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Random Stabbings 12b

  Tobias

Rob Reynolds “Sightseeing” (Invisible Hands Music)
Bar band jazz-pop smooth as a pina colada most of the time, depending on how much Reynolds is compelled to stick with Seal’s vocal sound.  When he flexes his glottis he gets a Joe Cocker thing going on (the feisty, Chicago-esque horn section of “Sherry Man” is one instance in which he’s driven to that extreme), and there’s even a Pete Townsend reediness that bastes “Sweet Mother” in liberal amounts of AOR gloss.  Songwriting-wise, the overriding quality is filler-level that wouldn’t dream of challenging “Kiss From a Rose” for chick-flick supremacy, but it’s early in the game and the engineering is major league.  It should be noted that PR’s main thrust has been to make it widely known that this album is wired with code intended to track the travels of the files should you decide to upload it anyplace,  not – they’re quick to point out – as a means to set you up for RIAA lawsuits but just for fun, meaning they’re looking for new promotional avenues, hence the tunes are essentially shareware. Order from Amazon.com

Djizoes “The Erkonos Project” (self-released)
Nicely dimensioned punk-prog indebted to an odd cast of influences that would have to include Alice in Chains, roots emo, Rush and Pennywise.  Although comparable to Ozzy’s first couple of records in a strictly technical sense, the scenery is much more homemade and unglossed, sort of a metal-tinged Blue Star.  Order at djizoes.com

Magic Car “Family Matters” (Tiny Dog Records)
The wide-open-door policy of this office’s mailbox sees the oddest cockle shells come in on the tide, some of which appear to fit in only the most special of specialty coverage.  In this case almost nothing is as it seems:  perhaps it’s the constant bombardment of yell-core albums dressed in bucolic CD covers that had the car stereo prepped for battle, but this is as WYSIWYG as it comes, in a mighty wind/Raffi sense.  Squeaky clean American folk has taken over in Britain under the “Americana” genre, and Magic Car are leaders in the game, conjuring up what sounds like Peter Paul and Mary doing the best-loved songs of the Muppets.  It’s a horrible thing to laser-etch onto plastic for all eternity, but Kansans will probably dig it if it ever gets past the border, as it’s like receiving a visit from a harmonica-and-slide-playing t6roop of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Simply evil.
Order from Amazon.com

Measles Mumps Rubella “Fantastic Success” (Doubling Cube Records)
Dreamy Cure meets Eno meets no-wave drives handshake track “Algorithm of Desire” in this indie-dance thesis, a somewhat generic effort at times but a welcome respite from (or throwback to) marginally more interesting times and sounds.  “Hollow Bodies” fixates on a groove scrounged up by disco-izing Wire’s “Drill,” David Essex gets his in the echoing space-bopper “Mythstery of Zygo,” and “Apples to Echoes” could have been left over from Robert Plant’s “Now and Zen for all its jittery rhythm and freakout vocalizing.  Order from Amazon.com

Outraged ranting, indie label release news and spaghetti sauce recipes are always welcome.  Email ericsaeger@mindspring.com