6-1-00

Various Local Artists

Radio 1190 has done it again. First the fledgling KVCU exploded the airwaves with its mindblowing mix of all music wild, wonderful and non-corporate. And this rocked. And it was good. With the release of Radio 1190 Local Shakedown, a two-CD compilation of local bands weird and wonderful, the good folks at KVCU have achieved yet another rock-o-licious triumph. Minor technical quibbles notwithstanding, Radio 1190 Local Shakedown is a fabulous, if necessarily uneven, monster of a collection that everybody in Colorado should listen to. Really. If you listen to Radio 1190 on the AM dial, or are heavy in the local music scene, you'll surely know a number of these bands-but have you heard all of them? Among the whopping 65 artists on this double-disc set are the Maybellines, Dressy Bessy, the Gamits, Boss 302, Jux County, Hoochie and Planes Mistaken For Stars. If you're not too familiar with the locals, beware: A printing boo-boo got the liner notes for the two discs swapped, so when you pop in disc 2 expecting to hear village idiot Munly's take on Edward Gorey's delightfully macabre story/poem "The Gashleycrumb Tinies," what you're actually gonna hear is what should be the first track on disc 1, according to the notes. The diversity of styles on disc 1 (disc 2 on the liner notes, ahem) is particularly astounding: Maraca 5-0's surf-spy "Defender" shares a run with folkster Josh Bloom's chintzy "My Love is Heaven Sent," Tanger's Fugazi-ish punker "Dehydrated," Blood Axis' weird pagan-medieval-goth synth-droner "Lord of Ages" and death metaldudes Shogun's hardcore "Tell Me." And there's no shortage of low-fi post-garage rock, mod psychedelic nouveau-pop, indie-lovin', commercial-radio-hatin' "clit rock," boozy alt-country/honkytonk-whatever butters your muffin, you're gonna find it here. The juxtaposition of such disparate sounds is unnerving, even laughable, at first-but trust us, this is good. As a famous Boulder expatriate notes in his spoken-word intro ("Local Shakedown," anticlimactically placed on disc 2), KVCU and the Frankensteinian Local Shakedown collection are among the last desperate and delicious havens for "local music, underground music, good music, punk music, wild music." Get the Local Shakedown. Listen to KVCU on AM 1190. And get ready to shake your indie-rock lovin' booty, baby.