"Goodbye, So What" is an undeviating, toned-down version of the harsher side of the Breeders. The amateurish noise-rock of Cake Like's earliest work is gone, but "Goodbye, So What" still retains the some of the artsy dissonance of "Brusier Queen" (1997). Nevertheless, it's pretty sunny. The fuzzy-toned opener, "Lucky One" sounds like an early Hole outtake until the trio's musicality advances the hum-along chorus. "My Guy" owes more to the bouncy L.A. melodies of the Go-Go's than to abrasive art rock. And the breathy "Don't Tell," is as much a soulful duet between vocal and creeping bass as it is a punky psychedelic throwback.

Continue Reading...

"Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the '60s" is a tribute to those times and those musicians, with contemporary '60s-styled singers performing songs written in that period. As a valuable roots-to-rock history lesson, "Bleecker Street" is more well-meaning than successful. It's a tribute attempting to duplicate art works so singular that the comparisons will almost inherently pale.

Boston folkie Jonatha Brooke kicks off the hootenanny with Simon & Garfunkel's crunchy travelogue "Bleecker Street." While she captures the original's sweet innocence, she's unable to convey S&G's youthful urgency -- the part that came from jittery rock 'n' roll. Later, restless rocker Marshall Crenshaw sheds his edge and focuses on the melodic qualities of Dylan's "My Back Pages," an archetypal folk song ultimately identified with the pinched, electrifying vocals of its creator.

Continue Reading...