SPILL IT

BY MIKE BREEN

Scream Dream

Dayton-based singer-songwriter Jayne Sachs will be in Cincy Friday to host a Queen City release party for her dazzling new CD, It's a Scream, at York St. International Cafe.

Though Sachs' previous release, Faye's Flower, was a magnificent blend of Pop, Folk and Alternative influences, It's a Scream shows Sachs taking that mix to an even more satisfying conclusion. Whereas Faye's featured tracks that were solid and consistent, Scream's songs have a depth that pulls the listener in even further, emanating a creeping, haunted quality that befits Sachs' sound perfectly and also succeeds in giving the music a more soulful edge.

It's a Scream is Sachs' first effort featuring the production talents of legendary producer Kramer, who Sachs met at one of the many music conferences she's attended. Kramer, a member of the seminal Avant band Bongwater, has produced a litany of big and small name artists at his Noise New Jersey studios, where Sachs recorded It's a Scream.

For info on how to obtain the new disc, write Peer Productions, Box 5673, Dayton, OH 45405.

Long Gone and Back Again

Fans of the true essence of Rock & Roll and those wanting an appreciation of Cincy's rich, underground musical history will want to get a hold of Real Long Gone, the new collection of "greatest hits" from local Garage Rock greats The Customs.

The Customs were an on again/off again group of misfits, the kind of band that every city has multitudes of at any given moment. The Customs' greatness, like so many forgotten-then-remembered geniuses, wasn't accurately realized until years later, when esteemed Garage champions the world over began covering the group's songs and record collectors began scampering for the excruciatingly hard-to-find releases (of which there were only two).

Real Long Gone, released by local Shake It Records, the home to the original 7-inch releases some 20 years ago, collects the singles, out-takes and rarities from the band's short but vital time together. "Can't Polish a Turd" is inscribed lightly on the actual CD -- a trick taken from the old practice of inscribing a cryptic message onto vinyl -- but the crude recording quality on a few tracks doesn't diminish the blistering, full-on and occasionally drunken energy that The Customs always seemed to exude. In fact, the rawer the recording, the closer the band gets to capturing that elusive spark that the greats and legends of Rock & Roll all brilliantly mustered, but so few seem capable of today.

The compilation is available in local-music friendly stores around town, or you can write Shake It Records, 4136 Florida Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45223, for more information.

CEA Nominees 'Round Town

Some of the gifted performers nominated for the prestigious Cincinnati Entertainment Awards will be out and about in the next week or so, giving voters a chance to see and hear them before making that crucial vote.