Hugo Largo

[evs@sunbar.mc.duke.edu]

Sunday before last I tuned in to a great show on local college radio
(WXDU).  Within half an hour the DJ managed to play KB (Hello Earth),
Cocteau Twins, and two groups I had never heard before who peaked my
interest enough to start looking for their records (Swans and Hugo
Largo).

Well, luckily Hugo Largo came to Raleigh last Thursday, so I went on
down to the Brewery to check'em out.  I was completely blown away.
The group consists of a quirky combination, two bass guitarists, an
electric violinist, and a vocalist.  The music immediately reminded me
of the Cocteau Twins (especially the bass lines), but later when
talking with one of the bass players, Adam (I can't remember last
names here), he denied the comparison claiming it was facile.  He said
it was like comparing a novel and a comic book, the Twins being the
literate ones.  He also said they were trying to get a more rocking
sound and were more into dynamics than the Twins.  I definitely agreed
with this last assessment.  The vocalist, Mimi Goese, was the most
impressive of the group.  I think she is one of the most technically
accomplished vocalists in rock music today.  She has incredible
control and a very good range.  Her voice in the chorus of "Second
Skin" literally sent shivers and razor blades up my spine.  They are a
New York based band and I heartily recommend seeing them live if you
get a chance.  They are going out west this spring (or was it late
winter).  They have one album out on Relativity called _Drum_ and are
working on the music for a second album which they plan on recording
this summer if I remember correctly.

You'd think the combination of two bass guitars would be unwise, but
the bassists handle it very well, by choosing complementary lines and
resisting the temptation of bassamania.

I was mildly disappointed with the album _Drum_.  They just didn't
seem to be able to catch the essence of Mimi's vocals.  In live
performance her vocals go right through your body.  The instrumental
tracks were fine, except the violin was mixed too low at times.  The
album was engineered by the violinist.

*************

Mild "She's Having a Baby" spoiler:

Well, I finally got to see "She's Having a Baby".  I found the plot
entirely unoriginal.  How many times has the "young-boy-finding-
himself-married-and-looking-forward-to-leading-a-normal-life-in-suburbia"
plot been churned out by the movie industry extolling the virtues of
man-at-work and wifey-at-home having the babies.  In a typical scene,
wifey is having contractions and yells upstairs to hubby that it's
time to go the hospital, he runs around frantically packing her bags,
runs out to the car and takes off to the hospital with out her.  Come
on John, you can do better than that!

The one redeeming quality of the entire debacle was Kate's song, of
course.  Bravo Kate!  If IED is right, and Kate only spends nominal
time writing movie songs, then this song is an example of what a great
artist can do with minimal effort.  Just think what must be upcoming
on KBVI!  Kate is in superb vocal form with this.  The some of the
lyrics are reminiscent of "All the Love".  The stupid theater broke
the trailer on the film and I was unable to get the title of the song,
but happily IED solved that mystery.

Ed
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Ed Simpson, P.O.Box 3140, Duke Univ. Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA 27710