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Poetry slamming
Reed on Poe, plus the return of Marr, and more
BY MATT ASHARE

In what could easily end up being one of the bigger follies of a career that’s had a number of close calls in the past, Lou Reed has spent the better part of the past year putting together a gargantuan project that reinterprets the works of macabre poet/storyteller Edgar Allan Poe. The result is The Raven (Reprise), a two-disc, 125-minute studio effort that’s shaping up as one of the more notable releases of January 2003. Due on January 28, the set features both musical and spoken-word segments and includes collaborations with and cameos by hip actor types like Willem Dafoe and Steve Buscemi, backing musicians Mike Rathke (guitar) and Fernando Saunders (bass), vocalists Kate and Anna McGarrigle and the Blind Boys of Alabama, and fellow artsy musicians David Bowie and Laurie Anderson.

It’s rare for Reed to approach anything straightforwardly, and The Raven is no exception. Inspired initially by his involvement in the 1998 Hal Willner–produced collection of Poe readings by musicians like Reed, Iggy Pop, and Marianne Faithfull — Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan PoeThe Raven emerged from Reed’s further collaboration with avant-garde playwright/producer Robert Wilson on his theater project POE-try. Although that production was in German, Reed contributed music to the project and helped Wilson develop the story line. But Reed apparently still hadn’t gotten his fill of Poe, as he went on to create his own interpretations of Poe classics like the poem "The Raven" and the story "The Tell-Tale Heart," both of which appear on The Raven. The disc, however, veers rather far at points from its title subject, revisiting, for example, the bitter Reed-penned ballad "Perfect Day" (from his Transformer album). Whether that will be enough to save The Raven from coming across as a pretentious and possibly laughable art project in the vein of Spinal Tap’s rock opera based on the life of Jack the Ripper (Saucy Jack, as you’ll recall) is anybody’s guess.

Meanwhile, long-time Brit-pop fans will be happy to note that former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has finally opted to pursue a proper solo career. Marr, who’s spent the past decade and a half working as what amounts to a glorified studio guitarist on projects by the Pretenders, the The, and Bryan Ferry, among others, and blending into the background in Electronic, his bland collaboration with New Order guitarist Bernard Sumner, has put together a band of his own called the Healers featuring Zak "son of Ringo" Starkey on drums, Kula Shaker bassist Alonso Beavan, and himself playing all the guitars as well as handling the lead vocals. The resulting album, Boomslang (iMusic), might have been more at home back when the Smiths broke up in the late ’80s: its Stone Roses–like mix of psychedelic guitar jams and danceable grooves had, as Happy Mondays fans might remember, the primary ingredients for the next big thing that came out of Manchester in the wake of the Smiths. On the other hand, it’s been long enough that it may just be time for a revival of that particular Manchester sound. Boomslang is due to hit stores on February 4, but Marr and his Healers will be in Boston at the Paradise for a pre-release gig on January 24.

If you happened to catch the M-2-sponsored Vines tour this past fall, then you may already have a sense that psychedelic pop is on its way back into vogue in England. The opening band on that tour, a UK group known simply as the Music, were a long-haired, neo-hippie group who favor meaty Zeppelinesque guitar riffage and swirling psychedelic melodies all propelled by those same danceable grooves that Marr seems to like. England’s Radio 1 called the Music the "best unsigned band in Britain," but that was before Capitol Records inked a deal with the group. The Music, which is already out in England, hits stores in the US on February 25.

Back on American soil, Everclear’s main man, Art Alexakis, follows up his band’s ambitious two-CD journey to the realm of the concept album in 2000 — a journey that yielded Songs from an American Movie, Volume I and Volume II — with the relatively straightforward Slow Motion Daydream (all on Capitol) on March 11. Alexakis’s sardonic wit is in full effect on the disc’s first single, a hooky little number called "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" that should start hitting the modern-rock airwaves the second week of January. Meanwhile, folk maverick Ani DiFranco is gearing up for the release of her latest studio effort, Evolve (Righteous Babe), on March 11. The disc features DiFranco and her acoustic guitar backed by an eclectic mix of keyboards, reeds, flute, brass, drums, and bass indulging in everything from funky Latin grooves to a 10-minute spoken-word-with-acoustic-guitar excursion called "Serpentine."

Issue Date: January 2 - 9, 2003
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