"Eat at Joe's"

by Joe Szilvagyi

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Leather Hyman-HOST BODY

Frozen Hound Records

Good Tunes: Sometimes bluesy, sometimes thrashing, Leather Hyman seduces and aggravates like any good relationship.

Bad Notes: Leave Lou Reed alone. "All Tomorrow's Parties" would have been better left off this album.

Other Riffs: The liner notes come complete with a basic entomology lesson for people with nothing better to do with their time.


Cake-FASHION NUGGET

Capricorn Records
Good Tunes: Horns, melodies, crunchy guitars, quirky timing, and lots of variety. Songs about cars, lost loves, unwanted returned loves, and Frank Sinatra.

Bad Notes: Only 48 minutes of music. I want a 5 disc music marathon of tunes like these.

Other Riffs: For the longest time I thought these guys were English, but they turned out to be something great from the west coast.


Junkster-JUNKSTER

RCA Records
Good Tunes: Take one part melodic, emotional rock song. Add a dash of techno blended with some big guitars. Keep it thick and slow so you can taste every bitter bite.

Bad Notes: Occasionally, the songs get a little lost in the "big" sound of things. Not too often, but enough for it to fade into the background from time to time.

Other Riffs: I see another sub-category of "modern rock" rock opening up, shared by Portishead, Poe, Bel Canto, and now Junkster. Kind of slow techno with mournful female vocals.


El Vez-G.I. AY, AY! BLUES

Big Pop Records
Good Tunes: Somewhere between tribute and parody lies El Vez, turning classic tunes into songs of the coming Mexican Revolution in America.

Bad Notes: It's fun to listen to once or twice, but the humor wears thin a bit too soon.

Other Riffs: This is incredibly well executed (just like most revolutionaries).


The Chemical Brothers-DIG YOUR OWN HOLE

Astralwerks Records
Good Tunes: Interesting bass lines, new drum beats, and actual song structure make this techno record stand out from the rest of the industry.

Bad Notes: Being techno music, it still tends to be repetitive.

Other Riffs: I don't know why I'm reviewing this. If I heard it playing in Taco Bell, that means I'm probably the last to hear it.


The Discontent-SOCIETYDIDIT

Sha-La Records
Good Tunes: Tried and true hard rock licks are set to take on the world again.

Bad Notes: OK, so the words are new, but there's nothing here that we haven't heard before.

Other Riffs: At least they realized they have one really good song, so they put it on the album twice.


Questions? Comments? Want to contact Joe Szilvagyi for any reason? You can e-mail him at zagatto@aol.com


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