NOVEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS GEAR REVIEWS HOLE Nobody’s Daughter [Universal] TOONTRACK METAL MACHINE EZX EXPANSION PACK The first Full album metal released packet under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwomanFOR: Courtney In-your-face Love’s metal drums. Toontrack’s Metal Machine EZX pairs famed metal second solo album—co-founder,producer and engineer Andy Sneap with powerhouse drummer John Tempesta (White songwriter and lead guitarist Eric ErlandsonZombie, isn’t involved, the Cult), creating a metal mosh pit that’s guaranteed to rock your hard nor is any otherdrive previous and rattle Hole your neighbors’ windows. The EZX is a combination of multilayered member. So it’s Love and threeaudio samples and fully editable drag-and-drop MIDI files that put you on ringers on 11 new songs—10 the drummer’s throne. Sneap tracked Tempesta on three of which Love wrote with collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and massivenew kits at L.A.’s Henson studios and mixed them guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune,at his own Backstage Studios in the U.K. The result is “Letter to God.”) a fiery combo of performances, tones and MIDI files Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to have left along with her formerthat makeDaniel Jackson this one of the most exciting expansion packs bandmates, but there are fl ashes here of the snarlingwe’ve come across.Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once fury Love deployed to such devastating effect back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic basslineNOT FOR: that Smoothdoesn’t help—the jazz. songs have an airless, sanded-down 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 and attitude on the more contemplative history suggests that she has–Doug a compelling Doppler story to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,” taking stock as layers of acoustic and perhaps she does. It’s just not the one she’s 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 privateToontrack.com 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 ‘Awish fiery she stepped combo to the mic more of often. performances, Court Yard Hounds ably tones and 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 MIDI files makes this Forone a dozen of years, the the [Mercermost Street/Downtown] excitingTijuana 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 expansionWAINWRIGHT packs busierwe’ve and his sometimescome across.’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

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