YEARBOOK PHO TOS COURTESY OF DHARLENE KATZMAN NORRIS

ON DISC

Was (Not Was) was formed by two high-school
buddies from Oak Park High School's Class of
1970. Here are Don (Was) Fagenson (above) and
David (Was) Weiss (below) in their senior year of
high school.

Reviews of recent albums .

Aerosmith
Nine Lives

(Columbia)

The drummer temporarily quit,
the first sessions were scrapped,
the manager was fired — Aero-
smith went through a lot of tsores
in making its first album under
a reported $30 million mega-deal
with Columbia Records. But if you
buy into the credo that a little ad-
versity can be a good thing, Nine
Lives gives us living, audible proof.
It's a corker of an album,
bristling with the kind of energy
and attitude Aerosmith has mined
in its best previous work, from its
'70s radio hits to its '80s comeback
efforts. There's no shortage of flat-
out rock here, including the title
track and the raucous first single,
"Falling in Love (Is Hard on the
Knees)."
But even the mid-tempo, melod-
ic pieces such as "Kiss Your Past
Goodbye," "Full Circle" and "Fall-
en Angels" retain some of the same
kick, kind of like past hits such as
"Crazy" and "Cryin'" with more
juice.
Aerosmith has lived these Nine
Lives well; let's hope there are
many more to follow.

The Chemical
Brothers

Dig Your Own Hole

(Astralwerks/Caroline)

Anthony, Fagenson's son
from a previous marriage, is
studying music at USC.
"Having worked with a
number of bands at this
point, I can contextualize
what happened between the
two of us in neo-Darwinist
terms, and not take his ac-
tions personally and not feel
too guilty about my own.
"When I went to hear mu-
sic from the time I was 12,
13 years old, it was always
with him. We listened to the
same records. Chances are,
if he did a record and we
didn't talk to each other at
all, it wouldn't sound that
different from a record I'd
make."
Even though a Was (Not

Was) retrospective is
planned for release later this
year, Weiss thinks he and
Fagenson are most likely to
work together on "something
filmic. He's in the film game
now (Fagenson directed the
acclaimed Brian Wilson doc-
umentary I Just Wasn't
Made for These Times and is
currently directing a film
adaptation of Southern au-
thor Harry Crews' The
Knockout Artist), and I think
he wants some counsel. I
was always the conceptual
guy, and he was always the
doer.
"Now he's in the position
to do, and he wants the nut
case back to help." ❑

One of the leading lights of the
new electronic music movement,
the Chemical Brothers operate un-
der the philosophy that sheer
sound can be as effective as more
conventional melody and rhythm.
On Dig Your Own Hole they

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create a wash of noise that en-
eunaPasses screaming
. guitars, syn-
thesizers, tape loops and hip-hop
breaks, turning it all into a series
of sonic sculptures that are en-
gaging, but not for the faint of
heart.
"Setting Sun," by the way, is a
collaboration with Oasis' Noel Gal-
lagher.

Nan.ci Griffith
Blue Roses From
the Moon

(Elektra)

••

murmur, and the music is round,
curvy and earthy, with no sharp
edges.
Like kindred spirits Maxwell,
D'Angelo and Nfe'shell N'degeo
cello, Badu is a fresh, new and es-
sential voice on the modern pop
and R&B scenes.

Botfly
Honeymoon With Botfly

(Truckin' Duck Records)

This East Lansing band has gar-
nered a substantial following with
@
• t
its mix of long, improvised jams
A semi-song cycle about love and and short, punchy rock songs --
leaving, Blue Roses From the the H.O.R.D.E. meets Lolla-
palooza. "Honeymoon" is an apt
Moon further establishes Nan-
representation of the
ci Griffith as the most in-
quartet, with songs
triguing pop/country/folk
REVIEWS
recorded
both live in
alchemist this side of Em-
front of an audience and
mylou Harris.
With help from Buddy Holly's in the studio. (Botfly celebrates the
Crickets and her own crack Blue release of "Honeymoon" with a
Moon Orchestra, Griffith glides concert Saturday at. St. Andrews
through songs of hope ("Every- Hall in Detroit.)
thing's Comin' Up Roses"), devo-
tion ("Gulf Coast Highway"), love Matthew Sweet
(`Two For the Road"), a duet with
Hootie's Darius Rucker, Blue Sky on Mars
("Wouldn't That Be Pine") and de-
spair ("I Live on a Battlefield," (Zoo)
"She Ain't Goin' Nowhere," "I'll
Move Along").
Bleak at times, but tremendous
In the middle of his sixth album,
listening throughout.
Matthew Sweet laments that "I
haven't been a good friend/For a
long, long time" — reference, per-
Erykah Badu
haps, to the tag line of his 1991 hit
"Girlfriend," the track that put
Baduizm
him on the rock map at a level he
(Kedar Entertainment/Universal) hasn't equaled since.
Though brief (just 36 minutes),
Blue Sky on Mars has plenty of
®
1`) (.?)
what Sweet- does best, namely
Erykah Badu is less an originator chunky pop songs that don't lose
than she is an innovator — and, their crunch with the layers of vo-
ultimately, nothing more or less cal harmonies and the well-craft-
than an artist with a strong cre- ed production sheen of Sweet and
ative vision and a welcome knack Brendan O'Brien. "Hollow,"
for making something fresh from "Where You Get Love," "Missing
some easy-to-spot influences.
Time" and the Beach Boys-on-
In this Dallas signer's case, it's grunge boogie "Come to Califor-
Billie Holiday vocalisms, hip-hop nia" belong on Sweet's A-list, but
rhythmic sensibilities and the Mars comes off as a transitional
hazy late-night ambience of a album.
blues or jazz club.
Sweet has dropped ace guitar
The hit 'On & On," for instance, pals Robert Quine and Richard
entrances like a lullaby, capturing Lloyd and is still formulating a di-
the listener with subtle groove and rection now that he's taken the axe
a flowing melody that erases dis- chores on himself
tinctions between verses and cho-
ruses. Badu testifies, but with a
— Gary Graff