11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Guaranteed to entertain or offend, May 16, 2000
This review is from: Solid Sender (Audio CD)
When it comes to nasty, noisy jazz, it's not a success unless it seriously offends a number of listeners. This cd will certainly succeed there - you'll either be delighted or disgusted.
There are a few remarkable things about this band. Their rhythm section can crank out some seriously nasty funky grooves, and some high energy rock beats. Plus, Bernstein's arrangements do a great job of balancing dynamics and tempos - for example, on their cover of "For What It's Worth" (stop hey what's that sound), the band moves between hushed, pained statements of the melody to full-out slow thrashing and screeching. And the horns shine - both in the quieter portions and in the shrill, extreme noise parts of the cd.
I saw a short concert by the band at a music festival (short because a fire alarm went off after 25 minutes - however, they were blasting at full volume at the time, and it took everyone a minute or two to register what was going on), and thought that their first cd didn't live up to the inventiveness and intensity I'd seen in that show.
Well, I can't make the same complaint about Solid Sender. The rhythm section gets a chance to really rock out on numbers like Rear View and Don't Be Cruel. The horns range from soulful to thoughtful to murderous. The cover of James Brown's Please Please Please is amazingly intense. They're just all over the map, and manage to exhibit intensity and intelligence and humor all the way through. Guest appearances by a dj doing some scratching, some string players, and some occasional studio effects, help keep the sound diverse and interesting.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the first, July 16, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Solid Sender (Audio CD)
Sex Mob is, through and through, a live band. I read that they have never rehearsed, but only learn the songs in front of the audience (and I can vouch that I indeed have seen them learning some songs that were later on the album). The point of this is, of course, that they know how to bring down the house, which they do admirably on this album. Tony Scheer, the bassist, sounds fantastic, and the addition of strings, scratches, little children, etc. is also pretty cool. More useful than anything else I could say about this music is just that it feels really good. It makes you want to dance. My only regret is that we don't get to hear Briggan Krauss stretch out as much as we could. This album is without a doubt worth buying.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Kurt Cobain, meet Louis Armstrong ...", May 15, 2004
This review is from: Solid Sender (Audio CD)
Solid Sender is Sex Mob's follow up to their brilliant debut - Din of Inequity. For the uninitiated, Sex Mob is Steven Bernstein's zany downtown cover band. A free wheeling jazz quartet that has a predilection for covering pop songs, both past and present. Bernstein was also the trumpeter and musical director of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards. You can see here how both artists aesthetic sensibilities and musical sense of humor cross common paths. The final Lounge Lizards album featured a piece where all the "lizards" were yelling in unison, and here Bernstein uses a children's choir on one track.
The core group consists of band leader Steven on slide trumpet, alto sax shredder Briggan Krauss, drummer Kenny Wollesen and upright bassist Tony Scherr. Considering this is supposed to be Steven's foray into "sexy" music, there are lots of screaming horn lines accompanied by a steady back beat. This straight up rhythm section approach allows an easy pathway towards the interpretation of pop and rock song covers.
The group's first album found the quartet joined by a few guest guitarists, and some hammond organ jamming ( courtesy of MMW's John Medeski ). Except for two guest appearances by DJ Logic, the group has mostly forsaken electric instruments this time around for the occasional company of strings. Logic's contribution to the title track however is stunning and is sorely missed on the rest of the album. Imagine a sort of down home dixieland stomp spiced up with madly scratched turntables.
As for the pieces themselves, there are covers of Nirvana - About a Girl, AABA - Fernando, and Elvis - Don't be Cruel. There are a few others including Ellington's - Mooch and the Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday. All these cover tunes are uniquely conceived and arranged. The Elvis piece is almost unrecognizable in it's edgy deconstruction. The Nirvana tune starts out as a snappy New Orleans shuffle that devolves into a thunderous blow-out, one that eclipses even the original tunes' climax. Fernando is given a treatment that segues from somber introspective free jazz to anthemic riffing. And the Stones classic starts off somber and elegant, but gradually picks up it's stride for a raucous burn out , only to be ended in dub like fashion.
The originals are mostly in standard stomp and grind mode with the thick, fat bass lines and steadfast drum beat providing a rock-solid backdrop for Bernstein's slurred yowls and Krauss' Zorn-like peals and squeals.
Overall this is one rockin' affair, definitely not your father's jazz. Even the production values on this disc are set to rock music standards, heavy on the bass and volume.
My only complaint is the inclusion of some short noisy segue pieces, the "Human Bidet" series, parts one through five, that crop up intermittently between full length tracks. They come off as needless filler. But otherwise, this is one solid effort. He he. Sorry, just had to do that.
But seriously folks, this is a perfect entry point for listeners curious about the downtown jazz scene, but who were unsure where to start. As for the converted, let's just say this has got all the gusto and vigor with none of the meandering squeaky door noodling all too commonly found in this sort of affair.
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