ISSUE #26 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE TNobody’sODD RUNDGREN Daughter [Universal] State [Esoteric Antenna/Cherry Red] The first released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sFollowing a recent release that delved into hard rock, fearsome blues second solo album—co-founder,and radically redefined versions of seminal songs he produced for others, songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,State finds Rundgren testing his parameters yet again. Chameleon-like by nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andnature, three Rundgren revisits the synthesized setups and exotic experimentation ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotethat with once marked his work with Utopia and later colored solo like collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and and new . “I am high / That’s what I tell myself,” guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) Rundgren intones on ominous opener “Imagination,” and given the percussive Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havefrenzy left along and withethereal her former effects Daniel Jackson that dominate the album, that psychedelic feeling bandmates, but there are fl ashes here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once fury Love deployed to suchcan devastating be easily effect explained. back in the day.Nearly they every were showcases song boasts for harrowing electronic displays ofelements, naked emotion, She spits out her vocals noddingwith vengeful more disdain to onKraftwerk, “Skinny Little Depeche Love sounds Mode more and dispassionate Berlin-era these Bowie days. than The toproduction the Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-down feel that speeds up as the song relentlessraces toward rockers a climatic and pile-up sublime at the balladsdoesn’t fi tof with his her early visceral work. persona. Only Courtney “Ping Love’s Me” tumultuousfinds end. She shifts tempos and attitude on the more contemplative history suggests that she has a compelling story to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”him taking practicing stock as layers his of trademark acoustic and wail,perhaps singing she does. in his It’s upperjust not theregister one she’s with telling melodic on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton instincts intact. Somewhat erratic, occasionally out of sync, State is one of

COURT YARDRundgren’s HOUNDS moreA side unusual project offerings of new offering yet. –Lee suggested Zimmerman that its creator was a few strides closer to Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical and personal—into the sisters who have less autobiographical material. There’s nothing here except piano for so long ceded center stage to Chicks singer Natalie Maines. and vocal, and Wainwright doesn’t project his words in the way Though steeped in familiar instrumentation, the album offers little we’ve come to expect from him. Instead of serenading the person of the barn-burning brashness that made the Chicks famous (save in the farthest corner of a packed theater, he’s singing to himself in perhaps the gutsy “Ain’t No Son”). Instead, its delicate folk-pop an otherwise empty room. –David Styburski prettiness perfectly suits Robison’s more-than-capable voice and the jumble of emotions, sunny and melancholy, that emerge in a song Ozomatli’s music has been called a collision cycle inspired by her 2008 divorce. Maguire’s weeping fi ddle and OZOMATLI of styles, a cultural mash-up, and a 20-car seamless harmonies are welcome as always, and her one turn on pileup of genres. It’s also some of the most lead vocals (“Gracefully”) is so warmly affecting that listeners may joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On wish‘State she stepped finds to the Rundgrenmic more often. Courttesting Yard Hounds his ablyparameters yet its fi fth album, the L.A.-based band stirs its demonstrates that, whether with their fellow Dixie Chick or without, blend of salsa, ska, samba, funk, and hip-hop these ladies’ talent runs deep. –Katie Dodd in ways few groups could conceive. Imagine again. Chameleon-like by nature, RundgrenFire Away revisits tossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the For a dozen years, the [Mercer Street/Downtown] Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and synthesized setups andWainwright’s exotic albums experimentation.’ got you get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points WAINWRIGHT busier and his sometimes on their latest, Fire Away, include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- All Days Are Nights: Songs naughty, occasionally percussion-driven blast of salsa-fl avored ska; “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” for Lulu angry declarations of gay an exultant Latin pop anthem fi tted with shrieking sax; and “Gay Vatos [Decca] pride got louder. Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when

70 MAY 2010 ISSUE #26 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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