FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 Old Time Relijun at the Smell With a name lifted from a Captain Beefheart song, Old Time Relijun try perhaps a little too hard to be “weird,” but their new CD, Catharsis in Crisis (K Records), still has some wonderfully strange interludes. The album opens with sour and bluesy sitar-like guitar sounds before giving way to an ominously rumbling saxophone as Arrington de Dionyso wails and rants cryptically about the “uplifting breath of creation.” “The Tightest Cage” lurches with a jazz-punk squawk that evokes middle-era Saccharine Trust, while “The Circular Ruins” bashes and crashes with a sub-Beefheart groove. “Dig Down Deeper” falls into a dark vortex lit up with moaning No Wave sax and guitar harmonics for a shadowy mood that somewhat evokes Nick Cave and another Beefheart acolyte, Tom Waits. The Olympia, Washington, trio scratch up a lulling trance on the instrumental “Garden of Pomegranates,” where a hypnotic bass line sets up some coolly dangerous sax squalling. It’s one of the few places on the album where de Dionyso’s arty affections merge into something more melodically intriguing.... More >>>