Local
Grooves
Natural
Dreamers
Natural Dreamers (Frenetic)
Every time I listen to the Natural Dreamers' self-titled album, I'm reminded
that Deerhoof are everywhere these days – the band's new album,
Milk Man, has gotten reviewed in Rolling Stone and Entertainment
Weekly, and its members also work in local bands the Curtains, Nervous
Cop, and Gorge Trio. The Natural Dreamers also owe something to Deerhoof
– specifically the band's two guitarists, John Dieterich and Chris
Cohen, who, along with Dilute drummer Jay Pellicci, make up the trio.
The truth is, I like this CD better than the already widely hailed Milk
Man. The Natural Dreamers' specialty is tangled, thorny, choppy
instrumental rock that's in the same ballpark as U.S. Maple, or maybe
Captain Beefheart without the blues influence – or Deerhoof without
the sunny pop vocals. They love testing listeners with awkward but precisely
timed stop-and-start interplay that would be irritating except that
they set up moments when they give in and reward us with an amazing
riff or a melody that makes us shake our head and laugh because we never
saw it coming, as on "The Singer" and "Professional Dreamer."
The recording sounds great, and for a band that never play power
chords and hardly ever play in straight 4/4, they rock hard. If people
had any taste, Natural Dreamers would be on the cover of Guitar
magazine instead of another in the continuing series of Satriani disciples.
(Will York)
Joanna Newsom
The Milk-Eyed
Mender (Drag City)
Harking back to the rural field recordings made by Alan Lomax in the 1930s, Joanna Newsom's The Milk-Eyed Mender evokes the past without attempting to replicate it. "This is an old song, these are old blues," she sings on her full-length debut. "This is not my tune, but it's mine to use." And she uses it well: often with just a harp, the Nevada City native crafts sparse, delicate lullabies that pay tribute to – as well as update – her Appalachian folk, bluegrass, and outsider music influences. The result, which recalls Kristin Hersh's Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight as well as songs by Will Oldham and her pal Devendra Banhart, makes for one strangely alluring listening experience. Thanks to her impish voice, however, Newsom also tends to inspire love-her-or-loathe-her responses. But if her plaintive, almost childish warble can initially grate – imagine Jodie Foster's Nell breaking into song – it also quickly endears as she sings lyrics that transform her music into the stuff of fairy tales. Throughout the album's dozen songs, fantastical figures such as dragons, knights, and kings make repeated appearances. And while she also cites The Last Unicorn's soundtrack as an inspiration and has a penchant for cutesy alliteration like "My fighting fame is fabled / And fortune finds me fit and able," her storytelling isn't kids' material. Indeed, Newsom's deceptively childlike simplicity gives her album an even greater out-of-time quality that's at once refreshingly new and as old as the hills. (Jimmy Draper)
