Record Reviews

to Huss's madness. In "How Can You Say There's No God When the World is So Bent?," he gets away with singing about things usually best left in the lec- ture hall or science documentary. Only God can make a tree? Maybe, but "God was wrong when She made clout. / There's one detail She never worked out." Our world is so off-kilter, there's even a movie about Steven Hawking's physics: "Popcorn in hand. The Cosmos is grand. / It ends but expands without limits." The acoustic guitars happily churn away, a bluegrass violin dances on top, and Huss lands right on the line between comedy and philosophy: Mother Nature is a Frankenstein —or a Corvair. ("I'd like to meet whoever made her / and jot down his name on a card to Ralph Nader.") He even sings about math, but keeps his feet on the ground. That's where Huss found a tire tool, lying by the side of Lake Shore Drive. It's "a positive thing — it's shaped just like a plus / un- Lightning Volts: On their latest album Wide Swing Tremolo, Jay Farrar (center, in shades) and Son Volt turn up the juice. like something like a dollar bill / which is shaped more or less like a minus." Huss shares Jonathan Richman's, and Millstadt, Illinois, lingerie warehouse VARIOUS ARTISTS especially They Might Be Giants', knack transformed into a rehearsal hall and BAR-B -QUE SOUL-A-BRATION for seeing ordinary things in interesting studio. Just down the street from the Rhino R2 75214 (2 CDs). 1998. Andrea Kinloch, ways. And his willingness to experiment grade school Farrar attended as a kid, exec. prod.; James Austin, prod.; Jennifer Sperandeo, concept; Bill Inglot, Dan Hersch, with horns, sitars, and Mellotrons the studio provided a creative haven remastering engs. AAD? TT: 110:35 makes most of these songs compelling where the band could experiment with- Performance *** Sonics **** for sonic reasons alone. From an audio- out the constraints of having to rush HAVE A NICE DECADE: The '705 Pop Culture Box phile point of view, the sound quality of through the recording process. Though Rhino R2 72919 (7 CDs). 1998. Bill Ingle, David this studio recording is okay, but not no less melodic than its predecessors, McLees, Gordon Skeene, prods.; Patrick Milligan, spectacular. It's all so moderate, this disc the result is bolder, with more of a Paul Grein, Gary Stewart, asst. prods.; Bill Inglot, Ken Perry, Dan Hersh, Stewart Whitmore, Andrew has been in my CD player for the last garage edge. But while Neil Young and Garver, remastering engs. MD? TT: 9:20:23 two weeks. -George Reisch Gram Parsons have often been cited as Performance *** Sonics **** precursors to the Son Volt sound, expect

SON VOLT to hear R.E.M. and post-Parsons Byrds s wonderful as the music is on comparisons this time around. many of their reissue sets — the Wide Swing Tremolo With jangly guitars and shimmering AJohn Coltrane "cube," the Buck Warner Bros. 47059-2 (CD). 1998. Son Volt, prods.; percussion behind Farrar's voice, full of Owens box, The R&B Box —Rhino's David Barbe, eng. AAD? TT: 45:37 Performance ***1/2 pensive confidence, "Flow" and greatest strength is its packaging, a fact Sonics **** "Question" bridge the rootsy Amer- recognized by its many Grammy nom- don't know about you, but I was icana of the group's earlier work with inations in that category. Last year's spooked the first time I heard King dabs of radio-friendly modern rock. Bt, Scream & Shout! The Big 01' Box of ICrimson's "21st Century Schizoid "Driving the View" is driven by infec- '60s Soul was a new high in packaging Man." Times have changed, and feed- tious close harmonies simultaneously concept and execution, even for Rhino. back and distortion are hardly novel sweet and raspy. On the other hand, the 'While neither of these two new sets these days, but the rustic, rural, big-sky more acoustic "Hanging Blue Side," comes close to that truly ingenious twang of Son Volt's two earlier albums with its lap steel and fiddle, could be a snap-top box, both still rate as proud hardly prepared me for "Straightface," leftover from Trace, the band's gorgeous, notches in the Rhino packaging hol- Wide Swing Tremolo's screeching, haunt- atmospheric 1995 debut. ster. The BBQ box is more concept ing opener. But that track, a kind of While Wide Swing Tremolo trades in than actual music. Conceived as a musical second cousin to R.E.M.'s Trace's atmospheric cohesion for melod- party-in-a-box, this two-disc package is "What's the Frequency Kenneth," ic adventure and diversity, it has the ring held together by a ring-binder note- serves notice that songwriter/singer Jay of a genuinely honest work, commer- book that holds not only the discs in Farrar and his fellow Volts are stretching cially viable (most of the songs are in the slips, but also written chapters: beyond the dusty, open-road vistas three-minute range) without being "Barbeque is Boss," "Easy on the Gas: they're best known for. commercially driven —a subtle distinc- Maximizing the Oft-Frowned-Upon The stretch, as it turns out, is a result tion worthy of a band whose best music Gas Grill," "Fun'n'Games: Enjoyable of the freedom that the band enjoyed as is built on slowly revealed subtleties. BBQ Activities That Don't Involve it recorded this album in an old -David Sokol Eating," and my favorite, "Sing, Baby,

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