Local
Grooves
Jolie
Holland
Catalpa (self-released)
After the success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack,
it suddenly seems about as hip as it ever will be to play old-timey
music, which is ironic considering the "old times" and its
music have been happening for more than 100 years now. On her solo debut,
Catalpa, Texas-born singer-songwriter and former Be Good Tanya
member Jolie Holland manages to make the music fresh as well as keep
it real.
Evoking more rural dust than Nashville down-dressing, Holland's songs
strike a sustained chord of wanderlust and longing. "Catalpa Waltz"
and "All the Morning Birds" echo the raw recordings of troubadours
such as Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell, telling similar tales
of an itinerant life of freight trains and lonesome highways. The opener
"Alley Flowers" includes a slave-chant rhythm and a rattling
chains accompaniment that oozes like a primordial stew.
Catalpa has its sunnier and more psychedelic moments, culled
from such disparate sources as Syd Barrett, Zora Neale Hurston, and
W.B. Yeats in the evergreen folk-blues tradition of recycling. All of
the songs are highlighted by Holland's plaintive voice, which brings
to mind a Southern-fried Billie Holiday. There's hardly an amplifier
to be found on the album, just stately chord progressions and unadorned
instrumentation that sound eternal. This is contemplative material,
far removed from the hype and hyperbole of "modern" music.
Jolie Holland plays a tour fundraiser Sat/10, Facility 3, S.F. (415)
643-3993. (James Yamasaki)
Foreign Legion
Playtight (Look)
The geek angst and gallows humor that inspired such sleeper hits as
"Full Time B-Boy" and "Nowhere to Hide" are surprisingly
lacking on Foreign Legion's new Playtight. It sounds like Prozack,
Marc Stretch, and DJ Design spent the last two years listening to P-Funk.
Forget the neonoir landscapes and ambivalent, Chomskyan gestures that
characterized their 2000 debut, Kidnapper Van: Beats to Rock while
Bike-Stealin' (Insiduos Urban). Randy punch lines and thwacky bass
are the group's new stock in trade.
Stylistically, Playtight opts for less bruising, more frat-friendly
joints, which isn't to say these cats totally jettisoned their home-brewed
beats for junior prom disco. Instead, the new album is ill on the production
tip, as Foreign Legion suture Fabolous-style loops ("Happy Drunk")
with gurgly reverb ("Champagne Beamin' ") and venture unabashedly
into emo rap ("How Do It Feel?"). The tracks on Playtight
are consistently headnodic, though we pay a high price lyrics-wise.
Formerly enamored of secret agents and FBI wiretaps, Foreign Legion
now bring club girls, alcohol, and roommate disses to the fore. In the
end infectious numbers like "Feel the Music" and the wax-slinging
"Bring It" are more Chatty Cathy than gift-o-gabby, but hey,
Stretch and Prozack play the beat better than most underground rappers.
Foreign Legion perform Thurs/8, Milk, S.F. (415) 387-6455. (Rachel
Swan)
