| CAMBODIAN POP GOES FAR
The Cambodian pop music of the 1960s seems like an unlikely template for an American rock 'n' roll band, but that's the sound that captivated Dengue Fever keyboard player Ethan Holtzman during an especially perilous trip through the Cambodian countryside in 1997. "I was up in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat (the ancient temple complex built by Khmer kings between the seventh and 13th centuries) with a friend," Holtzman says. "We got a ride back to Phnom Penh in a small pickup truck. My friend was coming down with dengue fever, getting delirious, and the driver was blasting Cambodian pop music from the late '60s on his tape player. The truck stopped in every town to pick up more riders, and with the heat, the overcrowding and my friend's fever, it became surrealistic. I always have my ears open for things that sound good, and that music really made an impression." Before he flew back to Los Angeles, Holtzman picked up every cassette of Cambodian pop from the '60s he could find.
Critic's pick
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Rick Rubin's creative reassembly of Johnny Cash's career and the manner with which he produced, in the last eight years of the country icon's life, some of the most absorbing music Cash ever recorded. American V differs from previous chapters, though. It was cut mostly after wife June Carter's death and in the midst of Cash's deteriorating health. Couple that with the fact American V boasts a surprisingly conservative song selection (instead of Trent Reznor and Will Oldham, we have Rod Muen and Gordon Lightfoot), one might suspect the Cash- Rubin alliance hit a wall during the singer's final days. American V dispels such concerns at the outset by transforming Help Me, a country tune by the criminally uncool Larry Gatlin, into a stunning confessional.
Mix picks: CD
DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, "Dusk and Summer" (Vagrant Records) -- The latest album from Chris Carrabba's super-successful emo-rock outfit Dashboard Confessional continues the artist's emotional excursions into the world of young love -- with all its heightened yearnings and frequent sorrows. And if there are hints of U2-style production textures, as in the standout second track "Reason to Believe," well, U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois had a hand in the production, though Linkin Park producer Don Gilmore, who produced Dashboard's 2004 "Spider-Man 2" soundtrack hit "Vindicated," is responsible for most of it. .
Riffs - a Web-only column
Lemmy Kilmister is not exactly the first name you would associate with thumping, bass-driven rockabilly and exuberant R&B and blues covers, but those are precisely the sounds that influenced him in his earlier years. He returns to those sounds with his new release The Head Cat (Rock-a-Billy), a trio date with Danny B. Harvey operating as primary soloist and Slim Jim Phantom supplying the big beat fills on their versions of Buddy Holly's “Peggy Sue Got Married," “Learning The Game" and “Crying, Waiting, Hoping."
Kilmister's voice is animated and energetic, if at times a bit to the grizzled side, but he clearly understands the spirit of the sounds, even if he doesn't always exactly replicate the tone. Other numbers the threesome effectively tackle include Johnny Cash's “Big River," Carl Perkins' “Matchbox," Jimmy Reed's “You got Me Dizzy" and Lloyd Price's “Lawdy Miss Clawdy." Phantom's drumming proves ideal for the occasion, not so steady it lacks drive or impact, but still squarely in the rhythmic pocket.
Electronic dance act Dress Code finds focus
Although local electronic dance act Dress Code performs occasionally in clubs and at events like Mid-Point Music Festival in Cincinnati, Derek "DJH" Holley thinks of his project more as a virtual band. As the term suggests, the Dayton-native's one-man electronic band has a much larger presence on the Internet. .
Live Review: CSNY in Ottawa
OTTAWA - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have been singing songs that tell American presidents to stop the war for close to 40 years. Back in the late 1960s, it was about getting out of Vietnam. Four decades later, the U.S. is once again in a controversial war, this time in Iraq, and support for the peaceniks is swelling. With all this renewed hippie-friendly sentiment fomenting, and pop music looking backwards anyways, it was a largely fascinating exercise in wishful thinking as the veteran supergroup stirred up outrage and affection in the 12,000 fans attending their Freedom of Speech '06 tour at Scotiabank Place last night. Proof that if you stick with something long enough, eventually it will come back into fashion. On the first tour since 2002, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young first joined forces in 1969 when a memorable performance at Woodstock gave the giant music festival and the youth movement of the 1960s an articulate and optimistic voice.
|
