CD reviews

Slaid Cleaves, Ghost of the Russian Empire, ButterCup

Cleaves gives voice to some 'unsung' musicians

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Slaid Cleaves

'Unsung'

(Rounder)

What a cool concept: record an entire album of material from obscure singer-songwriters who just happen to be your friends. Slaid Cleaves first heard these songs from writers such as Steve Brooks, Graham Weber, Chris Montgomery, Michael O'Connor and JJ Baron on front porches, at open mikes, in hotel rooms and on ratty backstage couches.

Leaning on others for the words and music was a boon for the road-weary Cleaves, whose two previous albums, "Broke Down" and "Wishbones," gave him the career he'd been fishing for, yet ate up his writing time. But "Unsung" is also, perhaps, Cleaves' most challenging effort. Though he falls gracefully into Karen Poston's "Flowered Dresses," allows the echoes of Ana Egge's silent harmony to shade his version of "Fairest Of Them All" and makes "Call It Sleep" sound like a new original, several of these songs are ones you'd never hear on a regular Cleaves album.

Brooks' "Everette," for instance, tears down New Orleans streets with a French carny tempo — a far cry from Cleaves' sensitive, revealing folk songs. But he pulls it off wonderfully. Likewise with "Racecar Joe," a lighthearted, snare-shuffling number from Adam Carroll that loosens up the album at the midpoint. As these songs string together like party guests arriving one by one, Cleaves' musical empathy resembles that of a method actor, out to get not only the words and melodies, but the motives behind them. He does more than interpret these fine songs; he makes them his own.

I can't imagine that anyone who contributed to this album isn't overjoyed to have lent Cleaves a song.

(Slaid Cleaves plays Friday, June 2 and Saturday, June 3 at the Cactus Cafe .) —Michael Corcoran

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Ghost of the Russian Empire

'With Fiercest Demolition'

(Thirty Ghosts)

Their name screams "Epic, possibly impossibly pretentious guitar rock in the tradition of such long-winded Emo's soundtrackers as Mogwai, Mono and Explosions in the Sky," but those who find such sounds exhaustively over-played need not run screaming. Though Ghost of the Russian Empire share producer Erik Wofford with increasingly-famous locals Explosion, Voxtrot and the Black Angels, and one can easily imagine their songs stretching out on stage, Ghost hark back to a late '90s strain of indie rock. It's a sound that dodges stereotypical indie simplicity for something more fleshed out.

The quickly strummed guitars, humming with distortion; the stuttering beats; the random brass instruments (in this case, trumpet and trombone) filling out the melodies; Brandon Whitten's vocals soaring over the rush of song like an angel flying over the ocean — My Morning Jacket and Radiohead changed this band's lives, especially the singer's, especially on "Psychomedicated." This isn't a knock — Ghost handle atmospherics better than most and wondering whether this is sophistication or the illusion of sophistication is beside the point. If we held such slight of hand against rock bands, we'd be listening to nothing but Woody Guthrie.

(Ghosts of the Russian Empire play Thursday, June 1 at Beerland with Rescue Mission and more.)— Joe Gross

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ButterCup

'Hot Love'

(Bedlamb Records)

Of course it's an inexcusably cute band name more appropriate for a group of college sophomores than middle-aged men, but what's rock 'n' roll if not a chance to delay adulthood forever?

Once made up of performance art types, this San Antonio band — members of which have been kicking around S.A. bands since the early '90s — do what people do when they get sick of the art scene: They look for that most elusive of grails, the Perfect Guitar Pop Song.

The quest goes on, but "Hot Love" finds ButterCup on the right path. "Hello, Goodbye" and "You'll Just Have to Wait" snap and crackle, the title track feels like a '70s sitcom theme and "National Spelling Bee Contest" recalls fondly a crush's girlhood smarts. Tunes after tune, Buttercup (name. . .hurts. . .to. . .type) remember that structure is everything in guitar pop, wisely trading the goofy textures that bog down younger bands for the sturdy craft of long-time pros. After all, these guys aren't getting any younger and know in their bones that life is short, art is long (performance art even longer) but a perfectly written song lasts forever.

(Buttercup plays Saturday, June 3 at the Parish with Girl in a Coma.) — J.G.