Now that we got the REM 10 out of the way, let's focus on what is the songs that made a difference for me this week.
1. Real Mean Bottle-Bob Seger & Kid Rock 2006 Written by Vince Gill. Of course Live Bullet and Night Moves made him Detroit's answer to Springsteen but in the older days before Springsteen, Seger was one of the toughest rockers to come out of the Motor City. Stranger In Town began the slow decline although I did enjoy that one and Against The Wind. After a long layoff, Seger returned with Face The Promise and this time out did it a solo artist but with mostly a Nashville who's who of sessionmen (Eddie Bayers, Paul Leim). On this, he got fellow Detroit Kid Rock to help out on the vocals. Face The Promise seems at times to be a bit unfinished sounding but it's really his first good album since The Distance and I admired that album from a long "distance" so to speak. No pun intended.
2. The Wait-Killing Joke 1980 Popularized by Metallica on the Garage Days Re Visited EP of 1987, I pretty much never heard much about Killing Joke, or got into them till they reformed in 1994 and stayed a fan after that. Most of their 80's stuff was kinda too new waveish or too goth but their first album remains killer classic. And Big Paul Ferguson can run circles around Lars on drums too. However I'll give Metallica their due since they were the band that turned me on to the original version.
3. Cities-Moody Blues 1967 B side to Nights In White Satin and pretty much left off the Days Of Future Passed till the third reissue and remaster version this finally gets to have its place on that album. One of Justin Hayward's better unknown songs.
4. Circles-Eddie & The Hot Rods 1979 In my wild untamed youth, Eddie & The Hot Rods were one of my favorite bands of that time, although they were limped in with punk rock they had more in common with Ducks Deluxe or The Rumour but Steve Nicol was a rapid fire drummer that actually made them more punk sounding. Better known for Teenage Depression or Do Anything You Want To Do, their third album Thriller wasn't even released in the US. In fact I got a import LP of this at Record Realm in 79. Interesting fact was that Linda McCartney actually sang backup vocals on this album if one can believe that. Alas, Thriller suffered from a clutter production and most of the songs were a desperate attempt to be punk, to which they were not. Still a fun album in spots. The Hot Rods would move over to EMI America for the 1980 bomb Fish N Chips and was never heard from again in America although across the pond they been known to reform once in a blue moon.
5. I Am The Resurrection-The Stone Roses 1989 By now you have heard that John Squire and Ian Brown has kissed and made up enough to form a reunion of this band, who vowed never to regroup again. How time and money changes everything. Their debut introduced the world to the Madchester Music Dance Scene which actually gave us some great and good bands. And on a different note, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon are ending their marriage. Wonder if that will mean the end of Sonic Youth? The Stone Roses's first album remain one of the best late 80s albums but they could never deliver a second proper album till years later when they gave the world the all over the place Second Coming for Geffen. Which reminds me, why the hell is Sick Of Summer blog continue to get more hits than the last top ten blog?
6. And It Hurts-The Lonesome Strangers 1997 A long time ago in Arizona, I picked up a copy of Lonesome Pine, the first album from this alt country band which still remains one of the best early alt country albums that nobody ever heard. Part of the reason why it worked was that Pete Anderson produced it alongside Dusty Wakeman. These two were instrumental in being a part of Dwight Yoakam's band and of course Anderson remains a great lead guitar player. After a second album, they broke up only to reunite 10 years later in the making of Land Of Opportunity, to which Randy Weeks and Jeff Rhymes would add Dwight's band as backup on this album. But anything with Pete Anderson playing lead guitar is always worth getting. Rhymes and Weeks would part ways and Randy Weeks has gone on to a somewhat successful career as a songwriter and putting out albums from time to time although the only one I have heard was Madeline in 2000.
7. Two Way Traffic-Status Quo 2011 If you like your boogie 12 bars and a straight ahead beat, Status Quo is your band and has been for 40 plus years. There's no grandiose statements like U2 or Radiohead, no big Pitchford asskissing like The Strokes or for that matter no LOUD funk rock from the Chili Peppers. Rock and roll the way that I remembered it and enjoyed for most of my half century on this planet. The Quo has never done well in the States, their boogie sonics have never endeared the Foghat fans or Aerosmith but over in the UK, The Quo are kings of the 12 Bar Boogie and on their new album all of the songs are boogie rock and roll with little variation. The way I like it. Long live The Quo.
8. Lazy Day-Spanky & Our Gang 1967 In the era of being a kid and going to Woolworth's to find cheap 3 for a dollar 45's I really have lived well even back then, spoiled rotten by the single of the week, which lead to bigger and badder things (8 Tracks, LPs, CD's, cassettes, etc etc). Wonderful marketing by Mercury with the candy striped label in the late 60's. I remember buying this at some store in Joliet Illinois but can't think of the name and somehow the record got lost a few years later. Jann Wanner may not think much of Spanky McFarlane and her gang but I love this band. Features John Seiter on drums who replaced John Barbata in The Turtles.
9. Amy-Sunny Sweeney 2011 Country music today is a bit more tolerable than top forty or Cumulus Radio take your pick and there's no shortage of Country Bombshells, who look like Playboy pinups and have about as much writing ability as one. Chet Flippo laments about how country charts are dominated by males or groups but the female singer gets lost in the shuffle, unless you're Miranda Lambert who finally broke out in 2009 and has a new album coming out in November which will be highly anticipated (thank God for spell check). Sunny Sweeney has actually had a couple singles that came out long before her album did (which seems to be the norm for major labels in Nashville). Like Miranda, Sunny is a Texas singer who writes the majority of her own songs on her recent album Concrete. Amy, the song itself deals with the subject of cheating and is one of the highlights of Concrete but I can tell you that her chicken shit label will not issue it to country stations due to the subject matter. Nevertheless, Sunny Sweeney is up and coming and if her chicken shit label will promote her at least two or three more albums, she might make it too like Miranda did. But here's a thought, you take away the fiddles or the cliche steel guitars and leave it as guitars only, this could be considered Alt country or rock itself. But I'm sure her chicken shit label would let her twist in the wind for another single before cutting her loose if the next album didn't sell. Would also help if they get a better sympathetic producer, say Ethan Johns or even T Bone Burnett instead of Brett Beavers. Jes saying.
10. Kill Your Television-Ned's Atomic Dustbin 1991 In the great year of 91 there were so many albums of classic out there it was hard to keep up on all that mattered. Nevermind, Pearl Jam 20! Screamadelica! even Primus' Sailing The Seas Of Cheese was from 20 years ago. And of course Metallica's Black album which the metal community decried them as sellouts once and for all. Green Day's Kerplunk! was recorded in 1991 too, but there were the lesser knowns. Raindogs Border Drive In Theater, The Dylans, REM Out Of Time likewise. But I don't see too many people requesting a copy of God Fodder from this band that featured 2 bass players and a lead singer that sang a lot of dorky lyrics but Gray Cell Green was a top 20 alternative rock hit. They're forgotten now and nobody mentions Ned's Atomic Dustin unless it's a punchline to a very bad joke but at one time, they were buzzworthy in the MTV Buzz Bin. But don't expect Sony Music to give us a 20th Deluxe Edition of God Fodder anytime soon. Next up, Senseless Things, The First Of Too Many................
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