series of AIDS benefit albums plays like a musically and thematically linked NPR broadcast from a gentle corner of indie-rock heaven. Appropriately, loss and survival are recurring topics, but well-matched collabos, obscure covers, and top-drawer contributions from the Decemberists, Feist, Sufjan Stevens, and Antony Hegarty prevent the largely somber proceedings from plummeting into unchecked sorrow. Meanwhile, Spoon, Arcade Fire, and a few other typically serious types get downright giddy. BARRY WALTERS

REISSUES

DIGGIN’ IN THE CRATES FOR UNTOLD TREASURES
By Andrew Hultkrans

Peter Tosh seeks communion with the sacrament.

Vetiver Tight Knit

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Timeless midnight musings
cast sneaky, luxuriant spell
Vetiver’s music sounds like
it was written in midday
sunshine, yet longs for a
dark bedroom in the dead
of night. Andy Cabic’s balmy
folk songs pull from pert
shades of doo-wop (“Every-
day”) and Latin synco-
pation (“Strictly Rule”).
But his whispery voice can
take on a Donovan-like
sultriness, making a song
such as “Sister” far sexier
than a song named “Sister”
should be. Maybe Cabic has
taken a cue from former
Vetiver collaborator and
babe magnet Devendra
Banhart: Being laid-back
ain’t that far from laying
right down. JESSICA SUAREZ

and warm, insistent strum make him the rare indie-rock guitarist with an instantly recognizable style. His voice is also distinctive, though more for its limitations: He sings like he’s got a stuffy nose and a throat full of sawdust. It’s to Ward’s credit that he knows exactly what to do with both instruments. On “Fisher of Men,” he drops shuffling guitars over a locomotive backbeat borrowed from Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” and on “Blake’s View,” his rasp tightens, chasing an organ up an octave with emotionally satisfying results. It takes a minute for the standouts here to stand out, but it’s an enjoyable wait. DAVID PEISNER

William Elliott
Whitmore
Animals in the Dark

•••••••••• MYSPACE AMAZON Heartland firebrand blows fuse, fights for truth Consumed by outrage at malicious politicians, sadistic cops, and other dirtbags, Iowa’s William Elliott Whitmore unleashes tirades in the growl of a crazed backwoods preacher threatening eternal damnation. And though these stark folk/blues tunes could be a century old, his tales of desperation, death, and despair crackle with agitprop punk urgency. For all its grim honesty, Whitmore’s fifth album also boasts a survivor’s tenacity—“There’s Hope for You” and “Hard Times” offer fiery moral support. JON YOUNG

PETER TOSH

The Ultimate Peter Tosh Experience

••••••••••

MYSPACE AMAZON

Peter Tosh was the Brian Jones of the original Wailers—the founder/ guitarist marginalized by a charismatic frontman (Bob Marley). Unlike Jones, Tosh went on to a brilliant solo career, outliving his rival and winning a Grammy before being murdered in 1987. Tosh was politically radical—Malcolm X to Marley’s MLK—and his albums, particularly 1977’s flawless Equal Rights, placed him alongside Fela Kuti and Gil Scott-Heron as an uncompromising musical activist. This CD-plus-two-DVD box contains key tracks, concert footage, and a fascinating documentary.

Let Freedom Sing collects great multigenre music that happens to be political. Typically hard intro essay by Chuck D.

M. Ward Hold Time

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Crafty arrangements
overcome post-nasal drip
Matt Ward’s playful leads

ZERO BOYS

Vicious Circle

••••••••••

History Of

••••••••••

MYSPACE AMAZON

These Indianapolis speed merchants had serious chops and a musicality their peers wouldn’t discover for a couple of years. Vicious Circle, the band’s sole album, came out in 1982—a fully formed amalgam of Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen before either sounded this good; History Of was a postmortem cassette gathering singles and EP tracks. While most vintage hardcore punk feels woefully dated today, the shifty Zeros don’t.

VARIOUS AR TISTS Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
From Josh White to the Jungle
Brothers, this three-CD box
demonstrates that the civil
rights movement didn’t begin
or end in the ’60s and can’t be
reduced to “If I Had a Ham-
mer” or “We Shall Overcome.”
And now that we have a funky
president for real, it’s a worthy
reminder of just how long it
took. Spanning seven decades,

CHRIS DARROW Chris Darrow/ Under My Own Disguise

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
A Zelig of ’60s–’70s SoCal
rock, Chris Darrow bent strings
and minds in psych-folk group
Kaleidoscope, played sessions
for Leonard Cohen and James
Taylor, and backed Linda
Ronstadt in her touring band.
These two early-’70s solo
records fit like a pair of faded,
patched jeans. Darrow’s facil-
ity with fiddle and guitar and
his omnivorous taste for
traditional music evoke vintage
Fairport Convention—had
they come from the American
West and run a world-music
record store.

FROM LEF T: ALISSA ANDERSON; LEE JAFFE/URBANIMAGE. TV

VETIVER

JOHNNY THUNDERS Sticks & Stones: The Lost Album

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Another guitarist who survived
his original band (the New York
Dolls) for a solo run, Thunders
was a punk godfather and tragic
junkie mascot who’s had as many
songs written about him as any
other rocker. People turned up
at his gigs to see if he would die
onstage, but he lived to 38. This
body bag of lost studio tracks
from 1982 and ’90, plus an undat-
ed live show, is a touching tribute
to the last of the living dead.

WICKED WI TCH Chaos: 1978–86

••••••••••
MYSPACE AMAZON
Wicked Witch’s noisy wash
of lo-fi space funk sounds
like early Prince rerecording
Sly’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On
with a hopelessly spliffed Lee
“Scratch” Perry manning the
boards. Not a bad thing, though
it could quickly empty a dance
floor. The bad-trip brainchild of
multi-instrumentalist Richard
Simms (who appears on the cov-
er in black leather and spikes,
with bright red eyes), the
D.C.-based Witch was certainly
not what Simms’ teachers at
the prestigious Duke Ellington
School of the Arts had in mind.

SEE ThE AR TIST OF ThE DAy AT SPIN.COM / MARCh 2009 83