June 12, 2002
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Extra Andrea
Nemerson's Norman
Solomon's nessie's Tom
Tomorrow's
PG&E and the California energy crisis Arts and Entertainment Electric
Habitat Tiger
on beat Frequencies
Culture Techsploitation
Without
Reservations Cheap
Eats
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PERSONALS | MOVIE CLOCK | REP CLOCK | SEARCH
Prepare to Die (King Crab Records) Prepare to Die is a home-recorded CD-R of music written by metal
enthusiast Nate Denver. The songs are deceptively simple, with four-tracked
guitar, drum machine, and some low-budget synthesizer touches. Subjects
covered: spiritual futility, death, defeat, and revenge. The end result:
a triumphant celebration of the human spirit that is not smarmy (!).
This is a genuinely inspirational record. Combining psychedelic gibberish,
lyrical rapper-type cleverness, and childlike ingenuousness, Denver
meets these dark spots in human existence and refuses to accept defeat.
He offers advice: "Drink a glass of fists and save them for when
the cracks in the street rise up / The fists will hold you together
and also punch the cracks if they attempt to live on and in you."
Does it make sense? Yes! Yes it makes sense. Did I mention inner
strength? In one song Denver fights a train, survives falling out of
a plane by sprouting wings, beats a tiger by rhyming "wire"
with "MacGyver," and takes a comet's power by wearing it like
a scarf. This is dangerous ground clever-cutesy-wise, and Denver pulls
it off with an air of Zen that leaves one a little speechless. Prepare
to Die is truly the most original release this reviewer has heard
in a long time – not because of the fact that it sheds first blood
in the coffeehouse folk metal movement but because Denver's take on
songwriting is just flat out bizarre and beautiful. (Mike McGuirk) For more than a decade, Jill Olson has been a virtually unrivaled source of buoyant charm on the Bay Area's indie pop landscape, a ray of summer sunshine that can always be counted on to burn through the morning fog. Biographically speaking, her best yesterdays include the Stouthearted, the Movie Stars, and her fetching 1996 solo debut, The Gal Who Would Be King, as well as her ongoing role in the honky-tonking Red Meat. Aesthetically, the yesterdays she taps for her second solo CD bear dates like 1964, when the Searchers sang "Needles and Pins"; 1965, when "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" appeared on the Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man; 1981, when a new wave-inspired Rick Nelson recorded "Almost Saturday Night" on his Four You EP; and 1988, when Roy Orbison joined the Traveling Wilburys. With ubiquitous roots-booster Dave Alvin producing, Olson fashions some of the most beguiling melodic hooks and choruses this side of the Mersey. Olson anchors the rhythm section (acoustic rhythm guitarist Rick Shea, drummer Bennett Bowman), and her longtime musical partner Michael Montalto makes a variety of guitars and keyboards ring, twang, reverberate, and, yes, chime. While her voice hangs slightly south of classic, Olson yearns and pines with charismatic conviction. Exuding indelible optimism, she can write "Leavenworth," a song about walking down that sometimes seedy S.F. street late at night, and transcend past heartbreaks with a new love that, she writes, is "so much better than my best yesterday." (Derk Richardson) |
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