Up & Coming

We never publish a readers/listeners poll without getting the last word in. Here's what the in-house gang at the Phoenix and WFNX had to say about the best new sounds they heard this year, and the artists they're expecting to break through in 1996.

Merrie Amsterberg

Merrie Amsterberg broke my heart the night we were introduced -- or at least her tape did, after I got home and put it in the player. I was at a T.T. the Bear's Place event before Christmas when two musicians I respect (Jules Verdone and Cavedogs/Gravy frontman Todd Spahr) each pulled me aside and told me they were sure I'd like Amsterberg's music; they introduced me to a quiet woman who seemed slightly embarrassed by the attention. Considering the recommendation, I expected the four-song tape (which will be released this spring on the Q Division label) to be yet another piece of brainy local pop, but I got a surprise: Amsterberg's music is quiet, acoustic, and carries a busload of melancholia. While the sound isn't strikingly original -- think of Aimee Mann without the venom, or Tori Amos without the piano and the Catholic fetish -- the songs are indeed striking, with haunting tunes and emotionally resonant turns of phrase. Producer Mike Denneen keeps the sound simple but not without its left curves. "Belonging" has the dark cabaret feel of the old Nico solo albums. Amsterberg's mandolin is the lead instrument; she also has one of those classically pretty pop voices that makes one get all goo-goo-eyed.

-- Brett Milano
Columnist, "Cellars By Starlight"
Boston Phoenix

Der Dritte Raum

Der Dritte Raum is Andreas Kruger, a young German programmer who writes entire albums of driving techno with funky basslines and crisp, intelligent percussion. Der Dritte Raum ("the Third Room") is about to release a follow-up to the amazing Mental Modulator called Wellenbad (both EYE Q), and it's every bit as good as the first album. No filler, just straight-ahead crunchy analog techno that sounds as good in your living room as it does booming out of the bass bins at your favorite club. This isn't the techno you think you know, with chipmunk vocals and cheesy synths. Der Dritte Raum has a genius for knowing which sounds to use and where to put them. The key to writing a good dance song is always having a great melody and not overdoing it, and Kruger knows.

Right now, nobody in the US knows who Der Dritte Raum is, except you, of course.

-- Liquid Todd
"Spin Cycle"/Assistant Program Director
WFNX

Rebecca Moore

Moody, moody, moody and scary and warm and complicated and simple at the same time describes Admiral Charcoal's Song, vocalist/songwriter Rebecca Moore's debut on Knitting Factory Works. It's 1995's great undiscovered album, full of emotional songs and performances set to smart arrangements that dip into rock, jazz, classical, and space music. Moore and a cello tango together so beautifully. And a really deep, jagged swatch of passionate singing will segue into something out of the Carl Stalling canon. I'd like to see her perform live more than any other new artist I've heard in a long time. There isn't a word on this CD that sounds like she doesn't mean it. How many other artists can you say that about these days? I think that's the highest praise. And did I mention she's the most interesting vocal stylist to come along since Sinéad and Björk?

-- Ted Drozdowski
Associate Arts Editor
Boston Phoenix

Papas Fritas, Smackmelon, and Tracy Bonham

As far as the overall alternative-music scene was concerned, the year 1995 stunk. A lot of artists with no credibility made big money, and that changed the attitude, direction, and promotion of alternative music forever. So I turned my heart and ear to listening to good music, period. No matter what the genre.

A large variety of music passed through my CD player. Put on "repeat play" often were Papas Fritas' Papas Fritas (Minty Fresh), the soundtrack to the movie Dead Presidents (Capitol), Jamirouquai's Return of the Space Cowboy (Sony), and a Mick Ronson sampler that has "All the Young Dudes" on it. But the album that made the biggest impact on me, one that truly represents what's good about alternative music, was Smackmelon's Blue Hour (Relativity), another in the collection of records that I call "the greatest albums never heard."

One prediction only: look for Tracy Bonham finally to get the recognition she deserves. This very talented musician is speaking directly to us all in her songs, and I guarantee you'll sell your Alanis CD to scrape up the bucks to check out Tracy when she hits town. Her new album is called The Burdens of Being Upright (Island). Buy it now. And put it on repeat play.

-- Troy Smith
Program Director
WFNX

Quintaine Americana

Quintaine Americana roam that shadowy, uneasily defined realm where hardcore's visceral punishments and indie-rock's angular abstractions meet head-on. On the one hand, these guys are some sublimely twisted fucks -- possessed of hill-trash evangelical fervor, and bent on the kind of noir-core that's usually only heard in town during visits from Amphetamine Reptile acts. They've also tightly honed their collage dynamics, with shearing, dissonant landslides, loaded silences, and the odd snatch of ruptured melody layered into a sinewy post-hardcore mosaic. They've got Shellac's bottom-heavy rhythmic smarts -- plus a bleak sarcasm and darkly cerebral (bordering on surreal) wit to rival the mighty Albini himself. The trio's four-song demo -- with better production than their track on Wicked Deluxe -- is really, really good. (Lansdowne Street gals beware: it contains a lurid, psychotic rant directed at an unnamed "Waitress at Bill's.") Their full-length debut, Needle (CherryDisc, slated for June), should be huge.

-- Carly Carioli
Listings Coordinator
Boston Phoenix

Tracy, Polara, and Semisonic

Tracy Bonham, Polara, and Semisonic are all destined for greatness. They all make terrific pop. Semisonic is like the Monkees, Teenage Fanclub, and ELO rolled into one. Polara -- yeah, yeah, I mentioned them last year, but they still do the bah-bah-bah girl/guy harmonies that I love. Tracy's a larger-than-life talent contained in a down-to-earth personality -- she's the kind of girl who could be Queen of the Prom and still let you cheat off her math test. All three artists make me want to jump on stage and sing with them. Luckily for everyone, they're doing it and I'm not.

-- Laurie Gail
Music Director
WFNX

Doom Buggies

Recently, I checked out a Boston-based band called the Doom Buggies and was mighty impressed -- this is a band I'll be keeping an eye on over the next year. The Doom Buggies have good pop hooks, a thunderous rhythm section, and slashing guitars. They're reminiscent of early Soul Asylum or Replacements, but with a '90s edge. I was thoroughly drawn into the band's refreshingly challenging performance. If the world were truly musical, we'd all be singing Doom Buggies songs and Hootie & the bored fish would never have been allowed even to look at an instrument. Take a ride with the Doom Buggies and see for yourself.

-- Chris Kennedy
On-Air-Personality ("Overnight")
WFNX

Cat Power

Cat Power is Chan (pronounced "shawn") Marshall, a rather shy NYC-based singer/songwriter who grew up in Southern locales like Memphis, Greensboro, and Atlanta and who played facing the wall, stage right, in front of a full house at the Middle East several months ago, on a bill with Smog and Palace. Cat Power is also a band of sorts, most recently a trio in which Marshall is backed by drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and guitarist Tim Foljahn on a darkly enchanting disc (Myra Lee) that's due from Shelley's Smells Like Records label later this spring. And at some point in the not too distant future, Cat Power will be a Matador recording artist. In any incarnation, though, Cat Power is a forum for Marshall's powerful voice and songs that bring to mind the rich, haunting overtones of Helium's skeletal pop with a subtle yet pervasive undercurrent of Southern gothic blues.

-- Matt Ashare
Events Editor
Boston Phoenix

Ramona Silver, Glyn Styler

Glyn Styler's five-song demo is the most unusual tape I've heard this year. Styler, a New Orleans protégé of Daniel Lanois, bellows lounge-style tales of longing and despair in a heavy-vibrato baritone, accompanied only by simple guitar strumming. Styler's all-out delivery recalls Nick Cave, but Styler draws as much from Frank Sinatra as Howlin' Wolf (one of his titles is "Come Cry With Me"). The whole borders on camp, except that there's no joke in Styler's blood-curdling delivery, or when the Frank-like savoir- faire gets pushed to the limit and warps under the clangor of lines like "You killed my love/but through it all I never cried/when you said you weren't satisfied/with an asshole like me!" It's Frank with a barely concealed homicidal impulse. The tape also includes Iggy's "I Need Somebody."

Ramona Silver, whom I saw for the first time at Kenne Highland's 40th birthday bash at the Kirkland Café, has a mature sense of songwriting and arranging, and her band plays with authority. It's good, hard guitar pop and, unlike a lot of indie-bred performers, when Silver takes the stage she doesn't look embarrassed to be there. Her You & Me & Hell is on Fingerprint.

-- Jon Garelick
Music Editor
Boston Phoenix