Lightnin' Hopkins: "Bald Headed Woman" It's a silent epidemic, under every bonnet, babushka, or Eddie Bauer cap with the ponytail bouncing out the back. You see it at the checkout lines at Wal-Mart, them blue-haired dandelions Aqua-Netted together for a stiff breeze: Female Pattern Hair Loss. Aside from a stoned song on the Beach Boys' Smiley Smile, very few male performers have touched on this problem, much less noticed it. Leave it to Lightnin' Hopkins, one of East Texas' finest, to bring this to the attention of the world: "Gimme back that wig I bought you/ Let your doggone head go bald." Delivered with a pork-greased ease and rhythmic support that hangs looser that Strom Thurmond's jowls, Hopkins picks and slides sloppily, but with a deft sense of play, letting each strand fall where it may on the sawdust floor. Ladies! It's okay to talk about it. posted by andy beta, 4/4/2003 11:23:27 AM Metamatics: "So Many Ways" Found on what is probably my favorite Metamatics LP, the stunningly perfect Neo Ouija, "So Many Ways" is just the most beautiful, melancholy electronica I've ever heard. Starting with an echoing melody like a delicate steel drum floating over the treetops, it wanders through a faded memory, a precious moment lost, amplifying every misty eye and sad smile with another stunning wash of synths, another pulsing orb of analog warmth. The beat is reserved, a minimal groove that could have easily developed into a chill-out room favorite, but instead acts as a quiet guide, leading the way towards daylight. Lee Norkin constructs an atmosphere that is at once technically proficient (check out his Norkin material for a slightly beatier affair) and deeply moving. It brings to mind Seefeel's "Spangle", but the gentle breeze that blows through "So Many Ways" is much more satisfying, leaving you tired and nostalgic, and not a little regretful of the power of memories. posted by mark martelli, 4/2/2003 08:33:42 PM Audio Bullys: “I Go to Your House” Do you know the difference between The Clash and Groove Armada, Oasis and MRI, Robbie Williams and Rakim? Of course you do, but please don’t tell Audio Bullys: they seem to have managed to forget. After their first single, the UK press had fun calling them punks for the new millennium: “We Don’t Care” paired big electric blurts and thumps-- not dance, not rock, just banging-- with marble-mouthed barking worthy of Joe Strummer; the effect was something like the Streets if Mike Skinner were more interested in football scores than weed prices, sneering around some new pop playground you might call genre-busting if it didn’t seem so natural and obvious. But the biggest pop success of their album Ego War comes on “I Go to Your House”, where a rough-and-ready house thump sets the background for two vocal lines, one sly disco-speak, the other all breathy hook. The Bullys’ seemingly effortless collisions of rock tropes and kicking funk sometimes sound like a lost collaboration between Ian Dury and Stereo MCs, sometimes hitting with the loose-limbed immediacy the Happy Mondays once unleashed on a ready-to-dance-English public. Above all, they're inventing new kinds of pop songs with pure enthusiasm. posted by Nitsuh Abebe, 3/31/2003 04:04:28 PM Gosub: "Miami to Brooklyn" The fashion culture that's carried along the 80s synthpop revival is mostly a good thing-- it's music for going out, and going out should be fun-- but there's also a place for serious electro without the camp. "Miami to Brooklyn" doesn't find anything funny in the stiff, chunky rhythms of early, robotic hip-hop and it's the better for it. It's got a hard-hitting drum machine, some of the deepest bass in my collection (beautiful vinyl mastering job, by the way), and a pretty sunburst synth hit for punctuation. Oh yes, and then the chanted title refrain, which in three words tells of producer Shad Scott's move back home two years ago. Whenever I hear it I want to buy a breakdancing video. All electro, no clash. posted by Mark Richardson, 3/30/2003 08:36:12 PM