From paac 18
M tees Zipless —

Vanessa Daon, MCA (KRSD
11278) 1995.

@ #%x Slow to Burn —
Vanessa Daon, MCA (KRSD
71496) 1996,

@ (unrated) Plutonium Glow
— Vanessa Daou, Daon
Muste 1997.

It’s unfortunate that
American chanteuse Vanesss
Daou has been ghetroized
into the “acid jazz” category
with her full co-operation. In
inter views she refers ro the
markering term as if it actually
meant something.

Go into most record stores
and there her brillianr 1995
CD Zipless lies languishing
next to nameless hybrid com-
pilations the clerks don’t know
where to file. You might alo
find Tricky in there.

Don’t blame the distribu-
tor — while its true the record
started our as an independent
release on Lotus Records
MCA picked it up and you can
buy it just about anywhere.

Zipless is such a strange

_ work that it is not unusual that
it fell between the cracks.
Perhaps the best way to
descxibe it is asa literate dance
record.

The !srics by Erica Jong are
~ so good they deserve to be

* published in a book of their
own, and they are: Becoming

- Light (Harper Coilins 1991).
Vanessa composed the music
and sings lead vocals with her
husband Peter Daou produc-
ing.

- Their next record had a lot

to live up to without Jong’s
words to carry the music
along. On Slow to Burn the
couple acquit themselves quite
well with Vanessa taking over

_ the lyric-writing cherys. They
also add musicans to Peter's
familiar keyboards and pro-
gramming mix.

The Daou’s are trying 3
new marketing tactic with
their latest release Plutonitemn
: Glow which is so far only avail-
able for purchase through
their website http://mem-
bers.aol.com/sundayaft/main-
page.htm! Sound sampies trom
each song can be downloaded
from the internet. While the
new CD continues along the
eleceronic pop path of previous
efforts I would start with
Zipless.

vanessag

. Slow toh

©.

nN.

Photos Dat. Len

. EACH song on Siow to Burn Daou associates with heroic women figures such as

Frida Kahlo (“Two to Tango"). She also covers Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain”.

rktk Since When — 54:40,
Columbia (CK 80336) 1998.
One of Vancouver’s longest
surviving bands remains
unfazed by changes in musical
trends. Everything, that comes
around goes around at least
twice (pur:k, disco, cic.) and
there they are off to the side
churning out classic tunes.
54-40 traces its roots back
to the punk era of the *70s.
After many years of touring
they arrived at the sound
found on 1992's Dear, Dear:
“no frills, no gimmicks, edgy,
dynamic three-chord rock.”
The 54-40 worldview has

Lowry’s Under the

Volcano among best

NO Canadian authors made a Top 100 novels of all time list
drawn up by the editorial board of the Modern Library and
released earlier this week. but a writer near and dear to the
North Shore was among die elite literary company.

Malcolm Lowry, an Englishman who spent over a decasie liv-
ing on the Deep Cove watertront in the 1940s and 50s, and his
novel Under the Voleano placed 11th in the top 100 list.

The top 10 novels arc.
1. Ulysses by Tames Jove

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. A Portrait of the Artist asa Young Man by James Joyce
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

5. Brave New World by Aldous Husley

6. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

7. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

8. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
9. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
10, The Grapes of Wrath “w John Steinbeck

— Andrew McCredie

very defined parametres fil-
tered through the sensibilities
of the four bandmembers Brad
Merritt, Phil Comparelli, Matt
Johnson and Neit Osborne.
The latter's voice has an awe-
some presence.

The city of Vancouver also
plays > part in their identity.
On the website a detailed his-
tory shows 54-40 may go else-
where but they always return.
The cover of Since When was
shot in the Templeton Cate
and it looks like the band is
taking a Skytrain ride on the
back. The photograph is sepia-
toned as if they were caught
riding the rails back in the
“40s. Inside the design uses
Columbia record covers tor
more classical clements,

Even the music itself evokes
a sense of Vancouver history.
When 54-40 decides they want
a woman’s interpretation on
some songs who do they bring
in? Camille Henderson, daugh-
ter of local legend Bill
Henderson, She is great in her
own right but the connection
to the past gives the perfor-
mace a little extra significance.

The band uses a string sec-
tion on several cuts on the
aew CD. Not computer-gen-
crated sweetener but an actual
ensembie of string musicians
conducted by Finn Manniche.
They probably met them on
the Skytrain.

CARPENTER
# ANTS

ORGANIC
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Guaranteed 5 years
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Friday, July 24, 1998 — North Shore News — 19

Mississippi roots found
in attic film and new CD

Btteee Everybody
Hollerin’ Goat — Othar
Turner and the Rising Star
Fife and Drum Bang
(Birdman BMR 018) 1998.

THE current suc of
Living Blues magavine
reports that a Greenwood,
Mississippi man recently dis-
covercd areel of tim in his
attic thar may include
footage of bluesman Robert
Johnson.

Severs! seconds of film
show a guitarist pertorminy
on the street in front of ihe
man’s grandivother’s busi-
ness in the 730s.

When the first-known
photograph of Johnson
turned up in 1990 Ry
Cooder commented “1 can-
not imagine Robert Johrson
on the back porch... 1 just
don’r know where he would
have played his gigs. Would
he have plaved for people at
suppers? I can’t imagine him
having the patience to do
that. And yer we know he
did.”

The foocage has yet to be
authenticated, bur if it is
Johnson one fascinating, bit
of new informazion is the fact

that the performer plays har-
monica as well. That has nor
been documented before.

More light is shed #1
Mississippi blues culture with
the release of Othar Turner's
new CD Everybody Hollertw’
Goat on Birdman Records.

Vereran Boston Phoenix
Hues critic Ted Drozdowski
raves “Turner leads what's
apparently the last of the
Mississippi fife-and-drum
bands, playing a music that
sounds straight off the slave
ships. Turner, who's about
90 vears old, blows a hand-
carved cane flute over a
clutch of drummers beating
out trance-inducing
polvrhythms with martial
intensity.”

The CD is the first com-
mercially-available recording
of the music in over 20 years.
Ir was recorded mostly at
outdoor picnies in the north-
em Mississippi hills by pro-
ducer Luther Dickinson who
labels the sound “pure funk
and earth.”

Copies can be obrained
by mail from Tower Records.
Their website address is
www. cowerrecords.com.

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