Music

CD Review Revue

***
The best thing about the new Sonic Youth record is the sense it gives--particularly if you've been away from the band for a while--that some things can be counted on not to change. That doesn't mean that SY are stagnant. It just means that their artistic trajectory is intact. If their 20-year career can be divided clearly into three phases--the scary noise avatar phase, the '87-'94 pop miscegenation phase, and now--the current era of mellow, jam-based songs is just as rewarding as their golden ages (if less culturally necessary).

As on their previous few LPs--not counting the instrumental SYR releases from a few years back--the songs and sounds on Sonic Nurse are clean and distinct, even in the noise freak-out sections, the better to hear the anxious energy of the now three-guitar interplay. Though the lyrics are thematically vague (many seem to circle around exploitative relationships) the playing is exemplary. I mean, it's Sonic Youth; what can one say? Drummer Steve Shelley is a complete force of nature. I'm still not crazy about Kim Gordon's non-whisper voice. I still prefer the Lee Ranaldo songs ("Paper Cup Exit" is the only one here). Thurston Moore is a guitar hero. I still don't know what Jim O'Rourke does in the band. It's a Sonic Youth record. It's not Daydream Nation or Sister, but it's pretty good. SEAN NELSON

Sonic Youth perform with Wolf Eyes on Wed July 14 at the Showbox, 8 pm, $25, all ages.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

PDX Pop Now! 2004

(PDX-Pop Now!)

****
At various points throughout the peaks and valleys of its music scene, there have been many attempts to collect and spotlight Portland's diverse array of talent. In the early '90s, there were the Mayor's Balls--multi-roomed events housing various popular bands of the time (Dharma Bums, Heatmiser, and Sprinkler the last year I remember going)--as well as the then-annual summer mini-festivals under the Hawthorne Bridge. A nonprofit called PDX-Pop Now! recently created a new snapshot of Portland's local scene, and it's an impressive two-disc set that comes out in time for their equally impressive free, three-day, two-stage, all-ages music festival (July 9-11 at Meow Meow; check www.pdxpopnow.com for a list of bands playing). On these two CDS lie songs from a variety of pop-influenced acts--from hiphop (Libretto, Lifesavas) to electronica (the Sensualists), indie rock (the Joggers), and twangy alt-country (the Dharma Bums' Jeremy Wilson). The popularity spectrum also contains a mixture of well-known, buzzed-about, and burgeoning acts, from the Shins, the Thermals, the Helio Sequence, and the Decemberists to The Planet The, Davis vs. Dresch, Loch Lomond, M. Ward, E*Rock, and many more. All in all, there are 35 songs on PDX Pop Now! 2004 by as many artists. Together they make a vital document of our sister city to the south. JENNIFER MAERZ

NEUROSIS

The Eye of Every Storm

(Neurot)

**1/2
Well, it finally happened. I finally like a Neurosis album--almost. After nearly two decades of the band making music and releasing over a dozen full-length records, Neurosis' latest, The Eye of Every Storm, got closer to what I've wanted them to do than any of their previous attempts. But it still isn't perfect.

The Eye of Every Storm is dark, but it isn't mind-numbingly morbid. It's heavy, but it isn't overly industrial. Musically, the band has written some of the most dramatic and exhaustive compositions to come from any crew ever tagged with the hardcore/metal label. There's an eerie feel to everything, with guitars and keyboards adding spooky layers that dance around the storm of the deeper bass and drums.

It's the soundtrack for murder, deceit, and all things awful. It isn't comforting, something that's made apparent by the painful vocals. Throughout the record, singer Steve Von Till sounds like he's convincing someone to die, and it isn't pretty.

Therein lies the problem. I never could get over Von Till's vocals. The music creates this amazing (and eerie as hell) world and then the grouchy and ridiculously dramatic vocals come crashing into everything, breaking it all apart. It was so close. MEGAN SELING

KID SPATULA

Meast

(Planet µ)

***
Kid Spatula's one of the many aliases for British IDM workhorse Mike Paradinas, who's best known as µ-Ziq and owner of Planet µ Records. Meast gathers 34 tracks recorded from 1994-'98, a fertile period during which Paradinas must've daily birthed two tracks by teatime. Despite an occasional weakness for teeth-rotting synth tones and tunes, Paradinas creates some of the most swoonworthy orchestrations and otherworldly, exotic atmospheres in electronic music (he's surprisingly funky, too). Meast flaunts these attributes, but the double disc's mainly for Paradinas completists who can't get enough of his zanily warped textures and fascinatingly finicky beat programming. While lacking the dazzling peaks of 2000's Full Sunken Breaks, the 140 minutes here reveal a workaholic so creative, he compels even with a 70 percent success rate. DAVE SEGAL

**** Bill Clinton *** Chelsea Clinton

** Monica Lewinski * Hillary Clinton

Buy Tickets for Other Events