Music Features

On the racks: July 18, 2006

Golden Smog, Helmet, Billy Ray Cyrus

By MATT ASHARE | July 20, 2006

Helmet

Golden Smog may have started as nothing more than a Minneapolis scene in-joke – a chance for a Jayhawk, a Soul Asylum, and a guy from Run Westy Run to hook up and record a few covers. But, with the addition of Wilco's mainman Jeff Tweedy a decade ago, it's become something of a friendly refuge for all involved, and a way of regularly touching base every half decade or so. Actually, it's been eight years since the last Golden Smog disc, but Tweedy, Gary Louris (Jayhawks), Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum), and Kraig Johnson (the Run Westy Run character) have reunited for the new Another Fine Day (Lost Highway), a disc that also features a couple of welcome appearances by Louris' former Jayhawks partner Marc Perlman.

Helmet. Now there's a name you probably didn't think you'd ever hear again. But Page Hamilton is soldiering on with the band that brought him post-Nirvana fame and fortune in the '90s, albeit with a completely revamped group of backing musicians. The new disc is Monochrome, and it's probably not a great sign that it's on a label I've never heard of – Warcon.

As long as we're kicking around grizzled vets, might as well let you know that the king of the countripolitain mullet has resurfaced. Yes, nothing can keep Billy Ray Cyrus down. In fact, he scored some pretty impressive cameos for his new Wanna Be Your Joe (New Door/UME), including Jack White's favorite gal Loretta Lynn and the one and only George Jones.

But if it's hip, new, now, and hot that you're looking for, Jesse F. Keeler has everything you could ever want on his debut as MSTRKRFT. Keeler, whose name you may recognize from Death From Above 1979, gets very funky and even more Daft Punky with his side-project on The Looks (Last Gang). Take that all you Francophiles.

And, we might as well let you know that even though Capitol won't be releasing Brit ska-pop cutie Lily Allen's eagerly anticipated debut Alright Still in the US until September, it just came out in England. So, for those of you who just can't wait to get your hands on it, check the import bins at any hip record store or just go on line and pay the extra cash for the first salvo from England's answer to Gwen Stefani.

Related: On Golden Smog, Oh brother, where alt thou?, MySpace celebrity, More

On Golden Smog
Golden Smog's tours feel like an easy excuse for a bunch of old buddies to get together and do what they love. Slideshow: Golden Smog at the Paradise
Oh brother, where alt thou?
In the summer of 1995, Grant Alden was documenting “the tail end of the grunge years” as managing editor of a Seattle music weekly, the Rocket . Alejandro Escovedo, "Broken Bottle" (mp3 via MySpace) Drive-By Truckers, "Feb. 14" (mp3 via MySpace)
MySpace celebrity
No charm, little grace, what’s left of Alright, Still by the end are rich young Allen’s swipes at her poor, old, and obvious targets, horrific classism, the worst kind of celebrity self-obsession. Lily Allen, "Smile" (mp3)
The big hurt: Hello, goodbye
I should probably explain that this is not the same David Thorpe who recently resigned from a different local newspaper where he wrote a beloved weekly column very, very much like this one.
Y'all come back now . . .
I've always liked the idea of there being some weight to the "nines," meaning: if you're a year, and you're going to perch yourself at the very edge of a decade, you'd better be ready to represent.
Sweet alienation
On stage June 26 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York’s Times Square, Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner looked as if he’d just crawled out of a time capsule that had been sealed in the early ’90s. Ripped jeans, scarecrow hair, white hightops — you remember the look. Soul Asylum, "Stand Up and Be Strong" (mp3)
It parade
There is a moment, at the end of a beauty pageant, when the previous year’s winner is forced to place the sparkling crown on a new champion’s head.
Brit flops?
Bloc Party have gotta be one of the more misunderstood — or at least mislabeled — Brit exports of the past couple of years. Lily Allen, "Smile" (mp3)
MSTRKRFT
Most dance punk is just a shower and a missing guitar away from straight dance music, so it’s not such a surprise that aggro-electronicist Jesse F. Keeler of Death from Above 1979 and his group’s producer, Al-P, would go house.
Crossword: ''Don't Be a pig''
Translations from the original Latin.
Indie springs forward
For years we waited. And then we started making jokes about it. And then the jokes got old. So we waited some more. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "Love Song No. 7" (mp3)
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