SIN Entertainment

WHOLE LOTTA SHAKER
GOIN' ON

The son of actress Hayley Mills and
frontman of the hot British pop
band Kula Shaker recently raised
some eyebrows with comments re-
garding Adolf Hitler and Nazi Ger-
many.
Speaking to Britain's New Mu-
sical Express, Crispian Mills dis-
cussed — in admiring terms —
Hitler's interest in spirituality and
went so far as to call the swastika
"a brilliant image." The New Mu-
sic Express also found that Mills'
previous band, the Objects of De-
sire, had performed at a 1993 con-
spiracy theorists' conference that
included right-wing and anti-Se-
mitic speakers.
Israel temporarily banned Kula
Shaker's music until Mills — a
Buddhist who has used Krishna-
inspired mantras in his songs —is-
sued a letter of apology to the
British and Israeli press. He ex-
plained the swastika comments as
part of his long interest in Indian
culture, where the symbol "in its
original form is the antithesis of the
demonic and monstrous Nazi atroc-
ities."
Israel lifted the ban, while Rab-
bi Abraham Cooper of the Simon
Weisenthal Center also accepted
the apology. Kula Shaker is slated
to return to the United States this
summer to play some shows on the
H.O.R.D.E. festival tour.

SOMETHING FISHY
GOIN' ON?

Oops!
Our apologies to David Fishof.
In last week's JNE In Focus story
("On the Road with Ringo"), the
man behind the former Beatles All-
Starr Band tours and a slew of
other music/sports events was mis-
takenly identified as "Marty Fishof'
in the subhead and cutlines. Guess
the Jewish News editorial staff had
Marty Fischhoff— assistant man-
aging editor of the Detroit News —
on the brain.

GO BLUE

Wanna drink like a rock 'n' roller?
Try Motley Brue, a new soft drink
produced by an independent Cal-
ifornia bottler in tribute to the
hard rock band Motley Crue. The
blue liquid has some staying pow-
er, and we don't mean just flavor;
' Motley Brue turns drinkers'
mouths blue (we've seen proof) and
reportedly does the same for feces
(we haven't been moved to inves-
tigate).
But rest assured, it is kosher.
Motley Brue is being sold at
record stores, skateboard shops
and other music-oriented outlets.
It'll also be sold at the State The-
atre on June 20, where Motley
Crue will perform a special small-
hall show to celebrate the release
of its new album, Generation
Swine. El

>

on
Reviews of
recent albums-

delivery of "Theme From the Valley of the
Dolls," arguably Drag's high point, turns the
song into a three-hanky special.
Despite these virtues, however, there are
more than a few spots where Drag does, well,
drag. The song constructions are so soft that
they sound timid, and there's seldom enough
rhythmic support to really frame lang's vo-
cals.

Paul McCartney
Flaming Pie
Capitol

Steve Winwood
Junction Seven
Virgin

The daunting task: following up The Beatles
Anthology. The smart play: taking the casu-
al route with an album of offhand, seeming-
ly knocked-out songs rather than trying to
be the Beatles
again all by
yourself. Maybe
we're amazed,
but Paul Mc-
Cartney has
done just that on
his first solo al-
bum in four
years. The result
is a pleasant but
modest collection
of pop songs that
sounds as incon-
sequential as one
can imagine com-
PAUL McCARTNEY
ing from Mc-
Cartney and a
high-powered corps of collaborators that in-
chides Ringo Starr, Steve Miller, ex-ELOer
Jeff Lynne and Beatles producer George Man
tin,
174.-x-zing- Pie's best tunes --- "The Sono' We
Were Singing," "Young Boy," "Great Day" —
are melodic and understated, while its worst
("Used to Be Bad," "Really Love "You") rock a
bit harder but are deliberately underdevel-
oped. It's no display of artistic genius, but
that's exactly what it aspires to be.

Judging by the randy batch of lyrics here,
Steve Winwood is feeling high-heeled indeed.
Unfortunately, the results are more of the
low spark variety. Having revisited
Traffic three years ago (Jim Capaldi
does co-write three songs on Junction
Seven), Wmwood now joins forces with
pop/R&B stalwart IVarada Michael
Walden for a stiff, rote-sounding ef-
fort marked by lush production, in-
trusive background vocal chorales and
entirely too much electronic percus-
sion. That's too bad, since Winwood's
in good voice and is also playing lots
of Hammond organ, a rich, soulful
sound that's buried by its surround-
ings.
Even guest shots by Lenny Kravitz
and Des'ree cant enliven "Let Your
Love Come Down" and "Plenty
I.ovin'," respectively, and a remake of
Sly & the Family Stone's "Family Af-
fair" sounds like it came straight from Stu-
dio 54. Call us again when he gets back in
the high life.

k.d. lang
Drag
Warner Bros.

JUNK....;

c) 1/2

A new k.d. Tang album. Called Drag. OK, we
know what this is about. Or maybe not. Drag
is an album that, well, smokes. Check out
the song titles — "Don't Smoke in Bed,"
"Smoke Dreams," "My Last Cigarette,"
"Smoke Rings." Needless to say, there's a con-
cept at work here. But don't go thinking that
lang — whose politics once alienated the beef
industry -- has turned into a pitchwoman
for the embattled tobacco companies. On
Drag she employs these cigarette images as
metaphors for romance, relationships, ad-
dictions and the perennial quest for com-
fort and satisfaction.
Drag is an ingenious stroke, an idea that's
subtle and provocative at the same time. Best
of all, it's carried completely by lang's voice,
a jewel of an instrument that sails through
the album's quiet, languid arrangements.
It's not all melancholy, either. Her treat-
ment of "The Joker" is earthier and lusher
than Steve Miller's original but doesn't lose
the song's winking good humor. But lanes

AP

restrained by crying for the big treatment of
band smashes such as "Livire on a Prayer"
and "You Give Love a Bad Name." Bon Jovi
gets points for dipping into a broader stylis-
tic palette, but "Destination Anywhere"
doesn't quite land where he's aiming,

Now this is what a country album should
sound like in 1997— traditionally twangy,
mixing a little bit of Nashville and a little of
Bakersfield, and played with an energy and
sonic crispness that makes it a decidedly mod
ern proposition. Big Sandy loses a lot in these
songs —his heart, his mind, his appetite and
more loves than you can count- but the
songs are all winners, and steel guitar play-
er Lee Jeftriess alone is a reason to listen to
feel plenty lucky on this disc.

Sammy Hagar
Marching to Mars
Track Factory/WA

ck)

On his first post-Van Helen album, Sam-
my Hagar takes a curious but not alto-
gether unwise course. Rather than slip
back into his comfortable Red Rocker, "I
Can't Drive 55" guise and out-decibeling
the band he says done him wrong, Hagar
and his all-star helpers — Roy Rogers,
Bootsy Collins, Huey Lewis, Mr. Big's Eric
Martin, the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart,
Starship's Mickey Thomas 7-- stay decid
edly within the speed limit with 11 songs
marked by their restraint and obviously
labored-over craft.
Take "Little White Lie," which ldcks the
album off with gritty, acoustic blues; just
when you're ready for the prototypical pow-
er chord explosion, the electric guitar blasts
in for a measure and then drops back,
building the song's intensity without crank-
ing up its volume — a deft little trick, to be
sure. Hagar does let the throttle out on
"Salvation on Sand Hill" and throughout
"Leaving the Warmth of the Womb" (which
reunites the original Montrose lineup), but
they take a back seat to Mars' power bal
lads ("Kama," "Amnesty Is Granted') and
mid tempo message songs (“Who Has the
Right?" "Both Sides Now"). He tosses a few
darts at Van Haien -- and at his ex-wife
— but Hagar's clearest statement is that
his ambitions are greater than being just
another hard rock shouter.

-

Jon Bon Jovi
Destination Anywhere
Mercury

@ ck)

Jon Bon Jovi, solo artist, is a markedly dif-
ferent proposition than Bon Jovi, the band.
Destination Anywhere, the Jersey
rocker/movie star aspirant's ambitious but
inconsistent second solo outing, trims the
bombast and Teflon production sheen found
on the group's albums in favor of arrange-
ments that are more subtle, laid-back and
even soulful in spots.
It works best on toned-down mood pieces
such as "It's Just Me," "Staring at Your Wm-
dow," "Little City" and the title track. But too
many of these songs are half-steps, forcibly
,
Sgc,

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