Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 34

C6 Asbury Park Press Friday, August 27, 1993 POP MUSICLIST ENING ROOM survivor to aid flood victims Local rocker Steve Honchar knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of a disaster. When last year's nor'easter ravaged the Shore, Honchar's living quarters then located at the Surf Harbor Beach Club in Sea Bright were destroyed, along with just about everything he owned. But local Red Cross volunteers pitched in to help finding clothes, a new bed and assorted furniture for the bassist, who also lost thousands of dollars in musical equipment owned by him and his band, Fear Factor. So when Honchar ERIC DEGGANS over the fickle British pop press the way a piece of string can win over a cat. The band's debut album is as politically correct as the title implies and as musically correct for the current rave culture as a live band can be.

But here's the rub: Jamiroquai is also overloaded with talent, the kind you can dance to. Singer-songwriter Jason Kay has an exuberant tenor that sounds eerily like Stevie Wonder's and a gift for the danceable hook. It all, unfortunately, sounds borrowed from an older brother on this CD debut, but that doesn't mean you can't dance to it anyway. The Dentists "Powdered Lobster Fiasco" Homestead 203 The Dentists, on the other hand, are unfashionably retro. They've survived a decade in England without attracting any hype at all, which isn't hard to do when all you play is great pop hooks with the ol' traditional Beatles four-piece lineup.

Although they might have made a pretty good Mersey beat band in another era, the only rock scene they fit into now, with their self-consciously psychedelic leanings, is the strummed electric pop scene of New Zealand, many thousands of miles away. Their first proper American album (Homestead released a Dentists compilation, "Dressed," last year) kicks off with the undeniable guitar-pop head rush of "Pocket of Silver" and hardly ever lets down from there. Titles like "Box of Sun" and "Beautiful Day" promise a '60s psychedelic throwback, and the only way the band lets down is by being too true to the promise; what the album doesn't have is the modern sonic kick of the Dentists' live show. By MATTY KARAS PRESS CORRESPONDENT Various Artists "Peace Together" Island 314-518 063 In which a number of artists, the great majority of them British and Irish, cover songs about war and violence to raise money for Northern Irish children. You could, of course, just send your money directly, but that would deprive you of the chance to hear Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine turn Elvis Cos-tello's "Peace in Our Time" into an Irish drinking techno song, or Blur stumble hopelessly over an attempted straight reading of Costel-lo's "Oliver's Army," or Therapy prove they've studied the Police's "Invisible Sun" note for note.

Not everything here is so hopeless. As a souvenir for your contribution, you do get U2's lovely reading of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" (although the studio version, on U2's 'One" EP, is a lot more impressive and isn't hampered by the dubious presence of Reed himself); a nice soul turn by Young Disciples on Stevie Wonder's "Bad a truly not-bad blue-eyed rap by Billy Bragg, Andy White and Sinead O'Connor called "Religious Persuasion" and My Bloody Valentine lifting its gaze off its shoes long enough to cover the Jeff Barry-Hal David pop song "We Have All the Time in the World." Jamiroquai "Emergency on Planet Earth" Columbia 53825 Here's something you don't hear more than, oh, eight times a week: The previously unknown British band Jamiroquai happened upon a sound somebody else happened upon a couple decades earlier and created a buzz for its retro 70s rhythm 'n' jazz (think Stevie Wonder, Roy Ayers and Earth, Wind Fire) with its first single, winning "rJ The Whirling Dervishes, plus other local acts will raise money to help Midwest flood victims. heard about the organization's efforts to raise money to help victims of the Midwestern flooding, he decided to help in the only way he knew how organizing a benefit concert to help generate donations for the cause. Scheduled for 8 tonight at the Stone Pony (913 Ocean Asbury Park, admission $7), the Aid For The Heartland Benefit will feature performances from Whirling Dervishes, former Red House frontman Bruce Tunkle, Copious Jive, Psykidelic Oven Mit, Bruce Wacker Band, Exotic Pet, J'zzing and The Hinge. Singer Karen Mansfield will act as master of ceremony while past and present WHTG-FM jocks Mark Sauter and Bart Cross-Tierney provide the between-set tuneage.

According to Honchar, there were few problems in finding musicians to participate in the event, which he hopes will raise $5,000. "This whole thing has come together very quickly. It's such a good cause, people immediately want to get involved." It's a helping hand that is sorely needed by the Red Cross, which last week estimated the expected total cost of its Midwestern relief operations at more than $20 million. With over 55,000 family dwellings affected by the disaster and more than 14,000 people seeking shelter services, the agency would seem to face a daunting task in meeting the mounting need. Monmouth and Ocean county Red Cross offices, which have already raised an estimated $20,000 in flood relief funds, have found Shore-area residents more than willing to help He's left his platinum-selling band behind and can't keep a record deal with his new one, but that hasn't stopped former Twisted Sister front-man Dee Snyder from hitting the road to drum up some grass-roots buzz for Widowmaker, his latest post-TwisteM effort.

If formulaic hard rock is your thing, catch 'em tonight at the Fast Lane, 207 Fourth Asbury Park, $10. ALSO: Are they a traveling racial insult or just an interesting modern rock band? Decide for yourself tomorrow night when north Carolina-based Big Black Nun hits the Brighton Baj (121 Brighton Long Branclj $5), with Lizard Music, Misery Blis Mad Lee and Logs in the Mainstream Elektra Recording artist Chnj Harford tomorrow at T-Birds Caf 707 Main Asbury Park, $7... out, according to Denise Hoagland, associate director of development at the agency's Jersey Coast Chapter. "I think its because of the nor'easter. They've lived a little bit of it, so they know what's needed." Despite the need for food, clothing and furniture in stricken areas, Red Cross officials will only accept cash donations at benefit sites, including the Stony Pony concert, Hoagland said.

All of tie $7 ticket price at tonight's event will go to Red Cross coffers, she added. "If you donate 20 cans of food and there's hundreds of people who need it, how do you determine who gets fed? People in the shelters are under a lot of stress already, and it can bring a lot of squabbles over who gets what." "It's great to be doing something that benefits people in this country, for once," said Frank Bressi, frontman and guitarist for Long Branch modern rockers Psykidelic Oven Mit. "Congress is bickering about how much aid to send to our own people, but they don't have any problems sending soldiers and money to Somalia or Bosnia." When it came time to organize the show, Honchar knew he'd be sacrificing a lot of his personal time and resources to make it happen. But one sacrifice he didn't count on was the loss of his band following the departure of Fear Factor drummer Joe Esk-ridge over Honchar's decision to keep the band committed to a previously scheduled show, rather than take a spot on the benefit's bill. "I'm not doing this for me," Honchar said, explaining his reluctance to include his own band in the proceedings.

"I didn't want to say 'put me in the This is for the Red Cross." One person he wouldn't mind getting in the spotlight, however, is a certain superstar rocker long known for his surprise appearances at similar events. "I know for a fact that a letter about the show has been hand-delivered to Bruce and Patti," said Honchar. "Obviously, we can't count on an appearance, but who knows?" New Recordings appears in The Press. Eric Deggans is the Asbury Pa rress music writer. Pop Music a pears rrtaays.

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