LA Weekly

Clocking in at three hours and 40-some minutes, this three-CD box set provides just about the definitive aural history of the perennially underrated family act. Ronald, Rudolph and O'Kelly Isley started out singing doo-wop in the suburbs of Cincinnati and made their first records in 1957. (Another brother, Vernon, died in an auto accident before their recording career began.) The Isleys scored their first hit in 1959 with a secularized gospel rewrite, "Shout." Three years later, they cut their second rock & roll classic, "Twist and Shout." After a brief stay at Motown brought them the '68 smash "This Old Heart of Mine," they went to England, got reacquainted with their band's former guitarist -- one Jimi Hendrix -- and added younger brothers Ernie (guitar) and Marvin (bass), as well as Rudolph's brother-in-law Chris Jasper (keyboards) to the act. The impossibly funky result, "It's Your Thing" -- issued on the by-then self-contained band's own
T-Neck label in 1969 -- provided the blueprint for another two decades' worth of hits, ranging from the guitar-driven "That Lady" and the message-in-the-
music "Fight the Power," to the boudoir soul ballads "Between the Sheets" and "Smooth Sailin' Tonight." O'Kelly died, aged 48, from a heart attack in 1986; Rudolph abandoned pop for the pulpit shortly thereafter. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and that is the short version of the Isley Brothers story.

Aside from all the hits, this particular package fleshes out the tale with the Isley-Jasper-Isley spinoff's "Caravan of Love," which the Housemartins covered back when Fatboy Slim was just Norman Cook, guitar player; the Isleys' original (1964) Agent Double-O-Soul version of "Who's That Lady"; a ground-pounding workout on "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" that smokes Motown labelmate Kim Weston and, of course, the Doobie Brothers; and two tunes recorded with the above-mentioned Mr. Hendrix on guitar. You also get a taste of their rare, early doo-wop efforts, a frantic onstage introduction to "Shout," some jaw-dropping live-in-the-studio renditions of several Isleys '70s jams, and a trio of très cool covers from the Carole King, Bill Withers and Cahn & Styne (!) catalogs.

Curiously missing are the downright lascivious, oft-covered "Your Old Lady," the mid-'60s dance-floor fillers "Nobody but Me" and "Respectable," and the '77 player's anthem "Livin' in the Life." Otherwise, it's perfect for parties and late-night, two glasses of white wine, you and your lay-dee . . .

JETHRO TULL
J-Tull Dot Com (Fuel 2000/Varese Sarabande)

Who says that the over-40s aren't down with the Internet? On the last Rush album, Geddy Lee squealed meaningfully about a "Net boy" and a "Net girl" finding each other "across a cybersea," and now the title track of the first Tull album in several years finds Ian Anderson looking "for a place where our two cybersouls might meet" and promising that "I'll be yours/Yours Dot Com." And while it'd be easy enough to accuse these old proggers of making cheesy stabs at relevance by jumping onto the World Wide Web wagon, their fascination with the Internet does make a twisted sort of sense.

Think about it: To the Limp Bizkits of the world, the Net is strictly a marketing tool, a handy way to sell officially sanctioned merch and disseminate info about upcoming tour dates. But for folks who've previously earned their daily crust penning concept albums about Orwellian societies or the fraudulence of organized religion, the Internet is the very sort of immense, morally ambiguous entity that gives them a reason to wake up in the morning. Is the Internet bringing us together? Is it creating a world of emotionally detached individuals? Is it being used to spy on us? If Yes were to call their next record Tales From Topographic Mainframes, it wouldn't be such a surprise.

Which is not to say that J-Tull Dot Com could (or should) have been retitled Cyberlung. In an impressive display of restraint, Anderson limits his pondering of the Internet to "Dot Com" -- perhaps it's just the song's lovely chorus melody, but the old boy does seem to exhibit a fairly optimistic attitude toward the institution -- while the rest of the record mostly consists of meditations on nature ("El Niño," "Black Mamba"), growing older ("The Dog-Ear Years") and the idea that things are generally not right ("Spiral," "Awol"). The music is pure Tull, thanks to Ian's burbling flute and Martin Barre's patented heavy-yet-nimble guitar riffs, and though J-Tull Dot Com isn't quite up to the standard set by early albums like Benefit and Aqualung, neither is it remotely embarrassing. Except, that is, for the free-associative "Hot Mango Flush," which finds Anderson nattering on about "Ladies with ice cream hair" and "Gyroscopic pink-neon beams" over a "funky" groove that sounds like a watered-down version of Yes' "Long Distance Runaround." What does it mean? Who knows? Look it up on the Internet, or something. (Dan Epstein)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Hot Curly Weenie Vol. 2 (Recess)

Harassed for their antisocial attire, called "faggot" and "freak" by jocks, and discriminated against by teachers and administrators, punks in school have always had a rough time of it. This is the general theme behind Recess Records, an exceptional punk label straight outta Torrance and run by F.Y.P yelper Todd Congelliere, dedicated to traumatized punks who regularly got their asses whupped on the kickball diamond.

Hot Curly Weenie Vol. 2 has excellent stuff from the very best chronically immature punk bands of today. Encouraging kids to start fucking shit up in second grade, the Four Letter Words offer "I've Gotta Crayon Up My Nose," while F.Y.P's classic "Toss My Cookies," also set in elementary school, is about an unrequited crush and features a rockin' toy xylophone. Continuing with the arrested-development motif are the Jag Offs from San Pedro, whose bratty-voiced singer sounds 12 years old on the very short but perfect "Kitty Kat" and "Porchcore." Kansas City's Sex Offenders' sped-up cover of the Avengers' "Thin White Line" is better than the original, and screecher Heather's alley-cat-like voice is sharp and irresistible. Scam magazine editor and former Chickenhead guitarist Iggy Scam's new band, the Hidden Resentments, is responsible for the pleasantly incoherent "You Got a Job."

Several of Recess' more popular bands have moved to the bigger-budgeted Lookout! Records, e.g., the Crumbs, represented here by "Pill City," a previously unreleased gem, and the Criminals, whose frightening, dirgy "Halfway House" is some heavy shit. Also, there are a bunch of worthwhile numbers by bands you've never heard of -- like the Stun Gun's "TV Tan," Pud's "Mamma (Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Satan)" and Kankersores' "Fuck Your Yearbook" -- and even the most destitute Hollywood gutter punks can panhandle the suggested retail price of $3.98. (Adam Bregman)

GODFLESH
Us and Them (Earache)

From co-founder of metallic monsters Napalm Death, to dabbler in isolationist-electronics project Scorn, to guerrilla DJ doing dub remixes of his own undanceable rhythms, Birmingham, England's Justin Broadrick, a.k.a. Godflesh, has taken quite a zigzagged jaunt through the aggro landscape. Far from dilettantish detours, however, this ex-headbanger's restless search for divine eeriness has reached fruition.

Broadrick does his share of beat-pilfering on Us and Them, like the cookie-cutter drum 'n' bass of opener "I, Me, Mine," and employs the instantly recognizable flatulent ooze of Digital Underground's "Humpty Dance" to jump-start "Witch Hunt." Such pop signposts at first suggest he's clamoring for approval, until you see how quickly they're buried under the fuzzed-out chicken scratches of bass that reverberate like a fist smashing the lowest octave on a piano, and kick drums that boom like woofers about to split open. Rather than outright theft, these samples are springboards for Godflesh to launch sluggish, ramshackle grooves, a loose, dirty gnashing that belies Broadrick's extreme discipline.

As unappealing as aural depictions of industrial blight may be, Godflesh's depressive grind and sludgy guitars somehow rock, albeit in a listless kind of way. Like that ailing appliance you won't throw out because it still does the job, Godflesh are a funk of jimmy-rigged machinery. Besides the faltering assembly line of sick beats and loops of distorto-squall, there's Broadrick obsessing over the same Cartesian schisms and irreconcilable themes -- innocence-experience, self-other, spirit-body -- that he did on '96's tension-filled Songs of Love and Hate. Conundrums like these may have driven philosophers to distraction, but Godflesh has the added burden of providing a soundtrack as well. (Andrew Lentz)

WHORIDAS
Hightimes (Delicious Vinyl)

In the introduction to Hightimes, Mr. Taylor of the rap duo Whoridas poses the question "What would we do if the marijuana ran out?" -- to which his partner, King Saan, answers, "I'm still smokin'." The tempo is set: Playa-haters beware. Whoridas, members of the infamous Hobo Junction crew of the Bay Area underground rap scene, stepped into the rap game with last year's Whoridin, which included the hit single "Shot Callin' & Big Ballin'." Taylor and Saan sold 15,000 copies of the single out of the trunks of their cars on the east side of the Bay; the single eventually made it into the mainstream, selling 50,000-plus. Puff Daddy, no surprise, used the "shot callin' big ballin'" phrase in one of his lyrics, thus further pushing Whoridas, one of a few rap groups who've spread popular Bay Area slang.

This is a crucial second album for Whoridas, who built up their repertoire and fan base on the Oakland streets. While falling short of Whoridin's inventive lyrical and musical power, Hightimes nevertheless offers several notable cuts and should satisfy the duo's cult following. Tracks like "Harem," which features Bay Area rappers Poke, Third Rail Vic and Crown Jul, showcase the group's innovative Bay Area wording style and flavor while staying true to their Dogtown (West Oakland) roots: "Some work, some do dirt/some get hurt/some go out chasin' a purse/while others get burnt," says King Saan. "Get Lifted," "Do or Die" (featuring Yukmouth), "Tycoons" and "Dock of the Bay" are among the other dope tracks on this smoked-out set.

Don't expect the same shot-callin', big-ballin' attitude as Whoridin; Hightimes reveals another, more worldly side to Whoridas. Yet with 15 cuts on this second ganja-laced album, they pack enough whoride to keep any listener whoridin' into the year 2000. (John W. Horton III)