BOBGOBLIN
The Twelve-Point Master Plan (MCA)
This Devo-crazed novelty act from Dallas wears uniforms and professes to be part of some kind of secret underground organization, with the Twelve-Point Master Plan as some unclassified document that makes it obvious membership doesn’t require originality or songwriting skills. And because so much of what’s supposed to be fuzzy and zippy is dopey and drab, here’s hoping the thirteenth point involves giving up.
— Andy Langer
TRIPPING DAISY
Time Capsule (Island Independent)
Seeing as it’s been two years since I Am an Elastic Firecracker (a lifetime in the now-dead alternative era), this stop-gap collection of demos and former B-sides shoulda felt a lot more piecemeal than it does. Fortunately, Dallas’ Tripping Daisy are a band better than the era belies, and with two strong Firecracker outtakes (and despite the horrid “Boobie the Clown”), this six-song, 39-minute time capsule is welcome in the face of no new product ’til 1998.
— Raoul Hernandez
BRAVE COMBO
Group Dance Epidemic (Rounder)
Huh? Haven’t the Combo already done these tunes before? And haven’t they done them more… unusually? Ya got yer “Bunny Hop,” yer “Chicken Dance,” yer “Hokey Pokey” (Twice!) What’s the gimmick? Ah, here it is in the cover’s subtitle: “Fun and Functional.” This is the group’s dance instruction album, complete with dance steps in the CD booklet. Not a bad idea, and not a bad band to learn to swing your hips to, either.
— Ken Lieck
SONS OF THE DESERT
Whatever Comes First (Epic)
Did we learn nothing from Little Texas? Surely we can’t have forgotten about Diamond Rio so quickly. Five hunky Dance Across Texas types from Waco are given a vaguely Western name, locked in a basement/studio with a copies of Steve Earle’s Guitar Town and the Brooks & Dunn catalog, and unleashed on the radio scant months later. Full of pallid boot-scooters and nearly rockin’ twangers espousing safe suburban values, Whatever Comes First thinks it’s still 1992, and people are still line dancing. Are they?
— Christopher Gray
DIZZYBLOOM
(Hourglass)
There are moments, like the chorus of “Heaven Made Me,” which indicate that this could be an interesting album. But it’s not. Those snapshots of innovation are replaced by far more obvious tele-tunes like “I’m Afraid” with its oh-so-contradictory “I don’t like guns, it’s a shame that I have one.” The production is sparkling, and the harmonies nice, but this melodramatic action-sequence-rock is better-placed behind a Silk Stalkings episode than on a stereo.
— Christopher Hess
THE TOMORROW PEOPLE
Golden Energy (Slab/Last Beat)
Finally, a Dallas buzz act comes fully realized with a debut that’s easily the city’s most adventurous, profound, and well-conceived experiment in years. And if that’s saying a lot, it’s only because Golden Energy does too — via smart pop structures and punk aesthetics that feature just the right dose of unobtrusive samples, synthesizers, and ambient noise. Think Radiohead meets Tripping Daisy or a Prodigy/Toadies clash. In fact, just think about buying it immediately.
— Andy Langer
JOE SATRIANI, ERIC JOHNSON, STEVE VAI
G3 Live in Concert (Epic)
Museum piece for G3 concert veterans, guitar magazine subscribers, and locally, Johnson completists; all three guitarists are their technically wondrous selves (Vai edges Johnson with Satch coming in third), and the final jam (“Going Down,” “Red House,” and “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama”) is hot. On the whole, though, things are a little staid. A trio of guitarists known for their studio proficiency? Bet there’s no overdubs here.
— Raoul Hernandez
THE ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS
Live (Watermelon)
Originally a cassette-only release, this live set — mostly recorded for KUT in 1995 — has been re-released on CD by popular demand, and rightfully so. It’s simply the live souvenir that every Spanker fan needs, and the perfect local souvenir to mail to friends and family. Best of all, in this live context, the four bonus track leftovers from last year’s sterile Spanks for the Memories studio album somehow come alive — particularly Wammo’s infectious “Drunkard Wave.”
— Andy Langer
TWO MUSES
Reunite the Heart
A little help from a lot of friends makes this batch of idyllic porch poetry a thoroughly enjoyable mosey through traditionally Texan singin’ and songwritin’. Sentimentality aside and occasionally hokey phrasings notwithstanding, Bill Muse’s honey voice and maudlin lyrics hearken back to a time when love songs to your woman and your homeland were all the art that mattered.
— Christopher Hess
LARRY
Here I Am
The CD insert proclaims “Who’s Larry,” to which this local band responds in music: We’re the bluegrassy undercurrent of the Grateful Dead, John Popper’s harmonica — Parrot Heads, perhaps — Soul Hat, and sometimes, a little Garth Hudson. We are all things Larry. There you are.
— Raoul Hernandez
“Bonus Tracks” reviews all Texas-centric releases. Mail to: “Bonus Tracks,” Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765
This article appears in July 11 • 1997 and July 11 • 1997 (Cover).