Half-Cocked

December 1 - 7 , 1 9 9 5

*** Various Artists

HALF-COCKED: THE MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

(Matador)

Suki Hawley's low-budget debut follows the fictional band Truckstop on a makeshift tour from Louisville to Chattanooga to Memphis. Couched in the lo-fi language of the young and the restlessly noisy, the disc does much the same, bringing together tracks by Louisville's late, great Rodan, Chattanooga's Big Heifer and Boondoggle, and Memphis's mighty Grifters. It adds tracks by gritty New York popsters Sleepyhead and Versus, Chapel Hill's angular Polvo, Olympia's grungy Unwound, Boston's enchanting Helium, DC's punkish Slant 6, and a half-dozen other Amerindie rockers.

If indie rock constitutes a sprawling community -- and that's one of the underlying premises of Half-Cocked -- then the songs on the soundtrack are all examples of how various outposts of indiedom communicate with one another. There's a common language here, and it's worth decoding. You can hear it in Helium's haunting "Magic Box," where Mary Timony's edgy voice never lingers long enough on a note for you to relax. Imagine Alanis Morissette belting out the same tune and you'll know something about the difference between a paper tiger and the real thing, between alternative and indie rock.

-- Matt Ashare

(Half-Cocked screens at the Middle East this Sunday, December 3, at 8 p.m.; it's followed by sets from El Inquilino Comunista and Ugly Beauty Starlight Conspiracy.)