Unassuming Yet Engaging, the Gaddabouts

JAN/FEB 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE TNobody’sHE GADDABOUTS Daughter [Universal] The Gaddabouts [Racecarlotta] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is Whilereally it’s only natural to mistake the Gaddabouts’ self-titled debut for frontwoman Courtney Love’s second solo album—co-founder,another Edie Brickell album—perhaps a companion piece to the eponymous songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,effort she released in January—that assumption misses the mark. This is an nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andall-star three assemblage, with Brickell being but one of the headliners alongside ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteveteran with drummer Steve Gadd, Who bassist Pino Palladino and British collaborators like Billy Corgan,guitarist Linda Andy Perry Fairweather-Low. and new Gadd, who played with Brickell on the guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) initial demos that birthed the band, not only steers the pace but sets the Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havetone left asalong well. with The her formerGaddabouts Daniel Jackson mines his trademark shuffle and his easy 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 suchamble, devastating from effect the breezyback in the sway day. ofthey the were aptly showcases titled for“Let harrowing It Slide” displays to theof naked gypsy- emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarssounding roiling atop desire an elastic of bassline “My Heart,” that doesn’tthe cool help—the blues songs groove have an of airless, “Gonna sanded-down Hold On” feel that speeds up as the song races toward a climatic pile-up at the doesn’t fi t with her visceral persona. Courtney Love’s tumultuous end. She shifts tempos andand attitude the onsupper the more club contemplative caress ofhistory “They suggests Say thatEverything.” she has a compelling Unassuming story to tell,yet and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”engaging, taking stock asThe layers Gaddabouts of acoustic and marks perhaps an she auspicious does. It’s just debut. not the one –Lee she’s Zimmerman telling on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested 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 she stepped‘Unassuming to the mic more often. Court yet Yard Houndsengaging, ably 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 Fire Away tossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the The GaddaboutsFor a dozen marks years, the [Mercer an Street/Downtown] Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and Wainwright’s albums got you get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points WAINWRIGHTauspiciousbusier and debut.’ 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 JAN/FEB 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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