Trip Records: Press Desk: Review: Nightlines

[Press Clips]

Nightlines
(Chicago)

03 July 1996 (page 26)
Subjects:
Christian Johnson's King Baby
& Ken Nakano & The Flying Penguins Thirsty

Tripped Out
by Gregg Shapiro

While a few major labels are making overtures in the direction of gay and lesbian identified performers and consumers by creating marketing departments aimed at our hard-earned and (in their eyes) disposable incomes, not a single label has done the honorable thing and put their own money behind a gay/lesbian identified label. The fact remains that some of the best and most original music by gay and lesbian performers is being put out by independently owned gay and lesbian record companies.

One of the most promising indie labels is New York City-based Trip Records, whose compilation disk This Way Out didn't even scratch the surface of what great work they would produce. King Baby by Christian Johnson and Thirsty by Ken Nakano and the Flying Penguins (both on Trip Records) are better than most of what is being put out by the biggest major labels.

Thirsty by Ken Nakano and the Flying Penguins opens with two rockers, the mod-tempo "Wild Horse" and "Thirsty." The mood changes on the pretty "Sittin In The Dark" and the rock returns on "Gypsy." No other Kurt Cobain tribute has moved me in the same way that Jason Yoon-Hendrick's "Heart Of The Rising Sun" does.

The songs that are sung in Japanese hold the same fascination for me that any song sung in a language other than English would. I guess the true test of whether a song sung in another language works or not is whether or not the listener is compelled to listen or move onto the next song. Suffice to say that I listened to each and every song from start to finish, although "The Frog Song [Kaeru No Uta]" was my favorite.

Perhaps what makes Christian Johnson's King Baby so good is that most of the musicians playing on his album are the same ones that made Ken Nakano's album (including Nakano himself) such an enjoyable listen. More of a straight-forward rocker than Nakano, Christian Johnson also gets the sole writing credit for nine of the disc's 10 songs and shares writing credit with Jason Hendricks on the title track.

The punky one-two-three punch of "I Paint What I See," "Miss American Gun" and "Gimme Hollywood" prove once and for all that gay men can rock with the best of the rest. "Steven" a musical thank-you note, slows things down a bit to great effect. "Get To You Soon" picks up the pace with lyrics reminiscent of Pansy Division.

"Wounded" a song about healing is simply beautiful and "Black Angel" sounds like Van Morrison's "Moondance" being sung at a full-moon party. "Dementia", the disc's closer, borders on the experimental with great results.

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