245 Great Neck Road, 3rd Fl. Great Neck, NY 11021 Established 1978 MUS CREPORT Vol. 24 No. 8, Issue #211 November 9, 1990 JACKPOT! KING'S X VAN MORRISON Faith Hope Love By King's X Enlightenment (Megaforce-Atlantic) (Mercury-PG) BOUNTY HUNTERS VARIOUS ARTISTS Threads: A Tear Stained Scar Where The Pyramid Meets The (Rockville) Eye: A Tribute To Roky Erickson (Sire-WB) II !rasa «el • Jane's #1 For 6th Straight Week • The Cure #1 Radio Breakthrough • Paul Simon Tops Retail • Buck Pets #1 Adventure Pick SURE THING! • MM90 Hangover Issue FUTURES NAKED RAYGUN 1046 reports BWANA DEVILS Off k 516-466-6000 • Reports 516-466-7111 • Fax 516-466-7159 _ ON THE COVE ' 1 AEssential new music Kt' as chosen by Cities 0 editorial 1staff KING'S X VAN MORRISON Faith Hope Love By King's X Enlightenment (Megaforce, do Atlantic, 75 Rockefeller (Mercury, do PolyGram, 825 Eighth Plaza, New York, NY 10019) Ave., New York, NY 10019) When King's X's debut LP was released in 1988, it Like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Neil Young or even was shunned as a '70s retread by those who didn't Prince, Van the Man has earned a career rap as "get it." While we still consider that inaccurate a figure who can be almost as erratic and frus- and unfair, we will admit that the recent re- trating as he can be brilliant. Enlightenment surgence in '70s nostalgia (from the Black Crowes finds Van again in rare form—his voice sounds to Redd Kross to the recent spate of Badfinger good, the tunes are relaxed and easy, and overall clones) has made the musical climate more open he sounds the most comfortable we can recall to a band like this. While there's no shortage of hearing him since maybe Into The Music. references in King's X's music—Beatles, Black Like all the greatest triumphs in his career, Sabbath, even Crosby, Still & Nash—they're just Enlightenment finds ways to take the myraid fragments of this Texas trio's distinctly soulful strands of soul, R&B, Celtic folk, jazz and rock in- mosaic of psychedelia, metal and melodic mid- fluences swirling inside Morrison's head, and adds '70s rock. While a countless number of bands ¡ust enough of that intangible Van Magic to take crassly and awkwardly try to fuse black and white an otherwise average song and lob it up some- musical styles, King's X do so without the slightest where over the stars. There's a feeling here heark- whiff of effort or pretense—even when they briefly ening back to his music of the early '70s (circa sample James Brown on "Born To Be Loved," it's Moondance), where entranced listeners fol- a natural element, not a cheap attempt at crossing lowed Morrison through an ojyssey from rock to over or fitting in. The overtly spiritual lyrics work Celtic roots to jazz to soul. "Real Real Gone" in- in much the same way that Living Colour's some- corporates just enough "Brown Eyed Girl"-feel times simplistic and all-too politically correct verses to send chills up the spine, while songs like "So do: They don't detract from the overall sound as Quiet In Here" the inscrutable "In The Days much as add an element of surprise, or even in- Before Rock And Roll" or "See Me Through" nod nocence. With this album, King's X isn't doing to classics like Astral Weeks without ever dup- anything radically different from its first two, but licating them. In this day and age, true artists they've finally made a great album, instead of a and guides are hard to find—whether it's into the good album with a few great songs—watch them music or into the mystic, Van Morrison will take fly. X-tasy: "We Are Finding Out," "Never Get you there. Tired Of You," "Mr. Wilson," "Talk To You," "Six Broken Soldiers" and the single, "It's Love." BOUNTY HUNTERS VARIOUS ARTISTS Threads: A Tear Stained Scar Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye: (Rockville, P.O. Box 800, Rockville A Tribute To Roky Erickson Centre, NY 11571-0800/516-764-7938) (Sire, do Warner Bros., 3300 Warner Bounty Hunters leader Dave Kusworth has a Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505) musical background that reads like an atlas, being For those in the dark about the glory and mag- involved in many short-lived projects that have in- nitude of the Rok-ster, Roky was founder and cluded, most recently, a teaming with ex-Swell leader of the 13th Floor Elevators, perhaps the Map Nikki Sudden in the Jacobites, from which most out-there and way-gone garage band of the most of us got to know the wealth of songwriting psychedelic '60s. The dreaded curse of the tribute and musical talents of both these prolific artists. album (four good songs, 10 bad ones) definitely Like a more naive Keith Richards, Kusworth hasn't hexed this collection—we're treated to a charms us with 14 selections on Threads, his substantially stacked roster of talent (22 artists, 21 rough yet enchanting vocals fronting the Rolling songs) with little room tossed away to filler or fluff Stones-meets-Neil Young-meets-Johnny Thunders (though hearing from Daniel Johnston would have arrangements, with touches of blues and horns been neat-o). From the remarkable (R.E.M., the enriching the '70s-influenced guitar style in a Lyres, Julian Cope) to the dreamy (Bongwater's powerful hue that never fails to display a delicate "You Don't Love Me Yet") to the genuinely side. On songs like the fiery "A Picture Of You" strange (Primal Scream's recasting of "Slip Inside and "Everything's For Her," Kusworth transforms This House"), we're zombie-walked through the the sensitive pop ballad into something of a not- dusty and crackled pages of the Roky songbook. so-despondent but still misty-eyed liaison with fate. Among the more telling performances we found On this, the third album for the Bounty Hunters, ZZ Top's surprisingly fun "Reverbation (Doubt)" and second available domestically, Kusworth (believe it or not, Erickson and Billy Gibbons for proves to be one of the archetypal purveyors of a while were part of the same Texas psychedelic pop the way it ought to be, and confirms that in circuit, when Gibbons was in a band called the whatever project he undertakes, his songwriting Moving Sidewalks) or the Butthole Surfers, who talent takes the fore. provide the living link between the fuzzed-out psychedelic rustlings-in-the-attic of Roky's bygone days and the living, breathing, oozing Texas psychedelia of today. CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT NOV 9, 1990 1990 TRAGEDY > FOR YOU < A I. T.1> F.Y.<I ir VOX A2. T.D F.Y.4 7" VOX A3. T.C. F.Y. PUNISH YOUR MACHINE MIX 12" A4. T.C. F.Y.4 PUNISH YOUR MACHINE MIX 7" A5. T.D F.Y.4 SLO MO MIX A6. T. F.Y. INSTRUMENTAL A7. T.C. F.Y.4 NEURODANCER \EV) (•I)5 \IAA' («ASSET TE/I 2 INCH TRAGEI)1 FOR NO( 49-73594 epic "Epic" Reg. U.S. Hai. & "Lni. Off. Nlarca Registrada. 1990 CBS Record, Inc. JACKPOT! discourse reminiscent of John and Yoko's spoken word/groan Plastic Ono collabora- tions like Two Virgins or Life With The Lions. There's plenty of the off-kilter blues cacophony you'd expect from a good gledC REPORT Jandek album—thunderous, detuned tom- toms and plunky, cracked-neck guitars—but Jandek seems to be pulling it all with him toward some unknown spiritual destination, a bit like an avant-garde Van Morrison or REPORTING DATES a deconstructed Marvin Gaye. It's either totally deep or totally junk, but if he goes to such pains as to include a minuet RADIO ("Pastimes"), a monastic chant ("Om") AND and a whole song constructed from plinking those little bits of the strings down by the SPECIALTY guitar's bridge, he has to have some idea (Hard Rock/New World/Retail/ what he's doing. Beat Box/Jazz) (Monday-Tuesday) Nov. 5-6 Nov. 19-20 BLAKE BABIES Sunburn (Mammoth, Nov. 12-13 Nov. 26-27 Carr Mill, 2nd Floor, Carrboro, NC 27510/919-932-1882)—A little sun- burned girl with a Mountain Dew steps DIALOGUE dizzily on a see-saw and carefully walks up to the middle, hands outstretched to main- (By fax or mail) tain her precarious balance, and then (Monday, 6 p.m. EDT) meticulously steps down the other side with Nov. 5 Nov. 19 a smile of triumphant satisfaction smeared Nov. 12 Nov. 26 across her face. Such is the del;cate bal- ance between sweet and sour that each Reporting Line: 516-466-7111 Blake Babies song hinges upon. Their songs Fax: 516-466-7159 incite confusion and bewilderment, but offer Reporting Hours: 12:00 p.m. -6:00 p.m. EDT a gratifying listen, like the satisfaction of finishing a good book. Sunburn, the Babies' second Mammoth release, sees their ADVERTISING DEADLINES songs gelling together with less effort and a (Camera-ready) confident ease, but maintaining the youthful #213 (Nov. 23 issue): Nov. 8 quirkiness that initially attracted us to Ear- wig. The distinctive element in the band's sound remains singer/bassist Juliana Hat- NAKED RAYGUN Raygun field's girlish, whispering voice, full of Naked Raygun (Caroline, 114 W. CERTAIN DAMAGE honesty and subtlety, innocence and lust. 26th St., New York, NY 10001/ #32: Masters due Dec.