This week in music

Bare Jr.
“Brainwasher”

Bare Jr. has found their way onto the new music scene with their new CD entitled
“Brainwasher.”
The album starts out on a rather melodious note with “Overture: Love Theme
from Brainwasher” featuring the sounds of what might be a full orchestra
playing a slow instrumental piece.
The album then kicks into high gear with the title track, which explodes with
a sound that can be generally classified as Lit meets Silverchair. It has a
high amount of energy and is an excellent hook into the rest of the album.
The band has a sound all its own, though, and proves it with the presence of
a dulcimer, which was first used by Aerosmith in “Dulcimer Stomp,”
an instrumental lead into “The Other Side.” However, Bare Jr. incorporates
the dulcimer into the totality of their album, thus making their usage of the
instrument totally different than Aerosmith’s usage.
The album slows down a bit with the song “Why Do I Need a Job,” and
continues along the same slow track for a few tracks. However, these tracks
don’t lose the original style that the band adopted in their first track.

The album also includes such great tracks by the unlikely names of “Kiss
Me (Or I Will Cry),” “Devil Doll,” and “Gasoline Listerine.”
The album also features what appears to be the mission statement of the recording
on the back of the CD, “…more songs about girls that don’t like
me.”
Overall, Bare Jr.’s album Brainwasher is an excellent choice for any fan
of high energy music. This CD provides an excellent combination of fast songs
with slower and more melodious recordings to give it the overall flavor that
it needs to introduce the band to the music community. Using a scale of one
to ten, one the lowest and ten the highest, this album scores an eight.

— Dave Palmer

Jim White
“No Such Place”

A new artist by the name of Jim White has reared his head on the new music scene
and left in his wake the most awful performance by a band to date.
Jim White’s new CD, “No Such Place,” featured a song entitled
“Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi” that led me to believe that
this album might actually be a good listen. As the rest of the recording wore
on, that belief went right down the tubes along with the performance.
The album features a strange obsession with the state of Mississippi, making
frequent references to it in several of the songs. However, the songs are poorly
orchestrated and overall seemed like they might have been engineered by a four-year-old.
There are some rather interesting songs on this album by the unlikely titles
of “Corvair,” “10 Miles to Go on a 9 Mile Road,” “God
Was Drunk When He Made Me,” and “Ghost-town of My Brain.” These
songs might have been good if they featured the same upbeat tempo and peppiness
that the first song exhibited. Lacking this necessary redeeming factor, they
were quickly ushered down the aisle to be united with the concept of total suck.
The album also features a song called “Corvair Reprise” that was just
as painful to listen to as the original. The first one stunk, so why in the
world might they want to waste time and money on a second song that is just
as bad as the first one.
Overall, I would recommend this album to no one. It has a total lack of musical
taste that is exhibited by only a few bands, mostly boy bands who are not talented
enough to write their own songs. The only thing that saved Jim White from being
classified in such a low category is the fact that he writes his own songs.

— Dave Palmer

Metroschifter
“Encapsulated”

This one’s interesting.
A Metroschifter album that doesn’t have Metroschifter on it. I suppose
that it warrants an explanation, so here it goes.
For most Metroschifter releases, head ‘Schifter Scott Richter creates rough
demo versions of the songs he writes and sends them to the other two members
of the band, who add on and contribute their own ideas before the band enters
the studio.
This time, however, Richter decided to send the demos to some of the biggest
names in indie rock so they could record the song they were sent in any fashion
that they desired. So “Encapsulated” is sort of like a tribute album
in that a score of bands perform songs by another band, but unlike a tribute
album in that these bands never heard a true version of the song before they
recorded it.
My only big gripe is that this CD spends its load too early. The second track
is an ass kickin’ version of “Impossible Outcomes” by The Get
Up Kids, sounding much like The Cars would in the new century. While there are
plenty of good tracks following this one, they’re slightly marred by the
inevitable desire to skip back to track two to listen to the Kids’ vocalist
belt out the chorus again.
The Promise Ring shows up with a punky, cynical tune that they renamed “You
Are So Unreal.” The lyrics, written by Richter, say what has been on the
tip of everyone’s tongue at one time or another (“Shut your mouth/
I’m leaving now”). Elliott turns in their beautiful, yet only decently
produced take of “Isn’t Freedom a Poison,” while The Refused
surprises us all (again) with a pleasant acoustic version of “L-182.”
Overall, Encapsulated gets the “pretty good” tag, but it’s nowhere
near as essential as it sounds on paper. Metroschifter fans who own the “Strawberry”
and “Metroschifter Picture Disk” albums will recognize some of these
tracks, but the versions on these CD’s were done before Metroschifter heard
the “Encapsulated” versions. Checking out these two older albums might
help determine where the due praise should go. (www.doghouserecords.com)
Check this out if you dig: the bands mentioned above.

— Walter Morgan

Tipsy
“Uh-Oh”

I can’t think of another musical group that is so aptly named as Tipsy
is.
Maybe Wham, since they sounded like George Michaels colliding with a brick wall
at top speed, but that’s completely irrelevant. Tipsy is the ultimate sound
of drunkenness. Not exactly the kind of drunkenness that college students are
used to (y’know, keg-stands-till-ya-hurl-then-sing-along-with-Dave Matthews
kind of drunk), but more of an old-guys-guzzling-down-martinis-in -a-60’s-lounge-while-taking-quick-whiffs-of-ether
kind of drunk.
“Uh-Oh” would be the perfect musical accompaniment to that crazy old
bastard that shows up at your family reunions who has a big, red nose and can’t
even remember the names of his own wife and kids. It’s fun as all hell.
When describing the sound of Tipsy, I like to tell people to imagine Stereolab
after having their heads held under water for 15 minutes. The entire album consists
of really strange horn, guitar, and vocal samples paired with 60’s-era
surf beats and backed with dizzying synth yelps.
“Hey!” sounds like the soundtrack of an old-school Hawaiian detective
flick running overtop the soundtrack of an old school NYC detective flick. “Sweet
Cinnamon Punch” is the part of the evening where the old drunk guys in
the lounge see the young, foxy blonde in the white dress make her entrance.
It’s beautiful, but it’s still really f****d up.
“Wig Out,” my personal favorite, brings to mind imbibing a little
too much and having a hallucination of Teletubbies breakdancing while you listen
to your brain cells snap, crackle, and pop. “Reverse Cowboy” is the
sound of a Ren and Stimpy ho-down, while “Kitty Takes a Ride” insults
the listener’s taste with a cheesy calypso excursion.
“Uh-Oh” is great for an hour of drunken fun, but if you get the “Sing
Along With Dave” bug, don’t expect to catch any relief here. (www.asphodel.com)
Check this out if you dig: Wagonchrist, Coldcut.

— Walter Morgan