The Courier from Waterloo, Iowa • 38

2 I PULSE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2001 WATERLOOCEDAR FALLS COURIER IN ROTATION capsule reviews of new CD releases provided by Knight Ridder Newspapers Brother Trucker makes trip to CF. "FT Listening Booth brother trucker regulars if BRYAN REDEMSKE Brother Trucker is set to perform at local venue on Nov. 9. Brother Trucker "Regulars" (Trailer Records) l2 No matter when you first hear a band, it sometimes feels as though you've heard it a dozen times before. Such is the case with Brother Trucker's latest release, "Regulars." The band made its debut on Trailer Records last year with a self-titled disc and is back for more.

Hailing from Des Moines, Brother Trucker consists of lead singer Andy Fleming, lead guitarist Mike Fitzpatrick, drummer John Conlan, bassist Lyle Kevin Hogue and percussionist Brian Atkinson. The band is a down-home country rock outfit, and has a special knack for drawing you into each song. "Regulars" is a great title for the i impress you immediately but he grows on you. Instrumentally, the album sounds as if it was recorded right in front of you it has a warmth that makes it an easy listen time and again. Cedar Valley music fans will have a chance to check out Brother Trucker at Mainly Lou's on Nov.

9. Judging by the sounds on "Regulars," it's going to be well worth your time to stop in. For more Brother Trucker info, go to www.trailer-records.com. album, as Brother Trucker sounds like a band everyone knows your hometown band. Only this time, instead of burning out and breaking up five times before their junior years in high school, this band makes it and cranks out great music in the process.

On most of the album, Brother Trucker seems content to hit its own groove and stay in it. "Rent Is Due" has the only hints of a rocker, though most of the tracks are upbeat. Fleming's vocals won't ENRIQUE IGLESIAS "Escape" (Interscope) "Escape," Enrique Iglesias' second English-language release, shares its name with Journey's top-selling 1981 album, an act Iglesias has cited as an influence. But this is pure pop circa 1999. Catchy, radio-ready dance-pop tunes like the title track and "Don't Turn Off the Lights" and ballads aimed at his young female fans, like the cloying Top 10 hit "Hero," abound.

There's also a lot of rather lame singing, too. The poor lad always sounds as if the thermostat in his recording studio has been set to arctic. How else to explain his overly tremulous voice and those little cries he emits at the end of a line? Nevertheless, those who found his last CD, "Enrique," appealing will like this one. Iglesias isn't about to mess with a successful formula. Too bad.

Iglesias' most arresting and promising work came early in his career with 1997's "Vivir," which recalled some of his '80s rock and pop influences. "Escape" is merely ear candy. LE TIGRE "Feminist Sweepstakes" (Lady) Le Tigre, the New York empower-pop trio featuring Kathleen Hanna (ex-Bikini Kill), Johanna Fateman and JD Sampson (replacing filmmaker Sadie Benning), embrace full-on their women's lib foremothers. The lyrics may sound chunky "because we refuse to be embarrassed about the mistakes and faults and choose to move forward with a political agenda bent on the freedom of all," Hanna sings like a fanzine manifesto on "res Bien." But by making the music irresistibly catchy, they got the beat in their agit-pop. Hanna has always excelled at sloganeering combined with affirmation riffs.

With Fateman and Sampson as co-programmers and conspirators (the band relies on crude electronic equipment and simple guitars and drums), and veteran indie-pop producer Chris Stamey, she has found collaborators with an equally new wave bent. "We're the band with the rollerskate jams," they sing on "LT" "Tour Theme." "Yeah!" Gang of Four, Pet Shop Boys, Rage Against the Machine, Stereo-lab: Le Tigre lives up to a noble heritage of bands with strong left hooks. But true to feminist philosophy, they also make the personal political. On songs such as "Well Well Well" and "Keep On Livin," Hanna goes micro, urging her friendslisteners not to just get out there and fight, but just to get out there. INCUBUS "Morning View" (EpicImmortal) Incubus, whose guitarist Mike Einziger recently railed against rap-metal in Spin, blends its sounds together, instead of welding.

The band's third and most musically advanced album opens with skittering trip-hop beats played by drummer Jose Pasillas and echoed in singer Brandon Boyd's stuttered, whispered scatting. Trendy enough, except Incubus is a hard-rock band, as the KERRANG of big guitars quickly makes clear. "Nice to Know You" is a strange, adventurous amalgam; lyrically, the song is at once hopeful and dismissive. Incubus, with the help of producer Scott Litt (R.E.M.), is looking beyond the angst of nu-metal not quite leaving the genre's constraints, but certainly pushing them out. Flutes, Japanese ko-kyu, lyrics about life's circularity and "temporaryism" you could diminish it as nu-AGE metal.

But you should give it credit as the maturation of a music not known for its maturity. Boyd has been lauded for being in touch with his sensitive, "feminine" side. "Call it woman's intuition, but I think I'm onto something here," the Bjork fan sings on "Just a Phase," a song not just about love, but about pop. Incubus isn't phase-shifting it's forging. Not every track on "Morning View" (named after the Malibu coastal house the group turned into a studio) catches the dawn's light.

But at least Incubus is looking. JOHN MELLENCAMP "Cut-tin' Heads" (Columbia) 12 As John Mellencamp has aged, instead of growing stagnant, his songwriting has improved. But on "Cuttin' Heads" Mellencamp turns preachy. Though the CD is as melodically sound and well-played as any of his previous records, no one comes to a Mellencamp record looking for nose-in-the-air lectures on racism and American isolationism. But that's precisely what happens on the title track and "Crazy Island." "Cuttin" Heads," which features vocal guest shots from India, Arie and Trisha Yearwood, is more palatable on the somewhat incongruous "Shy" in which this grandfather sings "I'm sexually shy, shy, shy" or the self-deprecating "Women Seem" which bemoans his luck in relationships: "Women seem to treat me so graciousThey sing me to sleep with a songBut there always seems to be a problemWomen don't seem to like me long." WE still like you, Johnny, 25 years into your career.

Just lighten up a bit. America's t'mwite Female Pianist" V7 her Pop Chamber Orchestra" A Heavenly Night ALL NEW 2001 HOLIDAY SHOW! Cedar Falls Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center Wednesday, November 21 7:30 p.m. Tickets 319-273-7469 or 1-877-549-7469 or http:tickets.uni.edu "Be There With Bells On!" www.lorieline.com.