China Shop

 

CHINA SHOP

“Nothing”

7.5

From 21 Puffs On The Cassette (AnthologyRecordings.com)

Of all the worthy albums in the first round of Anthology Recordings rarities,

 China Shop’s 21 Puffs On The Cassette is the most compulsively listenable.

 Try to duck in for just a track or two, and you may well find yourself pulled

 through all 77-odd minutes of this time trip. True, there are some familiar, 

1979-stylish post-punk quirks and bends among the initial markers, but 

China Shop’s not too dated. All the way to 1990, they got some sagas,

 or at least some reports, still hot off the wire, of a comely agent of their 

cartoon Muse. Oh, she’s real enough, she only looks like that because 

she’s sketched quickly, as the Shop lads try to keep up: so she’s traced

 in waves of no/yes/maybe/when, pursued through turns in tonality, 

texture,and tunings, as nerdy neediness pushes its way through holes in 

China Shop’s Downtown party mask. CS also require pop oxygen 

and helium to to fuel and express the quest, so there are, at times, 

some daringly mainstream elements, that might have offended some 

of their more insular boho fans (of this appealingly little-known band, 

or group) but certainly there are no crass/desperate grabs for the

 hitmaking sounds of Talking Heads, for example

 (to whom China Shop do sound like they were listening).

In “Walk On Lightning,” art & pop express this release and relief:

 “When you’re near, I can walk on lightning,” and the chorus’s

 chords seem to turn up even as they resolve, and the following 

riff is indeed like little strokes of crayon lightning, zigzagging 

while pointing the way, as “you float through my fears.”

 In “If It’s New,” the singer realizes, once again, that a new

 sensation is always a challenge; it’s what he wanted and

 worked for and achieved and lucked into, so now he’s running

 around on the curvaceous-to-convoluted verge of getting it on. 

Or so he seems to think, but really, he is getting it on, at least in

 terms of musical panache. Though one kiss, one challenge met, 

leads to another, of course, so he’s taking practice swoops, of phased guitar 

and vocals---“psychedelic Bromo-Seltzer,”

 Captain Beefheart called this whooshing,

 spiraling effect, but on 21 Puffs…

 it’s more like jetspeed skywriting, legible enough.

The basis of all this might be past the middle, in “Nothing.”

 Here, a kid declares, quite credibly, that he loves his parents,

 and even that he “enjoys their company.” 

When’s the last time you heard somebody say that? 

He sounds sincere. Everything seems right, but, to him, everything is wrong,

 at the same time. “If I forget everything I know, would I just fall,

 wrinkled to the ground?” He needs his roots, though he can’t help 

looking where they seem to lead, elusively. Because 

“everything I know” includes knowing that his talent and skills 

need a different launching pad, they need difference itself, 

and whatever it takes to make a difference in every day. 

China Shop’s usual sonic turns are simplified here, but 

they provide a sense of underground tests (bass and drums), 

succinctly allowing room for twitchy inner vistas, as the

 phased guitar, for instance, sounds more speculative

 than ever, cruising the dusty fishbowl, like every night 

about this time. No big climatic conflict, because he’s home,

 and could stress here forever, or quite a while 

(but it’s a fairly short track, cut just deep enough

 

 to make another mood ring around the moon).

P.S. China Shop included Naux Maciel (who played with

 Richard Hell and The Voidoids on the existentially excellent Destiny Street).

 Maciel co-wrote “Nothing” with bassist Steve Cohen, and

 sang most lead vocals on this collection. 

He and guitarist Mike Allison both sing “Walk On Lightning,”

 and Allison sings lead on “Newer Homes.” 

Cohen and Allison play bass duets on “Seems Waiting” and “Think Too Much.”

Keeping these three musos and all listeners on their toes were a 

succession of four drummers, including Richard Edson (who plays on “Nothing”),

 Jimmy Allington, Jeff Baker, and John Fell.

 Edson is probably best-known for his role in the movie Stranger Than Paradise, 

where he was the likably antsy Panza figure to John Lurie’s uptight non-Quixote.  

Also, in the printzine Why Music Sucks, during a debate about whethe

r Sonic Youth had ever actually rocked 

(up to that point, with the issue date being ca. 1990), 

WMS editor Frank Kogan claimed that when he saw SY with Edson

 on drums, “they did rock.” Jeff Baker rolls later China Shop songs

 like “Million Names Of God” from an alternate universe, 

in which Bowie and the Stones enter a more fruitful union

 than our own ‘verse’s mere Bowie-Jagger cover

 of “Dancing In The Streets.”

Steve Cohen, source of these credits for 21 Puffs…,  

says that he once recorded an unreleased session with

 David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, also that

 .he “recently finished a vocal series from back in the same time

 as China Shop, with a variety of locals etc. 

Am currently working with Brad Frost on some ambient-based sounds.” 

(Mike Allison is likewise into ambience; 

in fact, he’s recorded as Darshun Ambient.) 

Cohen has a show on EastVillageRadio.com, 

every Friday, 4-6 P.M. EST. He thinks Maciel 

is mainly playing blues now.