ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK . A. RAMA

RECORDS

PSYCHEDELIC DREAM (Columbia):: No, it’s not the eagerly-awaited Hooked On Drugs V. 2, but it’ll do for a cosmic chuckle or two. Unearthed from under a mound of moldy mushrooms in Columbia’s vaults, this ’60s compilation unfortunately makes no distinction whatsoever between the bands with original styles (like the Byrds or Spirit) and those who just day-glowed along for the magic carpet ride (Kak, July, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy). Of course if you’re buying this album mostly for the yuks, you’ll be coming back to the hilarious hokum of Aorta more often than the “good stuff’ as most of this does sound pretty dated anyway. One' notable exception, though, is “Keep Your Mind Open” by David Lindley’s old band, Kaleidoscope^ whose use of Middle Eastern scales and war noises could just as well have been inspired by today’s headlines as those of 15 years ago (or tomorrow’s). M.D.

NOVEMBER GROUP (Modern Method):: Fast, electronic keyboards and electric guitar rhythms, quick female vocals colored with quasi-East European distancing, and lyrics parody-heavy with socialist-chic concepts like “Popular Front” and “Homeland.” In short, you’ve heard many of these elements in various other new performers over the past five years, but the November Group’s rushed amalgam of all those factory-outlet hipnesses is more spirited than most. “Really rocks out!”—like we useta say when art was still another country. (Modern Method, 268 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116.) R.R.

ECHOES OF AN ERA 2-The Concert (Elektra Musician):: Even though Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White are all traitors to the cause (Clarke and White especially, you get the impression, would record anything if enough bucks were involved), and Nancy Wilson is the type of singer that people politely refer to as a stylist, ile. fancy but not much depth, and when the live audience here raucously cheers the line about cocaine in “I Get A Kick Out Of You,” you think right, just the kind of would-be decadent morons that are gonna turn out to see names. Even through all that, still, the band is on their best behavior here, Corea in particular recalling past acoustic glories, Joe Henderson (no traitor, he) playing tenor sax with his usual blustery elegance and Wilson hasn’t sounded this good, this loose and playful, in a long, longtime. Not bad. R.C.W. AMERICA—View From The Ground (Capitol) :: What Crosby, Stills and Nash comeback would be complete without a corresponding coattail appearance by those “heat was hot” boys from America? Actually, this LP is loads better than CS&N’s “wasted on the way to side one” snoozer, mainly because most of the lead vocals are handled nicely by Gerry Beckley (Mr. Sister Golden Hair to you, bub) while Dewey Bunnell (he’s the one whose voice approximates Stills and Neil Young together nursing one mammoth head cold) stays in the back with his “do-do-do’?s and “dit-dit-dit”s. Besides “You Can Do Magic’-’—written and produced by Russ Ballard (He’s now written hits for America and Rainbow. Think about it.)—there are at least two MOR musts in “Never Be Lonely” and “Sometimes Lovers.” Speaking of radio, WKRFs Jan Smithers gets a thank you in the credits and, speaking of TV, so does session guitarist Bill (“No ‘y,’ please; I’m a man.”) Lost In Space Mumy, who once played a struggling musician in Sunshine, which starred Clear Light’s lead singer, Cliff DeYoung. Small world, huh? B.A.

UNIPOP— Unilove (Kat Family):: Fans of

This month’s Rock-a-ramas were written by Michael Davis, Richard Riegel, Richard C. Walls, and Billy Altman.

Charlene and her flaming-Appalachian fantasy of the jetset life, “I’ve Never Been To Me,” shouldn’t miss Unipop, who apply a similarly fantastic & cloying worldview to the heady subject of “Evolution.” “When you were a tadpole and I was a fish...” croon Mr. & Mrs. Loiacand, a brace of hyperventilating wags, and you can confirm by the lyric sheet that sure enough you heard right, Rest of the cuts are Barry Whiteish squoosh dances, but that opener’s enough to set survival of the fittest back another eon. R.R.

MAGAZINE-Alter The Fact (IRS):: “Shot By Both Sides,” included here, neatly and succinctly laid out Magazine’s central dilemma: they would forever be too sophisticated, both musically and thematically, for the punk crowd to embrace and too truthfully obnoxious for most others to stomach. This album is less a “Best of’ than ah import singles compilation, so much of its value lies in giving those of us puzzled by Howard Devoto’s enigmatic aura a shot at such self-revealing tunes as “Upside Down” and “My Mind Ain’t So Open.” Musical styles range from punk thrash and neo-Motown to updated Roxyisms, all at the service of Devoto’s taunting observations. The record ends with a chacter being escorted into Hell; since Devoto hasn’t surfaced in the ensuing year-anda-half, we can assume.. .what? Howard, are you there? Howard? M.D.

TONI BASIL-Word Of Mouth (Chrysalis) :: After going through glitter deja vu with Joan Jett, could pop music really afford not to follow its footsteps back into icky, gooey bubblegum land? Miss Basil, neither a slouch nor a Toni-come-lately (she worked on the goddamn T.A.M I. Show, fer Chrissakes) gives the glorious (who else but) Chinn-Chapman “Mickey” the perfect “I didn’t know the gum was loaded” Sweet-on-hormones treatment. (More stomps per square groove or videotape foot than any other brand, etc.) Sure, the album’s all downhill from there, but what else wouldn’t be? Besides, “Shopping A to 2,” which has its educational strongpoints (“M—Matzoh!... X— Nothing!!”) and consumer awareness as well (double coup me baby, eight cents to the soap bar) does come close. Hubba Bubba indeed!

B.A.

THELONIOUS MONK/GERRY MULLIGAN—’Round Midnight (Milestone):: The first three sides of this twofer are taken up by a reissue of the ’57 Monk/Mulligan encounter (with four previously unissued takes), a meeting that critics from Martin Williams (20 years ago) to R. Meltzer (coupla tnonths ago) have dumped on in print and, gee, I hate to go against the tide but I don’t think it’s all that bad. Mulligan’s smokey baritone makes an interesting textural complement to the ringing Monk-tones and the setting seems to inspire him to play it less cool, though he retains his tendency to phrase cute, a minor sin. Don’t let the Anti-Mulligan forces prevent you from deciding for yourself. The fourth side (also ’57) is 22 minutes of solo Monk trying to decide how to play “’Round Midnight” followed by the 6:40 release version. Fascinating for Monk fans (and Monk fans only).

R.C.W.

UTOPIA(Network):: Two songs into this “stillfaithful-after-all-these-bad-albums” album and you’re afraid that you’re in for yet another lengthy (as in three-sided) production of Oh, Todd, Poor Todd, It Ain’t ’64 And You’re Sounding So Odd. But then “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” “Neck On Up,” and “Say Yeah” close side one with lead vocals by all the Utopians and some exquisite harmony singing that’s not just Beatlemania-esque in nature. Between these three cuts, “Hammer In My Heart,” which features some ace shrieking by Rundgren and one of the goofiest musical hooks imaginable, and the positively gorgeous “There Goes My Inspiration,” you eventually realize the following things: a) For a change, this sounds like a band and not just Runt & Co.; b) The word “progressive” cannot be used to describe any of the 15 tracks here; and c) At least a third of the 15 are actually good songs; which leads to the conclusive d) When all is said and done, this is a pretty fair-effort all around. . B.A.

GREEN ON RED (Down There):: Essence of Lou Reed continues to flow thru the veins of America’s youth like some esoteric, not-sold-instores elixir, and new bands of Reed’s grandkids pop up in my mailbox almost weekly. You know these guitar licks, look up the number of the vocals, which paint an Okie accent over Unca Lou’s snerts from time to time. A new twist, I’ll haveta admit. Age-of-anxiety atmospherics, etc., “Gimme some aspirin, gimme some pain!” claims Green On Red. Tamperproof packaging’s in the same Xmas hues, in that fine lifted-fromImpulse-jazz-milestones style typical of this label. (1240 N. MacCadden PI. *5. L.A., CA 90038.)

R.R.

KATE BUSH-The Dreaming (EMI):: Pigeonholing this internationally-popular English songstress has been about as possible in the past as hearing her on American radio (zip) but I think Fve got a handle on her sound now. Imagine a cross between Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Nina Hagen and Martha Davis, who’s listened to a lot of Peter Gabriel, andv ,er, doesn’t help much, huh? Okay, would you go for a cute, talented eccentric? I would., Occasionally, her musical ambitions get the better of her, but no one who closes an album braying like a donkey can be accused of being too pretentious, now can they? M.D.

THE MEMBERS—Uprhythm, Downbeat (Arista):: Now that the whole white-reggae boom has passed on in England, with the breakup of the Specials, etc.; the Members are back at it, still hot for the permanent-wave ska breakthrough they were already plugging, before we ever heard of the TwoTone jeepsters. But the Members are subtler guys, more persistent in their aims than those flashy turks, after all, and this album’s a prime example of the craft that can come with experience. Professional, good-liberal hearty in its (pop)ulist anthems, and you can dance to it. But leave your fads at the door. R.R.