ROCK A RAMA

ROCK A RAMA

This month's Rock-A-Ramas were written by Billy Altman, Michael Davis, Joe Fernbacher, John Morthland, Richard Riegel, Richard C. Walls and Craig Zeller.

LIT A FORD —Out For Blood (Mercury):: Mellowplegiacs beware, for what we have here is no less than the Goddess of Thunder licentiously calling up the Lords of Chaos in a tsunami of exterminatory meat guitar moan. Ye yeggs of the nod, lift up thine eyelids slowly and behold this hammer and tongs glimpse into metal gehenna. Lita might not be as polished as she's eventually gonna be, but her new leather 'n' studs look is just fine by me, and this record will certainly suffice until that day when she resurrects the stumbling ghost of Tommy Bolin and once again lets loose the howling dogs of hazard rock. Hotcha! J. the F.

JOSH LEO: Rockin' On 6th (Warner Bros.):: Having .lost the real thing to various excesses several years back, Warners has now found this would-be Lowell George clone. Leo phrases as much like George as he can, conceives similar rhythm patterns, and even uses some of Lowell's former band members and favorite "special guests.'' But since there's also a distinct East Coast working class vibe to Leo's songs, he thoughtfully adds a strong overlay of Springsteen-like polish and histrionics. If there's a real Josh Leo amongst all this, he fails to show himself. J.M.

QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE -Maiden Of The Cancer Moon (Psycho/ JEM):: The best of two well-played, wellrecorded live sets from Quicksilver's peak period in '68. this is a must for anybody into San Francisco-based psychedelic guitar rock. Featuring primarily material from the band's first two LPs, plus a few other blues covers/extensions, this double album neatly displays the group's talent for using twin lead guitars creatively, as they complement, rather than compete with each other. It also suggests that, along with the early Grateful Dead, Quicksilver was a West Coast missing link between the Butterfield Blues Band (with Bloomfield and Bishop) and the Allman Brothers Band. The Quality of the sound also has me wondering if there are other Fillmore East tapes of late '60's bands that sound this qood. Uh. paging Mr. Graham... M.D.

THE BEAT—To Beat Or Not To Beat (Passport):: In which Paul Collins and Co. suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous mediocrity. This EP is consistent from start to finish: it always sounds warmed-over and not once does it fool you into thinking anything's actually gonna happen. I'd trade the whole thing for one quick spin of "Rock 'N' Roll Girl" from the first Beat album. And I bet Collins would, too. C.Z.

RODNEY DANGERFIELD-Rappin' Rodney (RCA):: Qualmishly I approached this record in its dusty bin. Comedy albums in general are anathema—and they get boring after you've heard all the jokes two or three times, anyway. Yet there it was, staring up at me with bulging eyes, blowzy face, and dangling cigarette, saying—no, pleading—"Hey, c'mon, buy me, ya schmuck." So I did. And I'm not in the least bit sorry. Rodney Dangerfield when he's on a roll is uncategorically the funniest man alive, and for the most part on Rappin' Rodney he's on that roll. The only time he falters is when he lets the audience get to him, and the audience on this record is horrible, insulting and generally a bunch of dorks. Yet even through the shit, Rodney shines. Along with Henny Youngmann, Prefessor Irwin Corey, the Old Philosopher and Lord Buckley, Rodney ranks high in the ever slim pantheon of Yuk Lords. J. the F.

BRIAN MAY & FRIENDS-Star Fleet Project (Capitol):: Anyone who believes that great rock 'n' roll is made by fleet-fingered guitarists will have a field day here as Eddie Van Halen and Queen's Brian May trade fretflashes over a rhythm section that includes REO's Alan Gratzer. The idea of getting together outside their groups is great, but what did they end up playing? A TV theme and a couple of bloozejams. Oddly enough, what was such an obnoxious cliche 12 years ago is actually kinda refreshing here and there's no denying the fierce noises and flashy licks that Brian and Eddie come up with. But if this sorta thing really catches on, and Savoy Brown and Ten Years After make successful comebacks, don't blame me. M.D.

JOHN HIATT-Riding With The King (Gef fen):: John Hiatt's "problem" continues to be that, in an era of blinder-bound specialists, he's far too eclectic a songwriter and singer; in the "we do chicken right" environment of'80s rock, jack-ofall-trades tend to get lost in the sauce. Riding With The King is yet another fine Hiatt record that's gone generally unnoticed, a pity since the outstanding songs here (of which there are quite a few) are among the best I've heard all year. They include such across-the-borders fare as "I Don't Even Try," a witty, jaundiced tale of love's woes taken right from the old Randy Newman textbook, the country tugger "Girl On A String," and several highly impressive white soul stirrers led by the irresistible, organ-dominated "Lovers Will." Special mention to side one producers Ron Nagle and Scott Matthews, who do everything about as right as side two's producer, the ever-fading-faster Nick Lowe, does wrong. At least Mr. Pure Pop didn't blow the one track that mattered most—the hitbound-if-only-in-our-dreams "The Love That Harms.". B.A.

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (Sire EP):: Good band, questionable marketing, take #23987. In an attempt to break the Bunnies out of their US cult closet, Sire has put out what amounts to a Best-of-mini-album. The five tunes include the band's fine new 45, "Never Stop," and a strong live version of "Do It Clean," but the remaining three are simply reprises of the album versions. What this makes for is a highly-listenable introduction to the group, but the fans who know that several worthy B-sides remain unreleased over here will be correct in grumbling over the duplications. M.D.

BUTTHOLE SURFERS (Alternative Tentacles/'Subterrenean):: What do these obscuro grungemongers from the trailerparks of Texas have over their trash-thrash compatriots? Just about everything, it turns out. Judging from their name, the fact that no personnel or song titles are listed anywhere, plus their instructions to play this thing at 69 RPM when it was recorded at 45, I'd have to say that their attitude is peerless. But their music makes it, too: the humorous lyrics are wracked with pain (and vice versa) and their material is diverse, well-played and totally demented. Their roots would appear to run towards early Pere Ubu or Void-Oids with maybe a Flipper tossed in for navigation's sake, but where those bands were/are off-the-wall, the Butthole Surfers are over-the-wall-and-bye-bye. M.D.

HUNTERS & COLLECTORS (A&M):: If you prefer to shake your buns to great masses of moving sound instead of clipped, precise electrobeats, this may be the band for you. Their dancearound-the-kitchen-sink approach offers a clatterbang alternative to the Kling Klang klinicians and there's more vitality and variety here than you'll find in the recent work of Shriekback, Killing Joke or Gang of Four, three bands they kinda resemble. Things do get dense and tense at times—the lead singer often sounds like Joe Jackson being put through a meat grinder—but those rhythms just keep on rollin' right through the chaos and you can, too. M.D.

TONI BASIL (Chrysalis):: Toni Basil's the perfect type of other-directed rocker to do throwaway-pop formula stuff like her smash novelities "Mickey" and "Shopping A to Z" of last year. Unfortunately, Basil's hung out with David Byrne and been toasted for her choreographic talents since then, and she's on the make for serious-business pop on her new set. Richie Zito's at the helm, Toni's enlisted the aid of many toney L.A. session brains, and you emerge from the checkout with a cart full of dehydrated alphabet soup: DOR meets ALT (adult love tribulations.) C'mon, Toni, you were so fine on "Mickey," another coffeetable-chanteuse like M. Manchester is exactly what we don't need... R.R.

RED RODNEY AND IRA SULLIVAN QUINTET —Sprint (Elektra Musician) VARIOUS ARTISTS-The Griffith Park Collection 2 (Elektra Musician):: Two recent and very good examples of a not-dying art— acoustic mainstream jazz (assuming the mainstream to be somewhere between bebop and the avant-garde). The Rodney/Sullivan record is confidently eclectic with compositional contributions from pianist Gary Dial in the modes of Ornette Coleman (the title cut), "Maiden Voyage"-period Herbie Hancock ("How Do You Know"), and the stride era ("My Son, The Minstrel") as well as a respectful cover of Hancock's "Speak Like A Child" and a rendition of "As Time Goes By" which is, remarkably, neither ironic nor overly sentimental. The Griffith record is a 2-fer (like Sprint, recorded live) and features trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (flashy, but fun), tenor saxist Joe Henderson (aggressive, exciting), pianist Chick Corea (generally lyrical, swinging) bassist Stanley Clarke (big sound, good solos) and drummer Lenny White (solid, tho a little overbearing). Which is about all the info you can squeeze into these short reviews (oh yeah, highly recommended). R.C.W.

BARNES AND BARNES-Soak It Up (Boulevard EP):: Like victims of a compulsory retirement age rule at National Lampoon, synthetic siblings Art and Artie Barnes (not barns) here eschew rock comix (they used to do something called "Fish Heads" on Dr. Demento's show) for the heady world of adult "Objectivity." Yep, synthpop, the great equalizer of our time, has devolved upon these erstwhile yukkers, too, result is eccentric (smirky vocals, banana-peel keyboards) pop pieces more programmable than you expected. Message in grownup textures like "Monkey Life" is that adulthood's here to stay, get yerself accomodated to it now! R.R.