Beating the Sophomore Jinx : Strong 2nd Efforts by 3D, Rick Elias Prove Debuts Not Just Luck

Rick Elias and 3D Picnic both debuted in 1990 with excellent albums that placed them among the talents most worth watching on the local rock scene. Now, strong new releases by both signal that those first efforts were no fluke. The rating system ranges from * (poor) to ***** (a classic). Three stars denote a solid recommendation.

*** 1/2 3D PICNIC “Sunshine and Cockroaches” Cargo/Earth Music

Rather than repeat the elaborate, layered textures of its debut album, “Dirt,” the Los Angeles-based 3D Picnic features rawness, heaviness and electricity the second time around.

Former Huntington Beach punker Don Burnet (dubbed “Dallas Don” in the credits) and his pals manage to be heavy without being heavy-handed. The song arrangements continue to be ambitious and well thought out, often giving Carolynne Edwards’ keyboards equal weight with Burnet’s aggressive guitar. 3D never lets its fondness for charged playing overpower its alert pop instincts.

While “Dirt” was a tad more varied, and offered a few more immediately memorable songs, there are some real gems, and no disappointments, among the 15 new tracks.

Name-that-source is again a game that those so inclined can play with 3D. “I Wanna Be Your Hand,” a tongue-in-cheek song about sexual frustrations erupting in the shadow of AIDS, is an obvious cop of the Beatles’ “I Wanna Be Your Man.” But that’s just the chorus. What makes it fun are additional snippets that sound as if they were lifted from two other songs about sex, Elvis Costello’s “Mystery Dance” and the Velvet Underground’s “Foggy Notion.”

3D Picnic shows an especially engaging way with country sources, which too many alternative rockers handle with condescension or a reverence that turns to stiffness. In the fine tradition of X, Jason and the Scorchers and Neil Young, 3D Picnic uses the honky-tonk two-step or waltz as a launching pad for explosive rock.

Burnet’s theatrical singing style most resembles David Bowie. With his limited range and grainy tone, Dallas Don isn’t a pure singer, but he is more than adequate, and he benefits from strong support from the smoother Edwards. Burnet sometimes overindulges a penchant for tongue-twisting bursts of verbiage delivered at Gatling-gun speed, making the lyric sheet a vital listener’s accessory.

The highest purpose of pure pop is to bring color to the world, to make its harshness more bearable. That, musically and thematically, is at the core of 3D Picnic’s approach. Almost every song makes room for humor and quirky conceits. But the emotional mix is complex, and the humor and pop lift of songs like “Sunshine and Cockroaches” (a suicide note set to a breezy piano jangle) don’t disguise an underlying poignancy. In a lot of these songs, humor is a weapon of defense against oncoming depression.

On “Thinner by the Day” and the sumptuously yearning finale, “Waiting for Parts,” 3D is at its most memorably melodic, and its most poignant. Without striking a heroic art-martyr’s pose, Burnet speaks of what it’s like to be a struggling rocker, paying costs both material and psychic for his decision to drop out of the race for middle-class security.

In the clinching moment of “Thinner by the Day,” the song turns into a sad anthem not just for a hard-pressed rock singer, but for all who have been sent reeling in a recession economy: “I’m an American institution, an unavoidable inclusion, a true believer without a place to pray / I’m alive and getting thinner by the day.”

‘Waiting for Parts” finds Burnet having a hard time justifying himself to parents who no doubt expected him to be spending his 20s getting a real life: “Mama, you did your best, please don’t think it was in vain / Papa, I never did take your test, now I’m losing my own game.”

After two vibrant, intelligent and hummable albums, one can only conclude that, whether it wins or loses in the pop game, 3D Picnic is a band equipped to play it admirably for a good while to come.

*** 1/2 RICK ELIAS “Ten Stories” Alarma

Evaluating Christian rock from a secular viewpoint usually means having to tune out the theology and concentrate on the music’s emotional expressiveness. But you don’t have to care about Jesus to be moved and captured by this Fountain Valley rocker’s explorations of the meaning of faith.

Instead of singing about how wonderful it is to be saved and looking forward to earthly peace and heavenly rewards, Elias burrows ferociously into the fallen here-and-now. Most of these 10 stories are not about illumination, but about darkness. They describe what a harrowing, defeating thing life can be, and what a wreck most of human society is. For Elias, faith in God is not some easy cure-all. But it is an absolute necessity, without which life amid the muck would become simply untenable.

While a Bono Hewson likes to position himself on the mountain top, howling out the Word with prophetic grandeur, Elias is more inclined to gut it out at gutter level. With his hefty, husky, soul-tinged voice, which he can soften to an aching, intimate whisper, Elias is well-equipped to occupy that ground.

The stylistic touchstones are the same varied ones as on his debut album, “Rick Elias & the Confessions.” There is a good measure of Rolling Stones (Elias may be overly fond of rewriting “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”), some Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, a dollop of Ray Charles on the pretty ballad, “Wondering Why,” and some soulful, Gregg Allman-style blues. In a nice departure, Elias also gets into a bit of Stevie Wonder funk during “John Doe,” echoing the urgent growl Wonder applied to “Living for the City” in order to clinch a similar story of defeated hopes and wasted potential.

An experienced rocker whose album debut was long delayed because of personal and career setbacks, Elias is also adept as his own producer, achieving a clean but trenchant blend of keyboards and guitars, of acoustic and electric textures. A couple of songs go for a polished adult-contemporary sheen without sacrificing conviction for the sake of gloss.

What makes Elias’ theology fascinating is that it is complex; he is no sloganeering shill for his God, and he laments all-too-human imperfections of his own. On “Don’t Rain on Me,” in fact, Elias has the gumption--born of pent-up, Job-like frustration--to tell God off for making life so hard: “What you’re asking is absurd.”

After an album-long process of questioning (of God, of social realities, of his own ambitious motives and fear of emotional closeness), Elias erupts in a declaration of faith on “Only Your Love,” a ravaged but triumphant blues-rock grinder. Then he subsides into a quiet expression of love for his family. That hopeful ending seems earned in a way that many spiritual rockers’ declarations do not.

While the firm kick in Elias’ rock is a form of buoyancy, it would be good to see him explore some lighter material for the sake of contrast and completeness. Sometimes, you have to just put the big questions aside for a while and grin.

IN THE HOLE: Thinking big but drawing small led to losses for two recent Orange County rock benefit concerts.

Leland Jeffries, organizer of the Leo Fender Memorial Jam Benefit, estimated Tuesday that last Saturday’s marathon guitar extravaganza at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center resulted in losses of $3,000 to $5,000. Jeffries said paid attendance was about 850 in a venue that seats 5,500. The show in honor of the late Fullerton-based guitar innovator was to have benefited the Newport Beach-based Parkinson’s Educational Program (PEP). Charlotte Jayne, executive director of PEP, said the show broke even, but added that the organization received donations Jeffries may not have known about.

Jeffries and Jayne said that possible future income from cable broadcasts and sales of a concert video of the show could eventually offset any losses and earn a profit. Fender Musical Instruments, which paid advertising costs for the event, donated an Eric Clapton-model Stratocaster that was autographed by Clapton. Also signed by the musicians who played at the benefit, including Dick Dale, James Burton, Albert Lee and Yngwie Malmsteen, the guitar eventually will be auctioned, with proceeds going to PEP.

“We won’t lose money,” Jayne said. She praised the concert’s musical performances and said PEP is eager to try again next year.

Jeffries, a Fullerton rock musician who had no previous concert promotion experience, said he needs to “recuperate and see it in a clear light” before he can commit to attempting a second Fender benefit next year.

“Right now I’d say we’ll do another one,” he said. But before going forward, Jeffries said, he would have to enlist a corporate sponsor, book a bona fide star rocker who could fill a large hall, keep ticket prices below the $25-$50 range of this year’s show, and make staging changes to avoid the long between-act delays that turned the event into a 10-hour endurance test.

Also finishing in the red was “Clinic Aid,” an Aug. 3 benefit at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre for the Huntington Beach Community Clinic and 11 other nonprofit community clinics in Orange County.

Jackie Curran, executive director of the Huntington Beach clinic, said the concert by Dr. Rock, a band of amateurs, most of them local health practitioners, drew 1,072 people and resulted in a $3,800 loss.

Curran, who also is a member of Dr. Rock, said the benefit succeeded in drawing attention to the community clinics’ fund-raising needs. Sponsors hope to try again next year, with a major headliner to beef up the draw.

“We consider it a public-relations investment,” Curran said of the show. “This was a seed event, and for the first year, it did well.”

THE NAME GAME: The Bandstand in Anaheim is changing its name to the Cowboy Boogie Co. Owner Jack Wade said the 1,000-capacity venue will feature local country bands on Sunday nights. Other nights, disc jockeys will spin up-tempo country and rock records. Under the Bandstand name, the club had booked live country cover bands three nights a week, and mixed Top 40 with country on disco nights.

Wade said he plans to feature “at least one or two” concerts a month by touring country attractions. Aaron Tippin plays at the Cowboy Boogie Co. on Aug. 26, and Diamond Rio appears Sept. 15. Both shows are free, with tickets distributed through KZLA-FM.