`Basketball Diaries' tells of an artist's sordid youth

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RATING: * * * *

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by Marty Beard

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Not that Seeds doesn't have its moments. Track 3 opens with punchy chords straight out of Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" but evolves into "And Fools Shine On," the album's first single, probably deserving of a little airplay. There are several other bright alternative-style moments, notably "Rise on Water" and "20/20 Faith."

The Brother Cane formula seems to be a mellow, depressing verse contrasting with a more hopeful chorus. The lyrics match the mood swings of the music. On "Bad Seeds," vocalist/lead guitarist Damon Johnson sings, "Empty hands that used to hold/The comfort of a life once filled with hope/But now the hope is fadin'." On "Voice of Eujena" the message is more optimistic: "The boy becomes a man/To fight his own battles and realize some dreams."

Johnson's voice is strong but has a fairly generic modern rock tone that does little to make the band stand out. His guitar playing is similarly solid, but his solos are rarely featured well enough on the album (one exception is the nice whining slide solo on "Breadmaker").

Brother Cane is not deficient in technical ability; what the band needs mostly is a little creativity. Almost everything on Seeds follows the 16 measures of a riff, eight measures of a chorus, repeat-the- whole-thing-format.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but Brother Cane's riffs will need to get cooler before the band becomes a serious modern rock force.

If only Brother Cane had King Crimson's problem. THRAK is a great example of how much a band can experiment while still remaining in the hard rock genre.

Where Seeds is boring, THRAK is weird. King Crimson is only living up to its reputation. Probably the oldest still-existing hard rock outfit, the band has been around off and on since 1969. King Crimson is a rock 'n' roll rarity: a band influenced primarily by classical music rather than the blues. The result is a sound that's a little foreign to radio-tuned ears because it is challenging and not always pleasing. Unfortunately, radio-unfriendliness means poor record sales, and THRAK came out last year on Virgin with little fanfare. King Crimson deserves better; the band is only a little further from the abnormal than a band like Pink Floyd and often just as good.

THRAK opens with "VROOOM." A brief string quartet-style ditty explodes into a hard rock instrumental, alternating between pulsing metal and a quieter, tension-building refrain. The album then segues (a common King Crimson tactic) through "Marine 475" and into "Dinosaur," THRAK's centerpiece. Reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears," "Dinosaur" is a downbeat-heavy anthem, highlighted by vocalist Adrian Belew's emotional scream: "I'm a dinosaur/Somebody is digging my bones."

The band members must feel somewhat extinct. Although guitar and synthesizer player Robert Fripp is the only remaining member from the original band, the other players are hardly new to the music scene. Bill Bruford, one of the two percussionist is a former member of Yes, and Belew has worked with Frank Zappa and the Talking Heads. Belew is adequate for THRAK's sparse vocals and manages on his best screams to sound a bit like John Lennon. The star here though is Fripp, whose crisp playing and arsenal of effects dominate the band's sound.

Fripp gets several opportunities to show off his skills. "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" is a Red Hot Chili Peppers-style rocker and the only place on the album where any blues influence shows through. "People" and the title track are also great rock songs. Some of what comes in between is lacking, however. Several long stretches of rather pointless synthesizer noise (rather like the Steve Miller Band's "Threshold") slow down THRAK to an almost unbearable level. There are also occasional odd moments where the listener just has to cringe and ride it out. If you can stomach hard rock that's just a little bit different, THRAK is a recommended purchase.

This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the September 8, 1995 issue.

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