Alternative Music Talk

Inouk

No Danger

(Say Hey Records, 2004)

I almost love this band, but it almost sucks. I attribute that to the fact that the brothers McMahon are mostly responsible for the writing on this slab. While the two are not given separate credits for each song in the liner notes, their voices and individual interests are easily heard. One of these fellows enjoys the false-seto and an occasional Julian Casablanca impression, like on “Island”. While the other brother lets loose with his version of the country/folk sound on “Somewhere in France” and “Cherry Orchard”. But beyond this simple split personality, the band cranks out some lack luster disco drumbeats and some Radiohead sounding drudgery. When they come out and simply let it fly the results are just short of inspiring. But when they go on a quest to be creative, they’re just short of awful. A few tracks evoke some early-era Pink Floyd (“Elected”, “Nudie Suit”). Most confusingly, though, are the steady flow of references to nudity, childhood and birth. Frankly, I’m not smart enough to make something up that’s interesting, so I’ll end this all by saying only that they have three guitars.

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Hearing folks like Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan spit out couplets as well composed as they are well performed has informed that last fifty years worth of musicians and writers. Getting to the middle of any matter was somehow reduced to a pair of lines, sometimes flowery in nature, but sometimes simple and cinematic. Looking out a back to onto a vast sprawl of emptiness hasn’t ever sounded good unless sung by one of these two folks.

So, over the last half century, the fact that people (imitators or not) have approximated the sound of each one of these folks isn’t a tremendous surprise. And certainly, a good portion of the time, recreating either Cooke or Dylan’s sound wasn’t on purpose. These two men have simply changed American music.

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Combining two albums by any one band years after the initial release dates works on occasion. But when it doesn’t, the results are so blatantly off kilter as to detract from the grandiosity of either effort. And that’s the main problem with pairing Rain Parade’s album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, from 1983, and the group’s 1984 EP Explosions In the Glass Palace.

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There won't ever be shortage of the legendary Les Rallizes Denudes performing live. And while there's a good chance listeners won't be able to readily identify the era from which any song springs, the group's weird uniformity is enticing. It's just all good, dumb rock music.