Once more into the well with this business; being off doing my own thing for the last week or so (“my own thing” largely being ferrying children to one place or the other, then retrieving them), I didn’t get much “new” listening done, but I did have a coupl e of stuff left over from before the hiatus that wasn’t yet posted. The prose may perhaps be a little terse in this one, but given my penchant for rambling on at length, that’s probably a good thing.

♦Dar Williams – The End of The Summer: Ms. Williams was one of the first artists I was introduced to via the excellent programming on radio station World Cafe, a now nationally syndicated program showcasing all kinds of interesting music and live performance. When I first got introduced to this hidden gem of Harrisburg Radio (which used to be on 88.1, but is now on 99.7 and/or 88.7), they were playing the heck out of Williams’ “The Christians and the Pagans” from Mortal City, which hooked me, thanks to her quirky voice and clever story-song style (It’s also become my second favorite “Christmas” song, after Joni Mitchell’s “River). This is the record that came after that one, and expands Williams’ progressive folkie style in a somewhat poppier, more energetic direction, but it’s still identifiably a folk record, and definitely Dar Williams. Her voice is unmistakable, going from smoky and mournful on tracks like “If I Wrote You” to, quirky (there’s that word again, but I use it because it fits) and engaging on uptempo songs like “Teenagers Kick Our Butts” and “Party Generation.” The highlights of the record, though, are probably “Are You Out There” and “What Do You Hear in These Sounds,” thanks to their interesting sonic landscape and catchy melodies.

♦Suzanna Hoffs: This record, the second solo effort from the Bangles guitarist/vocalist (who wasn’t the frontperson for that band – it was a team effort. Sure, she made those googly eyes in the “Walk Like an Egyptian” video, but why does no one remember that everybody took a verse in that song? Is there no love for the Petersens or Michelle Steele?), is just further proof that Tuesday Night Music Club was probably the most influential album of the 1990s, or at least the subset of the 90s made up by my CD collection. There’s a lot here that’s all Hoffs (most definitely the single “All I Want” which, oddly, she didn’t write!), and shows a lot of her progression from the Bangles sound to the stuff she’s doing with Matthew Sweet today (Two non-listed ’60s cover tunes!), though all one has to do is listen to “King of Tragedy” or “Beekeepers Blues” and the similarities to Crow’s seminal record (which came out three years before this one, giving its influence time to propogate) become apparent. Also of note is the track “Falling,” co-written by Hoffs and Go-Go Charlotte Caffey, which is the only Bangles/Go-Gos collaboration I can think of, though as prolific as Jane Weidlin is, I imagine it’s not the only one out there.

♦Mitch Hedberg – Strategic Grill Locations: I got pretty deep into the box before turning up a stand-up comedy record, didn’t I? It’s really a shame Mitch Hedberg couldn’t overcome the demons he was amiably palling around with (I can’t imagine Mitch Wrestling) before they killed him way too young, because he was really funny (insert the appropriate Bill Hicks joke, or the version of it Dennis Leary shamelessly ripped off here). If you were looking for a short description of his style, “Stoner Steven Wright” would probably suffice, given all the one liners, but there’s a bit more to it than that; it always seemed to me that Hedberg’s non-sequitir jokes were better conceived; both more clever, and way more out of left field, but always relatable. He also manages to connect with the audience more effectively than Wright; Hedberg’s personal charisma, even under all that hair and those sunglasses, really hooked people, and made you want to root for him. This was his first record, and it’s a little more raw and less polished than Mitch Altogether (though the joke from which that record gets its name is actually on this one), but it’s genuinely entertaining, and includes the classic “Smacky the Frog” and “Bananas are the opposite of traffic lights” bits, which never fail to make me laugh.

♦KISS – MTV Unplugged: MTV Unplugged was always one of the more interesting things MTV did, back when it played music – sure, it wasn’t a video show, but it was live performance, and often managed to put well-known artists and songs in a different context, which sometimes worked really well, and sometimes didn’t – finding out which was the case for any given situation was part of the fun of watching. The KISS performance, like many of them, was a little bit of both. In the cases where it doesn’t work, it’s largely because the KISS catalog includes a lot of stuff that’s not particularly deep or melodic, and doesn’t hold up without the distortion and theatricality. “Plaster Caster” just isn’t that well constructed a song, and that’s especially apparent when the song’s stripped down to a couple of acoustic guitars and Gene’s not spitting blood. There is some good stuff here, particularly “A World Without Heroes” off of Music from “the Elder”, the poorly received concept record from 81. Also of note from this performance was the re-entry of Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, albiet temporarily, back into the KISS fold. Both original members sat in toward the end of the set and did their signature tunes (both of which, Ace’s “2000 Man” and Criss’s “Beth,” in an effective, piano-less arrangement, are album standouts), before closing out the show with “Rock and Roll All Nite” with everybody, including replacements-of-replacements Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer, crowding the stage. This record, then, set the stage for the infamous return of the makeup for the 1996 reunion, which played to nostalgia and continued the never-ending cycle of Paul and Gene firing and re-hiring and firing everybody who isn’t them over and over again.