Four for the playlist

Local masters do not disappoint with a quatro selection of new material both mournful and alive, fun and thought-provoking

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The next couple weeks will be a remarkable time for Austin CDs, as four veteran bands release the records of their careers. Grupo Fantasma's third studio LP, "Sonidos Gold," leads the way Tuesday, as Prince's go-to Latino band just keeps getting better. Then, June 24 gives us a trio of CDs that will knock you on your rear end: "Real Animal" by Alejandro Escovedo, whose physical recovery is as dramatic as Roky Erickson's mental comeback, "Bulletproof" by a more relentless Reckless Kelly and "Never Say Never" by Ian McLagan and the Bump Band, a triumph of the spirit of the former Faces keyboardist. It's fortunate for local fans that Austin is so old-fashioned, with musicians still pouring their hearts into cohesive, personal, artistic works contained on compact discs. While much of the rest of the world is buying songs, not albums, online, these Austin artists make music like digital download portals don't exist.

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO

'Real Animal' (Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)

He's never shied from personal albums, but No Depression magazine's 1990s artist of the decade has never made one this straight-ahead autobiographical. And as such, it's in the idiom he loves more than any other: straight-ahead, two-guitar, 4/4 rock 'n' roll, the kind he made with Rank and File and True Believers and not nearly enough since. In his words, from "Chip 'n' Tony": "All I ever wanted was a four-piece band." Co-written with Chuck Prophet, "Real Animal" is a grown man's ode to punk and its discontents, a weirdly successful bid to recapture the sound of kicking out the jams while taking stock of the events that surrounded doing it in the first place. Glam-guru Tony Visconti mans the boards for a sympathetic production job. With its strings, sax and back-up gals, "Sensitive Boys" could be a "Transformer" outtake. (He's never getting over Lou Reed, is he? Well, most folks don't.)

"We came to live inside the myth of everything we'd heard," Escovedo sings on "Chelsea Hotel '78." The date's important — Escovedo was 27 that year. It's a cursed age in rock music (Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain are only the most famous of the 27 Club), but Al was just getting warmed up, hurling himself into a life of rock 'n' vice he'd only dreamed about.

He's not adverse to name-dropping either — Neon Leon and "Nancy in her black underwear dead on the bathroom floor" show up in "Chelsea," Lester Bangs in Austin with the "Vick's Vapor eyes" shows up in "Chip 'n' Tony." "Real as an Animal" is an ode to Iggy Pop ("Five feet four, trailer park kid"). "Nuns Song" shouts out his old band: "We don't want your approval /It's 1978/We know we're not in tune/We know we'll never be great." Nice sentiment, but you can't help thinking of it as a track from "Al's Story: The Rock Musical." Nevertheless, it's a startlingly alive album from a guy whose life has been written off more than once. Welcome back, rocker.

Recommended:"Always A Friend," "Sister Lost Soul" and "Nuns Song"

— Joe Gross

GRUPO FANTASMA

'Sonidos Gold'(

Aire Sol Records/High Wire Music)

The title and CD cover seem like a humorous nod to all those vintage "Exitos de Oro" ("Golden Hits") salsa compilations, but Grupo Fantasma certainly comes through with the serious goods. There's not a weak song on the 11-piece Austin band's first studio album in four years, and the recording captures the electricity of a live show even when going a little heavy on such effects as the near-ubiquitous reverb on vocals.

The dazzling salsa number "Arroz con Frijoles" and Santana-esque boogaloo "Gimme Some" both have catchy choruses that are instant singalongs. The latter features a guest spot by funk legend Maceo Parker, who's been working in recent years with Prince, Grupo Fantasma's biggest fan and benefactor. Another Prince sideman, trombonist Greg Boyer, appears on the scintillating "Naci de La (Rumba y Guaguanco)," along with no less a salsa icon than Larry Harlow, keyboardist and arranger for the Fania All-Stars. The real credit to Grupo Fantasma is not that they could call in favors from such big names, but that those star turns are of a piece with the brilliance of the ensemble work.

The simmering "Levantate" and shimmering cumbias "Rebotar" and "Cumbia de los Pajaritos" showcase the band's musicianship just as effectively as the dizzying "Se Te Mira" and driving Latin funk workout "Bacalao con Pan." When Grupo Fantasma gets around to releasing a greatest hits album someday, it might have a hard time deciding which cuts from "Sonidos Gold" to leave out.

Recommended:"Levantate," "Arroz con Frijoles" and "Gimme Some"

— Parry Gettelman

RECKLESS KELLY

'Bulletproof' (Yep Roc)

At this point, Reckless Kelly had to make a bold move without losing what they've built up over the past 12 years. "Bulletproof" is a statement record: We're a rock band that writes country songs. And with "American Blood," the Reckless ones brilliantly stand up for their country, while blasting the Bush administration ("sitting with his feet on the desk, when the boys have got theirs in the sand"). Under a sturdy rock riff tempo, Willy Braun forcefully sings the story of a kid not old enough to drink, yet sent to Iraq to fight. At 23, he's old enough for booze, but his legs are gone, so he gets drunk and shouts "God bless America, but God (expletive) Uncle Sam!" It's the most powerful moment in an album full of them.

Musically, R.K. is subtly subversive, although over the long haul of this album (14 tracks) the songs do tend to sound the same. The save man here is guitarist David Abeyta, who sets off the band's Steve Earle tribute act with stunning guitar fills that sound based more on '70s arena rock (bet he loves Queen's Brian May) than on the usual chunk-and-twang such songs receive. When he's got great material to work with, such as "Love In Her Eyes" and "Ragged As the Road," Abeyta adds just enough sweetening without getting in the way. When he's asked to carry a sleepwalker, such as the title track, he rips out an arsenal of swampy riffs that make the tune.

"Bulletproof" is an aggressive album with an anti-war song that outprotests James McMurtry. Even in the most stagnant of subgenres (alt-country), the Kellies strive to remain fresh and when that fails, they have Abeyta to fall back on. It's a good album, perhaps their best, but it would've been better with a bit of the deadwood cut out. Can we somehow pass a city ordinance that limits the number of songs on an album to 12?

Recommended: "American Blood," "Love In Her Eyes"

— Michael Corcoran

IAN MCLAGAN & THE BUMP BAND

'Never Say Never' (Maniac)

Because he's such a monster keyboardist, best known for backing the likes of Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, Ian McLagan is a woefully underrated singer and songwriter. While Stewart is printing money by pillaging the Great American Songbook, it's the man they call "Mac" who's following through on the Faces legacy with pub rockers such as "I'm Hot, You're Cool."

He's also finding new styles of tenderness with "An Innocent Man," an acoustic guitar song about being lost and lonely.

The overall theme of "Never Say Never" is using music as part of the grieving process. (The official release date is June 24, although it's been available online for awhile.) "Nothing that I can write can help you," he sings on "Where Angels Hide," his voice almost breaking. It's a sad and beautiful song, as is album-closing "When the Crying Is Over," which is practically a gospel song.

Anybody who ever saw Ian and Kim McLagan together, so perfectly prepared to grow old together, knows that when Kim died in a car accident in 2006, a big part of Mac died, too.

But, as evidenced by this record, which has its light moments with parlor tune "Killing Me With Love" and the naughty, smoky "A Little Black Number," perhaps a new part of McLagan has shown itself. He's been to a place we all pray that we'll never have to visit and somehow he's getting through it. With his music. With his band. With his friends. With his memories and dreams.

McLagan couldn't have written "An Innocent Man" three years ago. A minuscule concession, to be sure, but in McLagan's quest to make sense of the senseless, he'll help others understand along the way.

Recommended: "Never Say Never, "An Innocent Man," "A Little Black Number"

— Michael Corcoran