RECORD REVIEW : Dark and Stormy ‘Heaven’ : *** Cisco Poison,”It’s a Long Way to Heaven . . . “ <i> Doctor Dream</i>

No, T.S.O.L. didn’t stand for “Timing Sort of Lousy,” but it could have. The original T.S.O.L. lineup was one of the biggest, wildest bands in Southern California punk rock in the early ‘80s, but punk’s commercial breakthrough wouldn’t come for another decade.

The second edition of the band--the one fronted from 1983 to ’91 by Joe Wood--mixed punk with dread-filled blues, then bid for the mainstream with a stormy, metal-tinged sound. It aspired to the fast-track traveled by Guns N’ Roses but never found the entrance ramp.

It would be a sweet tale if T.S.O.L.’s now-thirtysomething alumni (the name officially stood for True Sounds of Liberty) were to find success in the ‘90s after the shipwrecks of the ‘80s.

Jack Grisham and Ron Emory of the original band have a shot: As singer and guitarist of the Joykiller, they’re about to record a new, punk-leaning album for the ultra-hot Epitaph label (home to the Offspring, which took much of its initial inspiration from the early T.S.O.L. records).

As for Wood, his dreams of a big-label release remain just dreams. After the last T.S.O.L. album, “Strange Love” (1990), Wood went in search of a direction.

He played raunchy, ‘70s-style blues-rock a la Humble Pie with a band called Orange Wedge. He fell back on his traditional-blues roots in solo-acoustic shows. And he worked for a time in a more mainstream-rock style that made him sound like a gritty, street-level version of Bryan Adams.

Out of it all has come the band Cisco Poison and the album, “It’s a Long Way to Heaven . . .,” the most accomplished and diverse of Wood’s career. The small, Orange-based Doctor Dream label has to date been something less than a star-making machine. Nevertheless, Cisco Poison’s debut has many of the qualities of big-budget, high-profile albums that have drawn substantial followings.

The opening track, “Lillian,” combines the arena-scale drama of Stone Temple Pilots with the confident riffing of Collective Soul. “Save One for Me” recalls Led Zeppelin in putting an electric charge into folk-blues roots. And “Livin’ on Death Row” is the kind of catchy outlaw number Bon Jovi attempts with trumped-up bluster instead of real authority. Wood, whose artistic temperament has always been very dark, comes at his subject with full credibility.

As he has in the past, Wood depicts people crushed by fate, by circumstance, and by the evil and neglect of others. His world is a dangerous and desperate place. This time, though, he moves past isolated snapshots of dire events and makes the songs resonate until they form a clenched philosophic dialogue on the question of whether a spark of light can be kindled amid the darkness.

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The flickers of hope are few, and dim, but Wood at least allows them into view. “I don’t wanna die here / I don’t wanna live here / Maybe I’ll just close my eyes and dream,” sings the suicidal protagonist of “Gun in My Mouth,” showing an ambivalence that might be enough to thwart his own death wish. But, in a twist on Hamlet’s soliloquy, he is jolted by the fear that his dreams, if he lets himself live, will be nightmares.

The hard-pounding “Everything I See,” which includes a patented slasher-guitar solo by Adolescents alum Rikk Agnew, is an utter rejection: “I don’t wanna be what it is you want for me / I don’t wanna be everything I see.”

Yet, its driving, surging rhythms are in themselves uplifting, suggesting that admitting the worst about life somehow helps give us the will to rise above it, or at least ride its surface currents instead of being swept under. The other post-Adolescents Agnew brother, Frank, turns up to add clean, tasty solo licks to two other songs. Wood, who was a rhythm guitarist in T.S.O.L., steps forward to show solid ability as a lead guitarist whose parts are simple but potent.

The album’s textures are thick but never muddy. Acoustic-guitar shivers frequently serve as intros and undercurrents to electric rock songs. Along with Wood’s cannily deployed array of punk, blues, pop and hard-rock influences, those contrasting textures keep the music varied and interesting even as the mood of desperation remains.

As a singer, Wood’s Jim Morrison-inspired inflections sound less derivative than in the past, and his Joplin-esque whiskey-voiced wails are deployed more judiciously. Wood’s writing is mainly oblique and evocative.

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Cisco Poison, which also includes drummer Johnny Minguez and bassist Mark Rasmussen, saves its best for last. “Big Black Cadillac,” which begins with a darkly ironic allusion to Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” paints a tense portrait of a life gone wrong. The band drives it home with a strong chorus hook.

The ultra-romantic finale, “Mexican Ghost,” is a coda full of oversized longing, a sort of borderlands version of “Nights in White Satin”--except that it’s about titanic loss rather than titanic union. Skirting kitsch with its Spanish guitar colorings and crooned vocals, it reaches for grandeur. It could be the end-title music to an unmade Hollywood epic, a song that such gushing romantics as Tom Jones and Julio Iglesias might want to record. For Wood, it’s an unexpected stretch, and an impressive one.

(Available from Doctor Dream Records, 841 W. Collins Ave., Orange, CA 92667. (714) 997-9387.)

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent). Three stars denote a solid recommendation.

* Cisco Poison plays opening slots at the Coach House on Dec. 7 (for Rev. Horton Heat) and Dec. 10 (for Dick Dale). Also, Dec. 9 at Linda’s Doll Hut. Hear Cisco Poison

Hear Cisco Poison

* To hear a sample from Cisco Poison’s album, “It’s a Long Way to Heaven . . . ,” call TimesLine at 808-8463 and press *5570.