245 Great Neck Road, 3rd Fl. Great Neck, NY 11021 Established 1978 NEW IIIIS C REPORT Vol. 23 No. 12, Issue #203 ACKPOP. August 31, 1990 LIVING COLOUR BATS Time's Up The Law Of Things e!(Epic) (Communion-Skyclad) SOUL ASYLU M AND THE HORSE THEY RODE IN ON M ARC RIBOT SOUL ASYLU M Soul Asylum And The Horse Rootless Cosmopolitans They Rode In On (Island) (A&M) S. Youth Holds On To #1 Radio Pixies, Jane s Debut Top 10 Pixies Topples Youth In Retail BDP Overtakes PE In Beat Box S U RE THI N G! • Too Much JD)/ Takes The Rap F U T U R E S LEMONHEADS 678 reports WIG Office 516-466-6000 • Reports 516-466-7111 • Fax 516-466-7159 0 M T H E C O VE R AEssential new music as chosen Pby CMJ's I editorial staff . LIVING COLOUR BATS Time's Up The Law Of Things (Epic, P.O. Box 4450, New York, NY (Com munion, do Skyclad, 6 Valley 10101-4450) Brook Dr., Middlesex, NJ 088461 How does Living Colour rise to the challenge of 201-968-0073) following their platinum debut? By opening their It's tough not wander into florid adjectivial prose second LP with a hardcore song! While there's when confronted with a new Bats LP, but we'll do nothing else that surprising on Time's Up, the our best not to let the computer keyboard levitate album finds a much more seasoned and confident skyward. These Bats are of the central, most band clearing up most of Vivid's weaknesses and hallowed of NZ musical cliques—Robert Scott was establishing beyond question that they're here to in the Clean, both now and then, and Paul Kean stay. The band has gotten a lot better at was in Tall Dwarfs-precursor Toy Love, back at establishing a songwriting style and articulating the dawn of time. This band formation has shown their political stances—the slow-groove of - Love up on Flying Nun EPs, compilations and things for Rears Its Ugly Head" and "Pride" give way to about as long as the Dunedin Sound has been the bruising "New Jack Theme" and "Someone making waves on this edge of the hemisphere. As Like You" (a fierce diatribe against corrupt police) in the past there are stylistic similarities to other — yet their stylistic scope has broadened to in- core NZ bands (a finger points to the Verlaines), clude the neo -juju of "Solace Of You," the hazily but of their brethren, the Bats are tops at psychedelic "This Is The Life" and the cool quasi- recreating sonically the natural beauty of their jazz of the Corey Glover-penned "Under Cover environment—we'd start saying lush, sloping, and Of Darkness," which features a staggering jazz fog-enshrouded, but we promised not to. How guitar solo from Vernon Reid and a rap from everything about the Bats could be so Queen Latifah. Perhaps coolest of all is the unobstrusive and polite—the guitars sort of sift intc scathing "Elvis Is Dead," which includes a guest each other, Scott's thin, swoony vocals get an rap from Little Richard and totally deserves to be "A" for enunciation—yet so suction-cup arresting a hit single. While the songs from Livco's last is a mystery that we coarse, uncouth album didn't really breathe until you heard them norteamericanos will never fathom. The Bats' in a live setting, Time's Up jumps from the aren't really a hit single band ; they provide more speakers and demands your attention. They should of an idyllic, soft-strummed haven that's not easy have called this one Livid. to depart. Top Cuts: "Other Side Of You," "Yawn Vibes" and "I Fall Away." V MARC RIBOT SOUL ASYLU M Rootless Cosmopolitans Soul Asylum And The Horse (Island, 14 E. 4th St., New York, NY They Rode In On 10012) (A& M, 1416 N. La Brea Ave., Those who first heard Mark Ribot's distinctive Hollywood, CA 90028) guitar twang stumbling through an alley behind Now that Soul Asylum has fully emerged from the Tom Waits, or squawking along with Lizard king shadows of fellow Minneapple giants Husker Du John Lurie in the Lounge Lizards, or even on tour and the Replacements, their latest LP proves them with Costello in '89, know what his distinctive, to be a stompin' group of bastards, but the singular style is all about. In addition to Ribot's bastard sons of no one. When Dave Pirner's trademark chicken-scratch guitar, Rootless coasting and crunching melodies are coupled with Cosmopolitans features the pots-n-pans percus- a backwoods rasp that's rough enough to scrape sion work of Ribot's Tom Waits bandmate Michael the knees sticking out the slits of your jeans, it's all Blair, New York underground keyboardist An- the assurance needed that this is Soul Asylum and thony Coleman (John Zorn, Elliot Sharp, Glen not just any old(er) band from Minnesota. The Branca) and Arto Lindsay. Ribot utilizes the full band has sought guidance from its producers ever palette of his tonal arsenal, plinking, plucking and since loud and fast were no longer the only rules; scraping his way through a dozen dilapidated here Steve Jordan roots this record in the here pieces. Like all great guitarists who define and now despite the band's new-found retro themselves via a signature sound, Ribot is at his stance—even when they kick their own white trash best when he's in full form, honky-tonking it up brand of metallic blues like an Amerindie Bad with his run-down jazzy Tin Pan Alley twanging— Company, or do the same with funk ("Something so good, in fact, that on several occasions you Out Of Nothing") like a like-minded version of almost expect Tom Waits to gruffly hack and ex- War. Pirner's appeal is his attitude—most times his pectorate his way right up to the mic. Often, heart's out getting beer—but there's a stunningly songs don't really end, they just seem to fall sincere entry from Dan Murphy: Sportin' the best apart; coupled with Ribot's junk heap approach to song title to come down the pike in months, music (nailing rockabilly onto jazz, plugging a "Gullible's Travels" lopes at the pace of a Celtic warped and weatherbeaten Chuck Berry riff into a drinking song. Pirner's tracks remain the hallmarks country setting), it all makes for a pretty quixotic though ; latch onto them all, and you'll discover and unpredictable mix. Check his tangental Jimi this horse is a thoroughbred. Hendrix cover (if you could even call it that), "Shortly After Takeoff," "The Cocktail Party," "New Sad" or "Beak Lunch Manifesto." CMJ NE W MUSIC REPORT AUG 31, 7990 7990 DREA M so REAL G L O R Y LI N E -4k 41si " ‘.• o 4111. 9 Piodu(ed by Joe Hardy ARISTiK 1990 Anoto 4(9,6 1 lumpony MormgrInerd Inrny Allol Athens, GA el JACKPOT! studio at the last second, and then singing up such an emotional storm that all present weep uncontrollably, reoccurs again and again while listening to Battleground. REPORT Eerily reminiscent of George Jones in vocal ffeulc warble, Stewart knows how to sell the be- ¡eesus out of his songs, the first (and maybe last) trait of a true C&W hero. The band REPORTING DATES assembled for Battleground plays their cards ¡ust right, sounding remarkably human for an early 90's country recording without ever getting in Stewart's way. R A DI O Records like this and the recent Texas Tor- A N D nados release are proudly reminding us why honky-tonk C&W was and is so S PE CI ALT Y needed. Get stinkin' drunk to: "Nothin' But (Hard RocklNew WorldlRetail/ A Woman," "Bedroom Battleground," Beat Box/Jazz) "You're The Reason I'm Living" and (Monday-Tuesday) "Seeing's Believing." Aug. 31 8, Sept. 4 Sept. 17-18 PRINCE Graffiti Bridge (Paisley Sept. 10-11 Sept. 24-25 Park, do Warner Bros., 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91510)—For all we know, this could be DI AL O G U E the soundtrack to the worst film of all time—but that's irrelevant, because it's (By fax or mail) quite possibly the best album of this (Monday, 6 p.m. EDT) modern-day Mozart's career. As with Sign Aug. 27 Sept. 17 O' The Times, Prince has dug deep into Sept. 10 Sept. 24 his vaults (demos of several tracks have long been available on bootlegs) and Reporting Line: 516-466-7111 emerged with an album as diverse as any Fax: 516-466-7159 you'll hear, touching on every phase of his Reporting Hours: 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT career, and then some: there's skinny-tie pop ("Can't Stop"), sinewy groove ("We Can Funk"), the infectiously inane "Shake," ADVERTISING DEADLINES the brilliant paislification of "Elephants And (Camera-ready) Flowers" (our vote for the album's hit single; Prince beats Lenny Kravitz at his #204 (Sept. 14 issue): Aug. 30 own game), hyper-complex ballads ("The Question Of U," "Still Would Stand All LEMONHEADS Lovey (Atlantic, 75 Time"), irresistible funk ("Release It," "Tick Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY CERTAIN DAMAGE Tick Bang"), and those are only the high- 10019)—The Lemonheads are one of the #30: Masters due Aug. 15 lights. While scads of guest vocalists come better-publicized stalwarts of the healthiest Street Date: Sept.