A Sweet Mix From Novoselic

Forget Seattle. On the debut album from his new band, former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic is all over the musical map, from Guatemala (the folk song “Cantos de Pilon”) to Nashville (the country spoof “Ode to Dolly”) to punky New York (the galloping “Poor Kitty”). He and hearty-voiced singer Yva Las Vegas delight in skipping around, and the results are often delightful.

Most enticing, though, is the Haight-Ashbury by way of early Led Zeppelin folk-rock that marks the album, driven by Novoselic’s 12-string guitar modalities. On the opening “Fletch,” the anguished “Nothing” and the closing “Oral Health,” Las Vegas’ voice intertwines with Novoselic’s earthy lines, the evocations alternately yearning and purging. It’s there that they seem right at home.

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