Localmusic The View From Nowhere
If there is ever an Ann Arbor Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, next to a display of Fred "Sonic" Smith's guitar from his MC5 days, the John Sinclair-autographed copy of "Guitar Army," a giant wall mural of Iggy Pop crawling like a snake over a floor of broken glass, et al., there would HAVE to be a statue of Hiawatha Bailey, the guiding force behind one of A2's most powerful rock outfits of all time, The Cult Heroes.
Since the late 1970s, Hiawatha, with various versions of the Heroes, has kicked out a legendary series of 45s, demo tapes, live shows and the like which stand up as rock & roll genius alongside of all the classic stuff a la the Stooges, the MC5, The Rationals and others. Finally, with the new cassette, "The Cult Heroes - Hangin' '\aut", most of Hiawatha' s new material, long out-of-print 45s and classics from years of live shows, have all been released on tape with this cassette.
The 14-track collection is both a celebration of the classic roots - with covers of Iggy Stooges tunes like "Down in the Street" and "Cold Metal" and Sonic Smith's tribute to State Street and the Diag, "Shakin' Street" - and prooif that Hiawatha is a rockin' saint in his own right with his own original voice on "Kids That Kill" and "Nation of Strangers."
There are heavy Detroit-style garage guitars, tales of death and separation and a back beat that will blow your brains out, all on tunes that (mostly) clock in at under four minutes each. That is what rock & roll is all about. While Hiawatha Bailey's roots are planted in the industrial Motor City history of rock, singer/guitarist Ken King, father of the legendary (at least in The View From Nowhere' s eyes) King Brothers, paid more attention to the classics of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Fats Domino and Del Shannon. On his new cassette, "Still, Part II" the elder King, with the help of son Billy, has recorded 20 wonderful cover songs that span the 1950s and early ' 60s. This sounds pretty corny on paper, kind of like something you'd find for sale on a late night cable shopping channel commercial. But no . . .
What makes this work, is the passion and love for the material that Ken King shows. His voice is grainy, slightly wind-beaten and with the production by Billy King, and the great pop guitars, there's a sense these tunes are timeless whether it's 1956 or 1996. On Holly's "Everyday," on Orbison' s "Only the Lonely," or Elvis' "All Shook Up" there's a soft, fresh out-in-the-country laid back quality that sounds like magic.
While on the surface Hiawatha and King would appear to have zero in common, the love of rock & roll and how the present ties to the past is evident in the music of both.
Short notes... The Steve Somers Band, the seven-piece group that features the amazing vocalist Valerie Barrymore and guitarist Somers, is hard at work on a CD single of originals which will include the instrumental "Honk," the Barrymore-written ballad "Desire" and the tune "I Believe." Somers is also hard at work on a CD compiled from various performances recorded at the Thursday night open mic nights at T.C.'s Speakeasy in Ypsilanti
...Speaking of open mic nights, the Songwriter Open Mic series continues in the amazingly nice non-bar setting of Oz's Music on Packard. To sign up or find more information on the Thursday series, call Jim Novak at 662-8283 or e-mail jamesnovac@aol.com. Jazz Jams with host Anna Callahan and the Acoustic Jam with Jim Northrup also continue as well.
"What's Wrong With This Picture?' by Cynical Barnacles is a rush of alien noise, keyboards that sound like tbunder, guitars that roar like a hive of bees and vocals that sound positively post-lunatic-asylum. The muddy quality of the recording and the cryptic lyrics all wrapped into the neat package of nursery rhyme kitsch makes for some unique (yeah that's the word) unique pop music. The band has this strange side and a "structured" side too and this good vs. evil, black vs. white, postmodernism vs. modernism that makes the music here so...so... intense. You get angst, noise, tunes that are hummable and pop-ism all swirling around in the same test tube. Weird, cool, disjointed pop with few traceable roots.
Wow. The latest fíve-track cassette from Louie Randle is some pretty amazing music. Not sure if this is serious, one big cosmic joke, or a combo of both - but either way - what the hell. On "The Man With The Blue Guitar," based on the Wallace Stevens poem (yep) it's the Residents meet poetry class with lots of noise and garage guitar. With "Louie Leaves the Building" it's The Arts Ensemble of Chicago goes to a Cuba/funk garage jam session with lots of fire and an almost John Coltrane air. More uptown jazz with a wonderful trumpet solo on "Gwen Gets Hip" and another tune based on poems (this time John Berryman and e.e. cummings) only adds to the Kafka-esque quality (this time on "The Fourth of July in a Pretty Home Town.") Both are off-centered jazzy and mysterious. Both are so grey, doudy and buried as to what is going on, that all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
The tape wraps up with "Dog Eat Dog World" with guitar hero George Bedard on some of the most grungeful, dirty rock and roll guitar he's ever captured in the recording studio. One big, super joke with some of the best musicians in town? Or complex musical genius? You decide...
Of course, this column would not be complete without a Lisa Waterbury update. Ms. Waterbury's new cassette, "A Lot To Say Before The Last Ride" is yet another piece of genius from the one-of-a-kind singer songwriter. If you haven't tracked down any in the series of masterpiece, home-recorded tapes by Waterbury, you're missing out on one of the best artists in the area. "If I Blew My Brains Out," "Last Ride," and "I Hate You" are sad, tear-soaked phone calls from the grave that float and soar like poetic calls to a suicide hotline. If Lisa Waterbury's tunes don't move you or make you want to call her up and try to SAVE her, then you have no heart at all (or ears for classic music for that matter). Sheer genius...
The View From Nowhere, AGENDA, 220 S. Main, A2, MI 48104 or e-mail: ALANANNARBOR@AOL.COM.