ROCK • A • RAMA
STEPMOTHERS-You Were Never My Age (Posh Boy):: Buzzsaw punk as an ideal (you don�t necessarily parrot in yer own jagged rock), say these L.A.�s-finest Stepmothers. Shrill, jangling, nervous, poppy-edged stuff, like if Dino, Desi, & Billy had had their pimply political consciousnesses raised 29 eons or so since 1966.
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ROCK • A • RAMA
This month�s Rock-A-Ramas were written by Richard Riegel, Richard C. Walls, Bil/y Altman, Rick Johnson, and Michael Davis.
STEPMOTHERS-You Were Never My Age (Posh Boy):: Buzzsaw punk as an ideal (you don�t necessarily parrot in yer own jagged rock), say these L.A.�s-finest Stepmothers. Shrill, jangling, nervous, poppy-edged stuff, like if Dino, Desi, & Billy had had their pimply political consciousnesses raised 29 eons or so since 1966. Yeh, right, except that the Stepmothers also have some abso-Limey quest (try on the Clash or Jam here) in the backs of their earnest brains & homemade rebel songs. Lita Ford cameos, the obligatory Fowley number sounds decent, and the Stepmothers cover �To Sir With Love� (as in Lulupalooza) with defiantly stunning heavy-metal punk irony. A subversive combo(nation). R.R.
DEWEY REDMAN-Soundsigns (Gal axy):: Tenor saxist Redman, of Ornette Coleman/Keith Jarrett/Old And New Dreams fame, rarely gets to release an album under his own name but when he does, you know it�s going to be varied and strange. Soundsigns� two best cuts are a straight ahead romp thru Miles Davis� bebop classic �Half Nelson� and an eerie collage of space doodles spotlighting harp and saw.. .the other two cuts have distinct personalities too, one being a lugubrious stretch of free verse tonalities for tenor and two basses, the other a ballad that begins �lovely� and then grows increasingly more agitated and ugly. A full program of attitudes for the adventuresome listener. Or, sympathetic resonances for marginally hostile abstractionists. Or... R.C.W.
GLASS MOON—Growing In The Dark (Radio):: Always wondered if I�d ever hear anything as bad as the fabled �Bosstown Sound� splurt of LPs in the mid-to-late 60�s and here it is at last. Despite pleasant enough (if unbearably wimpy) update of �On A Carousel,� the whole shebang is laughably incompetent from performance to production. Bonus points for the most idiotic use of castanets (�Baja�) since the Trini Lopez incident. R.J.
EYE TO EYE (Warner Bros.):: Eye eee, something for Gary Katz to produce & promote in the eternity until the Steely Dan beards get around tc5 recording their next platinumb masterpiece. Deborah Berg is a �performance artist� gone pop-legit vocalist, Julian Marshall plays more keyboards than Keith Richards has liver pills, and together as Eye To Eye, they ladle out an ECM-jazzy synthesizer-vamp soup that�s so soothing it makes Laurie Anderson sound positively raucous. R.R.
BILL EVANS—Conception (Milestone):: The first record of this 2-fer is a reissue of pianist Evans� first date as a leader (�56), and it�s a revelation for latecomers—unlike the etherealist he was to become, Evans here cooks in a hardbop, hard-driving mode, not afraid to kick in a solid funky lick when appropriate. The second record, consisting of previously unreleased material, features four solo pieces (�62), Evans� first recording after the death of seminal trio bassist Scott LaFaro, an event adding a layer of sadness to his already elegiac solo style. Enjoyable, historically relevant, and moving.
R.C.W.
RETRO/TRAINABLE-Double Take (Transcity):: A bracing pair of modern Britishsounding, artful-rocker bands, both of whom just happen to hail from beloved, brokenarteried Detroit. So take a dose of artrock up your redmeat-ravaged rectums, you Motor City metal monster stereotypes! Rather inevitably, these two new bands share a preoccupation with �Urban Life� and the fabled Dee-troit terrors j thereof; the resultant music is anxiety-for-thenew-depression energetic & infectious, Talking Head-y minus latent preppiness. The Beatles could always retreat to their charming English countryside, and do it in the road, but for Trainable, there�s only �makin� love to you in a ditch (by the freeway)� Grim as it needs to be. Transcity Records, 18977 W. Ten Mile Rd., Southfield, MI 48075. R.R.
ROCKABILLY STARS VOLUMES 1 & 2 (Epic):: Well, yes, you could have easily boiled down these two double albums to one fairly hot four sided set, but then we probably would have missed out on getting those crazy Collins Kids on a cover all their own. It�s the six assorted tracks by sassy Lorrie Collins and her barely in his teens, guitar pickin�, crewcut-ed brother Larry that are the real eye-openers here, especially Larry�s hyperventilatin� vocal on the immaculately named �Whistle Bait.� Outside of them, I should point out that it�s nice to finally get a copy of Ronnie Selfs �Bop-a-Lena,� likewise for Ersel (greatest name in rock �n� roll, ever) Hickey�s eternal �Bluebirds Over the Mountain� (sounds almost reggae-ish some 20 years on), the very first Everly Brothers recordings are a nice slice of history, and, I never realized that Alvin Lee stole his entire vocal style from Link Wray. Not a bad effort on the whole, considering that, in the 50�s, Columbia was much more interested in the care and maintenance of Mitch Miller�s beard than anything as decadent and faddish as rock�n�roll. B.A.
LESTER BOWIE-The Great Pretender (ECM):: Everyone knows that the best way for a jazzman to make it is to cover tunes that most people are familiar with. Bowie, one-fifth of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and probably the most audacious trumpet player on the planet, knows it, too. Maybe that�s why he starts off this album with �the long version� of �The Great Pretender,� which features inspired sputtersquawk solos and cooing background vocals. Then if you still haven�t gotten the joke, he goes directly into �It�s Howdy Doody Time,� milking the melody for more music than you ever thought was there. The originals on side two are fine as well but if ECM doesn�t put out a 45 of �Howdy Doody� and an edited �Great Pretender,� they�re missing the chance of a lifetime. M.D.
GIRL—Wasted Youth (Jet):: The guys in Girl are finally back with a new LP now that vocalist Phil Lewis has ODed on making pigeon mouth with a certain Britt E. Unusually good material for a H. Metal outfit and lightning attack as well. Not pompous, preachy or prone to solo either. Attitude? They die laughing at the mere mention of New Wave Heavy Metal. R.J.
