CD REVIEW: RUSS STEDMAN – ALERT BUT WITHOUT ACUTE DISTRESS

RUSS STEDMAN
Alert But Without Acute Distress CD
www.russstedman.com
Opens with a funny & fun note-perfect cover of Iron Maiden’s “Prowler” (the opening joint from their 1981 album ‘Killers’), only missing maybe a touch of wah-wah on that main riff. Nitpicking. Track two, “Why Am I Alive” continues the hot-rockin’ air guitar & cowbell inspiring frenzy this time with KISS lyrics from the song “Tomorrow and Tonight” (from their 1977 album ‘Love Gun’), among other lyrical appropriations. “Find them and Kill them” is a moody jazzbo instrumental with kind of heavy metal guitaristic soloing a la maybe Al DiMeola. “My Haunted Heart” continues in a ballady, minor key manor. “Random Word Generator” could be from Frank Zappa’s Synclavier period. ie, a grooveless frenzy of MIDI tones, suitably pointillistic and information-dense. Closer “Penis Dimension” IS a Zappa cover, so there ya go. Maiden to Zappa in one album by way of KISS. & can I just say, the production is so damn nice. Everything sounds clean as a freshly shaved beaver.
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REVIEW: ALICJACOPO - 1998 - 10" SINGLE

AUTOreverse: Alicjacopo 10" 1998

Clear vinyl EP recorded in late 1997. Alicia Wade recorded her guitar and vocal parts at home in Virginia, USA while Jacopo Andreini did his vocals, drums & sax at home in Pistoia, Italy.

The record was pressed in New Zealand, if memory serves, and finally distributed by Dekay Age, also out of Virginia. Also distributed by Frigorifero Productions in Italy.

Handmade on every level, this is an object lesson in How We Did Things In Those Days. Good times.

"Time" is like a fractured Portishead. "Cutting Paintings" features Jacopo out front, getting his Zorn on. Or, for the kiddies, imagine the White Stripes fronted by a Tasmanian Devil.

This record is a nice jab to the frontal lobe, just the right amounts of experimentation and rocking out. Dig it!

ALICJACOPO 10" EP
1. Free Angels
2. Time
3. Night Scene
4. Cutting Paintings
5. Je M'en Vais
6. It Is Very Simple