ROCK - A - RAMA

ROCK - A - RAMA

This months Rock-A-Ramas were written by Michael Davis, Rick Johnson,

Richard Riegel and Richard C. Walls.

BLURT—In Berlin (Armageddon/Ruby):: Blurt have probably the best band name this side of Furious Pig and it fits the inspired spew of their music well. Their roots reach back to Beefheart and the early Kinks but their sound is as current as, say, Gang Of Four or Pere Ubu. Their raw rambunctiousness will undoubtedly keep em off the airwaves, as will song titles like My Mother Was A Friend Of An Enemy Of The People, but if you ever wanted to like the Contortions but couldnt hack James Chances attitude, this is the band for you. M.D.

BILLY IDOL—Don't Stop (Chrysalis):: I cant understand the raves this weiner has been getting. This four song EP features his rotten version of Tommy James Mony Mony, the long version (youve no idea how long) of his disco-splat Dancing With Myself and two other ' snores. I bet dancing isnt the on/y thing Billy has to do by himself. R.J.

THE UNKNOWNSDream Sequence (Sire mini-LP):: This record has so much nice big healthy fat-guitar REVERB to it, that the rooms still throbbing with auditory pleasure as 1 slip the disc back into its sleeve. Bet you could , even tune a flathead Ford V8 to all the reverb these guys get out of their Monstrosities. Someday the Unknownsll be listed under Artrockabilly jn the pop encyclopediae, but for now Im enjoying em as good old Southerntrash-rockers (cf. Box Tops, John Fred, the Hombres. Bobby Fuller, all from the 60 s of course.) Unknown vocalist Bruce Joyner has so many verified physical infirmities he could retire on a disability pension tomorrow, but he aint complaining. Joyner leaves the whining to whole Dan Fogelberg types, while he and other Unknowns remain ably hot in pursuit of the eternal Fast & Loud. Recommended with reverb upon reverbs. R.R.

DJANGO REINHARDT-Vol. 2/Solos/ Duets/Trip (Inner City):: Legendary guitarist Django is one of those people whose name you hear a lot—its always been hip for rock guitarists to drop it in interviews—but whose music you hear a little less, This second album in ICs continuing re-issue of Django sides affords a chance to remedy that. Mostly from the late 30s the cuts are all joyous, succinct, virtuosic classic material...this, as annotator Bob Blumenthal points out, is the real thing. And legendary classic blah blah blah aside, a lot of fun. R.C.W.

OLD AND NEW DREAMS-Playing (ECM):: The third album from this unique Ornette Coleman Alumni Association is a live one and is probably their best yet. All four jazzmen—reed player Dewey Redman, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed Blackwell—share equally in giving this music both its spontaneous spark and its assured sense of control, but if 1 had to pick my face, I guess it would be Blackwell, whose astonishing mixture of rhythmic diversity and parade-ground precision never ceases to amaze me. M.D.

T.V. SMITHS EXPLORERS-The Last Words Of The Great Explorer (Epic):: Seems as though 1 already blew the whistle on this trend in my Duran Duran Rama, but heres yet another disc of refined Limey-pop, for the grimmer-twins-than-youll-ever-be 80s. T.V. Smith used to be in the Adverts, so he has were takin-over-in-78 credentials of a sort, and his vocals exhibit plenty of determined energy, but the, college-convocation pomp of some of the synthesizer passages scares me. How long will it be before bands like this one turn into nouveauJethro Tull horsefaces? (Seems like the Moody Blues and King Crimson have never gone away.) Ah well, the Explorers album is really not bad, as long as youre hip to the irony of their name (not so many chances taken.) R.R.

THE JOHN HALL BAND-All Of The Above (EMI America)*: The overgrown preppie featured on here is prominent among those noble neenie-nahnahs (count in James Taylor and Jackson Browne, of course) whove kept me from pledging my humble pacifist support to the antinuke movement so far, because of my aesthetic standards. Horrify me all you want with your projections of nuclear Gehennas, it still strikes me (in records like this) that the plain old unrepentant-folkie country rock that disfigured the 70s has a helluva lot more cancerous half-lifes than any radioactive isotope you could name. No political songs on here, but plenty of wimpy ones. Maybe if I chain myself to my stereo as a protest, this noogler-reactionary LP will never go on-line operational.R.R.

MASTER CYLINDER—Elsewhere (Inner City):: If you can get past the groups cryptofascist moniker, the albums flaky title and boring cover-(low aerial view of a buncha trucks —this is no way to sell records) and the fact that the music herein could conceivably be labeled fusion, then youll find a group of young Texans working a modestly appealing, eclectic bag— compositional Zappa-isms abound, acoustic jazz occasionally emerges, synthesizer boredom threatens but never takes hold, and the set moves on firmly under the control of leader Joe Rodgers itnpressive melodic inventions. Not brilliant, no, but damned clever. R.C.W.

OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING-Digital Cowboy (EMI America mini-LP):: Remember those good old he-man days when Queen used to boast on each album liner that they hadnt employed any synthesizers within? Well, Our Daughters Wedding have descended a step further down the primrose path of Angloid electro-musical artifice; O.D.W. may be up to their tasteful armpits in synthesizers, but at least they can assure you, No sequencers used. Thank the good Ferry of the North for such integrity! Seems that every new group from England. this week is out for this same adult synthesizer pop rhythm bump stuff, and while O.D.W. move nicely, there's nothing brainshaking in their distanced-vocal lyrics. These fellows appear to have learned a lot about life listening to other peoples records— XTC and the Psychedelic Furs pop right out of the rabbit holes where the sequencers would be—and you might want to study the subject the same way. R.R.

BRUCE COCKBURN-Inner City Front (Millenium):: Every so often, one of these singer-songwriter types comes along whos actually worth listening to and Cockburns currently one of the handful. His words are less self-absorbed than Jackson Brownes recent output and his music is less stylized than Dire Straits or Springsteens, even though he occasionally reminds me of all these guys. Hes subtly daring, both in his Arrangements— check out the berserko violin on Loner—and in the way he lets the details he sees speak for themselves instead of forcing them into preconceived patterns of style and taste. Cockburn also gets points for being outfront about his Christian beliefs, yet refusing to make his spirituality into a product, unlike certain other singer-songwriters I could mention. M.D.