TINDERSTICKS
Tindersticks
London
THE TINDERSTICKS: The weary, rainy soul of Leonard Cohen leaving a misty imprint on the wavy window of claustrophobic madness and sanity that is Nick Cave. This band plugs into the potential poet in all of us with titanic and tiny emotions transcribed as lyrics set to stately, intricate music.It's an album to be listened to when you've been frightened by the sound of your own heartbeat or when the night just won't fall hard or dark enough to satisfy your soul.
--Michael Metzger
BoDeans
Joe Dirt Car
Slash/Reprise
RUMOR HAS IT that Sammy and Kurt were miffed over having never been bootlegged; such despicable treatment after five stellar albums and even a tour with U2, fer chrissakes, oh the shame! So they cobbled together not one but two albums' worth of live spunk from the archives. The resulting ego monument includes: their faux Jimmy Buffett crowd-pleaser "Still The Night"; their John Cougar Melonball pastiche "Feed The Fire"; their Bono-does-Brooce monstrosity, "Naked"; even an excruciating swagger through Patsy's "Walking After Midnight."It's because color-by-numbers charlatans like the BoDeans keep operating in high profile that genuine artists like Alejandro Escovedo are consistently overlooked by the public.
--Fred Mills
JON HENDRICKS
Boppin' at the Blue Note
Telarc
WITH A SMALL but mighty "jump band," Hendricks & Co. do up about every relevant style there is. Recorded live at the famed Blue Note in New York, with the audience vocal too, master Hendricks scats and sings with incredible speed, humor and incomparable dexterity. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, scatting with Hendricks and his daughter, Michelle, on "Everybody's Boppin'," is worth the price of admission. An amazing performance captured (scat students take note). Also features a really tight quartet, great horn arrangements and quests the likes of Red Holloway and Benny Golson. Great fun. Great music.
--Janice Jarrett
