Fingertips

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Mar. 21-27

"Line Up" - Elastica
Okay, so every now and then I want to silence the questions; I want something I already know and love, something I don't have to sit and listen to over and over and wonder, "Hmmm...is this really good, or really not good?" It's such a crazy fine line, sometimes. And okay this may not be my favorite song from Elastica's memorable debut album (geez, nine years old already), but it sure starts the disc off with a crunchy wallop. Guitars don't squeak and squawk much more satisfyingly than Elastica's guitars; jammed against Justine Frischmann's bored-yet-sultry voice, the effect was captivating. There's even something endearing about the rhythmic grunting that intermittently accompanies the crunch here. While at the time it may have seemed that Elastica arrived rather way too late (long after the original new wave), in retrospect they act as a sort of bridge between a sound that had nearly died at that point and one that seems to be in the middle of a welcome resurgence here in the new century.

"Lazy Afternoon" - Bree Sharp
A different kind of crunch is on display here--brighter, punchier, and unabashedly mainstream-oriented. "Lazy Afternoon" is a straight-ahead rocker, fueled by crisp production, classic rock harmonies, and a heavy dose of Sheryl Crow-ish-ness. Despite her polish (and despite a truly sensational name) Bree Sharp seems to be rather unfortunately betwixt and between in today's music world: neither a teenybopper nor a baby boomer, she records like an indie rocker (i.e. she has her own label) yet sounds like Crow's younger sister. "Lazy Afternoon" comes from her second CD, 2002's More B.S., which probably did not receive as much attention as her 1999 debut, A Cheap and Evil Girl. That one came out on a small label (Trauma Records), and was juiced by something of a novelty song--"David Duchovny," a love letter to the X-Files actor (featuring the memorable couplet: "David Duchovny/Why won't you love me?").

"Never Believe" - Elf Power
Talk about a crazy fine line--what is the fine line between celebratory mainstream pop like "Lazy Afternoon" and celebratory indie pop like this song, from a dedicated bunch of "lo-fi" musicians based in Athens, Georgia (itself something of an indie-rock center-of-the-universe)? It's another question for the ages. Elf Power has one of those complex histories that indie fans are used to--overlapping bands with interweaving personnel and lots of funky names along the way (like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Olivia Tremor Control). Well, wherever they've been and whoever they are, this song is two and a half minutes of hard-driving, cathartic melody, with acoustic rhythm guitars buzzed by an advancing and retreating wall of electric fuzz and artful feedback. Singer Andrew Rieger's voice has its own sort of solid rock vibe to it, a wonderful amalgam of, oh, maybe Paul Humphreys (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) and Justin Hayward (the Moody Blues), somehow. "Never Believe" can be found on the CD Walking With the Beggar Boys, to be released in early April on Orange Twin Records.