Chune

February 15 - 22, 1 9 9 6

*** Chune

BIG HAT, NO CATTLE

(Headhunter)

"Right now guitars are in and you're the best in the world," sings Andy Harris from the eye of a turbulent swirl of buzz-and-drone six-strings on "Fishwrap." With its cynical reports of expense accounts and ticket buys, the lyrics read like another weary dispatch from the front lines of a major-label alterna-rock feeding frenzy. "It's all a bunch of noise/Big money and little boys" Harris finally screams into the capitalist void. But it's the guitars -- dark, stormy, and bristling with Sonic Youth-style dissonance -- that define the furious emotion of the moment as they push toward the edge of glorious cacophony with drums pounding and bass rumbling.

Like NYC's Chavez or Cell, Chune, a foursome from San Diego, are worthy heirs to the avant-rockisms of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. The six long (five minutes plus) tracks on Big Hat, No Cattle, Chune's second release, bristle with unconventional, minor-key melodies that reinforce and then transcend the angst of the singer even as a muscular rhythm section keeps each song grounded. Some critics have taken to calling this combination of sophisticated guitar interplay and angular arrangements "Math Rock." But in Chune's case, the effect is too emotionally compelling to be reduced to mere science.

-- Matt Ashare