Eugene Chadbourne and the Dropouts – Zupa Dupa Kupa LP (Monotype)
Eugene Chadbourne has always been a frustrating figure. His omnivorous taste (the guy knows his jazz, improv, country, and psychedelic rock), excellent chops on banjo and guitar, and laudable refusal to be bounded by genre, politics, or poverty tend to get canceled out by his tendencies towards shtick, self-righteousness, and shoddiness. So I didn’t have high hopes for this one, but for once, his perversity wins out. After all, if you’re going to make a really well put-together album with empathetic backing, listenable recording, and an unusually high percentage of decent songs, what are you going to do – give it to a label in Poland whose discography features the likes of Lionel Marchetti, Magda Mayas, and Michael Vorfeld? Way to hide your good stuff where no one’s looking, man. Or even if they are, how many people will spring for the trans-Atlantic postage? Hopefully someone will, because this is one of Chadbourne’s best latter-day works, for all the aforementioned reasons, which are sufficiently in evidence to balance out the still-present simplistic snark. “Pod’s” Luddite goes down much easier with a bulbous tuba in the background, and “Hendrix Buried In Tacoma” sounds persuasively Experienced, if you like. Chadbourne reins his tendency to stomp all over song structures, which makes it seem like an artistic strategy rather than mere carelessness when he steps outside of them. (http://www.monotyperecords.com)
(Bill Meyer)
