JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET
Message From the Godfather
(Ubiquity)
****

That irksome late '80s acid jazz label (the term, NOT the record imprint) notwithstanding, the JTQ's new LP, Message From the Godfather is fucking awesome... early '70s Jack McDuff/ "Groove" Holmes-type, heavily funked... danceable, GROOVIN' Hammond jazz. Now for some, THAT word, "jazz," might be L-O-A-D-E-D, but I basically don't have the patience for "jazz"... it requires too much of a disciplined ear. However, I'm hollerin' for the JTQ 'cause I do dig shit that makes me move, and they got IT. FATHOM: the JTQ swings honest and legitimate, without pretense... they ain't stuffy "music" grads, "old" guys with Coltrane ambitions, hipsters on a misguided retro tangent, or hack job DJs! It's true... who'da thunk in aught-ONE we'd be so fucking lucky? And Taylor has "cool" pedigree... the JTQ is what Taylor made happen after he split the Prisoners--the Prisoners being the '70s Mod revival's exception... that proves the rule, dig. All right... even if you don't care who JTQ is but you dig funk, or have been gettin' down on the recent Desco soul/funk... well, don't miss this!! MIKE NIPPER

SLUMBER PARTY
Psychedelicate
(Kill Rock Stars)
***1/2

Detroit quintet Slumber Party, led by Alicia Berg, is a very different animal from the current crop of garage-oriented bands (Von Bondie, the Dirtbombs, the White Stripes) that are putting the Motor City back on the rock map. Comprised of four women with New York-centric roots, Slumber Party draws inspiration from Television and the always-influential Velvet Underground. The band's debut last year signaled the arrival of a beguiling and hypnotic musical engine that added up to much more than its members' '70s record collections. The drowsy, reverb-drenched sound had an all-encompassing pull. While the songs often conveyed delicacy, they were anything but fragile; guitarist Gretchen Gonzales even played her instrument with a rock instead of a pick. On Slumber Party's follow-up, Psychedelicate, the band is again produced by Matthew Smith, who balances the simple grooves and girl-group harmonies to perfection. The album's 11 songs move between meditative on "Sometimes" and "I'm Not Sad" (finding that perfect VU simmering tension), and brighter pop harmonies on "Everyone Else I Know" and "You've Gone Too Far." It's a murmuring cross between the Shangri-Las' Shadow Morton-produced gems and Lou Reed's first sparks of magnificence. NATE LIPPENS

THE DAMNED
Grave Disorder
(Nitro Records)
**

I was really looking forward to the Damned's new record, and now I'm more than a little disappointed. What I was hoping for was a stripped-down 1970's punk sound; what I got was something more gothic than I would have liked. Maybe it was the combination of Dave Vanian's voice and new bassist Patricia Morrison (ex-Sisters of Mercy), or maybe it's just that with age comes a slower, darker sound. Grave Disorder starts off with a few gems: "Democracy?" and "Song.Com" are solid punk, though with a few more hooks than I would have expected from the Damned. But as the CD progresses to its middle and end, most notably with "Absinthe" and the nearly eight-minute-long "Amen," Grave Disorder descends into a "spooky goth" sound that, while not bad, is just not what I was hoping for in a time when good punk is hard to find. MIKE SLEMBROUCK

THE MILLENNIUM/BALLROOM
Magic Time: The Millennium/ Ballroom Recordings (3CD)
(Sundazed)
***

Shit... this does a fine job at presenting the comprehensive work of producer Curt Boettcher and the evolution of one of his studio groups. Now I can't lie--the sounds are '60s Cali-fried POP rock. Fucking beautiful they are too! Um... for y'all who ain't familiar with Boettcher, that means "Beach Boys-ish" (but not really), with enough surprising psychedelic weirdness to (hopefully) stave off many accusations of cliché. And you '60s punkers beware, even as the Millennium sports a couple ex-Music Machiners, the Ballroom weren't shy of "vocal" workouts. Overall, this set is generally more akin to the Association (who Boettcher produced) than to Love... tho' I did hear bits of Love's Arthur Lee in there. Um... okay? Is all that clear? The only "problem," if it could EVER be an issue, is that there's lots of outtakes. Me, I wanna to hear it ALL: an engineer farts, it oughta be on the record... that's fine, but I know most non-completists get exhausted. Look, there are THREE damn discs to shuffle, and certainly there is a way around fatigue! Mmmmm-kay! Oh, I think you Elliott Smith fans might wanna take notice of this--you might hear something you like. MIKE NIPPER

FU MANCHU
California Crossing
(Mammoth)
***

There's something about Fu Manchu that makes me just want to get high, hot, and sweaty in some skate dude's van while his stereo blasts AM metal. In that magical place where hard rock meets heavy metal's lowest-hanging riffs, SoCal's Fu Manchu has always had this perfectly primal, sleazy, '70s amphetamine drive. The last Fu album, King of the Road, was the anthem for narcotic escapists, with songs like "Hell on Wheels" and "Over the Edge" racing like kids on cheap speed across imaginary freeways. California Crossing is lacquered with too much alt-radio polish, next to King of the Road's grease-stained goodness, but it's still a very worthy ride, with tracks like "Mongoose," "Separate Kingdom," and "Squash that Fly" gunning the heavy fuzz below the belt. JENNIFER MAERZ