January 2003 - Check Your Head

CD Review

Cynthia Dall
Sound Restores Young Men
Drag City

Cynthia Dall makes cold music. On Sound Restores Young Men, her second album, Dall�s voice recalls Julee Cruise�s - haunting but innocent, diaphanous and sinister. She can make a line like �Your bike got stolen/so you don�t even care� (�wastebasket kid II�) resonate with bleak, shiver-inducing beauty. Listening to these 12 lo-fi lovelies, with their pretty guitar strumming and delicate keyboard lines, is like walking home through the dark on an autumn night, leaves trailing behind you, wind wrapping its frozen fingers around your ankles. Dall�s songs are lullabies for girls who prefer the graveyard to the playground.

back to top

Bangs
Call and Response
Kill Rock Stars

Watch out! Call and Response, Bangs� third release on Olympia, Washington�s punker-than-thou Kill Rock Stars label, will have even the most reluctant indie rocker bopping her head with abandon. Guitarist Sarah Utter, bassist Maggie Vail (sister of Bikini Kill�s drummer, Tobi Vail) and drummer Peter David Connelly rip through six frenetic, Cheap-Trick-meets-punk-rawk tunes, roughing up your eardrums with fierce riffs and candy-coated screams. Pull up your striped kneesocks, tighten your studded belts, add a touch of electric piano, and rock out to Bangs.

back to top

Thalia Zedek
You�re a Big Girl Now
Kimchee Records

There aren�t many female singers around today that could cover the Velvet Underground�s �Candy Says� and make it sound so much like a suicide note. But there aren�t many that sound like Thalia Zedek either. Her scorched voice could be the bastard child of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan (and yes, You�re a Big Girl Now takes its name from the Dylan tune). In Come, her previous band, Zedek created a stripped-down brand of rock n� roll, devoid of any pretty pop pretensions. This solo work is replete with a similarly majestic kind of anguish. Even the relatively upbeat �JJ85� sounds like a jangly tune that someone (brilliantly) smothered in burnt molasses.

back to top

The Blow
Bonus Album
K Records

Whimsy with an arty filling, harmony coated with coyness, a DIY tutorial on hand clapping - these are some of the sweets you�ll come across on Khaela Maricich�s Bonus Album. Maricich is The Blow, a band from Olympia that tours as more of a performance art troupe than a rock n� roll band, making up tunes as she goes and often performing miniature themed operas. Accompanied by lots of quirky noises, Maricich sings about desire and playgrounds, SUVs and the moon. You can even hear the pitter-patter of handclaps in the background of the charming �Some Chocolates�: �I brought you back some chocolates but they weren�t made of chocolate/they were made of cream skimmed off my dreams of you.� Awwww. NG

back to top

Allison Dubinsky writes about music and other things she likes from her desk in Portland, Ore. You can ask her questions, tell her lies, or otherwise pester her at [email protected].