From Fiction to Fake Songs

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer
  
   Many of the tracks on Otis Taylor’s Truth Is Not Fiction feel like scenes from August Wilson plays. “Be My Witness” is about a black man in the 1930s who is daring enough to drive through a white neighborhood — provided he can get a pal to go with him and verify the trip. We’re in John Lee Hooker territory with guitars that are nearly screaming and always throbbing. Tension mounts as the vehicle these guys select isn’t working all that well but the song is running on all cylinders. So is “Rosa, Rosa,” an ode to Miss Parks who got civil rights movement to stand up when she decided to sit down. Taylor’s songs have the pull of history and injustice but they also roar. In his mid-fifties, he’s one of the best voices currently on the scene who proves how vital the blues can still be.
   Another bluesman at the head of the current class is Canada’s Colin Linden. Big Mouth is his sixth album and he’s worked with T-Bone Burnett, The Band and Kim Wilson from The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Linden also produces and has recorded on albums by fellow artists like bluesman Keb’ Mo’ who shows up here on the down and dirty “Wasn’t That Enough.” This track makes both men shine and the same applies to “Don’t Tell Me,” Linden’s shuffling duet with alt-country queen Lucinda Williams. His sly sense of humor is evident here with lines like, “I’m the wrong way with a one-way ticket/If the horse is losing, then I’m bound to pick it.” Williams struts through the song with an early Rickie Lee Jones swagger. Linden’s playful streak similarly emerges in “Wrong Side Of The Bed” and the song also tosses in a great groove with his savory slide guitar and Richard Bell’s buoyant keyboards. Another duet — there are five in all — is “Just Believe” with the dynamic Jonell Mosser. Linden shows he’s able to land on the same musical page as Van Morrison with this enticing song that lured me into the mystic.
   The Marvin Braude San Fernando Valley Constituent Center has just opened. I have nothing against the ex-city councilman — I’ve met him and went to school with his daughters — but I think they ought to replace his name with Liam Lynch. Why? Because Lynch has done something in 90 seconds that Braude couldn’t do in thirty years: make Van Nuys hip. Lynch lives in that notoriously tacky town and recorded the KROQ-favorite single, “The United States Of Whatever,” a jolt of snarky attitude which is funny as hell. Look for those five words to start showing up on unlicensed t-shirts faster than President Bush can give a speech on a military base. (In 1998, Lynch created and wrote music for MTV’s “Sifl & Oly Show” which featured sock puppets and he’s going to direct Jack Black’s next movie. A multi-talented fella? Yup.) So, Lynch can craft a song that the kids love — how’s the rest of the Fake Songs? It’s pretty amazing and nearly a one-man show. “Cuz You Do” has a definite glam rock feel and “Try Me” really sounds like T-Rex. Oh, and the drummer on those two and couple of other tracks is a guy named Ringo Starr, which is also pretty amazing. “Fake Talking Heads Song” and “Fake David Bowie Song” are jaw-dropping impressions which are crafted with affection and respect. Lynch is a combination of Beck’s versatility, Spike Jonze’s imagination and They Might Be Giants’ anarchic spirit. He’s a high-tech imp and an irreverent poster boy for the new century.
   Amazon has Truth Is Not Fiction and Big Mouth for $17.98 and Fake Songs for $13.99.
   Ex-Lemonhead Evan Dando continues his I’m No Longer Totally Messed Up Tour at The El Rey on June 28.
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … Junior Communist Club. (Take that, John Ashcroft.)