24 CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Best Music

8. RICHARD GALLIANO NEW YORK TRIORuby, My Dear | DreyfusGalliano plays accordion, and itspeaks to his virtuosity andmusicality that you won’t betempted into a single LawrenceWelk joke.

9. ANTHONY BROWN’S ORCHESTRARhapsodies | Water BabyBrown has already transformedthe music of Ellington andMonk, and to complete the trip-tych he’s rescored, reharmonized,and restructured Gershwin’sRhapsody in Blue, incorporatingAsian influences and instru-ments and a touch of Latin fla-vor. Scandalous, heretical!—untilyou hear it.

10. FREDRIK LUNDIN OVERDRIVE“Belly-Up”: The Music of Leadbelly |StuntThis Danish saxist leads his big band in an inventive trib-ute to the American folk-bluesicon—and doubles the ante by dedicating each arrange-ment, in spirit as well as inname, to an American jazzgreat, from Charles Mingus to Gil Evans.

David WhiteisGiven the range of subgenresand styles represented, I haven’tranked these—consider each thebest of its kind that I encoun-tered in 2005.

EUGENE “HIDEAWAY” BRIDGESComing Home | ArmadilloBuoyant but tasteful guitarblues, technically flawless anddeeply soulful—even the mostexuberant good-timey tunessound refreshingly adult.

GOSPEL KEYBOARD TRIOHeavenly Keys | The SirensChicago keyboardists WillieJones, Leonard Maddox, andDwayne Mason proclaim theirfaith in a set of churchy hymns,up-tempo shouters, and statelyspiritual songs, both solo and asa trio—it’s virtuosity infusedwith an uplifting earnestnessand joy.

BUDDY GUYBring ’Em In | SilvertoneLately this Chicago blues leg-end has developed a distres-sing tendency toward over-wrought performances, espe-cially in full-band settings, but he imbues the updated 60s soul tunes here (and theoccasional pop number, likeDylan’s “Lay Lady Lay”) with emotional depth and good taste.

HERMON HITSONYou Are Too Much for the HumanHeart | Soul-Tay-ShusA compilation showcasing thisalmost forgotten 60s soul singerfrom Atlanta. Hitson was ham-pered by second-rate productionfor most of his career, but at hisbest he packed an emotionalwallop to rival James Brown’s orOtis Redding’s.

DENISE LASALLEWanted | EckoOdes to womanly prowess, bothin and out of bed, from a veter-an soul-blues stylist, laced withher trademark take-no-prison-ers raunch and leavened withgood humor.

BETTYE LAVETTEI’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise |Anti-LaVette can extract more feelingfrom a single phrase than mostsoul singers get from an entireset. You may need to lie downafter this one.

AARON NEVILLETell It Like It Is | Empire MusicwerksWhen this angelic croonerunfurls his quavering falsetto ona ballad like this set’s classic titletune, hearts melt for milesaround—but he can also sharpenhis voice to match the streetsysignifying on jumpy R & B num-bers like “A Hard Nut to Crack”and “Space Man.”

DAN PENN & SPOONER OLDHAMMoments From This Theatre |Proper AmericanIt takes a hell of a singer to pulloff a line like “Go back home, see the old folks / They’ve allhad heart attacks and lightstrokes,” but blue-eyed soulbrother Dan Penn is a hell of a singer. He and SpoonerOldham, who wrote and pro-duced some of the most memorable R & B of the 60s,reprise some of their best tunes in gritty, graceful country-folk versions.

BOBBY RUSHNight Fishin’ | Deep RushThis time Rush mixes his usualtales of backdoor shenaniganswith songs like “We Had Love,” athoughtful meditation on achildhood enriched by old-fash-ioned family values—a welcomeglimpse of the serious-minded

philosopher behind his trick-ster’s mask.

JAMES BLOOD ULMERBirthright | Hyena Aided by producer Vernon Reid,Ulmer creates the feel of a bar-ren, haunted landscape on thisferocious solo acoustic record.His adventurous playing andnaked lyrics—about sex, race,and religion—both invoke andtranscend the deepest roots ofthe blues.

Douglas Wolk1. LCD SOUNDSYSTEMLCD Soundsystem | DFA/CapitolJames Murphy is the best danceproducer in America, and hemakes a pretty great rock star too.

2. THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERSTwin Cinema | MatadorThe Canadian power-pop legionsets a new world record forhooks per unit time.

3. VARIOUS ARTISTSOne Kiss Can Lead to Another: GirlGroup Sounds Lost & Found | RhinoFive hours of magnificent 150-sec-ond epics from the 60s, packagedin a hat box. A hat box, people.

4. THE FALLThe Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 | CastleTwenty-seven years of statusreports from a marble-mouthedavant-garde poet and his riff-crazy backup bands.

5. SUFJAN STEVENSIllinois | Asthmatic KittyIt’s not just his songs, as smartand tender as they are—it’s thoseravishing arrangements.

6. JUDEE SILLDreams Come True | WaterThis hopeful anticipation of the apocalypse, recorded in1974, would’ve been the singer-songwriter’s third album ifshe’d lived to see it finished; it was finally mixed andreleased this year.

7. SLEATER-KINNEYThe Woods | Sub PopVeteran Portland trio cranks upthe amps to “pulverize” and bar-rels off into terra incognita.

8. THE MOUNTAIN GOATSCome, Come to the Sunset Tree |self-releasedThe LP-only edition of JohnDarnielle’s taut, compassionatevalediction to an abusive stepfa-ther, with home-recorded ver-sions of the songs on the CD.

9. SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGSNaturally | DaptoneAs far as this joyful funk band isconcerned, it’s 1971 and they’reglued to the top of the R & B charts.

10. PRINCESS SUPERSTARMy Machine | !K7A science-fiction hip-hop operain which motormouthedConcetta Kirschner turns allother celebrities into “dupli-cants” of herself.

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By Jessica Hopper

T he first time I stole arecord it was because Iwanted to be in a girl

group. It was easy. I went to thelibrary, picked up a copy of 25Years of Motown, cut out themagnetic alarm strip with arazor, slipped the five-album setinto my large schoolbag withthe spray-painted peace sign onit, and headed home to listen to“Reflections” by the Supremes afew dozen times in a row. I wasobsessed with Diana Ross, MaryWilson, and Florence Ballardand desperately wanted to bethem all. That wasn’t the normamongst 11-year-old Minnesotagirls in 1988, but my fandomwas immutable. Much as theirharmonies killed me, what Ireally loved was their aesthetic:Mary had the better voice andbouffier hair, but Diana was myfavorite because she alwaysseemed to be wearing twice asmuch eyeliner. They were themost majestic representation ofyoung womanhood I knew, soprincesslike, and I bought intothe dream of it completely.

The four-disc genre retrospec-tive One Kiss Can Lead toAnother: Girl Group SoundsLost and Found (Rhino) is amonument to that dream: theromantic fever dream ofteenage-girl narratives writtenby adult songwriters. In the pre-Beatles days of the early 1960sgirl groups came to dominatethe charts, supposedly due tothe vacuum left by the overseasdeployment of Elvis and thedeaths of Eddie Cochran,Ritchie Valens, and BuddyHolly. Trios and quartets of highschool- and college-age women,many of them black, supplantedslick-haired boys on the radioand got a chance to tell their

side of the story—sort of.Crooning and cooing about thetriumphs and travails of younglove (and little else), wagginggloved fingers in time to theirhoney-sweet three-part no nonos, the girl groups profferedthe inverse of the thrusty rebel-lion and innuendo that hadbeen codified by men: the ultra-chaste longings of a bunch ofpurported virgins in satinyevening gowns.

Looking back, girl groups seemthe epitome of the gender pre-scription of the time: that womenand girls should be guileless andpure, doting and servile, neverfully women unless validated bythe love of a man. In song aftersong, the promise of romanceand the redemption it brings is

strong: “Please find it in yourheart / To make all my dreamscome true / Let me get close toyou,” sings country star SkeeterDavis on her girl-pop turn “LetMe Get Close to You.” Over asnare crack that sounds like acannon shot and a bed of perfect-ly harmonized bum-she-bum-ooo-eee-ooo-aaa, the Chiffons’ JudyCraig booms with pride, “I have aboyfriend / Met him a week ago /He’s mine forever / Last night hetold me so,” on “I Have aBoyfriend.” Then, so we don’tthink she’s some good-night-kiss-ing hussy, she adds, “Somedaywe’ll walk down the aisle / So inlove.” Their physical desires canbe safely expressed only throughdouble entendre, and when theystray—as with “bad girl” groups

like the Shangri-Las—things endin tragedy.

The girls are never true aggres-sors; rather, they are t-r-u l-u-vhopefuls, keeping the heartflames alive somewhere beneaththeir bullet bras. For these girlsthere’s just one kind of boy—theOne and Only—and their love,it’s Forever and Always. As fortheir love objects, they’re badboys, other girls’ boys, ex-boys,and next boys, and they’re allelusive. Whether he’s a commit-mentphobic cad, a cheater, anabuser, or a dude with a drag-race death wish, she wants onlyto make him happy—and all hecan do is disappear. She canshoop shoop shoop all nightlong, but he ain’t coming back.In the end she’s left with noth-

ing but a tear-stained pillowand poetic metaphors: “All I can see on the beach / Is a pieceof driftwood / And it somehowreminds me / Of the twistedmemories / Left in my mind”goes the dramatic spoken interlude of the Bitter Sweets’“What a Lonely Way to Start the Summer.”

But One Kiss Can Lead toAnother is more than just anexhaustive tribute to brokenhearts and high-tease hairdos:it’s a chronicle of how the girl-group sound impacted rock ’n’roll. Many of the girls camefrom gospel backgrounds andbrought along the soul-hollerand hand claps. Phil Spector’sproduction for the Ronettes notonly created the template forthe girl-group sound—forcefulvocals cut with gunshot snares,pizzicato string stabs, andreverb by the metric ton—butupped the ante for other pro-ducers who sought to compete:Brian Wilson, Spector arrangerJack Nitzsche, future Breadfounder David Gates, andMotown’s resident genius teamHolland-Dozier-Holland. Theymade symphonic pop and madeit loud as hell, a cavernous cav-alcade of harps, timpani, andorchestra-size string sectionswith occasional tracks of audi-ble sobbing. The sound is astimeless as the sentiments oflovelorn teens and still holds updecades after the genre’s finalyears, represented here by theLovelites’ 1969 teen-pregnancyclassic, “How Can I Tell MyMom and Dad?”

Much as the sound of popmay have changed, the subjectmatter—love and how to sufferit—is still intrinsic to the soul-

Music

ReviewsCHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE 25

Girls, Girls, GirlsAnd you thought “women in rock” had it rough.

Books

VARIOUS ARTISTS ONE KISS CAN LEAD TO ANOTHER: GIRL GROUP SOUNDS LOST AND FOUND (RHINO) EVIE SANDS ANY WAY THAT YOU WANT ME (REV-OLA)

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Nik Cohn’s Triksta REVIEW BY ROBERT MENTZER

Harry Stephen Keeler’s

The Riddle of the Traveling SkullREVIEW BY JOHN MARR

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Rhino’s latest girl-groups box and

Evie Sands’sAny Way That You

Want MeREVIEW BY JESSICA HOPPER

Music

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Music

baring teen balladry on theradio today, and performers stillrarely write their own material.But as the liner notes to OneKiss are careful to point out,some of these girls were morethan singers, and the girl-groupboom enabled them to establishcareers as songwriters: amongthem were Stevie Wonder col-laborator Syreeta Wright, a 17-year-old Mary Wells, and DustySpringfield’s biggest influence,Evie Sands, who has two earlysingles included in the set.

Sands’s 1970 debut album forA&M, Any Way That You WantMe, reissued for the first time byUK label Rev-Ola in September,picks up where the girl-groupbox leaves off, tiptoeing into the

post-Woodstock era. On thecover, clad in a dark brownpantsuit and tunic, she cruises adirt road on her ten-speed, herlong hair flowing, the very pic-ture of the carefree and liberat-ed new woman of the 70s. She’snot even looking at the camera,as if to imply that she just hap-pened to cruise into the framein her special carefree way.

While the album consists mostlyof love songs, unlike on OneKiss not every phrase beginswith the word baby, and theportrayals of romance are a bitmore grown-up. The man andhis love are still elusive, but thegirl is asking for more thanhand-holding: she also wantsfriendship. On the album open-er, “Crazy Annie,” she’s even theone doing the leaving.

Any Way That You Want Mesold 500,000 copies, but thebigger deal for Sands was theinclusion of “It’s This I Am,”which she describes in her linernotes for the reissue as a “thrilland personal milestone . . . thefirst time I had gotten to recordand release a song I had writ-ten.” The rest of the record con-sists of songs that had alreadybeen made hits by everyonefrom the Troggs to Jackie Ross,but “It’s This I Am” is the mostmemorable moment; the songhas since been covered by Beckand Beth Orton, and Belle &Sebastian are such fans thatthey backed Sands on two dateson her European comeback tourin 2000.

A whisper-quiet, splendor-in-psych drift of faraway strings,electric piano, and indeterminatetwinkling sounds, “It’s This IAm” is Sands’s hauntingresponse to the firm prescrip-tions set for her and every othergirl singer of the era. It’s a libera-tion anthem, and she asserts herdynamism in a rich voice, sureand melancholy: “I’m that greatdivide / That never was at all /That’s neither large nor heavy /That’s neither light or small / Italways was and will be / Foreverthrough all time / It’s here andthere and nowhere / Always is /It’s this I am I find.” She’s defin-ing who she is rather than whoshe is in relation to some absen-tee heartbreaker boy. And she isbeyond definition. v

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CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE 27

Books

By Robert Mentzer

W hite, British, and push-ing 60, Nik Cohn neverfit in with New Orleans’s

rap scene, but for a brief periodin the late 90s and early 00s heexplored its margins as a jour-nalist, talent scout, and manag-er. Triksta, his book about thisperiod, is partly a memoir, part-ly a meditation on hip-hop, andpartly an exposé of what’s underthe glittering surface of themusic industry. But mostly it’sa story about hubris: Cohn’s anoutsider who tried to harnessand influence the scene andfailed in spectacular fashion todo either.

Cohn, the author of 1968’sAwopbopaloobop Alopbamboom(often cited as the first book ofrock criticism), has beenobsessed with New Orleanssince childhood: he writes vividly and enchantingly about

the city and its music, from his early fascination with JellyRoll Morton to his first visitthere in 1972, while on theroad with the Who. Though helater moved to New York, hecontinued to rent a house inNew Orleans for severalmonths each year, describingthe city as “the lover I couldnever be free of.” And he knowsNew Orleans’s hip-hop scene,which centers on bounce, aclub-centric, bump-and-grindstyle. Cohn puts on his musi-cologist’s hat to explain thatbounce is “patterned on thecall-and-response of MardiGras Indian chants,” butanother way to put it is that it’s hip-hop with the formalrigidity of a square dance, with the MC commanding thecrowd—bend over and touchthe floor, now turn around,

now throw your hands up. Cohn knew the music, but

he didn’t feel it until the 90s,after he was diagnosed withhepatitis C. Hep C’s symptomsinclude insomnia and exhaus-tion, but to hear Cohn tell itthe diagnosis forced him tolive his life in a new, reener-gized way. So he catches aparade float in New Orleansblasting a bounce track,Magnolia Shorty’s “Monkeyon tha Dick,” and it connects.“The effect was baptismal,” he writes.

Cohn’s initial research leads him to Earl Mackie, aJehovah’s Witness whose label,Take Fo’ Records, specializes in sex raps. (Mackie’s faith prevents him from releasingrecords advocating violence,but he believes sex is anacceptable theme. “It beats

killing people,” he says.) Cohnbrokers a major-label deal forone of Mackie’s artists, Choppa,and is initially granted a budg-et of $250,000 from WarnerBrothers to make an album. “Iwould select producers,” hewrites, “provide song ideas,hire guest artists and singersand live musicians as required,

and try to keep Choppa’s noseto the grindstone.” He evenwrites lyrics: “Bend it over,catch the wall / Wobble wob-ble for me.”

It’s not giving away a significant plot point to saythat the deal eventually fallsthrough and Choppa defects to Master P’s New No LimitRecords. Bounce insiders bristle at his attempts to turn a regional genre into a nation-al success. One producer allbut calls Cohn a carpetbagger,and Choppa is deaf to Cohn’stalk about broader careerstrategies. “They love me allover,” Choppa tells him. “Baton Rouge, Shreveport,Lafayette. Everywhere.”

Triksta is full of interactionslike this, where Cohn and theartists seem to be talking past

TRIKSTA: LIFE AND DEATH AND NEW ORLEANS RAP NIK COHN (KNOPF)TRIKSTA: LIFE AND DEATH AND NEW ORLEANS RAP NIK COHN (KNOPF)

The Bounce Remains the SameNik Cohn tried to influence New Orleans rap but all he got was this lousy nickname.

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