Than the idiots in the White House and who's running for President.
Republicans sure don't have a clue in anything but bailing out Wall
Street. If the Great Depression Part Two ain't here it's sure is a
start.
From what I have read nobody cares much for the VP Psycho Palin.
Definly from Rosie and Margaret Cho. And for that rare occasion I do
agree with Rosie.
Nice of Southwest Airlines to broadcast commercials on regular TV.
Only problem is if you want to fly Southwest Airlines, ya have to leave
the fucking state. Defeats the sense of purpose on that. At least fly
Allegiant Airlines nonstop to Vegas, Phoenix or Florida and hope they
add flights to Seattle (to which I doubt they will).
The Top Ten of The Week. Unfortunately when I got my car fixed, my
brother put a radio with a cd player that skips on every damn CD I put
in, so I can't listen to the player. Unless I take the discman and get
some headphones. I give my brother an A for effort but may as well
return the old player back in the car. The discman is a bit cumbersome
but it never skips and doesn't scratch up the cd either.
1. Forever-Neu! 1973 Kraut rock from a couple guys that started out
in Kraftwerk but then left to form this odd band. They seemed to
inspire Radiohead in some way but Neu! may be a bit too odd for classic
rock taste. I review them so you don't have to, and BTW, the first
three Neu! albums have been reissued once again for your listening
pleasure. Sometimes I love me some weird Kraut rock. You have to hear
side two of Neu! 2 to believe it.
2. Broken, Beaten and Scarred-Metallica 2008 They're back and
thrashing harder than ever. One thing I must say about the new
Metallica album is that it IS LOUD. Sure ain't no Load or Black Album.
3. Like To Get To Know You-Spanky And Our Gang 1967 No top ten in
the world would have Neu! to Metallica to Spanky And Our Gang in any
setting. And to further complicate things, this song was played on
KAHM.FM, the beautiful music station. Don't ask KAHM to play Neu!
4. What's On My Mind-Kansas 1976 If memory serves me well, I think
this was the follow up to Carry On Wayward Sun and a bit more poppier
too.
5. Hum Along And Dance-Rare Earth 1973 RIP Norman Whitfield who
produced this song and also was famous for getting the funk to the
Temptations and made Gladys Knight And The Pips rock out. It's been a
rough year for musicians moving on to the other side of life.
6. Days Like These-Asia 1989 Top ten hit from the original lineup
who reformed during the Then And Now sessions and then half assed till
this year when they put together Phoenix, their first album since
Astra. John Payne never seems to get any respect.
7. Backwater Blues-BB King 2008 83 years old and still plays the blues. As they say, timeless.
8. Eat The Rich-1983 Krokus Did ya know that the original lineup of
Krokus reformed to play some reunion dates in Denmark, or was it
Switzerland? Either way it was too far for me to really go there.
9. Ocean Drive-The Telescopes 1992 One of many bands signed to
Creation Records and somewhat of a distant cousin to My Bloody
Valentine, they were definly a shoegazer band. To which I'm sure most
of, if not all of you have never heard of.
10. Earache My Eye-Cheech And Chong 1974 and finally to celebrate
the reunion of our favorite druggies, this was featured in the movie Up
And Smoke. And probaly was the inspiration for Spinal Tap as well.
This had to redone thanks again to My Space wonderful unexpected
errors.Good Old My Space, A big assed Unexpected error in itself.
Reissue of the week
The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles (EMI)
Credit the Chipmunk Movie for the reinterest in back catalog of
Simon, Theodore and Alvin as they tackle the songs of the Beatles. The
album isn't that hard to find on vinyl but most copies that I have seen
were scratched up and played to the tilt. Big shot engineer Dave
Hassinger engineered this and those who are familar with the albums of
the 60s would have heard his sound. Lots of echo and treble and
sometimes Alvin does sound shrill. But overall, they're mostly straight
ahead versions of the Fab Four. If you feel like a karoke version of
the songs, you can turn off the left speaker (or is it right?) and you
too can sing in with the fun. Don't ask Best Buy for a copy, better to
find it at the local Wally World. A bit slight nowadays but it is a bit
of fun and not a lot of goofing around from Alvin. Which is a bit of a
letdown come to think of it, but the kids would get a kick out of it
for about four plays.
Grade B
Pick hits: PS I Love You, Please Please Me
John Hiatt-Same Old Man (New West)
Older and more gruffer, John continues to put out decent sounding
albums. He also sings a bit more offkey on the title track but once in a
while he can still rock out when he wants to, Which isn't too often.
Grade B plus
Pick hits: Let's Give This Love A Try, Old Days, Cherry Red.
BB King-One Kind Favor (Geffen)
BB King turned 83 Tuesday (the 16th) and although his voice has shown
a bit more age than last album, he can still shout them out. Perhaps
the most blues based album of his career (sixty years onward) King
rediscovers blues classics from the likes of Howlin Wolf, T Bone Walker,
Lonnie Johnson and Rev Gary Davis and others. It can be a tribute to
all the original bluesmen or it can be a summerization of a long and
storied music career but on the concert scene, BB isn't slowing down.
He and Willie Nelson are our two musical institutions, they continue to
put out better than anything new music albums and they still teach the
young ones how to do it, with style and grace and it does help that
another T Bone (John Henry), Burnett could produce it with the style and
grace that makes this critic go wow. I think for a bonus album that
they should have simply recorded BB with Dr John accomply him only
since the interplay between BB and the good Doctor is stellar and at
least the recording isn't too loud and compressed which seems to be the
norm. So can 80 year old bluesmen still play the blues like it was long
ago? Why yes, yes indeed (and it might even get one or two of the
young un's to seek out the originals and see what the blues was all
about.
Grade A minus
Suggested cuts: How Many More Years, Backwater Blues, Tomorrow Night
RIP Rick Wright of Pink Floyd
RIP Don Julio, Smoochy
