Interesting facts this stat tracker is. I think me and TAD were trading barbs about the worthiness of it since we get about 30 views one night and the rest of the week is like a music store out in Baghdad Arizona or in Anamosa Iowa. I don't think I can reword this to the point that the folks at Pitchfork or Spin or Rolling Stone will ever take notice but I don't believe it will get me out of the bottom ten in the Blogspot ratings.
Say a certain word or place and it does get noticed I guess. Seemed we got high ratings on the Madison Bargain Hunt and hanging at Monona Terrance after sundown. Geez ya think mentioning Pawn America would get them a bigger business in the dollar cd bins.
On The Brains. One of my earliest blogs was about this great 80s band that made a great debut and a so so followup. One of the Stats told me of a website that actually gives a better of Electronic Eden than I did. http://funderglass.blogspot.com/2010/01/brains-electronic-eden.html
I wish to fuck that Andy McKie of the Universal Reissue Department would convince the bean counters at Universal to just release The Brains album, even on a Hip O Select basis for a limited time and I'll be happy to pick up a copy or two or ten. But they're too fucking busy of reissuing Elvis Costello or Motley Crud for the 10th time. People get tired of waiting for stuff to be released and have to rip a copy off an old album or cassette. I think we have tried to a email writing, a letter writing campaign but nothing ever materializes. Even Tom Gray offered to buy the masters back and put it out but UME gave a seven digit price for that and that fell through. This is the reason people fucking hate the major labels, they continue to fuck with music lovers years later. We do not need deluxe editions of the same old albums that keep popping out. Give the fans what they want. Even the Suicide Commandos managed to have their album reissued for a time on Mercury when Polygram was doing that. Fucking Universal Music only wants to give us the same old same old everytime out. So get with it Andy McKie and Jimmy Iovine, we're getting old here and may be dead before The Brains finally get their due. But then again Tom Gray is keeping music alive with the great Delta Moon but fans do want to know how he got there from here.
Ari Up passed away, she was the leader of the Gurrl band The Slits which made an 1979 album for Island/Antilles (reissued via Koch in 2000 thereabouts) and whose mother is married to Johnny Lydon. Cut, the album, was ahead of its time and pioneered the girl punk movement. Not for the faint of heart but you either was drawn to it or ran away screaming. Either way it got its message across.
For new music, I heard the new Foghat Last Train Home and sorry to say I didn't like it all that much. Problem was that Foghat covered a few of the songs in earlier albums and did better versions. What they do best and jam and boogie and 495 Boogie is the best song of the bunch. But they do a good cover of Savoy Brown Needle And Spoon and Eddie Kirkland provides vocal relief for Charlie Huhn. The new Kings Of Leon Come Around Sundown goes further into U2 territory and not a good sign. It does mirror Only By The Night but that album had better songs. Radioactive kinda reminds me of the good old days but then again you have Pickup Truck that sounds like Use Somebody Part Two. It should crack the Billboard Top 10 but then again it just doesn't have the staying power as OBTN. Elton John/Leon Russell The Union is actually quite listenable, Elton is in fine singing form and Leon seems be more awake then on his last 10 albums. Some of the songs are ruined by a whiny screaming America Idol wannabe gospel singer which kills Hey Arab and almost sinks Monkey Suit and if John Henry (T BONE) Burnett had something to do with that he oughta be bitchslapped. Or give us an unplugged without the Over The Top Gospel screamers, guess he didn't learn from the mistakes Bob Dylan did in the mid 80s. On a plus, the dueling pianos of Leon and Elton are a marvel at times and yeah, we got the ballad radio ready if they ever play it. Tell you one thing though you'll never hear Leon Russell this excited ever again. And speaking of Bob Dylan, The Best Of The Mono Recordings really do sound warm and expressive in that mono mix but not enough for me to spring for the whole 9 cd box set that Sony Music is betting that you want to get. In other words, The Best Of Bob Dylan in Mono with a few add ons and though I'll never warm up to John Wesley Harding as much as the fans do, I must say that this works pretty damn good in its own way.
Grades
Foghat-Last Train Home C+
Kings Of Leon-Come Around Sundown C+
Elton John/Leon Russell-The Union B+
Bob Dylan-Best Of The Mono Recordings A
More reviews.
Neil Young-Le Noise (Reprise) This might be his best of this millennium although I think Chrome Dreams 2 left a more lasting impression in the last decade. Noisy as hell and I'm still in the minority about having a rhythm section but this is best heard on vinyl. Still have issues with Daniel Lanois Productions but Neil hasn't written such great songs since perhaps Ragged Glory. Originally I gave it a C+ at first listen but it has crept up to a formidable A-
Jim Ed Brown & The Browns (Dot 1986) Believe the title, Jim Ed dominates on lead vocals, Maxine and Bonnie are merely background singers just above the Nashville Edition. Billy Strange produced this although it really doesn't differ from anything that came out of Nashville in the late 80s. Revisits The Old Lampliter and Pop A Top but it hardly got noticed. In fact I didn't know anything about this till I found this LP in the dollar bins. I guess back in the 80's MCA restarted up Dot Records and signed a few C & W artists (Porter Wagoner, Asleep At The Wheel, T Bone Burnett and John Hartford) but would shut it down a couple years later. This record isn't bad but if you really want to hear how The Browns were so great, find their 1960 Town And Country album (came out on a BMG Import for about a week) or Collector's Choice Best Of The RCA Years for a indication of how Maxine and Bonnie played a bigger role in the music rather than just background singers. B
Peter Frampton-Thank You Mr. Churchill (A & M 2010) Against all odds, Frampton put together a pretty damn good and hard rocking album of this year although the only track I heard off this album, the mellow Vaudeville Nanna & The Banjolele which I didn't care much for. Just in case Road To The Sun, I'm A Due You and Asleep At The Wheel is rock and roll and he learned a bit from being in The Herd and Humble Pie and of course Frampton Comes Alive which Peter can live off the royalties since somewhere in FM land Show Me The Way or Baby I Love Your Way is playing. I don't think Frampton gets enough credit, he can play guitar too. This record is his best since a certain live album to which everybody got sick of hearing. You won't have that problem with TYMC it is the essence of what rock used to be. A-
The Volebeats- In a year that also showcased a new Outrageous Cherry, Matthew Smith rejoins Jeff Oakes band to record more fun music of a cross between surf, country and Flaming Groovies. Best track is Me and You to which I downloaded as a free track from Amazon.com Rest of the record is not as good as their last album 2005's spooky and sad Like Her but the new album still is good garage country rock fun. B+
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