The sad reality is that it's time to get back to work and to the
crappy printers and the HBP and stress. Looks like today will be the
last of the hot days before a big cold front goes through and reminds us
that summer is just about over.
Looks like Hurricane Gus wasn't going to be the Hurricane Goddam that
we thought it would be but like Fay, whereever its at you're going to
get lots of rain. Which is why I'll never move to the gulf coast. But
before we celebrate good riddence to Gus, there are three other storm
systems out there that going to become hurricanes so there's Hanna, Ike
and Josephine. BTW it's the peak week for hurricanes. Give thanks to
Gus for sparing the oil wells and giving the finger to OPEC and the oil
barons. But I'm sure the OPEC will find ways of trying to keep the oil
prices high.
With the last of the hot humid air here, it gives me the longing to
return back to the deserts, even to the blistering dry hot air of
Bullhead City or the cooler temps of Kingman. I still consider Crookton
Point Bridge as sacred as the Chain Of Rocks Bridge in St Louis. If
you're a follower of the Route 66 mystic, you'll know what I mean. Too
bad I live too far away to escape to that desolate place out there.
Back to reality and what goes on. On the subject of McCain's running
mate and her 17 year old daughter having one in the oven and ready to
pop out, what does this have to do with the price of food or gas other
than one more mouth to feed. I swear politics are worser than Perez
Hilton or TMZ. Nobody has viable solutions for the problems of the
world but they'll sure dig up dirt on somebody's teenage daughter having
sex and getting knocked up. News flash Geraldo Rivera, everybody has
sex including sleezebag FOX cocks. And Palin's daughter will get
married to the daddy and probaly divorced three years and three kids
later but that is life. And I tend to fear hurricanes and tornados more
than I do with dumb kids not using protection. (Of course it didn't last Bristol and the creature she messed around parted ways, but Dude Johnson continued to be fruitful and multiply with the next one, and the next one.....)
Polenia's Meat Market in Czech Village will not reopen. A victim
from the 40 days and nights of rains and floods in the spring. It's a
shame, they had some of the finest meats you can buy. Almost makes you
want to go vegatarian.
When I was going through shops in Phoenix to find things, I had a bad
time having a sneeze attacks or having a runny nose that wouldn't stop
when I was at Bookman's, AZ's answer to Half Priced Books although there
is one in Phoenix but didn't go look for it. I think I sneezed about 9
times saturday at the one at 19th Ave. I'm not sure the dryer air
helped my sinus problems but I do know when you run the AC all day down
there and night the damn nose dries up. One night too much AC had me
doing the shivers. Not a lot of fun if you ask me, so I turned the temp
up a couple degrees and got sweated out. It's a dry heat most of the
time (except monsoon season to which it felt like the midwest in june)
but if you shut the AC off for five minites, it becomes a sweatbox. I
do like staying at the Quality Inn in Kingman but they didn't give me a
compliment bag after I left and there's no eating places within a mile
of it. Used to be one called Nick's on 66 but Nick has gone down the
road someplace else and the building is empty. Still, next time in
Kingman I'll be there, as long as they have a working computer so I can
clean out the junk emails.
The Cubs are stinking up the tube once again. Everytime I got to see
them on TV they lost. They better start getting their act together or
Milwaukee might go past them.
RIP Killer Kowalski, one of the legends of wrestling. He was 81.
I have reviewed 49 albums so far this year, the bulk of them coming
the last two months. (actually 20). So we might up the total to around
65 to 70 looks like but a lotta albums are coming out in digipaks and
I'm not too crazy about reviewing stuff in digipaks. Plus the
compressed sound from the new albums sucks. The new Blue Mountain
albums are in digipaks, so is the new Motorhead and even though there
have been glowing reviews about Lemmy's new CD, what I heard I thought
sounded bland. Sure it's in your face and it rocks but it doesn't rock
like it did on the last album Kiss Of Death. I'm sure after 30 years
making the same album, you might lose a bit of inspiration at least a
couple times and Motorizer seems to be that album of clunkiness. Is it
four stars as AMG has it? Definly not. I'm thinking Mark Prindle had it
better as he gave it a B. If it comes up used perhaps then but it's
not a high priority for me to get. Sorry Lemmy.
I'm also thinking that somebody blew it on the Robert Plant Dreamland
CD that I finally got around hearing after buying it in AZ. It might
be a two and half star album at best. Plant has had some surprising
albums (his last with Alison Krauss) and some disappointments (Jimmy
Page on Walking To Clarksdale to which I'm thinking Steve Albini gave
them a shitty mix on that album) but Dreamland even with the two boner
cuts at the end is a slightly overrated album. Just like the new
Charlatans UK album to which they touted it up so much on their My Space
site you thought it would be the album of the year. Then I heard it.
So you see kiddies, the reason why CD and music sales are down is that
the quality of music of this age and time just isn't memorable and as
disposible as last year's cellphone. Even Kid Rock noticed that when he
made his summertime record of the year All Summer Long, he referenced
the beats from Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama, the latter a
great song but now overplayed to death. Two years ago it was Gnarls
Barkley with Crazy as Summer song of the year but I can't remember what
passed for summer song of the year last year. And that's why nobody
remembers anything anymore in terms of song. Shit the songs playing
constantly in my head are from the 60s or 70s. You might think Kid Rock
is a asshole but he's a lot more rock and roll nowadays then what
passes on rock radio.
I heard the new Slipknot song on KUPD last week and have to say I'm
impressed that these guys are actually rocking a bit more but that was
only one song. Corey Taylor does do good things sometimes with the
Slipknotters and Stone Sour and he still calls Iowa home so I don't get
on him. Of course, being stuck in that fucking Des Moines traffic can
make you think nasty thoughts and good to see that he got some gold
records out of the process. And I still think Slipknot can become a
good prog rock band too when they all hit thirty and beyond, can you
picture a 50 year old Slipknotter singing about skullbanging?!?
But then again the Des Moines traffic will do that to you.
As for why I didn't comment on the songs from last week, I was on a
shared computer at the motel room and had a guy waiting for me to get
off the computer so I just named the songs. The next top ten will deal
with what I heard out there and more songs of note. I didn't add a top
ten to the Yardbird's Roost last week, I took a week off over there and
the readership over there has slipped a lot. Top Tens are fun but when
nobody comments on them after a while, it just becomes a personal list
for me. And I do enjoy a good conversation.
And finally for now, to name withheld out there, dating after age 40
is a hassle. I'm sure Neil Hubbard and E harmony has somebody out there
for somebody, but if you set the bar too high and expect too much,
nobody gonna give you a second date or look. Life is loneliness and
here I'm alone about 70 percent of the time but I make the best use of
my time by bargain hunting or discovering how to ride a bike. If it
happens fine, if not life shouldn't end due to bad relationships or what
have ye. Only you know what you want from life and from potential
dating. Compromise a little and see what happens, otherwise you might
find yourself alone for a little while
longer................................
Motorhead-Motorizer (SPV)
Thirty five years onward, the new Motorhead is like the last
Motorhead is like the last one right till the first album that came
out. At 62 Lemmy still sounds like he was when he was 32 and I'm sure
if he was 2 years old still would have that gravelpit voice that we all
know and love. When I first heard this at the music store I wasn't
impressed but we can blame that on a subpar stereo they had up there or
probaly in MP3 sound. But it's still Motorhead bashing away with
Lemmy's bass starting things out and then Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee
follow behind, or Mikkey throws out a drum solo at the beginning of the
song. I think their last album Kiss Of Death was pretty good, and this
does come close. And they do vary their sound a bit more, with a Thin
Lizzy shuffle beat on Back On The Chain. And then....
Runaround Man is your standard lead off, Mikkey does a fill, the
guyscome in and Lemmy bellows them out and adds some of the most ugly
backing vocals to the song. Rock Out is the long lost cousin to Ace Of
Spades. One Short Life is a bloozefest, reminds me of a staggering
drunk at the bar. The stop start of English Rose which turns out to be
somewhat of a metal pop number (somthing like Christine from Kiss of
Death). Even adds a slide to Thousand Names Of God. Perhaps the
complaint is that Lemmy doesn't vary too much and some of the lesser
songs are a bit tossed off and the ladies might be put off by the last
chorus to Rock Out (with your cock out/impress your lady friends) but
that shouldn't stop the Motorhead fans out there to jam away. But with
Motorhead what you hear is what you get, three chord rock and roll
turned up to ten with distinct Lemmy vocals that we all know and love.
And if this a slight album as some of the critics out there might say,
it still is miles ahead of the last Who or Rolling Stones album. And
even if Lemmy is still around ten or twenty years from now, he'll still
look the same and sound the same unlike the Mick Jaggers or Roger
Daltrys of the world. And like AC/DC, Motorhead is still ROCK N ROLL,
still guaranteed to piss off your parents...to which they probaly were
listening to Ace Of Spades and pissing off their parents. Motorizer
might be a slighter than Kiss Of Death but it still rocks out.
Grade B plus
Bother your neighbors with: Runaround Man, A Thousand Names Of God, English Rose
