JUNE 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE Nobody’s Daughter Still Bill [Universal] [Late Night and Weekends]

The first album released DVD REVIEW under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is reallyMusic lovers owe filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack a debt of frontwoman Courtney Love’sgratitude for their tenacity. Bill Withers has remained intensely protective second solo album—co-founder, songwriter and lead guitaristof his privacy since he quit the music business 25 years ago, and the Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,directors spent years convincing him to cooperate in the making of this nor is any other previouspriceless Hole documentary. They somehow managed to not just film hundreds member. So it’s Love andof three hours of footage of Withers over two years, but to accompany him on a ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotevery with rare return trip to his tiny hometown of Slab Fork, W.Va. Withers and collaborators like Billy Corgan,childhood Linda friends Perry and reminisce new about their impoverished upbringing without guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perrysentimentality gets full credit on or one self-pity—traits tune, that the 71-year-old Withers clearly “Letter to God.”) loathes. He discusses his unlikely rise to fame—he didn’t take up music Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveprofessionally left along with untilher former his 30s, Daniel Jackson yet found almost instant success with hits like bandmates, but there are“Ain’t fl ashes No here Sunshine” of the snarling and “Grandma’sToo often, Hands”—his though, the slowerdecision songs to trip retire her up.from While the once fury Love deployed to suchspotlight devastating and effect the back pain in ofthe his day. childhood they were showcasesstruggle forwith harrowing stuttering displays in of the naked same emotion, She spits out her vocals matter-of-factwith vengeful disdain manner. on “Skinny As Little Still LoveBill progresses,sounds more dispassionate Withers showsthese days. tantalizing The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsglimmers roiling atop of an a elastic renewed bassline interest that doesn’t in music-making. help—the songs Hehave briefly an airless, takes sanded-down the stage 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 andto singattitude “Grandma’s on the more contemplative Hands” with history friend suggests Cornell that Dupree she has a at compelling a tribute story concert. to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”His taking mounting stock as layers enthusiasm of acoustic andas heperhaps impulsively she does. writes It’s just andnot the records one she’s a telling song on withNobody’s electric guitars chug alongnew behind friend her. Raul Midón is a joyDaughter to behold,. –Eric asR. Danton is his justifiable pride in the burgeoning talents of his golden-voiced daughter, Kori, an aspiring singer COURT YARDand HOUNDS songwriter.A Whether side project Withers of new everoffering returns suggested to that center its creator stage, was a Stillfew strides Bill willcloser to Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. Court Yard Houndsstand as a documentMaguire and to Emilyhis seeminglyThis cold and bottomlessprivate set isn’t it, althoughwisdom that’s and probably warmth. 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 Chris McGarrigle, Neal 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 ‘Whetherwish she stepped Bill to the micWithers more often. Court ever Yard Hounds returns ably to center 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 stage, Still Bill will standFor a dozenas ayears, document the [Mercer Street/Downtown] to hisTijuana 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 seeminglyWAINWRIGHT bottomlessbusier wisdom and his sometimes and on theirwarmth.’ 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 AS SEEN IN: JUNE 2010 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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