Up in flames

Michael Khouri, Joe Auger, Varnaline, and more

by Michael Caito

On Tuesday at the Met Cafe, Chick Graning appears with folk smart-aleck Jonathan Stark, who celebrates on three fronts. The recent fund-raiser Stark helped organize for pal Marianne Cavanaugh was a success, and she's evidently feeling better. Also, his eponymous seven-song CD is a winner of a disc -- funny, discerning and well-played, showcasing the Berklee grad's sense of humor, strong songwriting and can't-miss session guests (backing vocalist Sarah McGurkin, bassist Stan Haskins and drummer Joe Propatier). Along with Erin McKeown (whose latest on TVP went like hotcakes at the pre-Festival stage set up by the Hear In RI gang at Newport Folk this year . . . she'll be at the Green Room with Mark Mulcahy later this month), these are rising, inventive players to watch. Stark and McKeown discard arthritic cliché while penning captivating personas in songs for the millenial singer/guitarist. Very well done, but unfortunately, two of their spiritual folk-mates stumble -- badly -- on their new CDs.

Specifically, we're talking Michael Khouri's Two Places at Once (MBA) and Joe Auger's The Long Term (QORQ). Singer / guitarist Khouri's 10-song CD suffers from terminal politeness while hardly registering on either a musical or emotional level, a sharp contrast to the bass and harmony vocals he's brought to several area blues and R&B bands. It's well-played, but after the promising opener "Wishing Well," it never budges. Let us now watch grass grow.

Auger's Long Term is too long at 72 minutes -- a protracted, stylistically-jumbled moper with spots of clarity. Recording songs written in the broken-hearts recovery room is not new, but at least Auger takes care to present varying episodes through his doldrum recuperation project, from flat rockers like "Going Up In Flames" to the more typically hushed "Fortune." He plays all instruments, and this generally works, only causing problems when, damn we addled traditionalists, human drummers are required. Auger's list of inspirations would tap early Kinks and, more overtly, the works of Jeff Buckley, and several times there's a simonizedGarfunkel sheen to his songwriting. Khouri's enervating influences? Cream of Wheat.

At times during the epic Auger disc, you feel a song was destined for the musical theatre, with which Auger was at least loosely affiliated in Meatballs / Fluxus. Those times scrape by for the listener, at least on the ain't-this-fun scale of grandiloquent gestures. But keeping all these plates spinning is a tough skirmish for which Auger is only occasionally prepared. Props for ambition, not execution. Good example is the almost six-and-a-half minute "No Room Left," where piano gently propels a deftly-spun yarn of being painted, emotionally, into a corner. A soupy guitar solo devolves into a Moody Blues-meets-overwrought-R.E.M. finish, and a promising song goes thunk after four rewarding minutes. After six minutes of the following "This Howling," an embarrassing nadir, the listener may be howling a Python-esque "Get on with it!" Khouri's, conversely, begs for attention, attracts zero, and hopes he hasn't forgotten bass.

STARS & BARS. Tonight (9/3), fresh from a recent stint at Los Angeles' International Pop Overthrow, Evelyn Forever hit the Met, with Plymouth Rock opening. Hailing from New Brunswick in Jersey, EF caught the ear of Peter Mantas, hunter-gatherer for the Asbury Park nightclub The Saint. With his aid and for the label he co-owns they released Nightclub Jitters (Airplay) in '96, followed up with this week's Lost In the Supermarket. They tweaked enough lobes in L.A. to warrant a track on that festival's compilation disc (on Delfi), in addition to their being wooed by sundry mucky-mucks in attendance for showcase gigs. Good listening, here, the first single's "Crush," and they're at Bill's Bar near Fenway Park on Saturday. Meanwhile, Plymouth Rock are finalizing their debut LP with producer Tom Buckland, hoping to recapture the trio's herky-jerk charm from their Repopulation Program compilation track, "Sounds to Make You Shiver."

SHOP HAPPILY. Speaking of losing things in super markets, Clash alums Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon (in that order, always) are at this moment sifting through piles of live recordings which Strummer recently unearthed in his flat. Meaning, early November brings a "new" live Clash album that'll be good for 30 million column inches of nostalgia. Rumors (from ever-reliable UK operatives who would immediately kill this humble weasel if names were named) of a brief reunion tourare now deigned "inevitable," and are again the talk of merry old-schoolers in Merry Olde. Of course, the Spice Girls -- featuring Ginger's replacement, Robyn Hitchcock -- would open. Tour promoters? Hmm. Crest, Rogaine, BT (who must own "London Calling" by now) and Doc Marten. Topper is, Topper is probably writhing in his grave. Unconfirmed:Strummer teams with Rancid for song on South Park soundtrack due around Christmas. Confirmed:release of the Clash tribute on Ark 21 Records featuring MMBosstones, ush-Bay and more has been pushed back (again) to 1999 at the earliest.

OTHER NEWS. Open mic is re-establishing itself at Finnegan's Wake on Wednesdays, with Bill Petterson as host. Stone Soup had its finest P / L statement in 17 seasons last year, but life as a folk venue, however stellar the programming, is innately tenuous. So it's vital that, just like the Sox, they get off to a good start, and the talent is there next weekend (Joyce Katzberg, Atwater-Donnelly, Lindsay Adler, Heidi and Brian Blais) to make sure the Soup is hot from jump, at their annual fund-raiser in the looming shadow of Nordstrom. 15 Hayes Street is the address of Gloria Dei's Undercroft, feet from Vets Aud. Of course, many Soup stalwarts will be in attendance at the RI Labor & Ethnic Heritage Festival at Slater Mill this weekend. A multiculti treat, encompassing genres both familiar (Katzberg, Paul Geremia, Mike Bresler's Klezmer Hotshots) and exotic (Senegalese drumming, Indian dance from Trevani, West Indies steel drums). Sunday at noon and it's free. Friday Young Neal celebrates a record's release at the Ocean Mist, and on Saturday the Spinanes and Honeybunch hit the Met for another of this week's slew of good pairings. The former's newest Arches & Aisles (Sub Pop) is a mesmerizer. Rebecca Gates sounds far more confident in her song smithy, which jets A&A into contention for heavy rotation, even though it ends meekly.

Varnaline

Other new releases include Ellyn Fleming's Lost In the Fire (Feisty Bitch) and The Age of . . . The Grand Carousel(Soft Wind), featuring Wire & Wood with Folks Together. Jeff and Donna Olson (Wire &Wood) enlist the talents of Rick Bellaire, John Dunn and Vince Pasternak, with whom they'd collectively performed as Folks Together. But the real sizzler is the newest Varnaline effort Sweet Life (Zero Hour), where all three members actually appear, as opposed to solo incarnations representing the band. Drummer Jud Ehrbar (former Scarce drummer, as was Jonathan Stark's drummer Propatier) worked on his Reservoir project and Anders and John Parker kept busy within and without Varnaline for too long. Anyway, the reformed trio, based in New York, cook up a lush winner, with intriguing instruments (glockenspiel, organ, trombone, viola, lap steel, cello) augmenting their cornerstone g/b/d. It's a huge sound for them -- as huge as their Shot and a Beer EPwas woozy -- and it works, with less Neil Young and unforced country tinctures. For those waiting for the various side projects to chill for a sec, a Sweet reward, and their sharpest work to date.

If you leave right now you can hear the Mother at India Point for free.