Local Yokels

Map of Wyoming
Round Trip
(Self-released)

For every Counting Crows that triumphantly captures the dream demo between KFOG and Live 105, 200 more sound like Map of Wyoming, a pale simulacrum of Sheryl Crow's backup band, minus the star power. Chestnut & Divisadero

Niagara
Niagara 01
(Bliss)

Jeff Davis, who once led a group called the Balancing Act at the end of the 1980s, is the man behind the oft-precious Niagara. "Spanish Motorcycle" kitchen sinks a bloopy "For What It's Worth" riff, offbeat bass, sawing violin, dissonant pianos, and shuffling trap drums into a pop ditty, but the treated and affected vocals make the lyrics -- "I'm filthy and I'm rich and I haven't got a dime" -- absurdly unbelievable. "Alcatraz," on the other hand, is a San Francisco romance pop tune with the singability of a Squeeze hit that suits Davis fine. Here, his grocery girl -- he loves the way she "bags his apples tenderly" -- wears a "velvet coat," keeps a cat in her bedroom, and probably owns "a Teenage Fanclub record or two." Is narcissistic love a redundancy? Third Street & Harrison

P.E.E.
The Roaring Mechanism
(Absolutely Kosher)

Marvelously blocky and ingenious, the new P.E.E. record, the second after 1996's terrific Now, More Charm and More Tender, is sort of like the periodic table of the elements, a confusing set of letters and symbols and mathematical enumerations that don't make much sense unless you understand the perfect order of the entire system. (The problem: I almost failed chemistry.) "I Can't Wait 'Til I Get Rickets," "The Rewards of Gourmet Dining," and "The Misguided Self-Punishers" are the hydrogen, the helium, and the oxygen of the record -- moderately familiar but still mysterious in their own way. "Ed Is Fifty," a four-minute tension-and-release epic, is one of those weird metals down on the lower tier of the table: You might have heard of it before, but you'll never really understand it unless you're a scientist. Or a musician. Valencia & 22nd Street

Vaportrail
E.P.
(Self-released)

The only difference between these kids and Ride is that Ride's 1991 EP was called Vapour Trail. Word to the young band: Dropping a "U" and shortening it into one word doesn't count as artistic creativity, especially if you're ripping off the rest. (And who in the hell listens to stuff like that anymore -- except for the like-minded local band Pete?) Yes, Ride were stealing old Jesus and Mary Chain back in the early 1990s, but they at least added a languid version of personality, a dreamy love, to their graft. San Jose

Various Artists
San Francisco: A Music City Compilation 1998
(Trocadero/Triggerfish Music)

That the most significant and comprehensive compilation of San Francisco bands comes from a record label in Germany says more about the local scene, or lack thereof, than any cranky set of reviews in a weekly newspaper. Critic Kurt Wolff's introductory essay tries to equate S.F. music with the rain, the fog, the wet sidewalks, but faced with the diversity of local acts he settles on a smarter (if vaguer and debatable) point: San Francisco is the sound of people who want to be here. Like most comps, and certainly any double-disc 43-song comp, there are hits and misses. Granfaloon Bus' "The Mission Song" is an undentable gem. Swell's "Bitter Friends" is better than anything on the band's last record and is almost as good as most of 41. Fantasy's "White World" nearly beats the group's live shows. But the burly riff in "Blue Hawaiian" is too tough for Dieselhed, and the trumpet at the end of the song is confusing. Chuck Prophet's "Ooh Wee" starts well, but devolves into pointlessness. Tracks by now-dead San Francisco bands (Paddlefoot, Mensclub, Mommyheads) and about every worthwhile living local (Tarnation, Sunshine Club, Waycross, Zmrzlina) make Music City essential listening for any S.F. club owner. Both of them. San Francisco

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