"I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE"

"I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE"
Roky Erickson
Shout Factory, sss1/2
Were they not sung with such fervent belief and maniacal glee, songs like "Creature With the Atom Brain" and "Don't Shake Me Lucifer," both on this Roky Erickson retrospective, might seem scripted by the fictional Spinal Tap songwriting team of David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel. But Erickson, the Lone Star State's preeminent psychedelic wild man, is not fooling around.
"You're Gonna Miss Me," Erickson's best-known song -- recorded with the 13th Floor Elevators in 1966 -- is the second track on "I Have Always Been Here Before," and the two discs that follow are rife with similarly howling higher-consciousness head trips.
The white-hot brilliance of Erickson's music never burned quite as brightly after a marijuana bust led to three years in a hospital for the criminally insane in the late 1960s. But what's impressive about "Always" is how clear-eyed, cogent and, occasionally, downright beautiful much of Erickson's later music is, reaching all the way up to the closing four songs, from the 1995 album "All That May Do My Rhyme."
'THE GREATEST WHITE LIAR'
Nic Armstrong and the Thieves
New West, sss
In the great tradition of retro-obsessed teddy boys and mods comes Nic Armstrong, a young Brit enamored of early Beatles, Kinks, Stones, Yardbirds, Zombies -- in other words, British rock pre-1966. "The Greatest White Liar," his debut, could have been terribly cute dressed in its faux 40-year-old clothes, but instead it's genuinely fun.
Part of the pleasure comes from playing spot-the-allusion: "Down Home Girl" lifts liberally from Donovan's "Sunshine Superman"; "Scratch the Surface" employs the skiffle of Lonnie Donegan. Armstrong nails John Lennon's sneer and howl, especially in "On a Promise" and "Back in That Room"; on the bouncy "She Changes Like the Weather," he recalls a youthful Ray Davies.
Like the early Jam (whose Paul Weller has taken him under his wing), Armstrong and his band so convincingly inhabit these blatantly outdated styles that "Liar" is an honest, not-so-guilty pleasure.
'NO WOW'
The Kills
Rough Trade/RCA, sss
The Kills make it sound easy. Scuzzy blues-punk comes so effortlessly to the London-based duo that their second album seems to have been recorded while singer-guitarist Alison Mosshart and guitarist-drummer-vocalist Jamie Hince were half asleep.
That heavy-lidded vibe only adds to the sexiness of the groove. The throbbing title track and the slinky "Dead Road 7" recall PJ Harvey at her most violent and lustful, and "The Good Ones" and "Murderville" steal Suicide's claustrophobic drum-machine pulse.
Mosshart's moans manage to sound lazy, mournful and horny all at the same time, and Hince's intermittent snarls add a taste of danger. "No Wow's simplicity might leave you thinking, "Hey, I could do that!" But deep down, you know you couldn't.
"FRANCES THE MUTE"
The Mars Volta
Universal, sss
This spastic fit of bilingual rock rage is an admirable opus in that it beats the drum for hard-rock nonconformists. It's precisely the caterwauling voice of reason that fans fed up with the hackneyed ideals force-fed to them by lazy artists have been craving.
Just don't expect an entirely smooth journey to the promised land. The Mars Volta's architects, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, pepper their explosive mix of space-brain guitar heroics, tribal grooves, and incensed vocals with abstract musical and lyrical passages that eventually might make you blink. I said, "!No mas!" 20 minutes into the half-hour psych-jazz odyssey "Cassandra Gemini."
But that endurance test doesn't reflect the entire disc. Especially not the thrilling "L'Via L'Viaquez," in which the band alternates between emulating Led Zeppelin and the Buena Vista Social Club. In any language, that's pretty mind-blowing.
"HAPPY DOING WHAT WE'RE DOING"
Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands
Freedom, sss
Although pub-rock developed in England in the early '70s, it's a music to which Elizabeth McQueen can relate, because the Austin, Texas, firecracker plays a similar kind of roots-pop in bars. "Happy Doing What We're Doing" is a rocking little salute to that precursor of punk and new wave, and one of the most fun records of the year.
McQueen and her band, augmented by some of Austin's top musicians, tear through these tunes with an affection and enthusiasm that live up to the album title. And what a collection of songs: They come from Nick Lowe, who co-wrote the title track; Graham Parker; and other well-known names to emerge from pub-rock, as well as more obscure acts such as Ducks Deluxe and Dr. Feelgood.
McQueen changes pace neatly for Elvis Costello's moody "Almost Blue," but it all ends, appropriately enough, with a piano-pounding romp through "Seven Nights to Rock."
'SLOW'
Ann Hampton Callaway
Shanachie Entertainment, sss
Singer Ann Hampton Callaway has got the passion thing down. This set of slow standards, recorded last year, sizzles like hot sugar while it extends her range beyond standards into a more contemporary, R & amp;B path.
The approach can get a little saccharine and, well, slow at times. But Callaway, a star of the Broadway musical "Swing" -- she's the sister of the vivid Broadway performer Liz Callaway -- shows the verve to connect with an audience.
Her duet with Liz on Van Morrison's "Moondance" features some pleasant sisterly scatting, and Ivan Lins' "Love Dance" enables her to get breathy and cooking in a samba glow. The handsome backing comes from pianist Ted Rosenthal, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Victor Lewis. Trumpeter Randy Brecker and trombonist Robin Eubanks make cameos.
'MAGIC MOMENTS'
Jim Hall
ArtistShare, sss 1/2
If wealth were proportional to artistic influence, Jim Hall would be a rich man. The 74-year-old, whose economical style has inspired fellow guitarists from Pat Metheny to Bill Frisell, is one quiet and consummate jazz player who generally plucks far below public consciousness.
The guy never gets much above pianissimo as he creates these interior worlds full of space and light. Yet this challenging dude can inspire.
His set, his first trio recording in a decade, is suffused with Hall's distinctive musical code -- a cool approach that generates surprising heat -- and the sympathetic sounds of his sidemen, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Lewis Nash.
Recorded live at the Village Vanguard in New York, the session segues from the meditative to the bluesy, ranging from a steel-drum-sounding "St. Thomas" by Sonny Rollins, with whom Hall collaborated in the early 1960s, to "Canto Neruda," a mystical chart that finds the leader strumming hypnotically over the solos of his sidemen.
The spareness and occasional difficulty of the set can make a listener zone out. Yet it consistently rewards those who connect.
'RAGIN' LIVE'
Rhonda Vincent and the Rage
Rounder, ssss
Rhonda Vincent is not as widely known as one of her heroes, Dolly Parton, or her friend and contemporary Alison Krauss. That's too bad. She has never strayed far from bluegrass and country tradition, but what fire she breathes into that tradition.
"Ragin' Live," recorded in her native Missouri, is an excellent showcase for Vincent's talents as singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She and the Rage, with assorted guests, storm through breakneck bluegrass, plunge into melancholy ballads, and harmonize some gospel uplift. There's also a sharp version of Parton's "Jolene" and a honky-tonk-tinged take on "One Step Ahead of the Blues," with Vincent's daughter replacing Krauss from the studio version.
The four men of the Rage get their own moments in the spotlight, highlighting the instrumental virtuosity that underpins the emotional power of Vincent's music.
'SYMPHONY NO. 5'
Shostakovich
London Symphony Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich conducting
LSO Live!, sss 1/2
London Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting
BBC Legends, ssss
Though this new, live recording of the Shostakovich Fifth is by no means Rostropovich's first recording of the piece, it may be his most intense. In his consistently compelling interpretation, everything is so pregnant with an angry subtext that you wonder how the composer ever passed this symphony off as an apology to Soviet authorities for the supposed sins of his musical youth.
However, Stokowski, in a superb 1964 live performance released here for the first time, makes a great case for the piece without extra-musical associations that weren't known among non-Russian musicians. Though Stokowski's emotionalism is more generic, he makes a great case for the symphony as pure music with a smart, cunning orchestration. In addition, the Stokowski disc includes a revelatory live recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Symphony No. 8," which can seem lethargic even under the best conductors, though not here.
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