24 CHICAGO READER | MARCH 24, 2006 | SECTION ONE Music

PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND NO WONDERLAND (ECLIPSE) EEF BARZELAY BITTER HONEY (SPINART) SCATTER THE MOUNTAIN ANNOUNCES (BLANK TAPES) Short Takes on Recent Releases A local psych maven’s beautiful bad trip, Eef Barzelay’s hip-hop ho, and collectivist free folk from Glasgow

teacher. They elevate their instincts to climax to resolution, but I do rough. Her mother cleaned the above their egos, occupying sonic wish that the rich and turbulent houses of wealthy white people till space (or leaving it empty) accord- stream of consciousness animat- the day she died. Honey tried to ing to the logic of the music—a way ing this music flowed a bit more finish nursing school but dropped of doing what’s natural that para- smoothly. —Monica Kendrick out after “all those broken bodies” doxically comes only from deep-in- started to get to her. It was then she the-bone training. realized she didn’t need to hit the The guest-heavy lineup on No EEF BARZELAY | Bitter books to turn dollars. After all, she Wonderland orbits the core trio of Honey had a great rack and knew how to Krakow (guitars and vocals), Mark Eef Barzelay’s new solo acoustic arch her back. “No one should go Lux (bass), and Lawrence Peters record, Bitter Honey, opens with without,” Honey says. “Don’t hate (drums and percussion). Guitarist the lines, “That was my ass you saw me ’cause I know just what this Cat Chow left the band during the bouncin’ next to Ludacris / It was world is all about.” album’s gestation period, and elec- only on-screen for a second, but it’s Barzelay’s work in Clem Snide traditional material. PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE tronicist Andy Ortmann left after- kinda hard to miss.” Honey, the has often shared this combination As members come and go, SOUND | No Wonderland ward—they’ve since been replaced song’s protagonist, goes on to of jarring gimmickry and genuine Scatter’s musical focus and creative Steve Krakow, better known to by guitarist Nick Myers from Vee inform us that the other “hoochie empathy—throughout his career processes shift: guitarist Nick many Chicagoans as Plastic Dee and keyboardist Amy Cargill skanks” who shake what God gave he’s buttered his bread by exploit- McCarthy, for instance, left after Crimewave (or simply as from Sharks and Seals, neither of ’em in rap videos “ain’t got shit” on ing that apparent paradox. He’s 2004’s Surprising Sing Psychedelic Steve), works like a whom appears on the record. her—and “one of Nelly’s body- got his oh-so-sad-and-soothing Stupendous Love to concentrate on dedicated civil servant to advance Devendra Banhart, Chris Connelly, guards” even “totally agrees.” voice, but he might use it to ask Franz Ferdinand, but that record the cause of the out-there. He’s got Michael Yonkers, and Fursaxa’s You might not guess it from Bob Crane to keep his dick in his clearly reflects his interest in avant- a zine and a record label under the Tara Burke all make spoken-word those lyrics, but Barzelay is the pants. Not exactly a topic Jeff rock. The Mountain Announces, Galactic Zoo banner, a semiregular cameos, and it pleases me to be singer-songwriter of a laid-back alt- Tweedy is clamoring to tackle. Scatter’s second full-length, is domi- comic in the Reader devoted to able to say they don’t sound country band called Clem Snide. But that’s what makes Barzelay nated by guitarist Chris Hladowski, obscure local musicians from the painfully out of place. Here and an interesting and unpredictable who has an inborn love of Polish 60s and 70s, and even a modest there you’ll also hear Yonkers’s songwriter. Sometimes his silly-at- music and an impressive collection freelance business doing pen-and- fuzz guitar, contributions by two first-glance lyrics acquire depth of Moroccan ouds and can make a ink artwork for album covers and different sitar players, harp from and ambiguity, and sometimes bouzouki seem to weep. The mar- posters. Over the past ten years he’s Josephine Foster, an otherworldly they just stay silly. It’s like he’s try- riage of deep intuition and wild played welcome wagon to practical- faery band impersonated by three ing the honey and the vinegar at abandon in his playing lends many ly the entire Japanese heavy-psych of the women from Spires That in the same time—you have to won- of the tracks a desperately celebrato- scene, setting up local shows for the Sunset Rise—and that’s not der what kind of flies he thinks ry edge. “O Death” and “Delitier the groups like Acid Mothers Temple, even the whole list. he’s gonna pull. —Brian McManus Organ” recall the dark exuberance of Nisennenmondai, and Mainliner, None of these flourishes are nec- some klezmer or the bristling swag- and since 2004 he’s curated the essary, but they’re all beautiful— ger of a New Orleans jazz funeral. annual Million Tongues festival. and dark, dark, dark, of a piece SCATTER | The Mountain Like their fellow Glaswegians in In fact Krakow does so much with the album as a whole. It’s a Announces Arab Strap, Scatter like to add work on behalf of other people’s dystopian bad trip, a Luciferian Glasgow is one of the UK’s major contextless and slightly cryptic music that it’s easy to forget about howl from a bottomless pit. You get Formed in Boston in the early 90s producers of indie music, with monologues to their music—an his own bands. This hasn’t always the feeling every detail has been and currently stationed in New overseas exports ranging from the unfortunate predilection, since the been such a bad thing: Utopia chosen to intensify the atmosphere York, the band’s a longtime favorite Fire Engines to Belle & Sebastian delivery usually sounds forced and Carcrash, for instance, looked like of paranoia and dread, right down of cynical grad students and read- and the Pastels to Sons & overstrict alongside the impulsive a hell of a lot of fun to be in (espe- to the symbols next to the song ers of No Depression, and he’s the Daughters. The band Scatter, a swells of the band’s free-folk cially the destroying-Styrofoam- titles on the back cover, which look number one reason. His voice, the loose collective of 8 to 12 musi- drone. It tends to work out best robots part) but was often a strug- like they ought to correspond to most lonesome this side of Nick cians, is likewise a product of this when the words engage the music gle to listen to. It’d be a shame to different songwriters or lineups but Drake or Will Oldham, can climb prolific and tight-knit scene. directly, like when the fantastically miss out on his current project, don’t actually lead you anywhere. from a quavering, melancholy mur- With instrumentation that bratty stomp of the title track though. The new release from Krakow says those symbols mur to a choked yelp, and he’s got a includes cornet, flute, viola, mega- spars playfully with the rhythm of Plastic Crimewave Sound—a vinyl- indicate the “direction” of each real talent for turning a phrase— phone, guitar, bouzouki, drums, the lyrics. only double LP called No tune—up, down, into the void, et just when you’re thinking he’s being harmonium, and whatever else they Scatter’s urge to involve as many Wonderland that’s been more cetera—and that brings me to my too clever by half, he’ll go and stick can get their mitts on, they com- musical styles as possible is often a than two years in the making—is only complaint. An album 77 you in the guts. bine an extraordinary number of curse as well as a blessing: “The the most disciplined thing he’s minutes long is a real journey, Those first lines from “Ballad of genres—free jazz, eastern European Downie Dens o’ Yarrow” sets the done so far. and like any journey it would Bitter Honey,” for example, teeter and Egyptian folk, avant-rock, the lyrics of an Irish folk song to the You might not think that’d be a benefit from a human sense of on the edge of Barenaked Ladies “Greek blues” called rembetika—in melody of a rembetika tune, which huge plus for hairy, wild-eyed, let- pacing and scale. No novelty-tune schlock. But the sec- murky, meandering tunes that sounds so unnatural it verges on it-all-hang-out music like this, but Wonderland sometimes feels ond verse makes it clear Barzelay alternate between composed grating. Thankfully the “group the discipline that the members of shapeless, not because it doesn’t isn’t interested in parody. He wants melodies and structured improvisa- mind” aspect of their music-mak- Plastic Crimewave Sound seem to have peaks and valleys but to dig beneath the superficial and tion. Even their reworkings of ing approach prevents any one have learned from freakishly because the peaks seem to come unearth the private truths of a Scottish and Irish folk songs, punc- influence from prevailing for long, focused masters like Keiji Haino whenever they please. I’m cer- woman whose life most people tured by the pinched, affected and the moments of awfulness are and Makoto Kawabata is more tainly not asking for a conven- wouldn’t give a second thought. soprano of Hanna Tuulikki just as fleeting as the moments of Shaolin monk than Sunday-school tional progression from conflict Honey, it turns out, has had it Andrews, graft other styles onto the brilliance. —Mia Lily Clarke

date locally

www.chicagoreader.com/matches section two CHICAGO READER | MARCH 24, 2006 | SECTION ONE 25 Theater

SITARAM LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE COMPANY Old Time Religion Lookingglass’s colorful, eclectic new musical turns an ancient Hindu epic into a call for world unity.

By Laura Molzahn nfamiliar movements Princess Sita and Prince Rama Muthu, nearly steals the show as intended to convey meet and fall instantly in love, but Ravana’s evil sister). Some of the U unknown religious stories then the demon Ravana steals acting is a bit wooden or awkward, are not an easy sell. More than a Sita away, and both prince and and it doesn’t help that Kersnar’s decade ago I watched dozens of princess must undergo many tri- book is rather flat. But most often, people walk out on a als before they’re reunited. Thing youthful talent and ingenuity Natyakalalayam Dance Company is, they’re no ordinary mortals: carry the day. The singing is sup- performance in the classical Sita is an incarnation of Hindu ple, nuanced, and affecting, espe- Indian style of bharata natyam. goddess Lakshmi and Rama of cially Avilla Martin’s in the crucial They’d come to see a well-known Vishnu, and they’ve come to save role of Rama. And it was brilliant local Irish dance troupe on the the earth from the “dark times” to make teenagers—the choir same program, and once that occasioned by the rule of Ravana, members—the monkey armies was over they left. It was a who’s interested only in material that figure significantly in the shame, especially since Krithika things and power. show’s second act: clannish, silly, Rajagopalan, the daughter of Two things save this simple combative, gossipy, chirping and Natyakalalayam artistic director story from simplemindedness. chattering, they’re the epitome of Hema, danced magnificently. One is the layered music, com- innocent, well-meaning, imperfect It’s a different matter with posed by Grammy nominee Jai humanity. Isaiah Robinson as Lookingglass’s new musical, Sita Uttal and realized by four dozen Hanuman, the Monkey God, plays Ram, whose onstage musicians, dancers, and a critical role: he’s not only the WHEN Through 4/2: run is sold singers, most of them members narrator but our representative Wed 7:30 PM, Thu out (though of the Chicago Children’s Choir. (along with the Monkey Child 6:30 PM, Fri 7:30 standby tick- The very form of Uttal’s songs, who accompanies him). With a PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, ets are avail- with lyrics by him and adapter- voice that can move from a clarion Sun 3 PM able). This director David Kersnar, commu- call to a whisper, this 22-year-old WHERE Lookingglass show makes nicates a hope for unity, echoing is the show’s standout performer Theatre Company, Indian dance not only East Indian harmonies, and its emotional center, trans- 821 N. Michigan accessible by instrumentation, and singing forming what could seem just a PRICE $30-$58 putting it in a but African and Caribbean love story into a cry for peace. INFO 312-337-0665 Western con- music, tango, blues, gospel, and Oh, and the dancing. It’s clever- text. But rap. Unlike the pop eclecticism ly integrated and cunningly the- today the stakes are much higher of an Andrew Lloyd Webber atrical: for the first time I felt the than getting an underexposed score, this multiculti blend emotional edge of bharata genre some respect. With reli- serves a true purpose, under- natyam. More important, this gious wars raging across the plan- scoring Sita Ram’s goal of pro- show brings to life the simultane- et, many people have come to see moting cultural harmony. ously entertaining, moving, religion in any form as only a The other thing that rescues morally instructive, and visually

source of murderous conflict. Sita Sita Ram is the cast’s youth. OW and aurally overwhelming form of Ram’s greatest accomplishment is Though the show can come traditional Indian drama, virtual- the rehabilitation of a religious across like a Disney cartoon fea- ly synonymous with Indian dance, point of view: it’s a musical-theater ture, notably The Lion King, its which filled Hindu temples with MICHAEL BROSIL comedy whose message, means, youthfulness isn’t calculated. Sita Ram color, movement, and sound. and feeling are devotional. Sita Ram occasionally has the air What takes Sita Ram beyond the Not that there’s any proselytiz- of a summer-camp production— sity. Later Uttal was invited to do on board as choreographer. realm of musical theater is its reli- ing. No one’s going to be convert- and in fact it had its beginnings the score, Natya Dance The actors playing Sita and gious passion. The show’s many ed to Hinduism because the at a camp for student singers and Theatre—the current incarna- Rama are college students, and songs about aching to be reunited source of Sita Ram’s story is a actors in 2000, when the tion of Natyakalalayam—began the chorus members are all still in with the beloved ultimately have 2,000-year-old religious text, the Chicago Children’s Choir com- offering in-school residencies as high school. There are only two nothing to do with earthly mar- Ramayana. Basically it’s a boy- missioned Kersnar to create a part of the development process, Equity performers (one of whom, riage, which is only a metaphor meets-girl, boy-loses-girl tale: show celebrating cultural diver- and Krithika Rajagopalan came dancer-singer-actor Sharon for union with the divine. v