ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK A RAMA

THE REPLACEMENTS

Hootenanny (Twin/ Tone)

It's bands like the Replacements that make you wish there was some kind of rock 'n' roll Fresh Air Fund. Because if, at some point in the last five years, they'd have been staked to some lengthy free time of running amok in coastal metropolitan centers, they'd probably have long ago gotten the chance to ride the proverbial wave to some kind of success or notoriety, or both. As it is, they remain blissfully unaffected, whiling away the hours in the wilds of Minnesota, cooped up in warehouse studios obscured by snowdrifts, and emitting some of the heartland's finest inspirationally reckless and abandoned rock 'n' roll. Highlights here include the frantic 'Run It' ('Red light! Red light! Run It!'), the straitjacketed 'Take Me Down To The Hospital' (complete with full chorus of 'Ow!!'), the smooth-as-silk 'Lovelines' (a recitation of personal ads from the paper, with suitably jazzbo backdrop), the ultra-Shadowy 'Buck Hill,' leader Paul Westerberg's disarming ballad, 'Within Your Reach,' the title track...ah, jeez—just go out and try this one, OK? Then these fine lads can make enough money for surfing lessons from the Trashmen. (Available from Twin/Tone Records, 445 Oliver Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55405.) B.A.

L. SUBRAMANIAM

Indian Express (Milestone)

Indian scales have been a part of fusion music since as far back as the glory days of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so it figures that eventually an actual Indian virtuoso would try his hand(s) at it. Violinist Subramaniam has been primarily active in the classical world, but he's also been exploring an electric direction in recent years. Here, several tunes come perilously close to the typical session snooze-a-thons popular on the West Coast. But there are, in addition, a few sizzlers, too. The real news is the introduction of the Zeta Systems violin synthesizer, which oughta silence once and for all those bellyaching string players who complain about synths stealing their gigs. Subramaniam uses it to excellent effect on three tracks—though it's worth mentioning that he relies on his regular axe for 'Flight Of The Humble Bee,' the album's hottest track. M.D. GLENN BRANCA

Symphony No. 3 (Gloria) (Neutral Records) Gather round, all ye teengenerates 'n' metaholics, there be enough pure noise of this record to leave you vacant-eyed and burbling off in the shadowy corners of your bedroom. Here we have a man staring down the heaving cleavage of doom 'n' deafness with a glint in his eye, a maddened metal bundist seeking to tear down walls with his own personal fusilage of noise. So why am I so x-cited? Well, here's what this guy does on record. He gets 13 electric guitars and almost a dozen keyboard instruments, tunes them all in such a way that all 128 natural notes found in the first seven octaves of the harmonic scale can be played—which means that the resultant 'sound' is almost literally incapable of being captured on record. I played this at full volume with headphones on, and you shoulda heard just what I seen. J.M. the F.

This month's Rock-A-Ramas were written by Billy Altman, Michael Davis, Joe Fernbacher, Jeffrey Morgan and Richard Riegel.

ACCEPT

Balls To The Wall (Portrait)

This German heavy metal band has all the relentless self-parodies of the style in place here, which should please all the usual usuals who follow this stuff. On the other hand, Accept also feature a 'new' element, one we should've inferred long before now, from such popular HM terms as 'headbanger,' 'AC/DC,' and 'biggest boys' club in rock.' Uh-huh, you got it—these guys have lugged all their not-so-latencies out of the closet to give us the inevitable: gay metal! Just take a listen to Udo Dirkschneider's panting over those 'London Leatherboys.' As if that hairy thigh and stuffed crotch on the cover hadn't already made it clear these metal meisters are hardly into the clone look. Rob Halford'll have to hang up his leather cap for good; he's been out-S.A.-ed by real Krauts! R.R.

KRAFTWERK

Tour De France (Warner Bros.)

So what have Kraftwerk been doing for the last two-and-a-half years while their illegitimate offspring have topped the charts from one end of the earth to the other? They've been perfecting their bicycle chain. While other, more moneyminded artistes may have milked the market dry with world tours and double-live albums, Kraftwerk have stuck to synths and travel fixations. And these guys have got the best bicycle chain in town. Hear them go forward. Hear them go backward. Hear them in tandem with the danceable electro-beats. And for those who pedal 'together,' there's even synchronized heavy breathing. Something for everyone. Except album lovers; think we might get one in '84, guys?M.D.

NUDE ANTS

Access (New Deal)

Hate to tell these wiseacres that someone as pokey as Keith Jarrett beat 'em to the pun of their name, but in any case they seem much more hip to all the goofiness expressed therein. These Nude Ants are unquestionably the beer-brained Swingin' Medallions equivalent for the '80s, all tanked up & ready to satirize metal and technopop simultaneously with pure (not white but) liquid noise. Check their 'We're On Holiday,' a quasiBugglesque fweeper that upchucks all over the limeys with their own synth twittings. Pop as throwaway & (thus) essential as it's SUPPOSED to be. (New Deal Records, 57 Lincoln St., New Rochelle, NY 10801.) R.R.

ANGRY SAMOANS

Back From Samoa (Bad Trip)

Why no one in this 'zine has previously reviewed this little waxy ball of velocious madness is beyond me. Then again, traffic signals are beyond me. Be that as it may, Back From Samoa is hardcore tongue-in-cheek at its gritty giddiest. 'They Saved Hitler's Cock' is better than the movie They Saved Hitler's Brain, about nine times as sick as Plan Nine From Outer Space (which is where its intentions lie), and about on an equal visual par with two of my personal faves— The Brain From Planet Arous (the John Agar epic), and Monster From The Surf, an early teenage monster beach movie directed by Jon Hall. Also high on my hit list here is the appropriately titled 'Tuna Taco.' There is enough noisome energy here to sear your eyes, scorch your hair, 'n' then get you just the tiniest bit nervous. Its exterminatory nature is both refreshing and grand. J. M. the F.

REAL LIFE

Heartland (MCA)

Confident, catchy Europop from yet another Australian combo. This Melbourne-based quartet has a bona fide winner in 'Send Me An Angel,' a Roxy-by-inspiration-not-just-imitation sureshot that neatly focuses on the band's key strength— the cool interface maneuvers between singer David Sterry's angular guitar lines and violin of Richard Zatorski. All of side one, especially the title track and 'Under The Hammer' blends in with your airspace with nary an objectionable note. Which, for a band using synthesizers and rhythm machines, is a compliment, folks.B.A.

ANTHONY DAVIS

Hemisphere (Gramavision)

Pianist-composer Davis has been a highly acclaimed figure for several years now in new music circles for the unique concoctions he cooks up from jazz, classical and third world sources. Maybe because it's a dance suite, this album emphasizes the rhythmic aspects of Davis's work more than most of his past stuff, so it also functions very well as an introduction for curious rock fans. Rock orchestrators also take note: however densely it's arranged, most of this music is actually structured around reasonably simple riffs. 1 swear that's a harmonically-advanced variation of 'Louie, Louie' I hear in the middle of 'Little Richard's New Wave.' Really. M.D.

DAVID BOWIE

Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture (RCA)

Remember how Iggy Pop hated Bowie's work on Raw Power, claiming 'that carrottop mixed in two days an album that was so complicated...'? Well, rest easy, Ig: Bowie's had over a decade to get this one right and that's still not enough time, it seems. The sad part is that this was a great performance by the Spiders—though you'd never know it from the mix. OK, so you can't hear Mick Ronson on 'Hang On To Yourself' and 'Ziggy Stardust.' OK so Bowie has added echoes and background vocals to 'Moonage Daydream' ten years after the fact. There's still no excuse— contractual or otherwise—for the omission of the precedent-setting-if-facetious 'Jean Genie'/ Love Me Do' guitar blow out with Jeff Beck. All of which means that if you've got a bootleg of the original ABC telecast of D.A. Pennebaker's Bowie '73 film, keep it. And if you haven't got a copy, find one. J.M.