POP MUSIC REVIEW : This Great Religion’s Singer Is Divine; Sound Mix Is Not

This Great Religion, whose college-rock liturgy leans toward the Church of England, won the opening round of the Texas Tuneup contest Friday night at Bogart’s.

The young, British-influenced band, hailing from Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley, was judged best in a diverse field of four contestants that ranged from hard-core punk to a lounge-act spoof. This Great Religion was a “pretty overwhelming choice” by the evening’s five-member judging panel, according to Stephen Zepeda, the Bogart’s booker who organized the show along with its co-sponsor, the Pacific News & Review.

The victory earned This Great Religion a spot in the contest’s Feb. 13 finals, where it will face the winner of another preliminary round to be played at Bogart’s on Feb. 8. The champion earns a concert appearance in March at the South by Southwest Music Festival, an alternative rock showcase in Austin, Tex.

This Great Religion’s best asset was its singer, Maria Hall, whose sweetly ethereal voice recalled such alternative rock faves as Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays and Karen Peris of the Innocence Mission. It was an asset partly squandered by a poorly balanced sound mix which favored instruments over vocals. Hall showed promise, even though it was impossible to make out what she was singing.

Anthony Hoffer dominated the band’s instrumental attack by saturating his guitar playing with echoes, delays and other electronic effects. Hoffer manipulated his machinery skillfully to create multifaceted patterns and full textures that sometimes echoed the guitar sonics of Brian Eno’s early albums.

While it has good elements in place, This Great Religion still needs to study its pop catechism: It would especially help if the band could exploit its singer better with crisper song structures and stronger melodies, not to mention a live mix that makes her audible. The band, together about a year, didn’t show much presence, although Hall’s persistent, enigmatic smile and Annie Hall hat were nice antidotes to the solemnity implied by the group’s name and candle-festooned stage set.

Busface made the best impression of the runners-up, playing a free-ranging, nicely honed set of muscular guitar rock grounded in ‘70s influences. The four-member band moved from New York Dolls-style garage-rock and psychedelic sounds to more tightly arranged forms, including a nice, folk-inflected number with singing harmony guitar riffs that recalled Jethro Tull.

Phil Savell’s consistently melodic lead guitar played off nicely against active rhythm guitar riffing and flexible, boisterous bass work. Vocals were the band’s downfall, though--three different members sang lead, none of them with distinction.

Olive Lawn played hard-core punk that managed some implied melodic lift with a hammering three-chord attack that seemed to acknowledge the Who and surf rock as much as it borrowed from Black Flag. But singer Mike Olson’s patience-trying rants embodied all that’s wrong with hard-core, lacking even the virtue--such as it is--of manic sincerity.

With Dread Zeppelin showing a new, improved, and, above all, skillful way to do a lounge act spoof, Lovingkindness seems like an idea whose time has passed. The band does deliberately bad renditions of hits by Harry Chapin, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Bad Company, and the like, with singer Tom Holland posing as lounge lizard Monte Vista.

Holland brought enough energy and enthusiasm to the spoof to make his set tolerable, despite the creaky music. But as satire goes, it’s not very imaginative to devote one’s act to murdering toothless old Top 40 tunes that alternative rock crowds find laughable to begin with. Dread Zeppelin fools around with songs that presumably matter to its audience; Lovingkindness has some zany appeal, but it’s just flaying dead horses.

Judges for the round were Tim Grobaty, entertainment writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram; Ernest Kemeny, progressive rock marketing manager for CBS Records; John Mello, owner of the Doll Hut, and two independent record shop owners--Scott Papa of Ten Ton Records, and Michael Zampelli of Zed Records.