Quick Hits

by INLANDER & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & S & lt;/span & eattle-ites MADRASO sound like These Arms Are Snakes when the Arms still sounded like themselves -- that is to say, when they were good. And that's good. We liked TAAS' early output and generally want more of that kind of propulsive, hook-laden cynicism.





"Trophy Wife" specifically plies that trade, building drums atop a churning bass; a nimble, dark guitar melody atop the drums; and distorto-vocals atop it all -- only to deconstruct the whole thing with a quick, thrashy breakdown. "Code for Contra" does a similar trick, but in reverse, using finger-tapped bass to create an articulate rhythm upon which to constrain an unstructured melody.





More broadly, the Zombie Room bill (Madraso, along with openers BoV, Lines Collide and 19 Points of Nowhere) offers long-form, prog-indebted hard rock in startling variety, with one singer, with two singers, with no singers and with a clarinet. Not bad for a night's rock.


-- LUKE BAUMGARTEN





Madraso with Belt of Vapor, Lines Collide, 19 Points of Nowhere at the Zombie Room on Friday, May 11, at 9:30 pm. $5. Call 456-4515.





& lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & S & lt;/span & ome people almost have an excess of talent. HORACE ALEXANDER YOUNG performs in the jazz world (on sax, flute, keyboards and percussion); does some composing and arranging (quite often for the South African jazz legend, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim); teaches at WSU; and sings standards (as he will on Saturday night at the Bing with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra).





Young and SJO music director Dan Keberle will act as our guides on a tour extending from of the Land of Sinatra to the Kingdom of Nat Cole. We'll bring our dreams to the doorstep of "Mona Lisa"; in "Fly Me to the Moon," we'll see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars; not forgetting Winona, we'll get hip to a timely tip on "Route 66." Finally, we'll travel each and every highway -- because more, much more than this, we did it our way. (Actually, it was the Chairman of the Board who claimed to have done it "my way." Young will sing it his way.)


-- MICHAEL BOWEN





Horace Alexander Young and the Spokane Jazz Orchestra at the Bing on Saturday, May 12, at 8 pm. $22-$27. Visit www.spokanejazz.com or call 325-SEAT.





& lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & B & lt;/span & ecause of its built-in constraints and conscious repetition, the blues is best done live, when artists' individual eccentricities imbue the forms with a sense of personhood and style. Anthony Gomez is all stubbly and androgynous; Johnny Lang bares his teeth like a wolverine; B.B. King talks to his guitar like it's a person. The constraints of form fueling a drive for individualism in the oddest, best sense.





That's certainly the case with JASON RICCI & amp; NEW BLOOD. Rocking razor-cut hair and striped tank-tops, Ricci reps contemporary punk, The Velvet Underground and Hot Hot Heat as much as T-Bone Walker. In fact, though his music is fairly straightforward blues, occasionally delving into cacophonous industrial, he professes to be deeply influenced by all types of music: rock, folk, glam, Hindi, gospel, just not calypso. Love for everyone from Ricci, then, except Harry Belafonte. You gotta draw the line somewhere.


-- LUKE BAUMGARTEN





Jason Ricci & amp; New Blood at Ripley's Plantation on Wednesday, May 16, at 7 pm. $16. Call 928-8500.