Bad Livers

Blood & Mood

SUGAR HILL

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Trailblazing? Trend-mongering? Career ending? All three? Fans of the Bad Livers' odd slant on bluegrass will debate the stylistic about-face of Blood & Mood. Heresies abound: reassembled drum tracks, samples, treated vocals, electric guitars, even synthesizers. But given the Bad Livers' decade-plus history, it's impressive that the band still possesses the capacity to surprise. The group's early marathon sets in Austin bars were typical. A banjo-fiddle-standup bass trio, they played with menace, prone to whip out a Roky Erickson or Metallica cover. Bassist Mark Rubin, whose prodigious frame is covered with tattoos, complemented Danny Barnes's longhair biker look; the Pleasant Valley Boys they weren't. Yet, more than the novelty, it was Barnes's talent that kept the crowds coming back. His dexterity on all manner of string instruments and his offhand hoarse twang claimed a distinct style rooted in traditionalism. Nestled among MIDI sequencers and samplers, the style is still unmistakable. Blood & Mood is not a dalliance but a grab at something new: bridging cold-hearted techno and the warmth of rural music with a rock exuberance. At times it eludes the Livers' grasp. Songs don't end as much as stop; some grate, others meander. Yet "Little Bitty Town" is charming and sad in its simplicity and sets a tone of uneasy isolation. "Death Trip" uncoils snaky slow funk, while "One More Night" is a furious Flatt, Scruggs, and Hendrix romp. "Love Songs Suck" melds styles seamlessly, as the deep bass mirrors the vocal and subdued steel materializes in the chorus. Better still is "Man vs. Fate — 2 Out of 3 Falls, 10 Pound Limit," a fidgety rumination on life shrouded in what can only be described as down-home trip-hop. Those who value labels and like their genres to stay put had best avoid Blood & Mood. As always with the Bad Livers, it pays to keep your ears wide open.

Dynamite Hack

Superfast

WOPPITZER

Clever lads, these Austin boys called Dynamite Hack. On their debut CD, Superfast, they lift the street thugga lyrics from Eazy-E and Ice Cube's "Boyz-N-The Hood," rework them with breathy, sensitive vocals and folk-rock instrumentation, and wrap the whole thing up with a musical nod to the Beatles' "Blackbird." Voila! A hilarious parody that is the biggest radio hit to come out of Austin since Fastball's "The Way" — it's as if Ben Folds Five got the funk. Novelty aside, what about the other eleven cuts, all originals? Well, they all rock, thanks in no small part to the buzzsaw guitars and all the inflections of the Ramones, Ugly Americans, Steely Dan, Joe Jackson, and the Doors that I detect, making for the smartest power pop to break out of Texas in years.

Ian Moore

and all the colors…

KOCH RECORDS

Over the past decade, Ian Moore has done everything a young Austin guitarist is supposed to do: he apprenticed in Joe Ely's band, jammed at Antone's with Double Trouble, toured with ZZ Top, and closed sets by showboating all over Freddie King's "Me And My Guitar." Now, like Charlie Sexton before him, Moore has refocused and dutifully advanced to phase two; his fourth full record, and all the colors… , is driven not by guitar but by song structure and pop aesthetics. Whether the makeover grew out of the loss of his Capricorn Records deal in 1998 or his temporary relocation to Seattle, he wears it well: Moore has never sounded more confident or shown more restraint. Whereas his previous stabs at singer-songwriter fare were too often overwrought, here they're cinematic and soulful, à la Curtis Mayfield. And while Texas guitar traditionalists could initially lament the absence of anything remotely blues based, there are still half a dozen legitimate rockers, including the wonderfully quirky "Johnny Cash and His Electric Bible." Sure, there's also some blatant filler, but it's all ultimately just minor baggage for such a big, and undeniably promising, transition.

The Hollisters

Sweet Inspiration

HIGHTONE

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There's little about the Hollisters that's truly original, but their smooth mix of classic country, rockabilly, southern rock, and a dash of folk-rock is indeed inspired. between Mike Barfield's fluttering baritone vocals and Eric Danheim's twanging, country-boogie guitar, the Houston quartet often sounds like a Johnny Cash tribute band, but they work endless variations on that sound, from the cajun-inflected "Fishin' Man" to the dieselbilly "Holes In The Road (Dumptruck)" to "The Last Picture Show," which embraces both the traditional country murder ballad and the fifties teen-death lament. "Sugarland" is a small gem, with a Gulf Coast undertow that's both laid-back and ominous, like those moments just before a storm rolls in. Barfield is all over the place, offering chiming, rolling folk-rock on the fade of "Sweet Inspiration" and bearing down hard on the grating lines of "Love Rustler." Barfield and Danheim write succinct, catchy songs, often about the doomed country drifter and hell-raiser stuck in his ways though he knows no good can come of them. Making the most out of a theoretically limited approach, the Hollisters come through with punch and pleasure.

Rob Halverson

Robinson Ear's Little Whirled of Sound

JUMPING MAN

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From the album title, one might assume this is the work of an eccentric yet likable wizard. That would be right. Part one-man band, part ringmaster commanding more than a dozen musicians, Halverson stirs up a concoction of blues, gospel, and psychedelia, all held together by his band, the Robinson Ear Machine, and a guitar meticulously carved into the shape of, you guessed it, an ear. The album is the recorded climax to a series of shows that Halverson and his loose-knit collective performed around Austin over the past couple of years. Though the CD bears the marks of his studio tinkering, it is tinkering in the most organic sense, with homey recorded sound effects and wonderful touches like an ocarina, kazoos, a theremin, an accordion, and a female choir that lends a spiritual quality. Some tracks recall Tom Waits ("Kewaunee") and Pink Floyd ("Sailing On"); "She Cares" commences as a tender ballad and morphs into a crescendo of guitars, violins, piano, and bowed bass tumbling over one another. Halverson's vision is wandering indeed, but it's a journey well worth taking: music that's soulful and good for the soul.