Shelby Lynne
| Am Shelby Lynne
Island / Universal

Morphine
The Night

Dreamworks / Universal

Apollo Four Forty
Getting’ High On Your Own

Supply
Epic / Sony

Bluesie and grassroots but
distinctive, Shelby Lynne’s
new “| Am Shelby Lynne”
keeps letting the world know
how much they don’t know,
once they figure they under-
stand Lynn’s slow, generally
sorrowful sonics.

Brought up in a backwater

“Low Fi Rock” is one way
to describe Boston’s
Morphine - a band with a
simplistically soft and innov-
ative sound, the result of
removing all guitars from
rock.

Morphine’s addictive
tunes feature only drums,
bass, saxophone, and
vocals - this has attracted a
wide fanbase, and after one

Previous top #7 US
Billboard chart holder and
theme song designers for
“Lost In Space,’ Apollo Four
Forty is paving their way to
fame with their “genetically
postmodernized rock'n'roll.”

Incorporating a rich vari-
ety of sounds and a mostly
fast techno beat in the back
ground, Four Forty even has
the bragging right that they
still use one of “legendary
ELP synth king’s Keith
Emmerson’s old Moogs” -

town in Jackson AL, she
inherited her love for music
from her family. When Lynne
was 17, her father shot her
mother and then himself,
leaving herself and her sis-
ters orphans. Shelby practi-
cally raised her younger sis-
ters by earning money in
local clubs by singing.

year of international touring
since their previous release,
The Night is a relatively
quick turnaround consider-
ing the amount of time the
trio has been spending on
the road.

Consisting of Mark
Sandman on a _ two-string
slide bass and vocals, Dana
Colley on baritone saxo-
phone, and drummer Billy
Conway, morphine contin-

even signed by Keith him-
self!

The Liverpool trio of
Howard and Trevor Gray and
Noko formed Apollo Four
Forty early in 1990, achiev-
ing a signing with Stealth in
‘93, and imprinting their
influence in the Epic
Records (UK) lineup.

Many international tours
later, including an over-a-
million-people gig in front of
the Eiffel Tower and a few
reworkings of previous hits,
such as Van Halen’s “Ain't

By 18, she made it to
Nashville where by her own
admission “anyone with a
good-looking mug and a
great ass” can secure a deal.
After a couple of singles she
moved away from traditional
country and towards the
grassroots tradition which
her music now encompass-

ues to prove everyone
wrong about what we would
consider to be a limitation on
their music.

Morphine’s success gar-
nered the band a twenty-
week stint riding the Top 20
alternative charts, with
Rolling Stone quoting them
as being “1994’s biggest
underground pop success.”

The limitation of not hav-
ing guitars backing up their

Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, which
resulted in Mr. Halen
demanding a large amount
of royalties, Apollo Four
Forty had garnered the
attention of the world.

It's not hard to hear why
either. The unique sound
which 440 produces is influ-
enced by so many sources.
According to the band, they
even used one Playstation
soundtrack as the basis for a
background mix in one of
their songs. I'll leave it to
you to figure out which one.

es, with bare instrumentals -
only what's needed to back
up Lynne’s incredible voice,
which stands out as the pri-
mary sound on its own.

_-Kevin Milos

music opens up a whole
new dimension of creativity
for Morphine. “The Night”
proves that they are able to
master this unique situation
and continuously churn out
addictive sonic energy with
a unique sound, driving an
ever growing fanbase all
over the world.

-Kevin Milos

Described as “smash and
grab of boogie gone bad
where The Beasties are in
the basement” and as hav-
ing “stereo breakbeats in full
effect with larynx fizzing
vocoders and a shopping list
of puns on rock,” Getting’
High On Your Own Supply
has a purely distinctive fla-
vor which is pleasing to the
senses as a_ techno/rock
Cross. -

-Kevin Milos