BASEMENT JAXX
Remedy
(Astralwerks)
****
Remedy has been the soundtrack to my summer on both coasts. In New York, the album was a backdrop to fast, stupid sex. It's euphoric, insistent, and won't let your attention drift from the physicality at hand. A song like "Jump and Shout" is for getting off: the kind of amyl nitrate musical rush the Chemical Brothers are too heavy-handed to do. On many a sleepless night, the Basement Jaxx proved themselves capable of the light touch needed to orchestrate an out-of-body experience.
Back in Seattle, it's a totally different album. Like a relic of pleasures past, Remedy works as a transitional talisman to ease you back down to earth after all the craziness. Underneath the giggling, there's an adult theme that any jaded hardcore veteran will be able to relate to: Once you've done everything, what's left to do? Basement Jaxx don't have the answer, but they're willing to throw out everything music has to offer to give you some shelter while you work it out. And by the way, it's not a house; it's a home. PHILIP GUICHARD
ROWLAND S. HOWARD
Teenage Snuff Film
(Reliant)
****
Here's what former Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard's debut solo album sounds like.
1) The Birthday Party's singer Nick Cave's solo albums.
No. That's a lie. While there's a link between Rowland's brooding voice on Teenage Snuff Film and Cave's sonorous preacher tones, to say that Teenage Snuff Film is a simple copy would be a fallacy. It's a complicated copy. It draws on much of the same source material -- Johnny Cash, Velvet Underground's heroin-tainted vision of love, the Mary Chain, the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- but resonates with a gloomy grace all its own.
Here's what former These Immortal Souls/Crime & The City Solution mainman Rowland S. Howard's debut solo album really sounds like.
1) Crime & The City Solution, and These Immortal Souls.
No, that's a lie. Long-time partner Mick Harvey may be present (on drums), but the music here is stripped-back, far more chilling and evocative than anything Howard's previous bands ever managed. It's the music closest to Howard's heart, one suspects: '60s teenage angst howling in a '90s vacuum. Rowland's darkened voice also manages to echo Lee Hazelwood's deep baritone -- grand, seedy, and unyielding. Some compliment. This is the best album the Mary Chain haven't made in over a decade. EVERETT TRUE
IN STORES 8/24
Original Soundtrack, Outside Providence (Warner Bros.)
Original Soundtrack, Best Laid Plans (Virgin)
Various Artists, New Friends in Low Places: A Tribute to Garth Brooks (Cleopatra)
Various Artists, Brazil 2 Mil (Six Degrees)
Original Soundtrack, The Muse (Island)
Original Soundtrack, Climb Against the Odds (Warner Bros.)
Original Soundtrack, The Sixth Sense (Var*se Sarabande)
Original Soundtrack, Teaching Mrs. Tingle (Var*se Sarabande)
59 Times the Pain, End of the Millennium (Epitaph)
5ive Style, Miniature Portraits (Sub Pop)
The Aluminum Group, Pedals (Minty Fresh)
Amazing Rhythm Aces, Chock Full of Country Goodness (Breaker)
Amber, Amber (Tommy Boy)
Another Level, Another Level (Arista)
The Arsonists, As the World Burns (Matador)
Ash, Nu-Clear Sounds (DreamWorks)
The Beatnuts, A Musical Massacre (Relativity)
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, Oh! The Grandeur (Rykodisc)
Bows, Blush (Beggars Banquet)
Doyle Bramhall II, Jellycream (RCA)
Breakbeat Era, Ultra Obscene (Interscope)
Burning Spear, Calling Rastafari (Rounder)
Lori Carson, Stars (Restless)
Cha Cha, Dear Diary (Epic)
Dance Hall Crashers, Purr (Fat Wreck Chords)
Melanie Doane, Adam's Rib (Columbia)
Shan Dozia, Shan Dozia (Warner Bros.)
Filter, Title of Record (Reprise)
The Gadjits, Wish We Never Met (Epitaph)
Geetas, Last of the Best (Triple X)
Guster, Lost and Gone Forever (Sire)
The Hippos, Heads Are Gonna Roll (Interscope)
Ideal, Ideal (Virgin)
Innerzone Orchestra, Programmed (Astralwerks)
Jethro Tull, j-tull.com (Fuel 2000)
Jimmie's Chicken Shack, Bring Your Own Stereo (Island)
Katalina, Face to Face (Restless)
Mike Keneally, Nonkertompf (Exowax)
Kris Kristofferson, The Austin Sessions (Atlantic)
L7, Slap Happy (Bong Load)
Lunar Drive, All Together Here (Beggars Banquet)
Made Men, Classic Limited Edition (Restless)
Martin Luther Lennon, Escape to Paradox Island (Not Lame)
The Melvins, The Bootlicker (Ipecac)
Ming & F.S., Hell's Kitchen (Om)
The Mopes, Accident Waiting to Happen (Lookout!)
Mullmuzzler, Keep It to Yourself (Magna Carta)
Me'Shell Ndege'ocello, Bitter (Warner Bros.)
Nebula, To the Center (Zero Hour)
Nocturne, Twilight (Triple X)
Noreaga, Melvyn Flynt tha Hussler (Tommy Boy)
Nu Flavor, It's On (Reprise)
Povy, Life in Volcanoes (Nettwerk)
Puff Daddy, Forever (Arista)
Calvin Richardson, Country Boy (Universal)
Riot, Sons of Society (Metal Blade)
Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (Elektra)
Solar Twins, Solar Twins (Warner Bros.)
Styles of Beyond, 2000 Fold (Mammoth)
Tarwater, Silur (Mute)
Alice Temple, Hang Over (V2)
Richard Thompson, Mock Tudor (Capitol)
Steve Tyrell, Smile (Atlantic)
Vitamin C, Vitamin C (Elektra) [former Eve's Plum singer]
Leslie West, As Phat as It Gets (Mystic Music)
Zenith, The Jigsaw Seen (vibro-phonic)
Various Artists, We Are Twisted 1996-1999 (MCA)
Various Artists, True to Tradition: Bluegrass Essentials Vol. 2 (Hip-O)
Various Artists, Purrr! Kittens, Vixens & Bombshells (Hip-O)
Various Artists, Sun Records: 25 All-Time Greatest Hits (Var*se Vintage)
Original Soundtrack, Hair (RCA)
Air, Premiers Symptomes (Astralwerks)
The Blues Band, The Best of (Var*se Vintage)
Buffalo Daughter, WXBD (Grand Royal)
Christopher, What'cha Gonna Do (Scenescof)
The Comedian Harmonists, The Comedian Harmonists (Rykodisc)
Malcolm Holcombe, A Hundred Lies (Hip-O)
Long John Hunter, Ooh Wee Pretty Baby! (Norton)
Waylon Jennings, Live (Buddha)
Spike Jones, Greatest Hits (RCA)
Klaus Nomi, Total Eclipse: The Best of (Razor & Tie)
Elvis Presley, The Collection (RCA)
Lou Rawls, Double Shots: Sit Down and Talk to Me/Let Me Be Good to You (The Right Stuff)
The Real Kids, Better Be Good (1977-79) (Norton)
Tom Rush, An Urge for Going: The Best of (Legacy)
The Siegel-Schwall Band, The Siegel-Schwall Band (Wounded Bird)
Spanky & Our Gang, Greatest Hits (Chronicles)
Sun Also Rises, The Sun Also Rises (Scenescof)
Nancy Wilson, Greatest Hits (Legacy)
Wizz Jones, Magical Flight (Scenescof)
