ar =
iii music
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on disc this month
1. Green Day, Dookie (Reprise) >y '6. Ramones, AcidEaters(Radioactive)
2. Jawbox, For Your Own 7. Cocteau Twins, Four Calendar Cafe
Special Sweetheart (Atlantic) (Capitol)
3. Tori Amos, Under the Pink F; 8. Meat Puppets, Too High To Die
(Atlantic) (London)
4. Alice In Chains,]Jar of Flies (Columbia) 9. Shnnen Knife, Rock Animals (Virgin)
5. Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
(Matador) 10. Slowdive, Souvlaki (SBK)
Chart soley ttased on college radio airpiay. Contributing radio stations: KAX, U. of California, Berkeley; KCR, San Diego State U.;
KCRN, Ohio U.; KNAP, U. of Arizona; KRNU, U. of Nebraska, Lincoln; KTRU, U. of Houston; KTSB, U. of Texas; KTUH,
U. of Hawaii , anoa; KUCB, U. of Colorado; KUOM , U. of innesota; KXWA, U. of Oregon; WSBF, Clemson U.; WTUL,
Tulane U.; WUTK, U. of Tennessee; WUvTVirginia Tech; VNUM, U. of Miami
Key: *****= CD ****= Cassette ***= LP **= Reel to Reel *= 8-Track
Pavement
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
(Matador)
Crooked Rain, Crook-r
ed Rain is basically ,
your average Pave- f
ment record, which is
sort of like saying
Hamlet is your average'
Shakespeare piece.
With a sound that is frenzied and surpris-
ingly catchy, Pavement moves through
styles as varied as jazz and country.
Pavement's strong suit is their ability
to walk that thin line between innova-
tive rock and pretentious loud crap.
There are a few tracks that require
patience, like the messy "Hit the Plane
Down," but with near perfect tunes like
"Range Life," there are enough hooks
to make it all come together.
In the closing minutes of the album,
Pavement proclaims "Goodnight to
the Rock & Roll Era." Welcome to the
future. It's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain:
too good for obscurity and too compli-
cated for radio. Buy it anyway. Eric
Geyer, The Daily Texan, U. of
Texas
Prong
Cleansing (Epic)
Power meets subtle- ,
cy. Anger mee ts
melody. With Cleans-
ing, their third full-
length, major label '
release, Prong music-
ally transforms full- r -f
throttle rage, ignoring mainstream
heavy-riff style. This power band layers
its crunchy, machine-gun-quick guitar
lines with understated samples via John
Bechdel and steady, smooth rhythm
lines courtesy of drummer Ted Parsons
and bassist Paul Raven.
The tracks "Broken Peace" and "Snap
Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" are
funkified grooves with intermittent
blasts of power. Few "hard" bands can
cross genres like Prong, from the force-
ful "Cut-Rate" to the droney, melodic
"No Question." Guitarist/vocalist
Tommy Victor changes vocal gears,
delivering rough growls alongside clean
vocals. Cleansing proves Prong dodges
mediocre thrash without sacrificing
force. Aaron Cole, The Union,
California State U., Long Beach
Soundgarden
Superunknown (A&M)
****I
In the Bible, when I
Sampson's hair was
lopped off, he lost his
strength, thus ensor-
ing his doom. With
Soundgarden's front-
man Chris Cornell,
this action seems to have had the exact
opposite result.
Superunknown slams 15 tracks in a
powerful and diverse mix of pain, rec-
onciliation and regret. Superunknown
reflects a group stretching past the limi-
tations they had set for themselves, as
members' side projects have brought
new ideas and energy to a band stereo-
typed by grinding guitars and glass-
shattering vocals.
Though Supeounknown is a band album,
it is the intensity of Cornell's vocals that
separates SG from copycats. On "Fell on
Black Days," Cornell cries out, "How
would I know that this could be my fate?"
Few vocalists can combine poetry and
rage with such conviction.
For anyone who has watched
Soundgarden's growth and transforma-
tion, the fate of Superunknown would have
been obvious. Rantz Hoseley, The
Daily Evergreen, Washington State U.
Morrissey
Vauxhall and I (Sire/Reprise)
****
Pop drama con-
noisseur Morrissey
delivers his latest
batch of primal suf-
fering with sheer
finesse. Vauxhall and I
finds the ex-Smiths /
vocalist in his usual somber mood, but
in this case the music matches the senti-
ment. And that's not such a bad thing.
This time around, Morrissey has
given in to the lush pop arrangements
that perfectly suit his voice - without
turning into some new age guru.
Producer Steve Lillywhite simply helps
to guide him down a more cohesive
path. This repackaged, all-embracing
Morrissey is even lyrically "coming out"
of his shell. "Spring-Heeled Jim"
weaves a tale of gay fatalism while "Billy
Budd" touches on job discrimination
due to homophobia.
Is Morrissey ready to take his music
to the masses? If this album doesn't do
it for him, the only thing left would be a
Smiths reunion tour. Rob Hooper,
University Times, California State U.,
Los Angeles
Rollins Band
Weight (Imago)
"I hate press bios
with a ton of adjec-
tives," Henry Rollins
writes in the press
release accompanying
his new album,
Weight. "All you need -
is the facts. The rest is boring filler."
With Weight, Rollins again proves
that music doesn't have to be gloss and
filler, either. The addition of jazz bassist
Melvin Gibbs is the perfect comple-
ment to the thundering backdrop
behind Rollins' savagely honest lyrics -
helping make Weight the Rollins Band's
strongest album to date.
Don't let Rollins' mainstream attention
throw you, though. Yes, Weight is more
accessible than previous albums, but that
comes from playing more than 150
shows a year - not from compromise. In
his candid and unique way, Rollins deliv-
ers an aggressive, direct punch into the
societal pressures that he finds so shallow
and pointless. Troy Fuss, State Press
Magazine, Arizona State U.
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