Search - Eugene Chadbourne :: Strings 1

Those who like it...like it a lot.

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 03/23/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I've seen one absolutely brilliant concert by Eugene Chadbourne, I've seen one appalling waste of time (where he & Han Bennink browbeat a visibly miserable Dominic Duval for 2 hours--eventually Duval put down his bass & gave up); I have a few Chadbourne albums & have never been able to get much pleasure out of them. If you have a pronounced taste for the wacky, then you'll probably like Chadbourne, complete with his horrible mangled & out-of-tune instruments, manufactured instruments like the Electric Umbrella & Electric Rake, & absolutely awful vocals. At this point he's sui generis.This album is a little different from the usual Chadbourne fare, in that (1) the jokes are at a minimum, (2) there's no vocals (those are confined to the companion volume _Songs_), (3) the repertoire is heavily jazz-based, (4) it's produced by someone other than Chadbourne, so it's got a nice studio sound & the tracks aren't snipped into pieces, collaged or bludgeoned, & the packaging of the disc is suspiciously elegant.What the album mostly proves is that the shtick is essential to Chadbourne: the covers of jazz tunes here are frankly REALLY REALLY dull--try the completely tedious 12-minute cover of "Day Dream", the boring 9-minute "Monk's Mood", or the wretched "Goodbye Porkpie Hat". The "Coltrane Medley" starts out promisingly with a vocal impression of Jesse Helms hailing Coltrane as a giant of bluegrass music, but the music is itself pretty feeble. The best stuff here is in the originals, typical collages of distressed guitar--tributes to Grace Slick, Derek Bailey & Sonic Youth are especially effective.Conclusion? Skip this unless you're already on Chadbourne's wavelength, though it's got its moments. The decent sound is a nice bonus, though, given that Chadbourne's recordings are usually in appalling lo-fi."