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Audiofile 58 diet for a new america Americoma Records/Beyond Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx's side project with Dave Darling (Boxing Ghandis), Stephen Gibb (son of Bee Gees' Barry Gibb) and Bucket Baker isn't what you'd expect. And it's nothing like Tommy Lee's Methods of Mayhem. Darling himself describes it as "loud, annoying bullshit" that was never meant to be taken seriously. Still, 58's bizarre fusion of industrialized metal, hip-hop and funk is catchy when it's not grating. "Piece of Candy" and "Queer" have a Lou Reed vibe, "All My Heroes Are Dead" invokes David Bowie and "El Paso" suggests some of Jim Morrison's poetics a la "Awake" from An American Prayer. Yet other songs ("Shopping Cart Jesus" and "Song to Slit Your Wrists By") evince a modern industrial edge. Though 58 succeeds in creating some really unpleasant sounds, generally each song exerts its own distorted appeal, and the band's music has a strangely fresh quality. (Sarah Quelland) Erick Onasis Def Squad Presents Erick Onasis DreamWorks Long Island hard-core rap artist/producer Erick Sermon's brand of clever, straightforward funk beats and laid-back rhymes--a formula he perfected as one-half of the legendary duo EPMD--is one that's never been broken. So luckily, he doesn't try to fix it on his third solo album and his first under the alias Erick Onasis. Onasis' standout tracks feature lively guest shots by DJ Quik and Xzibit ("Focus," a bouncy, vocoder-driven homage to the late funk icon Roger Troutman, who was frequently sampled by EPMD), Sermon's Def Squad band mates Redman and Keith Murray ("Hostility"), Slick Rick ("Why Not") and the late Eazy-E ("So Sweet"). However, not everything on Onasis shines: Oakland's Too $hort shows up for a cameo that's, well, too short ("Fat Gold Chain"), and skip the flat nonmusical skits, a pointless staple of every post-1992 Sermon album. Sermon should leave the skit comedy to satirical superproducer Prince Paul and stick to the funk. (Jim Aquino) [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]