Oh Susanna Oh Susanna (Stella/Outside)
"I've got a carved arm and a black tooth, crippled boot and a broken heart," sings Oh Susanna, and oh how this gal can sing the dustbowl/smokey-mountain/moonshine shakes!
Nuyorican Soul Fabrica de Nueva York (Talkin' Loud/Blue Thumb/Giant Step)Talkin' Loud's Gilles Peterson approached house lords Masters at Work in 1995, asking them to turn their jazzy Nuyorican Soul project into an album. They decided to do so in 1996 and selected their melting pot ingredients: Roy Ayers, George Benson, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Vincent Montana Jr. and Eddie Palmieri, to name a few. Recorded at Sigma Sound Studios, where many Philly disco classics were set down, Fabrica sounds like 1973-80, only pushed into today, with a thick Latin accent. 9/10 (Mireille Silcott) Ben Folds Five Whatever and Ever Amen (550/Sony)In the 18 months since their stunning debut, pianoman Ben Folds and his fabulous Five have hit Top 40 in the U.K., become big in Japan and skipped labels up to Sony. But the songs remain the same in missive #2--rollicking, 88-fingers gooey wherein Todd Rundgren snubs Joe Jackson. There's a little more balladry here but you know, the ivories can pull that off just fine. 8/10 (Chris Yurkiw) The Monoxides Galaxy of Stooges (BMG)
Forget about the Stoogesthey should've called this one Galaxy Of Seeds or 13th Floor Elevators to Hell. Moncton's young Monoxides admit wearing their influences "like a cheap concert T-shirt," but they bring their own '90s pop sense to the garage. Fan Moe Berg fleshes out the production and friend Rosie of Treble Charger sings on a tribute to himself. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw) At Monkeyhouse tonight, Thurs. March 27
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Sure, she's got a shtick (replete with browning photographs of her holding an old acoustic, Robert Johnson-style), but the Vancouverite and former Concordia student (née Suzie Ungerleider) carries it off perfectly on this seven-song CD--same ones as on her buzz-inducing cassette. More a street-smart tribute to Appalachia than a facile evocation of hillbilly music, Oh Susanna hangs her twang somewhere between a flatted yelp and a flat-body Gretsch. "I got an idiot eye and Indian hips, conhouse lips and a wino's smile." 9/10 (Chris Yurkiw)