From Alternative Rock To Neo-Grunge

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer

   In 1996, “Swingers” helped launch the retro swing movement. Six years later, Trampoline Records Greatest Hits Vol. 1 similarly explores the Silverlake-Los Feliz hipster music scene. Highlights include Gary Jules’ mesmerizing “DTLA,” the dreamy, Brit pop of The Minus Five’s “Girl I Never Met” and the rocking pop of Jukebox Junkies’ “Sentimental Tattoo.” Trampoline was founded by Marc Dauer, Rami Jaffee and Pete Yorn, like-minded alt-rockers who often work together. The only thing missing on this CD they’ve produced is retro swing but that’s as been-there-done-that as the expression been-there-done-that.
   If The Mavericks were a straight up honky tonk band, they’d sound like Two Dollar Pistols. With You Ruined Everything, these boys from North Carolina have a new album that’s California Country by way of Bakersfield barrooms. In the obsessed “All I Can Think Of Is You,” lead vocalist John Howie Jr. sings that title phrase almost twenty times but never wears out his welcome. When he announces, “You inspired my last six songs,” it’s not exactly breaking news to his ex or us. But long after I took this album out of my CD player, all I could think of was Two Dollar Pistols.
   Carrie Newcomer’s The Gathering Of Spirits finds the passionate singer-songwriter even more assured in her writing and playing. This folkie focuses on The Big Stuff but makes her various epiphanies easy to relate to: “Just because the odds are bad/It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the risk.” The odds are very good you’ll like Newcomer’s new album.
   If you go for hot, sexy blues, Shemekia Copeland —- a mix of Koko Taylor and Bonnie Raitt —- is just what the doctor ordered. And that physician is Dr. John, New Orleans’ chief of staff of gumbo funk. John produced the 22-year-old Copeland’s third album, Talking To Strangers, and it’s a humdinger. “Livin’ On Love” shows a.s.a.p. how Copeland belts like a seasoned blues gal. She also co-wrote the saucy “Sholanda’s” which is set in an inner city beauty parlor: “Get yourself a bikini wax/Give your man a heart attack.” This could be the title track from the girl version of “Barbershop.”
   I don’t receive many heavy metal-neo grunge CDs but was sent two from Arizona-based Honeymoon Stych and gave them a road test. I drove onto the nearest main drag, rolled the windows down and cranked up “Welcome To My Evil.” An older couple in their old Oldsmobile were horrified and zoomed off at a speed they hadn’t hit since the Johnson administration. A block later, several teenagers pulled up packed like sardines into their Dodge Neon. They heard the music, smiled, bobbed their heads up and down and made devil horns signs at me. Honeymoon Stytch may be onto something.
   Miles Of Music has Trampoline Records Greatest Hits Vol.1 for $10 and You Ruined Everything for $15.50. Amazon has The Gathering Of Spirits for $11.99 and Talking To Strangers for $12.99. The two Honeymoon Stytch CDs (one self-titled, the other Insomnia) are available for $15 at www.honeymoonstytch.com.
   *Shemekia Copeland’s at The House Of Blues on Oct. 4. The Waifs (whose rootsy pop debut I loved) are at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theater on Oct. 5.
   * The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … The Beachcomas.