CD Reviews, Nov. 15-21

By: North County Times - | Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:29 PM PST ∞

LOCAL: B+ "Wicked Smart"

The Predicates

Self-released

You wouldn't necessarily think there existed a musical space between coffeehouse folk and '80s synth-pop, but San Diego's Predicates have found such a spot and inhabit it with exuberance and style.

On the band's third release, Gregg O'Connell and Erica Putis have as gorgeous of vocal harmonies as you'll ever hear. They approach the vocals as a team, jointly singing the lead together, as one voice. He also plays lead acoustic guitar, while she plays bass. The '80s sound comes in from Bryan Difabio, who plays synthesizers and runs a drum machine.

Reading the above, it seems like it might sound a bit weird. In fact, the band's sound is utterly at ease and comfortable.

The songs' structure is more folkie than synth-pop, in a Jayhawks kind of vein. And yet, Difabio's (credited as D-Fab on the liner notes) contributions are as integral a part of the band's sound as the vocals or acoustic guitar.

A bit hard to explain, frankly ---- but when you listen to the music, it all makes perfect sense.

The Predicates play Friday at Scolari's Office in San Diego.

---- Jim Trageser

Staff writer

B+ "Hollywood Begs"

Hollywood Begs

Self-released

The project of brothers Chris and Kevin Coyle, the soon-to-relocate-to-Seattle band Hollywood Begs has a raw-sounding yet very focused glam-alt-rock sound on their debut EP. Pulling in everything from T-Rex to Guns 'N Roses to The Clash, the five songs on this self-titled recall the sort of fun-filled decadence that rock 'n' roll stood for a generation ago, before things got so serious.

With song titles such as "Kay's Mojo Killer," "Mission Valley Mommas" and "Midlife Crisis," this isn't a band that's very full of themselves. Built around Chris' guitar playing and vocals (Kevin plays drums), the songs all have short, simple riffs ---- but get a fuller sound through the creative use of different effects. Mark Cofer is credited with "random noises," but the swirling effects he creates work really well.

It's an intriguing, listenable debut ---- San Diego's loss is sure to be Seattle's gain.

Hollywood Begs plays Monday at the Casbah in San Diego.

---- JT

A "Beloved Stranger"

Cindy Lee Berryhill

Populuxe Records

It's been far too long since we've gotten an album from Cindy Lee Berryhill. She's the original local gal made good, part of San Diego's 1980s musical explosion in which Berryhill, the Beat Farmers, Mojo Nixon, Fattburger and the Cheathams came storming out of the county and inserted this area in the nation's music consciousness.

More importantly, the Encinitas resident is one of the best songwriters to ever come out of the county, penning such alt-folk classics as "Damn, I Wish I Was a Man," "She Had Everything" and "Who's Gonna Save the World?"

In that she's not had a new studio record in over a decade, it's little surprise that the collection of 11 songs on her new CD is as strong as she's produced since her debut. In "When Did Jesus Become a Republican?", "Forty Cent Raise" and the heartbreaking "Beloved Stranger," she has three songs as utterly perfect as her three above-named classics (which all came off her 1987 debut).

Joined by John Doe of X and Dave Alvin on a couple of tracks each, and backed by a crack band throughout, Berryhill seems more confident as singer than in the past, or at least comfortable with her distinctively nasal twang.

Often political but never to the point of excluding those who hold views divergent from her own, Berryhill's lyrics are consistently a delight of word play and imagery, perhaps never more so than on "Beloved Stranger" ---- a tear-jerker of a song about the trials her family has experienced in dealing with a brain injury to one of their ranks: "Beloved stranger / I hold so dear / You have the face of someone / who used to live here."

---- JT

ROCK / POP: B+ "To Be Continued ..."

The Northstar Session

Self-released

Recently relocated to the LA area from San Diego County, the Northstar Session is no longer the solitary plaything of Matt Szlachetka, but is now a dual venture with Kane McGee.

With a shared vision has come an earthier sound than on the 2005 EP, "Little Lies." Where that release was almost over-polished at times, "To Be Continued ..." has more of a stripped-down sensibility to it ---- due at least in part, no doubt, to Kane's role as producer and engineer. The violin of Melissa Elena Reiner (who co-wrote four of the five songs) adds a richness to the sound as well.

What hasn't changed is the band's devotion to gorgeous pop melodicism. The five songs here are each a small gem of pop songwriting: more hooks than a Velcro strap, a gently building sense of dramatic tension, a refrain that brings it all full circle.

It's a winning formula, and one that ought to bring ever greater success to the band.

---- JT