Category: (Music)
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Little that's come out of the rock underground since the alternative revolution has been of a distinctly sensual nature. Indie rockers dance around romantic entanglement, but seldom cut in. That's the case with this "Red Hot" compilation, which doesn't mean much of it doesn't have it's own pitiable appeal. A case in point is the album's opener, Freedom Cruise's "Sensational Gravity Boy," a characteristically tuneful and verbose Guided by Voices number that finds the new rock darlings working in tandem with the Breeders' Kim and Kelley Deal. Shayne Carter, ex of Straitjacket Fits, teams up with New Zealand countrymen the Verlaines on "Some Fantasy." Lois Maffeo and Rebecca Gates team on "Sotto Voice," one song that is baldly sexual, though no one's going to get it mixed up with "Let's Get it On." Two interesting one-man bands, Stephen Merritt (here billed as Future Bible Heroes) and F.M. Cornog (East River Pipe) come up with album highlights-a catchy updating of techno pop and a understated elegy for Kurt Cobain, respectively. --Steven Stolder
old and in the way?Reviewed by Boxodreams, 2010-01-03
Bought it when it came out, which now makes me growing progressively old today as I pull it out of the rack Jan. 3, 2010. Indie guy one day, cut-out bin (oh, don't tell me you don't know what that is!) the next. Such lovely flow here, from the GBV/Deal sisters Marvel Comics-style team-up opener, to the Built To Spill/Caustic Resin back-of-the book team-up it dives right into. Loud-soft-loud: That's the aesthetic indie used to love and live by, back in the day when the Three P's -- Pixies, Pollard and Pavement -- briefly ruled the cool kids' Earth. We just passed out of a swiftly moving, terribly slo-motion tragic horror of a decade -- all Bush and no play -- that ends with the people's masterstroke choice, Barack Obama, pummeled daily by the sourest meanies you'd ever want to call neighbors, all Republican. Boy, you can understand now how they'd nail up a poor visionary genius like Jesus if this divinely human intellectual middle-of-the-roader can't even catch a single break. To me, indie rock has always avoided and ignored this sort of big, important stuff, and, instead, drilled down deep into the relatively lightweight but deeply personal daydreams and daily disappointments of urban and suburban white kids. With all the crap going on, what disenchanted youth in his/her right mind wouldn't rather hear a banging drum and a rocking guitar from someone who could easily be, well, them? Red, Hot and Bothered is subtitled "The Indie Rock Guide to Dating" and it's a conceptual and musical winner, from fold-out game board and poster to tunes stuffed within. It's the kind of package that has been forgotten in the age of computer load-up of music, although the songs lend themselves perfectly to pluck and choose for iPod. There's a dash of delicate, a smidge of forlorn Americana and a healthy dollop of electric sludge, all of it pretty cool, with boys and girls playing in the same sandbox. What strikes me, as my bones harden, my hair grays, my friends scatter and settle, and my hearing somehow, curiously, remains keen, is how well the damn thing has aged. It never made a splash like the seminal Red, Hot & Blue, but it certainly seemed to those it caught hold of, like myself, a genuine gift and love letter to indie types. It still holds its cache, but maybe not to younger ears, you know? I guess I just don't know anymore. Maybe I'm out of it. And you know what? I don't care ..... Pick hit: "Mainland China" by Juicy.
Secret GBV/Breeders one-off track!Reviewed by TheUnseenHand, 2007-08-24
All by itself, one track makes this comp a must-own: "Sensational
Gravity Boy", recorded by Freedom Cruise, which was basically a
Robert Pollard song recorded by an early-90s style Guided by Voices
lineup (Pollard/Sprout/Greer) with guest vocals by Kim and Kelley
Deal of The Breeders. Is this among the truly great GBV songs not
included on Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes? Yes. For sure.
Yeah, wisenheimer, the song is available elsewhere. But be "with
it" and own it the way it first appeared and was lost to the
scatter and flood of 90s independent rock.
Who knew?Reviewed by Anonymous, 2003-01-18
This is one of of those CD's that I got out of the bargain bin - which I frequently do just to look for something new and caught the Jay Farrar/Kelly Willis duet on the back of the jacket. That alone was worth the 4 bucks in my book. Anyway - wasn't expecting too much and have been pleasantly blown away by what I found. Would highly encourage anyone who's even thinking of buying it to do so - you won't be disappointed. Highlights for me were tracks - 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, & 17 though not necessarily in that order. Much depends on my mood. Oh yeah - have never heard guitars like the ones on the Verlaines track - just and outstanding raucous celebration. Like standing on a pile of dead rock stars....
