28 — Friday, January 9, 1998 -- North Shore News

MUSIC - BEST OF ‘97

Tubthumpers

HER are five super
fabulous discs I gave a
spin to in 1997 and
I’m still spinning in
1998:

Tuatara — Breaking the
Ethers, Sony Music 1997

This Scattle supergroup
— it includes members of
RE. M., the Screaming
Trees, Critcers Buggin, Luna and Young
Fresh Fellows — wowed some of last
year's crowd at che Bumbershoot festi-
val in Seattle.

Tuatara is all instrumental. Earthy
world-beat rhythm blends deliciously
with simple jazzy excursions.

This could weil be the new cocktail
music defined. It’s all very textured and
evocative mood altering stuff.
Chumbawamba -- Tubthumper,
Republic 1997

Tubthumping was one of those
insidious pop narcotics you just could-
n’t escape last year. It played on the
radio, at the hockey rink. at the super-
market. .
A The disc is fast fun, full of in-your-

ce agit-prop gumption.

Chumbawamba has been making all
sorts of nvise about afflicting the com-
fortable in England since the 1980s.

Last year it was North America’s
turn,

Bjork — Homogenic, Elektra/WEA

- 1997

Bjork’s angular vocal cadences play
off against a backdrop of alternately
delicate and dramatic string orchestra-
tions. Cello, viola and violin are cour-

tes ot The Feclandic
Strmg Octet.
‘The real excitement is in
the sonic tension
throughout — crisp
strings, Bjork’s scunning,
earthy swoops and spins
and co-producer Mark
Reis softly distorted clee-
tronic beats,
Kurt Elling — The
Messenger, Blue Note/Capitol 1997

Now this is excitement. Elling and
company swing like nobody's business.
What makes this disc a pleasure is that
it hangs together much the way an
eventiul journey does. Fmorions fy,
musicians play off of each other with
empathy and the pacing shifts lots of
gears.

Elling has honed an explosive
singing style, scats with the best of
them and displays range when he wants
to travel beyond the borders of the
Greater State of Sinatra.

Pianist Laurence Hobgood (who co-
produced the dise with Elling) weaves
magic throughout.

Jonathan Fire Eater — Wolf Songs
For Lambs, DreamWorks/Universal
1997

Plenty of cheesy but spooky good-
ness from New York City. They're like
some freaked-out spawn of the Addams
Family rocking a weird, wiid riff.

It’s retro and it sounds like the
future at the same time. Stewart
Lupton’s sneering vcice, Matt Barrick’s
rollicking up-front back beat and Walter
Martin’s massively creepy Farfisa Fast
Five organ make the campy fun happen.

Chicago Sun-Times critic Lioyd
Sachs’ top jazz records of
1997:
— Abbey Lincoin, Who
Used to Dance (Verve)
— Henry Threadgill &
Make a Move, Where's Your
Cup
— Fred Hersch, Michael
" Moore and Gerry
Hemingway, Thirteen Ways
(GM Recordings)
— David S. Ware
~<—=--Quartet, Wisdom of
Uncertainty (Aum Fidelity)
— Horace Tapscott,
Thoughts of Dar Es Salaam
(Arabesque)
— Frank Foster, !.eo Rising
(Arabesque) tas.$
,—~ Dave Douglas, Stargazer
* (Arabesque)
— Rodney Kendrick Trio,
We Don't Die We Multiply
(Verve)
— The Bill Holman
wm-. —Sand, Brilliant Corners: The
Music of Thelonious Monk
uvc)
— Charlies Lloyd, Canto
(ECM)

London, Engiand jazz critic Phil
Johnson's top CD's from

-~ Independent on Sunday:
— Tomasz Stanko: Litania:
Music of Krzystof Komeda,
(ECM)

— Julian Argelles: The
Skull View (Babel)

— Bheki Mseleku: Beauty
of sunrise

— Various artists:
Eastwood After Hours,
{Malpaso)

~— Kenny Wheeler: Anget
song (ECM)

Chicago Sun-Times critic Kevin
M.William’s cop classical
records of 1997:

— Gyorgy Kurtag, jatekok
(ECM)

— Sir Georg Solti, Die
Meistersinger von Nurnberg,
by Richard Wagner (London)
-— Pablo Casals, Suites for
Unaccompanied Cello, by J.S.
Bach (EMI)

— Awadagin Pratt, Live
From South Africa, (EMI)

— James Levine,
““Idomeneo,” by WA. Mozart
(Deutsche Grammophon)
— Paul Hilfier and the
Theatre of Voices, De
Profundis, by Arvo Part
(Harmonia Mundi)

-~ Georgia and Louise
Mangos, ‘‘Complete
Symphonic Poems of Lizst,
vol. 3," by Franz Lizse
(Cedille)

—- Frederic Chiu, Etudes
and Rondos, by Frederic
Chopin (Harmonia Mundi)
— Yevgeny Svetianov,
Symphony no. 6, by Gustav
Mahler (Russian Season)

—~ Kent Nagano, Werther,
by Jules Massener, (Erato)

London, England classical music
critic Michael White's selected
top CD's from independent on
Sunday:

— Samuel Barber: Music
for solo piano. Leon
McCwley, (Virgin Classics)
—— Federico Mompou:
Piano Music. Stephen Hough,

(Hyperion)

— Sibelius: Symphonies | &
4, Lahti Symphony
Orchestra, (Bis)

Los AngelesTimes critic Robert
Hilburn’s top pop records of
1997:

— Bob Dylan, Time Out of
Mind (Columbia)

— The Verve, Urban
Hymns (Virgin).

~— U2, Pop (island)

—- Radiohead, OK
Computer (Capitol)

— Erykah Badu, Baduizm
(Kedar/Universal)

— Predigy, The Fat of the
Land (Maverick)

— Missy “Misdemeanor”
Eliott, Supa Dupa Fly (Gold
Mind/Elekera).

— Ron Sexsmith, Other
Songs (Interscope)

— Portishead, Portishead
(Go!Beat/London).

— Bjork, Homogenic
(Elekera)

Boston Phoenix critic Matt
Ashare's top pop CDs of 1997:
— Lauren Hoffman,
Meggido (Virgin)

— Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me
Out (Kill Rock Stars)

— Belle and Sebastian, if
You're Feeling Sinister (The
Enclave)

— Built To Spiil, Perfect
from Now On (Warner
Bros.)

— Elliott Smith, Either/Or
(Kill Rock Stars)

~— Pulsars, Pulsars {Almo
Sounds)

—- dEUS, In a Bar, Under
the Sea (Island)

— That Dog, Retreat from
the Sun (DGC)

— Superchunk. Indoor
Living (Merge)

— Geraldine Fibbers,
Butch (Virgin)

A 25-song retrospective of Vancouver's Dishrags (Jade, Dale and Scout in 1977)
was released this year on Toronto's Other People’s Music labe!.

Vancouver bands deliver on disc

_— Dishrags - Love/Hate, (Other People’s

Music 1997}

If they recoded nothing else, the Dishrags
1979 song Past is Past would get them in the
pank hall of fame next to Iggy et al. This ret-
rospective includes their complete ocuvre on
vinyl (eight cuts) plus 17 unreleased tracks.
‘Three songs (released as the Death in the
Family EP) wer: recorded at North
Vancouver’s Ocean Sound studio in the sum-
mer of 1980. Inspirational moment: Lead
singer Jade Blade yelling at MC Terry David
Mulligan as he’s trying to introduce them at
a 1978 gig that there is nobody in the band
named Dec Dee. Sound quality varies (on the
last live track only the singer’s mike is work-
ing) but essential listening none the less. A
booklet included, with liner notes by Jonn
Alexander, raises the release to Greil Marcus-

level scholarship. Awesome.

Boston Phoenix top novels of
1997 compited by Elizabeth
Manus:

— Memoirs of a Geisha
(Arthur Goiden, Aifred A.
Knopf)

— Underworld (Don DetLillo,
Scribner)

— The Falling Boy (Cavid
Long, Scribner)

— Plays Well with Others
(Allan Gurganus, Alfred A.
Knopf)

— Ail Around Atlantis
(Deborah Eisenberg, Farrar,
Straus and Giroux)

— The Puttermesser
Papers (Cynthia Ozick, Alfred
A. Knopf)

— Traces: Stories by Ida
Fis:ic (Ida Fink, Metropolitan
Books)

— Love Warps the Mind a

Little (John Dufresne, W.W.
Norton)

— The God of Small
Things (Arundhati Roy,
Random House).

— Love invents Us (Amy
Bloom, Random Heuse)

Boston Phcenix's top non-fic-
don books of 1997 compiled
by Charles Taylor:

~— Louis Armstrong:An
Extravagant Life (Laurence
Bergreen, Broadway Books).
—- Taking Charge: The
Johnson White House
Tapes, 1963-1964 (edited by
Michael R. Beschloss, Simon
and Schuster).

— Resident Alien: The New
York Diaries (Quentin Crisp
Alysori).

— American Homad (Steve
Erickson, Henry Holz).

— Casanova: The Man Who
Really Loved Women (Lydia
Flem, translated by Catherine
Temerson, Farrar, Suraus and
Giroux).

— into Thin Air (jon
Krakauer, Villard).

— lnvisible Republic: Bob
Dylan's Basement Tape
(Greil Marcus, Henry Holt)

— Big Yellow Taxi - A Far Fetched Tale
(BYT 1997)

Like the Dishrags Big Yellow Taxi actually
started in Victoria but they have many
Vancouver and Noith Shore connections.
Expect more live shows in 1998 in support of
their recent release plus 2 video is promised.
— Francois Houle and Benoit Delbecg -
Nancali (Songlines 1997)

Tony Reif?s label adds to its catalogue of
first-rate jazz. Van
joined on this CD by Parisian pianist Delbecq.
— Mecca Normal - Who Shat Elvis?
(Matador 1997)

Influential Vancouver band maintains its
radical sound on New York's Matador label
— Neko Case and Her Boyfriends - The
Virginian (Mint 1997)

Classic country surprise from Mint.

couver clarinetist Houle is

— John Goodman

pe Utopia Parkway: The

Life and Work of Joseph —
Corneil (Deborah Solomon,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

— Pickford: The Woman
Who Made Hollywood :
(Eileen Whidistd; University of ©
Kentucky).

— Patier:t: The True Story
of a Rare Illness (Ben Watt,
Grove)

The Boston Phoenix is not .
sold at local newstands. The full
text of their year-end review
issue can be read on the week-
ly's website www.boston-
phoenix

LA. Times top biographies
selected by various critics:

— Ernst Mayer Buffon:A
Life in Natura! History
— Man of the Century:
Th Life and Times of
Pope John Paul (Jonathan
Kwitny, Henry Holt)

— Jackie Robinson
(Arnold Rampersad, Henry
Holt)

— Bogart (A.M. Sperber and
Eric Lax,William Morrow)
—- Becoming Mae West
(Emily Wortis Leider, Farrar,
Strauss & Giroux)

~ Glucosamine + Chondroitin + eens claw

Buy one bottie at $28.99 and
receive a 2nd for only 99¢.

For more savings buy the larger bottie at $54.99

Buy one bottle at regular price $14.99 and

receive a second bottle for 99¢.

369 Marine’D

Ger ends
Jan 15/98

“Ambleside. gz. 0s