NERO'S ROME Togetherly Lazy Bones WALK INTO ANY used CD store in the Old Pueblo, and you'll undoubtedly find a couple cheap promo copies of Togetherly. Are there so many of this Portland quartet's debut floatin' around out there because the album sucks or some moron with a lotta dough is bank rollin' these guys? They contribute nothing fresh or innovative to the tired, over-saturated alterna-metal market. Despite pristine production chores by Thee Slayer Hippy of sorely-missed Poison Idea, Nero's Rome doesn't belt out bruising hardcore standards like the world's loudest drunks once did. This band leans more toward generic, poppy grunge-metal than earth-shakin' psycho metal-punk. Just call 'em Bush-lite or fat-free Soundgarden. Half the chops and half the calories. --Ron Bally JIMMIE DALE GILMORE Braver New World Warner Brothers YOU CAN'T MISTAKE a Jimmie Dale song, all High Plains yowl that pays homage to Roy Orbison, spare arrangements, and mystical (sometimes bordering on incomprehensible) lyrics. Braver New World is vintage Gilmore, full of falsetto soulfulness and crunchy guitars, full of forlorn verses about crossing the great divine between the dawn and the dream, about checking mailboxes for news that never comes. Tasty stuff, every tune, and with a message: If you meet Buddha on the road outside Lubbock, kill him. --Gregory McNamee UNDERWORLD Second Toughest In The Infants TVT Pearl's Girl EP Junior Boy's Own U.K. GIVEN THE ASCENDANCE of the almighty sampler, it's outrageous that what is generally considered to be a "techno" outfit would revert to guitar as the main instrument. But right at the outset, in opening track "Juanita," the signature, and irresistible, hook is a distorted, recurring axe riff. Other tunes are no less iconoclastic in terms of breaking down the rock/dance barriers--the thick, dubby mix of "To Dream Of Love" reassembles in the mind like Pink Floyd playing R&B, and the more ambient flavored "Blueski" has, swear to God, a twangy blues guitar motif twining through the keyboard mix. The British EP, which comes as two separate CD singles, includes some alternate mixes plus an amazing, trancelike track not on the album called "Cherry Pie," which boasts a gorgeous, expressive melody and some rhythmic twists and turns that are the height of dynamic tension. --Fred Mills

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