Music

CD Review Revue

****
If you buy one rock record this summer, it has to be Comets on Fire's Blue Cathedral (if you buy two, grab the Icarus Line's Penance Soiree as well). If that's too much hyperbole, burn me at the stake--but it's the goddamn truth. The Bay Area's psychedelic sorcerers have completely outdone themselves with this new higher plane of a record--taking you to galaxies lost when Blue Cheer, Pink Floyd, and even Zeppelin and Zen Guerrilla turned to dust--and creating a spellbinding sonic voyage no other legal substance has the skills to transport you through. Axmen Ethan Miller and Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) dig a groove deeper than anything created after the collapse of the Age of Aquarius has been able to touch, and echoplex magician Noel Harmonson chases the riffs further into left field. When vocals enter the picture, the words are unintelligible, and for the most part, unimportant--alien communication from a place where language is a texture more than an instrument--and as heavy as the rhythm section (bassist Ben Flashman and Utrillo Kushner) becomes, they still barely manage to keep the band earthbound. If there is a God, he wishes he made this Cathedral. There, I said it. JENNIFER MAERZ

MINUS THE BEAR

They Make Beer Commercials Like This EP

(Arena Rock Recording Co.)

***
This new six-song EP from local favorites Minus the Bear is both a continuation of and an improvement on their debut full-length, Highly Refined Pirates. Like its predecessor, Beer Commercials is marked by complex rhythms and time-signature shifts that would make most rock bands quiver, alongside rocking resolves that make the fancy math feel like an afterthought. The playing is really impressive throughout, and the production by band member Matt Bayles is crystalline. The improvement lies in the vocal work, which seems to sit a good deal higher in the mix than on past MTB releases. As a result, these seemingly complex songs with hard-rocking climaxes also swoon with a blunt romanticism. Images like "She stood biting on her lip/ eyes upturned/ and then she said, 'I know we've met before'" set the scene perfectly. This is an excellent, concise piece of work. SEAN NELSON

RILO KILEY

More Adventurous

(Brute/Beaute Records)

****
This Los Angeles outfit received plenty of press for their last album, The Execution of All Things, as well as their affiliation with Saddle Creek Records and the Omaha, Nebraska scene it sprang from--but it was their Barsuk debut that I loved. Their latest album is both a return to form and a departure, as proclaimed by its title. The 11 songs range widely from indie rock to power pop with countrified touches. Lead singer Jenny Lewis has a knowing delivery and unaffected vocals that adapt to every stylistic switch--she really lets loose on "I Never," which sounds like an old AM hit. Rumor has it that Elvis Costello contacted the band to tell them the album opener, "It's a Hit," was the best song he'd heard in 10 years. It's damn good--a horn-laced, handclap-enhanced pop song with lyrics like "It's a sin when success complains." They will most likely have a lot to complain about after this album hits. NATE LIPPENS

BEBEL GILBERTO

Bebel Gilberto

(Six Degrees)

***
Bebel Gilberto's debut, Tanto Tempo (2000), was produced by Suba (a Yugoslavian expatriate who died in a S--o Paulo fire just before completing Gilberto's CD). Her new CD, Bebel Gilberto, is produced by Marius de Vries, a brilliant programmer who has worked on all of Björk's solo CDs. As a whole, Tanto Tempo was a messy and overenthusiastic experiment that blended old Brazilian samba with new European electronica. Bebel Gilberto, on the other hand, is not dazzled by electronic wizardry; it is much quieter, more sensitive, and beautiful in the way that a single moment framed by an apartment window can be beautiful. The excitement of Tanto is gone, the party is over, and all that is left to express is the warmth of being alone. One other thing: Bebel Gilberto has more English songs than its predecessor. This is not entirely a bad thing, but, all in all, English is not as sexy as Portuguese. It's hard to be breathy in English (a language that's great for the production of ideas and the deployment of concepts), whereas with Portuguese (a language that is great for the purposes of seduction) breath is liberated as if by an opened window. The next question should be this: Why is the sound of breathing erotic? The answer must be this: It is an index (in the Peircean sense) to the closeness of faces at the moment of copulation. CHARLES MUDEDE

**** Cheech & Chong *** Jay & Silent Bob

** Harold & Kumar * Harold & Maude

Buy Tickets for Other Events