Sound bites

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 2, 2000

NEW EDITION, ALL THE NUMBER ONES (HIP-O) -- I confess: I was a punk rock snob in the days these tunes were huge. I cringed when New Edition or Bobby Brown came on the ol' FM. I confess this, too: Back then my cassette collection was devoid of any kind of funk. I had nothing to shake my bootie to, just a lot of whining white boys playing three chords with a grudge.

No wonder I was miserable.

But after listening to All the Number Ones, a collection of early 1980s hits by New Edition and the later acts it spawned -- Bobby Brown, Bel Biv Devoe, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant -- I realize these guys were doing something magical.

New Edition's Candy Girl, Cool It Now and the Ray Parker Jr.-penned Mr. Telephone Man are clever, sassy masterpieces, right up there with the Jackson 5. To hear little pre-pubescent Bobby (or Ricky or Ronald or Ralph or Mike) singing about his girl can turn your heart to goo. Can you resist chiming in on those catchy choruses? I can't, at least not now.

The all-grown-up Bobby Brown later combined sultry R&B crooning with 1970s-style raunchy funk on Don't Be Cruel, Every Little Step and the super sexy bad boy anthem My Prerogative.

Bel Biv Devoe's Poison -- sheesh, why didn't I appreciate that one the first time around? What's wrong with me? What a fool I was. Well, I'm making up for lost time. All the Number Ones has been spinning in my player all week. Grade: A-
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic

DEVO, PIONEERS WHO GOT SCALPED (WARNER ARCHIVES) -- Fans of the Spudboys from Akron, Ohio, will adore this first collection of Devo's greatest "hits" and rare, unreleased gems. These edgy art rockers -- now unfortunately relegated to kitschy, cult status -- were so much more than a band of guys who wore bright yellow spacesuits and flowerpots on their heads.

Formed in 1972 by friends who met as Kent State art students, Devo wrote great songs and was one of the first bands to make a real commotion combining audio and visual. Devo used alter-egos, costumes and video to skewer society's fin de siecle obsession with technology, delivering its atonal messages of alienation like robots.

Recognize the early 1980s' too-cool-for New Wave hits: Whip It, Freedom of Choice and Girl U Want. Rejoice, too, in Devo's brilliant deconstruction of others' material, from the band's herky-jerky cover of the Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction to Lee Dorsey's Working in the Coal Mine, Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? and Nine Inch Nails' Head Like a Hole.

The double disc Pioneers Who Got Scalped features rarities such as the original Booji Boy version of Jocko Homo and some neat soundtrack work from really bad movies. (Remember, Devo leader Mark Mothersbaugh went on to become a high profile soundtrack dude for MTV and Nickelodeon.)

The collection loses its steam a bit toward the end of Disc Two, where the material represents the last few years of Devo's -- well -- de-evolution. Grade: A-
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic

LIL' BAND O' GOLD, LIL' BAND O' GOLD (SHANACHIE) -- Supergroups don't come more tangy or organic than Lil' Band O' Gold, organized in 1998 by Cajun accordionist Steve Riley of the Mamou Playboys and blues-informed guitarist C.C. Adcock, a veteran of gigs with Bo Diddley and Buckwheat Zydeco.

Fifties hitmaker Warren Storm reneged on his retirement from the drums, and the core trio was joined by pianist David Egan (File), bassist Dave Ranson (Sonny Landreth), pedal-steel guitarist Richard Comeaux (River Road) and saxophonists Dickie Landry (Talking Heads), David Greely (Mamou Playboys) and Pat Breaux (Beausoleil).

Lil' Band O' Gold digs up the '60s John Fred gem Shirley for a slow-grooving romp driven by Adcock's comically shivering vocals and those greasy saxophones, calling and responding with the chunky guitars. The underappreciated Adcock takes center stage, too, on the pretty pop ballad Dream Girl, bolstered by a New Orleans R&B beat and Comeaux's zesty decorations.

Storm applies his commanding, seasoned singing to an effective reworking of the Ben E. King weeper 7 Letters, the pleading Please Mr. Sandman and That Feel, an impressionistic Tom Waits-Keith Richards piece. Riley's vocals top the fun-loving 7 Nights 2 Rock, Allons Rock 'N' Roll and Cajun Twist. And Riley and Greeley share the mike for Dewey Balfa's Parlez Nous a Boire (Let's Talk About Drinking), a shuffling hymn to the bottle.

A steamy Lafayette crawfish boil or a sweaty night at Mid-City Rock 'n' Bowl in New Orleans might be the most apropos setting for a shot of Lil' Band O' Gold. But any festive occasion will do. Laissez les bon temps rouler. Grade: B
- PHILIP BOOTH, Times correspondent