CD Reviews

Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle

Battery Milk | Hyena

By JON GARELICK | February 20, 2007

3.0 Stars

The opening “Go-Go’s Theme,” with its heavy backbeat and bar-band tenor-sax theme, screams: “We’re jazz, but not boring!” But the band soon leave such obviousness behind — they get into trip-hoppy beats, trance grooves, backbeats that funk as much as they rock, and absurdist lyrics (usually sung with a subsonic growl by bassist J.J. Richards). Dillon, whose credits include Les Claypool and Garage a Trois, plays vibes with a metallic, distorted shimmer that has little to do with Milt Jackson or Bobby Hutcherson. “Lunatic Express” and “Lopsided Melon Ball” kick up an indie-rock racket, with actual jazz solos by Dillon and saxophonist Mark Southerland. And the slow groove of “The Blame Game” is irresistible, with Southerland swinging over slinky bass, tick-tock drum rims, and tablas — especially after two minutes or so, when the co-dependent lyrics kick in: “You’re right/Blame me.” There’s also political satire in “Bad Man,” with its George W. Bush clips, and, uh, “Stupid Americans.” But it’s not all tongue-in-cheek — a cover of Allen Toussaint’s “Hercules” (originally for Aaron Neville) is sung in a sweet, artless croon, an honest alt-jazz take on great black music, and maybe the most strident political statement on the CD.

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The latest chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans launched on December 30 in Portland.
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Bad news for cokeheads everywhere: the chances of Bolivia becoming for cocaine users what Amsterdam is for pot smokers are slim.
Love and politics
In Boleros for the Disenchanted , Puerto Rican–born José Rivera looks beyond the fairy dust and sexual spark to probe the full meaning of “till death do us part.”
Vandal-in-chief
Shepard Fairey and his show "Supply and Demand" arrive at the Institute of Contemporary Art like a guerrilla general emerging from the jungle after his forces have taken the capital.
Amazing grace
The morning after I get back from the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an oil executive is on the radio: “We’re throwing everything we have at it.” Meaning the exploded BP-leased well in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
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Topics: CD Reviews , George W. Bush, Allen Toussaint, Les Claypool, More

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