with complacency-inducing decor, distracting delicious food, and non-threatening fellow clientele: a scene about as gritty as mayonnaise on Wonder bread.

                        Miller's efforts included in-your-face volume levels, a set-list including a smattering of standards, well-known quotation-laced solos, and even a minstrel-like stroll around the audience; valiant all, but over-reaching. Miller wants us to feel what he feels, but he fights an uphill battle for several reasons: the aforementioned state of the listeners intellectually and emotionally addled by amenities, the compromised nature of jazz fusion, and the limitations of the music's underlying rock rhythms.

                        By its definition and placement on the spectrum spanning jazz and rock, fusion is neither here nor there. It sacrifices some of rock's regularity for jazz's freedom and streamlines some of jazz's complexities for rock's straightforward visceral appeal. But rock's rhythm is a one-trick pony and not up for the commitment of the longest jams. The thump-whack-repeat method gets boring more quickly than bebop's sloshing and uneven feel; the difference is like that between juggling two and three balls.

                        Other given aspects of Miller's performance, e.g., his virtuosity of technique, the skill of his band-mates, and the balance and diversity of the group as a whole, all succeeded in keeping the level of the art high. His bass work rolled from one cool phrase to the next, each a potential riff. Guitarist Dean Brown added several sounds, both acoustic and electric; often unpredictably choosing his sound for each song. Leroy Taylor's piano added ambiance as well as structure. Wind players Roger Byam (woodwinds) and Michael "Patches" Stewart (trumpet) balanced Miller's bass slaps with clean and traditional solos. And drummer Poogie Bell best characterized the personality with which he colored the performance by his range of grins, winces, and wagging-tongue facial expressions.

                        Miller typically connected with the audience only when his sound favored bebop or rock; he lost us in the fusion. But he clearly intended neither to merely coax the foolishly smug cheers that followed quotations of "Summertime" or "Favorite Things," nor to simply get feet tapping with a jam on some riff. He required us to share understanding of the uncompromising uniqueness of his style that, in his brain, must premise his artistic conclusions with a clarity that few others can know. His generosity is obvious, but more listeners will arrive at that understanding only when presented more cleverly.

 

 

The Towels a Company of Splendid Artists

by Alaina Fiorante

Ramp Records delivers us an interesting, obscure but refreshing 12-song album loaded with variety and originality. A Company of Splendid Artists, (and splendid they are), is a pleasant discovery of a musical arrangement of aurally intoxicating sounds which range from soft and melancholic, to early 70's rock nâ roll.  Song titled "Leprechaun Trousers"is rich with a moody, timeless 1960's sound and "If You Were My Baby" "is a languidly sung sweet love song with a slight tone of musical and lyrical satire.  This album renders a wave if relief while the shortage of uniqueness is at a high and is surely a musical quench.

 

 

 

Music Notes

by Alaina Fiorante

 

A one time Los Angeles Music award winner for Outstanding Male Singer/ Songwriter Kevin Henry"s new album release East On Sunset features 11 tracks of sentimental pop songs.  They call him "the next Bob Dylan,"

                        Texan bred singer/songwriter Jeffrey Halford and the Healers have released album Hunkpapa comprised primarily of rock n roll with a dab of folk and blues; Border Radio's new album Lil' Song Book features Kelly McCunes' razor sharp vocals which cover Patsy Montana's "I Want To Be A Cowboys Sweetheart" (and it's done quite well) in addition to 4 original tracks written by both Kelly McCune and Mike Stromberg.

                        A Windham Hill piano collection titled Songs Without Words is a collection of composers with contemporary, emotional and sensitive piano compositions.

                        Beth the Sybil releases My King Nimrod, an album based purely on ancient mythology and mysticism with undertones of the occult. Self-titled album Looks Like Rain, a 3 song recording featuring singer Amy Court with fellow band mates Joey Daigneault, Paul Marangoni and Michael Kujawa, available for purchase, check out website www.looks

likerain.net.

 

 

 

Chuck Berry & Little Richard

by Kat Kramer

 

How often do you see two genuine rock 'n roll legends together on one bill? Well, I did when I caught Chuck Berry and Little Richard at the Universal Amphitheatre. Richard, the original shock rocker, appeared on stage first, wearing an American flag designer costume. At 70, Little Richard still struts his stuff, performing a long set that included "Tutti Frutti," "Lucille," and "Good Golly Miss Molly." He even took the time to introduce his nephew Justin who sang a song by Usher.

                        Chuck Berry hit the stage at 10pm, and he proved he is still the real King of Rock at 75! Explosive Chuck ripped the Amphitheatre and went the gamut with "Carol," "Sweet Sixteen," "Little Queenie,""Maybellene," "My Ding A Ling," "Back in the USA" and, of course, "Johnny B Goode." I couldn't keep my feet from tappin'!

                        Chuck is the Man. He claims that 2002 is his year to record new material. Unfortunately, for the enthusiastic audience, Chuck and Little Richard did not perform together. But they wowed the crowd, which consisted of kids as well as the older, hipster set.

                        Little Richard will be inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame at the Image Awards on February 23rd. Chuck, keep your band, mate! They were hot - Kirk Arthur on drums, Michael Clark on piano and Jim Marsala on bass! (sponsored by K-Earth 101)