GPO BECK One Foot In The Grave •K REVEREND HORTON HEAT Liquor In The Front • Sub Pop-lnterscope MC 900 FT JESUS One Step Ahead Of The Spider •american FIFTH COLUMN 36C •K VMJ! SOUNDGARDEN SURE THING! aRnivu CX LIGPT RIDE SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION Your shirt will stink for weeks Recorded Live At CBGB 12-19-1993 Glamorous • Deaf As A Bat • Sea Sick • Bloody Mary • Mistletoe • Nub Elegy • Killer McHann • Dancing Naked Ladies • Fly On The Wall Boilermaker • Puss • Gladiator • Wheelchair Epidemic • Monkey Trick Fifteen tracks of teeth-loosening madness. CD. Cassette. Limited Edition Vinyl. gtdllt pace 3... Johnn Rebel Redeemed ash First of all, what everyone wants to know about a long-dis- tance interview with Johnny Cash: No, he didn't answer the phone and say "Hello—I'm Johnny Cash." Still, it is a little disconcerting at first, hearing that low ominous voice over the telephone, speaking from his Tennessee cabin, discussing the weather or reading off the address for his House Of Cash management office. "This is on album I've always wanted to do," he says of American Recordings. "I even had a name 25 years ago for this album, it was going to be called Johnny Cash Alone. Years later Ithought about it again and wanted to do an album like this, and call it Johnny Cash Up Close. But this same concept has been in my mind since the early '70s." About his first meeting with producer/label head Rick Rubin, Cash recalls, "I liked the way he talked. Because right off he said, 'I'm familiar with most of your work, and you know what you do best. And I'd like to talk to you about mak- ing some records, and trying to get the best out of you, what- ever you think that is.' And Isaw that he was really serious, and that he was interested in getting the real roe on record, whatever that is, for whatever that's worth...And the more we talked about that, the more Irealized that Imight be able to do that kind of dream album that I've always wanted to do, where it's just me and aguitar singing o song to you—no showbiz, no performance kind of a thing. Just to get real with it, get intimate." Does Cash worry that some of his newer fans might miss American Recordings' themes of redemption and underly- ing optimism, and overlook his deeply-felt Christianity in favor of celebrating his legendary rebellious past? "Well, I hope they don't miss the redemption. Because the theme of this album in my mind is sin and redemption, and redemption is really the upside of it. The picture on the album cover with those two dogs, Inamed them Sin and Redemption. And Sin's black with awhite stripe, and Redemption, he's white with a black stripe, and so neither one is complete... My redemption is not complete because I'm not perfect. I'm not sanctified. Imean, God has redeemed me from that kind of life that Ising about in those other songs, but Idon't close the •-:',•••4 • door on the past, because that might be a dangerous thing for me to do, to forget what the past was like. To forget the mistakes and the triumphs Ihad over pain and near-death so many times. So Idon't want it to happen again. If Ilose track of where I've been, Imight lose track of where I'm going." "I know what the hard times are like, what the rough life is like, the bad life, but Idon't close the door on it. That there's redemption from it, and you can be 62 years old and let God take control. Ihad friends who weren't so lucky, you know. With all of our misguided energy, some of us hit the tree instead of going around it." When Cash says something like this, you suddenly realize that here is a man who really means what he says, 24 hours aday; earnestly talking with a stranger about sin and redemption at 10:30 in the morning is as important a part of his being as all the legendary stories, hundreds of songs and thousands of concerts that have made Johnny Cash a legend. Being the Man In Black may seem to some observers like an almost inhumanly full time job, but to Johnny Cash, it's not what he does, it's simply what he is. —James Lien Selected CD Discography: American Recordings (american) 1994; Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983 (Columbia) 1992; The Sun Years (Rhino) 1990. JUNE 27, 1994 OM THE COVER JACKPOT! Essential New Music BECK One Foot In The Grave (K, P.O. Box 7154, MC 900 FT. JESUS Loony Tunes (american, 3500 W. Olympia, WA 98507/212-260-3389)—A question to those Olive Ave., Ste. 1550, Burbank, CA 91505)—As traditional who call Beck the very model of a modern slacker: Just how many hip-hop draws more and more on jazz rhythms (US 3, Gang Starr, full CDs, EPs and singles did you put out in the last nine months? etc.), it seemed only inevitable that some hip-hop artist would cross Recorded in two bursts just prior to the release of Mellow Gold, the line and make o jazz album. MC 900 Ft. Jesus, previously One Foot In The Grave makes clear Beck's love for the bleak crossing borders with his style of angst-hop, has done it, creating and beautiful recordings of Mississippi John Hurt and other rustic what is essentially a beat-poet excursion against acool ¡azz sliders and pickers by throwing in the occasional gospel or blues backdrop. Like John Giorno or King Missile's John S. Hall, Mark song. Beck's own songs never seem to be terribly profound Griffin (MC 900 himself) uses spoken word as his lyrical drive, but (though the media has made his "Loser" an anthem for the instead of ranting or goofiness, Griffin achieves aChandler-esque anthemless) or terribly feeling, with a little bit musical for that matter, of "Warm Leatherette" yet they are among the ghoulishness thrown in. most candid and The music is cool and enjoyable bits of guitar complex, the flute trills and voice put to tape in of "But If You Go" recent memory. The complementing the dual solo acoustic tracks vocals of Griffin and a "He's A Mighty Good female vocalist. There Leader" and "Hollow are slight hints of MC Log" on One Foot In 900's past, as on "If I The Grave have more Only Had A Brain," a impact than some of the funky rhythm backing oddball electric stuff his sly sarcastic rap. In found here ("Burnt the main, however, this Orange Peel"). The is a totally new sound inclusion of an extra for the MC, one which guitar, off-key harmony he tackles without kitsch or simple drumming (of a non-beatbox nature, courtesy Scott Plouf or condescension; Loony Tunes is a groovy, funky record, of the Spinanes), however, is never out of place. If Beck, as he striking in both lyrical and musical content. Depending on your claims, is not the voice of ageneration, then maybe he's the mood, every song is recommended. —Megan McLaughlin scrawny, baby-faced missing link between contemporary indie rock's lo-fi aesthetic and the original indie rock recorded earlier this century by long-forgotten blues and gospel artists. Discuss. —Steve Ciabattoni FIFTH COLUMN 36C (K, address above)—The members of Toronto's Fifth Column—musicians, fanzine writers and REVEREND HORTON HEAT Liquor In Front (Sub Pop, c/o independent filmmakers—could easily be categorized as Interscope, 10900 Wilshire Blvd., #1230, Los Angeles, quintessential riot grrrls. But to confine them so quickly to such a CA 90024)—With two albums already under his belt, the heading would be to deny them the boundless musical credit that Reverend Horton Heat (a ka Jim Heath) is well-known for his two previously self-released albums, To Sir, With Hate and All rockabilly racket—but a purist of the genre he is not. Heat(h) plays Time Queen Of The World, along with their latest, 36C, have his music with reverence to the greats of Sun Studios, while taking proven they so richly deserve. While 36C is more slickly produced it on acontemporary, punk tangent. In accordance with the old than say, Hole or the Ramones, with crisp, clear vocals and school 'billy style, the break-necked pace builds hypertension punchy, penetrating rhythms, its venomous defiance and jitters, giving the listener the feeling of taking a hit of speed. This individuality stem from both its jarring yet infinitely listenable energy, combined with Betty Page tattoos, checkered suits and arrangements, as well as its eerie and unnerving instrumentation. punk attitude, adds up to today's good-time rock 'n' roll. Liquor Shimmering, cartoonish organ binds with searing, grainy guitar In The Front, the band's third album (its first Sub Pop/Interscope resulting in a concoction that sounds something like the Groovy co-release), continues Ghoulies meet L7. It's the non-stop raucous kind of like surf music punkabilly the band for the punk rock first explored on with crowd, delivered from a Smoke 'Em If You vehemently feminist Got 'Em Too busy platform. The brilliant shouting more of the "All Women Are same nonsense lyrics Bitches," originally like "I Can't Surf!: the released as o single Heat barely pauses for late last year, mocks the breath, but does pause misogynist, while for achange in "Don't" spells out the production this time male threat more around.