Beat Street

By Todd S. Inoue

An Agenda for SoFA:

New club due for San Jose's

night-life district

With F/X coming to a close, more focus is being placed on Agenda, Jacek Rosicki's foray into San Jose's South First area. The current time-line finds the tri-level restaurant-nightclub opening sometime in November. The main floor will be a continental restaurant with Steve Stiles of La Pastaia managing. The upstairs area will be reserved for touring acts of Edge caliber. Its bar will have 24 beers on tap pumped up from the basement. Downstairs will feature live bands and dance music. ... Response to the Merc review (courtesy one of our many roving correspondents) of Bowie/Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor's outbursts and penchant for breaking shit as he did at the Shoreline last weekend is just part of his Nine Inch shtick. He even uses reinforced equipment built to withstand the punishment. And Claudia--it's called "Terrible Lie," not "Tell a Lie." The ever-experimental Bowie, meanwhile, having put his old songs and pop anthems to rest, introduced some subtle, layered yet gritty new numbers in a transcendent set. ... Two shows worth creeping out for if you got some extra time. Seattle's finest rock and roll dream Sky Cries Mary, Sweet 75, and occasional Eddie Vedder side project Hovercraft perform Tuesday, Nov. 7 at the Flint Center. And do not miss mighty indie rock heroes Pere Ubu at the Red Light on Halloween.

Listening to the latest batch of local releases

The local record and tape releases keep coming. Want to be part of the flood? Send your sounds to Beat Street c/o Metro, 550 S. First St., San Jose, 95113. Remember, though; you run the risk of getting dissed.

System of Pain/System of Pain /Self-released: Not as bad as one would expect for flying the heavy-metal flag. If you're going to rock metal, acquire the System of Pain approach: raw, aggressive, razor blade-gargling vocals applied to lyrics about Armageddon and things that make you want to smoke a bunch of pot. The guitar work is pretty hot licky, but its execution should please Pantera and Megadeth buffs.

G.U.I./Root /Simulated Wood: What prompted a time bomb to blast off inside this twisted trio? G.U.I. hits harder and strums faster than it did on Hiss. The metallic run-and-gun approach is vintage San Jose melodic grunge. "Two Fifty the Box" cops a bit too much from Jawbreaker's "Boat Dreams From a Hill" for comfort, but the majority of Root is top-notch. "Lamprey," "M.P.S.M.A.T.S." and the "Moser Song" are worth the repeat button. Bonus points for some hysterical CD-jacket photos.

Warcom/Sennacherib /Warcom Media: Side 1 was recorded using only the sounds of Aryton Senna's Williams Renault race car moments before a steering column failure forced him to crash nearly head-on into a cement wall. Senna died from massive head injuries as a result. Leave it to the twisted minds of Warcom to create a wall of haunting ambient music out of high-engine revs. Side 2 is more discordant, layering echoed news reports in the mix. The effect is eerie and disheartening, like walking through the haunted house of Senna. Trippy and disturbing. Proceed with caution.

Judybloom/Zoe Goes Dancing /Tic Toc: From the Squeeze-meets-Wire Train folder comes Palo Alto's keen pop-rock purveyors. "Devastation," "Nothing Now" and "Lemon and Lime" tell intricate tales of heartbreak and woe. I loved the spry pace and sticky guitars of "Nothing Now" and "Everything's OK," but "Terrible Two" and "Lemon and Lime" drag like a overloaded pack mule. A split decision was averted by the inclusion of Judybloom's snappy pop version of Ozzy's "Crazy Train." Good call.

Love 1900/Love 1900/Self-released: Impressive R&B debut from local sistah Brittani Eliza LeMasters. Her vocals are honey smooth, and the beats are acid jazzed and fresher squeezed than anything on KMEL. She flows in the cool, seductive, around-the-way cloud. "Distant Chill" and "Danze" are radio and dance-floor ready for those sick of slick Babyface-produced pap. Greyboy All-Stars saxophonist Karl Denson contributes some stylistics on a couple tracks. Who knew San Jose had such homegrown flavor?

MuMu Cat/MuMu Cat /Self-released: Some of the stuff I get isn't worth melting down to inhale the fumes. MuMu Cat is one of them. This is like Molly Hatchet meets Lou Barlow produced by a toddler. Admittedly, there's something faintly intriguing in some of the exploratory jams and helium-tweaked vocals, but what's lower than lo-fi? Side 1 must have been recorded on an Audiovox boom box using an Etch-A-Sketch mixing board. Skeet shooting, anyone?

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