Local Music '98

Good clean fun

by Brett Milano We've all suspected for some time that grunge was dead, but it just got a little deader -- and not just because Pearl Jam are a no-show in the national categories this year. An even greater shift has occurred in the local categories, which have traditionally proven that Boston is a city full of depressives and deep thinkers -- from cerebral types like O Positive to ominous metallizers like 6L6. Heck, even the Mighty Mighty Bosstones had to write a serious topical song ("The Impression That I Get") before they swept the poll last year. But this year's results show a much different focus: lots of pop, lots of fun metal and sexy R&B, a shot of exuberant funk and ska, a handful of well-liked local personalities. There's very little outright noise, and -- for the first time in the history of this poll -- the local results are an overwhelmingly angst-free zone.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in the case of our two biggest local winners: with so many changes happening every month on the Boston scene, you'd think that bands like Morphine and Letters to Cleo would be old news by now. Neither has been a hot upstart for at least half a decade; both released albums last year that didn't quite catch on nationally. And there are enough new trends around -- goth, electronica, ska, rockabilly -- to make the Cleos' pure pop and Morphine's slinky blues-pop sound a little old-fashioned. So who comes out way ahead of the pack in this year's Best Music Poll? You guessed it: Morphine and Letters to Cleo.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, because both bands maintain a passionate local following that hasn't seemed to die down. And our poll results traditionally favor long-term relationships over passing flings: past winners Tribe, O Positive, Heretix, and Cliffs of Dooneen all ruled this poll for years, even while struggling for a national profile. If well-established bands tend to dominate, that's because you voters usually prefer what's proven and good over what's trendy. (Last year's big winners, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, were both.) And if you doubt that Morphine and Letters to Cleo are still part of the local scene, just hang out at the Middle East long enough and you'll probably get to rub shoulders with Mark Sandman or Kay Hanley.

The Cleos' strong showing is especially heartening because, simply enough, they've earned it -- and they make their biggest sweep yet this year, taking four categories, including Best Local Act. Last year's Go! (Revolution) was far and away their best album; it was also their most fun album, stripping everything down to 30-odd minutes of pure uplift. National audiences, by and large, didn't notice, and still associate the band with "Here & Now," their Melrose Place tie-in hit from three years ago. But local fans at least got the chance to hear one of the new songs on the radio; so the hit single "Anchor" -- a better song in every respect than "Here & Now" -- sailed in on its own merits to take Best Local Song. And if some local programmers get smart, they'll look into the album and break out "Co-Pilot," an obvious summer single and the band's catchiest song. Our runner-up songs -- the Amazing Royal Crowns' "Do the Devil" and Morphine's "Early to Bed" -- are among the most hedonistic songs to come out of Boston this year. Sensitive guy Lou Barlow finds himself stuck in fourth place with Folk Implosion's "Insinuation."

It's been an up-and-down year for the Cleos, and it probably hit its nadir when Go! drummer Tom Polce either left or was fired in the middle of a national tour. But they were rejuvenated by the return of drummer Stacy Jones, who came back in time to play with them in March at the Paradise. Over two nights they did everything in their repertoire, including the songs Jones hadn't recorded. He hasn't officially rejoined the band yet, but with his regular band, Veruca Salt, going down the tubes, it seems to be only a matter of time. In a brighter turn, this was also the year that Cleos singer Kay Hanley and guitarist Michael Eisenstein got married -- and it was only a few years ago that they told Rolling Stone they weren't a couple, in a move designed to increase her star quality. No problem, however: the word's out and she's still the favorite female singer, and apparently no less crushworthy.

Mark Sandman's also inspired a few crushes in his time, but Morphine haven't made much impression in this poll before, though they've long been one of the most popular acts in town. So this year amounts to a payback for Sandman and crew: he wins as Best Male Vocalist (surprisingly, for the first time) and the band take Best Live Show, also finishing second as Best Local Act. Even a nationwide pop star who moved to Boston, runner-up Rivers Cuomo, couldn't unseat Sandman from the male singer category. Unlike most local bands that make national waves, Morphine haven't rested or moved to California. In fact they've been more visible than ever this year, releasing two albums (a new one on DreamWorks and a rarities compilation on Rykodisc) and playing everywhere from the Roxy to Charlie's Tap. Sure, Morphine have a few depressing songs in their catalogue, but you wouldn't know that on a good night, when both band and audience wind up drenched in sweat.

It's even harder to think about angst when people like Barrence Whitfield are around. We're talking about a guy who'll do anything to make sure you have a big ol' time, whether that means singing from the bottom of his soul or rolling on the bottom of the stage. Though Barrence usually places in this poll, he hasn't won it since 1991, so we're glad to welcome him back. (Funky funsters Crown Electric Company finish second in the category he won, Best Local R&B/Soul.) An even more tried-and-true act, Roomful of Blues, take the blues category after 26 years and at least twice that many personnel changes. They're a long stretch ahead of runner-up Susan Tedeschi, who recently picked up and moved to Atlanta. That'll learn her.

The only real representative of the deep-and-depressed crowd is folk singer Merrie Amsterburg, and more power to her. With her achingly lovely songs and gently disarming vocals, she can break your heart and make you enjoy it. (Look for some new material from her before the year's out.) Songwriter Stephen Merritt isn't known as a cheerful guy, but he's in a relatively lighthearted mood with the Future Bible Heroes, who wryly and gently subvert pop conventions (his partners here are singer Claudia Gonson and DJ Chris Ewen). And it's interesting to see that the two winners in our electronica category, the Future Bible Heroes and Splashdown, are pop groups using synthesizers -- so much for the Prodigy school of electro-punk. (Runner-up Peter Moore, who fronts Count Zero, used to win this category with his old band Think Tree.)

After they ran away with the poll last year, we bumped the Bosstones back up to the national categories this year -- being the most successful band to break out of Boston in at least a decade makes you national if anything does. This makes life easier for the venerable Bim Skala Bim, who are back in their usual spot atop the ska category, leading a holy trinity with Skavoovie & the Epitones and the Allstonians. We also made ska a separate category, to give someone else the chance to win for world music -- and the nod here goes to Babaloo, whose spirited (and only slightly alternative-ized) take on salsa proves that local audiences can really enjoy the kind of music their parents danced to. If current trends persist, maybe we'll see surf and rockabilly categories next year.

A Bosstones connection (they've toured together) probably helped make the Dropkick Murphys a shoo-in for Best New Act, even though they've been around for a couple of years. But the Murphys have made plenty of friends on their own, in a city that was always hungry for a good Celtic punk band -- where else do Stiff Little Fingers sell out every time they come to town? The Murphys win by the largest margin of anyone this year, getting three times the votes of runner-up Star Ghost Dog. More punk-rock than the Pogues and more Celtic than SLF, the Murphys sound about as Bostonian as you can get -- and they've righted a long-time wrong by rewriting the Kingston Trio's song about the MTA, changing the ending so that hapless Charlie gets up and kicks the conductor's ass. Too bad the Murphys threw in the towel and broke up just as we were going to press.

The same three acts, representing three points on the musical compass, have alternated in the local jazz category over the years: the Fringe (avant-garde), Myanna (traditional), and Either/Orchestra (both at once). The needle swings to the left this year, as the Fringe take the title (Either/Orchestra come in second; Myanna sit out). The opposite happens in the hip-hop category, where old-school rappers Down Low Connection win over Double Dong, who are about as far from rap's macho South Bronx origins as it's possible to get.

Finally, three words: "Planet of Ass." We're not suggesting that Scissorfight, the fearsome band fronted by the monolithic singer Iron Lung, won the Loud Rock category just because of that song. We're not even saying that it's necessarily their best song. It's just that we really like to say the words "Planet of Ass."