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CEX
Being Ridden
(Temporary Residence)
Anyone who's studied Rjyan "Cex" Kidwell's online diary (Rjyan.com) and sonic evolution from age 18 to 21 knows that when he crows "Middle finger to the indie-rock singer" on this LP's "Earth-Shaking Event," he's flipping the bird at himself, too. Cex is an arrogant, sleek, Baltimore hip-hop head, while Rjyan is, according to his site, "a little boy who doesn't always do the right thing." Together they're a prolific, diversified beat juggernaut, detonating a minefield of volatile ghetto bumps below a morose acoustic-guitar death march. So when Cex demands the mike in "Earth-Shaking," asserting that "Sexual hang-ups are out/Sexual phone ringing, off the hook, that's what it's about," you happily pass it, wowed by his bullish anti-emo braggadocio. Crazy thing is, Rjyan just uses the opportunity to go eclecticand kinda emoon your ass. According to "Not Working," his voice won't do what he wants it to, his friends look at him funny, and, oh yeah, his career's not working. Check out Ridden's cover; Cex's Heroes are Bowie and Reznor, sure, but Conor Oberst, Everlast, and even the Fresh Prince of Bel Air infiltrate his deadpan rhymes. Beyond the occasional Cex = sex boast track, Being Ridden is an ambitious pastiche of brain-crushing distortion ("Brer Rjyan"), electro inertia ("Dead Bodies," "The Wayback Machine") and unplugged-via-laptop laments ("Cex at Arm's Length"). Cex issued this fifth full-length with a vox-free complement, Being Ridden Instrumentals. Weird. Seems like an instrument-free Ridden would be just as compelling. ANDREW BONAZELLI
Cex plays the Crocodile Cafe at 9 p.m. Fri., July 25, with Ogurusu Norihide, Animal Collective (see preview, p. 53), and United States of Electronica. $8 adv.
FANNYPACK
So Stylistic
(Tommy Boy)
Republicans, sports scribes, and rock fans agree: There's nothing like nostalgia for a past that never existed. New York hip-hop trio FannyPack counter with a cooler coup. Their nostalgia is for an unremembered pastspecifically, late-'80s party rap. From trunk to crunk, FannyPack is modeled on the Miami beat-n-bass sound of L'Trimm, even though that duo's sole radar blip, "Cars With the Boom," dived out of sight 15 years ago. But yesterday's fad can be today's revolution, so New York DJs-turned-Svengalis Matt Goias and Fancy employ 17-year-old half-Puerto Rican, half-Thai MC Jessibel, 16-year-old half-black, half-Indian MC Belinda, and 21-year-old Brooklyn-via-Alabama honky Cat to coo, chide, and chatter over the near-perfect electro of cuts like the title track, "Boom Boom," and "Smack It Up." So Stylistic takes Britney's not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman duality to such extremes ("You better stay in school/And get good grades/Bag it on up/Don't wanna catch AIDS," one rhyme admonishes) that R. Kelly can't grab his car keys fast enough. "Sugar Daddy" features a Packer's moans going all the way with a turntable's scratches, and in "CamelToe," the trio's novelty hit, they implore, "Is your crotch hungry, girl/Cuz it's eating your pants!" These are Brooklyn's Heathers: They're bad girls for life, and all you wankstas can eat a cooky puss. YANCEY STRICKLER
CAFÉ TACUBA
Cuatro Caminos
(MCA)
Mexico City's most important rock band, Café Tacuba haven't released a full-length since 1999, when Reves/Yosoy showed how deeply their souls were divided: On one disc, they were edgy post-rock experimentalists; on the other, they created arguably the most beautiful pop songs in the world. But four years is a long time, and other, younger, hungrier bands (El Gran Silencio) and movements (Tijuana's Nortec scene) have come along in the meantime. Do our four heroes panic and change direction once again? Do Los Tacubistas slavishly adopt cumbia or narcocorrido styles? No, they do not. Cuatro Caminos is simply 14 songs that manage to perfectly encapsulate every single one of their many stylistic shifts and make it all sound totally natural. "Cero y Uno" opens the disc with a mix of Reves' soundscapes with Yosoy's pretty harmonic pop, and first single "Eo" is Re-era ska en español enlightened by some great debut- album-style snotty-blippy-stuttery vocals from Ruben Albarran (whose nom du vox is Elfego Buendia this time around). Most of the disc is produced by rockero legend Gustavo Santaolallo, but guest producers Andrew Weiss (Ween) and Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips) help shake things up somewhat. Fridmann's work on the epic "Encantamiento Inútil" is perfect for this, perhaps the best 9/11 song yet. The pace drags sometimes, but songs as direct as "Qué Pasará" and as heartfelt as "Eres" and as flat-out lovely as "Hoy Es" make up for it. Heads up, hombres: The game is back on. MATT CIBULA
MICHAEL YONKERS
Microminiature Love
(
Sub Pop)
I can only stand to hear a line like, "Navigate your boat/Keeping it afloat/Round and round and round the moat," from a songwriter who is insane, disenfranchised, or in kindergarten. From a regular guy, that kind of thing just sounds stupid. Michael Yonkers is definitely disenfranchised; seven of the 13 garage/psych sludge tracks on this release were recorded in 1968 in the Twin Cities and promised to the big guys at Sire Recordswho promptly flaked upon receiving them. Then a back injury and some botched medical care pretty much squelched what remained of that dream. But, as Yonkers yelps over a galloping, trashy garage beat on the fourth track, "Smile for a while, and you'll see your troubles fading into nothing." What I can't figure out is whether the guy was actually nuts when he wrote these anti-violence, pro-love songs, but happily, all signs point to yes. Like Roky Erikson and Syd Barrett, Yonkers is one of those rare singers whose voice is more endearing the more weird, warbled, unglued, and atonal it getsand Yonkers' definitely gets as weird as theirs. Toss in homemade toys and toasted-fuzz guitar sounds made by cobbled-together or deconstructed Fenders with custom-made effects and some killer, off-kilter vocal pacing, and you'll conclude that Yonkers may not be certifiable, but he and his band are undeniably different. Sublimely different. In fact, even though musically Microminiature is in line with the other raw pre-punk of its original era, it's one of those rare records that truly doesn't sound like anything else, and that's not just an excuse for not having any reference points. LAURA CASSIDY
TODD EDWARDS
Full On Volume 2
(i!)
