10,000 Maniacs (4 stars)
Campfire Songs
Back in that dim decade known as the 1980s, there arose a band named 10,000 Maniacs. And, yea, the public looked upon them and it was good. But the sirens of Greater Self Expression called out to lead singer Natalie Merchant, and she did heed the call. One dozen years after the band was formed, Merchant left, and the world was never to be the same.
OK, so maybe it's not all that dark. Merchant has gone on to have a successful career as a solo artist, and the other 9,999 Maniacs have also done well for themselves. But, for those of us who miss the "real" quintet, there is now this double-CD set. Disc One is titled "The Most Popular Recordings," and all the chestnuts are here: "These Are Days," "Trouble Me," "Because The Night" and "What's The Matter Here?". The second disc, "The Obscure & Unknown Recordings," includes, among other tracks, five previously unissued songs. Together, it's a total of 31 tunes.
Some of the gems on Disc Two include Cat Steven's "Peace Train," Morrisey's "Everyday is Like Sunday," "Starman" by David Bowie, Tom Waits' "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You," and a duet with David Byrne on "Let The Mystery Be."
Truly amazing is how fresh the group's sound still is, some 10 to 20 years after the fact. This is a must-buy for old and new fans.
Martin Stein
Hazard County Girls (2 stars)
Never No More
Are they hard rock? Are they punk? Are they "monster truck loud," as they once said they hope to be? Call them a mix of all three.
Drummer Sharon Heather, singer-guitarist Christy Kane and bassist Jennifer K make up Hazard County Girls, and not in the Daisy Dukes sense of the word. Three angry young girls playing hard-driving rock, they're a relatively new band, having formed in May 2002. For such a recent entity, they are remarkably polished. These riot grrls from New Orleans have a solid style, with sneering vocals, heavy drums and slamming guitars.
They're also remarkably middle-of-the-road—in a loud, punkish, monster-truck kind of way. After the first couple of tracks, the songs start to sound like the same head-banger offering, with little in the way of flourishes or theatrics. If you're still really angry at your parents for your middle-class upbringing and suburban childhood, this is the band for you.
Martin Stein
The Toasters (3 stars)
In Retrospect
Yes, The Toasters are still around. One of the first American ska bands, dating back to the early '80s, the group has gone through more members than Keith Richards has bottles of bourbon, and in the process released more albums than is humanly possible to count.
In In Retrospect, the band, as of press time consisting of founding member Robert Hingley, Dave Barry (no, not that one), Dan Jesselsohn, Andrew Lindo, Brian Sledge, Larry Snell, Buford O'Sullivan and Jeff Richey, has dug into its vast archive and presented tracks from eight of their previous releases: SkaBoom, Hard Band for Dead, Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down, Thrill Me Up, Dub 56, New York Fever, This Gun for Hire and Enemy Of The System.
The result is a fun mix of great party music, but then, what ska disc isn't going to be that? For Toasters fans, this will be a great saunter down memory lane. For those who have never heard ska, this is an equally great introduction, with influences drawn from jazz, rhythm and blues, calypso and some tastes of the Jamaican style of rapping from which the band got its name.
Martin Stein