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CD Reviews

Dog on Fleas: Hoi Polloi
No Parking Studios, 2002

When it comes to kids and music, there’s only one way to tell if it works: If kids like a particular song, they’ll sing it, or at least repeat their favorite lines sing-song style, over and over again. Likewise, when it comes to parents and their kids’ music, there’s only one way to tell if it works: If parents like—or at least don’t mind—a particular song, they won’t object (at least not for a long while) to its endless repetition by their offspring.

That’s the beauty of Dog on Fleas—the band’s music is so sophisticated, its influences so diverse, and its lyrics so intelligent and strange and wonderful—that a parent can not only stand listening to it, but grow fond of it. Just two years ago, this Rosendale-sprung band was born, led by the ever-innovative Dean Jones and composed of Fighting McKenzies frontman John Hughes along with Matt Verrilli, David Levine, Shane Kirsch, and Raissa St. Pierre, accompanied by several “special guests,” ranging from Jesse Scherer (formerly Peaches, the dog who chewed underwear) to rising star Emily Curtis. The band’s self-produced debut CD, Fairly Good Songs for Fairly Good Kids, was an immediate local hit, accompanied by wildly popular performances at the likes of the Rosendale Cafe, and its songs were picked up by The Zucchini Brothers (then hosts of the national radio show, “Live at the Clubhouse,” on NPR) and the metro-region’s coolest kids-only Saturday morning radio show, “Greasy Kid Stuff.” But Dog on Fleas’ new CD Hoi Polloi, which includes the usual crew along with musicians like Chris Cullo, Carlos Valdez, and Mark E. Brown, is even more adventurous than Fairly Good Songs.

Hoi Polloi is everything a kid as well as a parent could ask for in children’s music. It’s wackily funny (“Blueberry Pie”), disgusting (“Ugly Fruit”), socially conscious without being preachy or saccharine (“The Monkey”), hauntingly balladic (“Sail Away Ladies”), and poetic and daringly juxtapositional (“Michael Hoe the Roe”) all at once. Hoi Polloi is not only catchy and pleasurable to hear, but it’s also educational in a musical genre sense—Dog on Fleas manages to mix a diverse bunch of styles and types of music—calypso, Celtic, dixie, country, reggae, folk, rock, jazz among them—with strains of Elvis and other music icons without it ever sounding strained or pretentious. This is one weird, warm, out-on-a-limb and close-to-the-heart piece of work, and although I loved Fairly Good Songs, Dog on Fleas has outdone itself with Hoi Polloi.

—Susan Piperato

LOVE SCENE CLEAR: Wave of Grace
Open Channels Music, 2002

Upstairs at Joshua’s, I’m in the corner watching Love Scene Clear. But I’m not only watching them. There’s the long-haired, twirling fairy girl. And the woman with the painted face and funky moves. A guy just stands there with closed eyes and prayer hands. And the hugest crystals ever are on an altar, glowing whoo whoo like kryptonite. After having just attended an emotionally heavy rock concert in another part of town, this is a switch. I turn to my friend.

“Do you like this?”

She grins. “It’s the happy hippies!”

Yes, these are some very happy hippies. But there’s a musical need for that. I first heard Wave of Grace last summer and immediately wanted to twirl like that fairy girl. It’s very unpretentious. These guys love life, the world, everybody, everything. Kiss! It’s that simple. They say they’ve just returned from a tour of the Andromeda Galaxy—that’s Christian Lewandowski on flute and vocals, brother Joshua on 12-string guitar and vocals, and Jeffrey Giering on percussion. What more is required? In a world where Bush holds the lasso, these guys roll out the magic carpet.

See what I mean on tracks like high-spirited “Lake Within Our Soul,” as they sing, “Constellation, as stars we are one that spans wide, far into eternity, la da da da.” Christian presents simple truths in “Love’s Creation”: “I love my brothers and sisters and what they mean to me, and I’m understanding what it means to be judgment free, and I’m singing for all of us to be open to a new frequency...show me your heart!” On the incredibly light “Rotating Sunstone,” featured in an independent documentary by Jennifer Perez, Christian screams, “We can sing this song together as we rotate around the giant sunstone!” Whee! Let’s fly off this big ball of dirt.

This trancy local trio has graced art spots, holistic centers, and the International World Peace Sanctuary. They recorded a track at Levon Helm’s studio for Mamaste, a CD for vibrational healing, music therapy, and pregnancy preparation. What’s next? A cosmic winter tour of the Northeast and Midwest.

To trip on Wave of Grace, visit LoveSceneClear.com.

—Sharon Nichols