Pop twists

Fan Modine's Slow Road, Turkish Delight's reunion, Sabot's goth

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

Fan Modine's Slow Road to Tiny Empire (Slow River) is a perfectly normal pop/rock film soundtrack, except for three little things: Fan Modine don't actually exist, the film hasn't actually been made, and the songs aren't really pop/rock. Also, the music's pop and ambient strains keep melting into each other. And the vocals are distorted so you can't make out the words, though you probably wouldn't understand them if you could. Oh, and there's 35 minutes of street noise at the end of the CD. Other than that, it's perfectly normal.

This all makes more sense when you consider that the album is largely the work of Gordon Zacharias, an experimental musician (and part-time Elevator Drops keyboardist) who was living near Chinatown and trying to finance a film when he decided to do a soundtrack based on the screenplay. His main collaborator (and at the time housemate) was Joan Wasser, the violinist best known for her role in the Dambuilders. Save for a few drum and bagpipe parts, Zacharias played the rest himself. When Fan Modine open the Helium/Sleater-Kinney show at the Middle East this weekend, he'll have a full band, including Wasser, bassist Michael Tighe (Elysian Fields/Jeff Buckley), keyboardist Tim Fut (Lilys), and violist Dylan Williams (who's recorded with Ben Folds Five).

There's evidence on Slow Road to Tiny Empire that Zacharias could have made a straightforward song album if he'd wanted to. He's good with haunting tunes and arrangements, and he sings in a breathy way that reminds me of Syd Barrett without the accent. But whereas Barrett's lyrics messed with your perception, Zacharias does the same through his manipulation of sound. The opening track, "Cardamon Chai," shows how a guitar can sound like a nasty kazoo if you overload a fuzzbox; "Mesopotamia" has Joan Wasser's violin sounding like a nasty guitar. The sonic surrealism both heightens and subverts the album's pop appeal.

Which is pretty much what Zacharias had in mind. The fictional Fan Modine, an American singer who becomes a Japanese pop star, is the hero of the unmade film, and Zacharias was interested in using the story to create sensory impressions rather than a recognizable plot. "The idea for Fan Modine came to me when I was living in the South End, on the edge of Chinatown," he explains from his current home in New York. "You look at the videos from Asia and you see something very different from American pop culture -- the beauty of the icon is still present there. Instead of trying to be just like the audience, Asian pop stars accept that they're in a different place from the people they perform for. That's also why they accept androgyny -- they realize it's all right to grasp the full circle of life, being both male and female. This album is the first part, where the character begins to reach that beauty, that other world they live in."

And what of the mystery half-hour at disc's end? "That's the sound of church bells outside my window; you can hear the freeway as well."

At this point fans of Brian Eno might feel a twinge of recognition. The Orient, androgyny, oblique song strategies -- these all figured prominently into Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Eno's landmark album from 1974. "Absolutely," Zacharias says. "It wasn't a direct influence, but that album keeps popping up. I find myself trying to bridge the gap between Brian Eno and [glamorous ex-Japan singer] David Sylvian, who's one of my biggest influences. He has this sense of devotion and servitude that Eno doesn't have."

Glam rock also figures highly in Joan Wasser's world nowadays. In addition to being part of Fan Modine, she's also a member of Those Bastard Souls, the Bowie-inspired side project of Grifters member Dave Shouse. With the Dambuilders on hold, Wasser's going through a musically voracious period that will eventually lead to her making a solo album. And though she was always the live wire in the Dambuilders, to hear her enthuse over the phone, it seems she's only now revving up. "I just enjoy manipulation of sounds and pushing the violin to places it's begging to go, yeah!"

Wasser's played in her share of bands -- the Lotus Eaters, Mind Science of the Mind, and briefly in Helium. Yet it was only recently that she began to think about doing a solo album, for which she's now laying down the four-track groundwork. "My favorite elements of music are incredible beauty, deep groove, and over-the-top bad-assedness. So I'm trying to combine those elements in different ratios. I can't say it's rock and I can't say it's pop. And I'm just getting used to hearing and manipulating my own voice."

Meanwhile, she's been keeping herself busy in both with Fan Modine, whom she's about to hit the road with, and Those Bastard Souls, whom she just returned from touring with. Next month she's planning on hooking up with Shouse to record a new Those Bastard Souls CD. "The Dambuilders fell in love with the Grifters while we were on tour. I got very close to Dave Shouse, and I guess he liked me okay too. He'd been writing these songs for a while that he didn't think worked for the Grifters. That band is too all-out waaah!, pure unabridged emotion. And I guess he felt these songs were a little too graceful to be tempered with that kind of feeling. So he grabbed all these friends that he wanted to collaborate with."

Which leaves one last question: where do the Dambuilders fit into this? It's no secret that their last album (Against the Stars, on Elektra) didn't do particularly well. And the band have been quiet since playing a single Middle East gig behind the album last summer. With guitarist Eric Masunaga in Los Angeles producing the new Sebadoh album, bassist Dave Derby making a second Brilliantine album, and drummer Kevin March joining Shudder To Think, local fans are wondering whether the Dambuilders still exist.

"I wasn't dreading that question, but I'm not sure how to answer it," Wasser says. "It's a tough thing, because everyone in the band might answer a little differently. First of all, everybody's doing really well. But we don't seem to be playing together anymore."

TURKISH DELIGHT

Far as we can tell, Turkish Delight are about to set a speed record: they're playing a reunion show this Friday at the Middle East, barely a year after their break-up. The well-liked art-punk outfit, fronted by current Betwixt singer Leah Callahan, is about to release a posthumous CD, Houcha Magoucha (on the new Arch Enemy label). And Callahan will be reuniting with drummer Dave Nelson (also in Betwixt), guitarist Daryl Blood, and bassist Carl Thien for the one-off show.

Turkish Delight were a wildcat of a band, loving guitar noise but developing a knack for pop melody toward the end. What lingers most is the memory of Callahan flinging herself across the stage, breaking into screams, and fixing the audience with an evil grin. Although she now makes more sophisticated pop and has a softer stage presence in Betwixt, she says she'll have no trouble getting into her old persona.

"I can still do the screaming, I'll just be smiling more when I do it. I was burned out for a year after the band broke up, but now I think it'll be fun. I'm going to put on a costume and be a different person." She adds, joking, "I was thinking of doing the whole show in roller skates."

The band grew from their experimental roots and picked up some polish in their three years together -- polish that, Callahan says, contributed as much as anything to their break-up. "I realized I was more interested in music than I thought I was. At first our role models were the kind of bands where everybody gets to sing whether they can or not. We were very much a democracy, and everybody could do what they wanted to. Sometimes it sounded really good, but not all the time. And I probably became more resistant to the guys' doing vocals."

The new album was intended for release last year but got scrapped because of the break-up. Seven of the 11 songs were recorded with producer Eric Masunaga; the remaining four were done with Pete Weiss. Most of the tracks show off the band's later melodic leanings, notably "Smooth Karate," a nifty takeoff on sweet Japanese pop that appeared on last year's Nigh compilation. But there's some punkier stuff, including an instrumental where Nelson plays clarinet and Callahan takes over drums.

"It might be more accessible than the first album," she suggests, "because we're tighter. Some of it's pretty experimental, but it's fun."

SABOT

I'm starting to think that goth music fills the same niche Burt Bacharach and Martin Denny filled 30 years ago. The best of it is sexy, mysterious stuff that takes you to a different world when the lights are down, though it might not be the same world Bacharach had in mind.

Case in point: Sabot (Null Pointer), a CD whose dark edges and rhythmic aggression don't make it any less lovely. Sabot frontwoman Christine Zufferey usually sings in January, where her heavily accented vocals make a contrast to their garagy guitar sound. In Sabot she gets more of a chance to play the chanteuse, singing in a deeper voice and going more for drama. Although the seven songs on the CD are lengthy, they aren't short of surprises. Instead of relying on synthesizers, Sabot benefit from a drummer (Shawn Marquis) who clearly wants to rock, and a soprano saxist (Monika Baenninger) who gets in some out-there solos. Like most ethereal bands, Sabot flirt with foreboding -- "Jewel Heart" has the plodding guitar groove of the early Cure. But on "Pray Insane" Zufferey finds her best Marlene Dietrich tones while the keyboards swoop and the sax solo quotes both snake-charmer riffs and the "Moonlight" Sonata. Space-age bachelor-pad music indeed.

COMING UP

Tonight (Thursday), acoustic rocker and sometime Plimsouls leader Peter Case plays Johnny D's with Rufus Wainwright (Loudon's son) opening, Archer Prewitt is at T.T. the Bear's Place, and the Red Telephone play Bill's Bar . . . Tomorrow (Friday) PermaFrost/Frigate member Linda Bean celebrates her birthday at Club Bohemia with Frigate and Curious Ritual, the Space Monkeys play the Paradise with Ivy, and the Shods do a CD-release party at T.T.'s with the Figgs . . . Saturday the Helium/Sleater-Kinney double bill two-day-stand begins at the Middle East, Ultra Breakfast are at Bill's, the Johnny Black Trio are at Mama Kin, and John Doe supports a new EP at T.T.'s . . . The folks at the Plough and Stars aren't allowed to tell you that Fuzzy are playing there Sunday night, but we are. Also, Mark Eitzel plays solo Sunday at T.T.'s . . . And recent Grammy winner Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are at the Middle East on Wednesday.