Poi Dog Days
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Right now Orrall is awaiting pressed copies of a new, companion release, Electrique Plummagram, a club-oriented, dance-mix affair that combines three remixed Pomegranate tunes with four new songs. Poi Dog is often lumped in with the so-called H.O.R.D.E. bands–Grateful Dead-style jamming outfits typified by Blues Traveler or Dave Matthews. But Poi Dog has a bit more world-music influence, somewhat offbeat Texas and Hawaii strains of hippiedom, and much less boogie. There’s also Orrall’s fondness for the black side of dance music, which finds its first explicit voice on the new record. The band plays three record release shows March 20, 21, and 22 at the Vic.
Keeping Up With the Mekons
Tower’s biggest seller for 1995 was, predictably, Hootie & the Blowfish, who moved between four and five thousand copies out of the store over the course of the year, reports sales manager Joe Kvidera. Odder are the bands that filled out the top ten: Annie Lennox at two, followed by the Dave Matthews Band, the Smashing Pumpkins, Natalie Merchant, Alanis Morissette, Blues Traveler, the Pulp Fiction sound track, Seal, and Poi Dog Pondering. The store’s base is heavily yuppie with strong admixtures of H.O.R.D.E. fans and gays, as evidenced by Lennox’s showing and that of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’s sound track, which came in 20th. The very hyped Beatles Anthology I came in a sad 16th….Speaking of which, Sarah Vowell passes along this tidbit from John Cage’s Silence: “Artists talk a lot about freedom. So, recalling the expression ‘free as a bird,’ [composer] Morton Feldman went to a park one day and spent some time watching our feathered friends. When he came back, he said, ‘You know? They’re not free: they’re fighting over bits of food.’”… The Jesus Lizard will spin records on WNUR’s Airplay show on Saturday at 4 PM. ‘NUR is at 89.3 FM.
