Mark Eitzel
West
Warner Brothers
Release Date: 1997
Tuatara
Breaking the Ethers
Epic
Release Date: 1997
Don't be fooled by Mark Eitzel's pleasantly acoustic approach to music. This is prickly stuff, with a delivery so uncomfortably direct that it often leaves you squirming in your seat.
When he's on, he's on, though nothing on Eitzel's latest, West, even approaches the piano-fired brilliance of his solo debut, 60 Watt Silver Lining. Since leaving American Music Club, Eitzel's watchword has been inconsistency. West was written and produced with the help of R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, and the round-edged country tint of R.E.M. circa-New Adventures in Hi-Fi permeates the album. On self-indulgently despairing tracks like "Then It Really Happens" and "Live Or Die," that intensely personal recipe is compelling. But of course, whenever you emote, you risk over-emoting, and Eitzel has unfortunately mastered that art as well.
More consistent, though less emotionally ambitious, is Tuatara, an incestuous little instrumental coterie that bounces between pseudo-tribal rhythms and lounge-singer chic. Possibly the first post-rock supergroup, Tuatara's roster on Breaking the Ethers is strangely devoid of post-rock credentials. There's Peter Buck heading up the assorted strings section, Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin banging on anything that will make a noise, Luna's Justin Harwood adding the jazzy thump of an upright bass. And why stop there? Funky sax work by multi-multi-instrumentalist Skerik, an abundance of spacey vibes, steel drums, more percussion than you can bang a stick at. It all ebbs and flows into an immediately accessible stew that, surprisingly, gains more substance with each listening.
A pretentious exercise in 1990s genre-whoring? Perhaps for some other band. Tuatara's having too much damn fun to care.
-- Chris Schwartz
schwartz@outersound.com
