Top Ten Of The Week-Back In The Thousand Again

The last day in November is here and hard to believe one more month till the year is over.  Plenty of things await y'all.  Basically the year in review and the records of the year.   Thanks everybody for getting me over the 1,000 views mark for the first time since August.   In fact, we actually past August for the most views, so we're in the top three anyway.  1,205 views for the month.  Third best all time.  Not too shabby eh?

Hardee's has closed up shops in Marion, Anamosa, Monticello and Maquoketa, the last three was owned by somebody who I forgot the name.  The Marion one closed due to a forthcoming CVS Drugstore and a empty mall, the Monitcello one closed since they didn't think the renovation would bring any more business since the bypass took away the majority of the business.  But the Anamosa closing makes no sense since it's off highway 151 and I think they remodeled it a few years ago.

Mark Lasack was our IBM machine repairman for the past 25 years.  He passed away on Friday due to a sudden illness (heart attack), he was 60. http://www.mvlsun.com/article.php?viewID=9350

Football wise once again all my teams lost.  Hawkeyes, Sun Devils, Chargers.  In the meanwhile Drew Brees is still kicking can in New Orleans whereas Philip (Joan) Rivers continues to struggle behind San Diego famed Look Out Blockers.  Hawkeyes getting outplayed by the Mighty Corn and Arizona State doing the final collapse: losing their last five games.  They controlled their own dynasty, only to slit their throat and get beaten by UCLA, Washington State, Arizona and Cal.  To which after seeing this, Dennis Erickson was told to hit the road. The Chargers got Tebowed by once again fucking around in OT, and on a 3 and 6, in OT, super brain Norm Turner told them to do a run and Tolbert got nailed for a 5 yard loss, resulting in a 54 yard FG that was out of the kicker's range.  And then Super Tebow lead the Broncos down the field for a game winning FG.  5 games in a row lost by the so called Super Chargers but you can get to see them fuck up once again Monday Night against Jacksonville.   Look for Norm Turner to get the ax if they can't turn this around but best they can do is 9-7 but they split the series between Kansas City and Denver and Oakland has swept them. In other words they have to win it all, and Rivers has gotta stop playing like Joan Rivers.  And I still say AJ (Ass Jack) Smith should have kept Brees.


Links of interest: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2011-11-24/music/gg-allin-legacy-covers-interview/  G G Allin was a one of a kind.  Interesting story on the life and times of this one of a kind person.

Tad reviews Florence And The Machine http://tadsbackupplan.blogspot.com/2011/11/florence-machine.html
Worth a read since this might be the first new band that he has listened to.


After years of not to, I finally got a chance to hear Trout Mask Replica, Captain Beefheart's debut for Straight Records (reissued via Reprise) which was produced by Frank Zappa.  As much as I liked Lick My Decals Off Baby or Clear Spot, Trout Mask is just too weird for me to listen to all the way.  Not to say it's a bad album, I still give it a B plus and its worth its pull on the Rolling Stone 500 all time greatest albums ever but even I can tolerate such craziness.



The Top Ten Of The Week:

1.  Full Frontal Contrapuntal-Al Di Meola 2011   You probably don't know that he's got a new album out, nobody does really but Al has continue to delight his followers with his type of music that knows no boundaries.  Made some nice fusion albums of the 70s for Columbia and then in the 80s went more toward a spanish guitar sound although his EMI best of shows him dangerously close to new age.  Rebounded a  lot with the underrated Kiss My Axe for Tomato but his new album shows a balance of prog-fusion and the spanish guitar sounds he's been doing most of the time.   I think he enjoys that more than plugging in.

2.  Solid Rock-Goanna  1983 A surprising big hit in Australia in 1982, the US a year later, Goanna is a mystery of a band itself.  Main writer Shane Howard went missing during a tour in 1985 and the band broke up.  Howard has resurfaced since then, pretty much releasing a few albums in the land Down Under in the last decade.  Last album he did was called Goanna Dreaming, part of it recorded in Sydney, the rest in Tucson Arizona. (Note: the Sydney recording is just a guess, it might be in Melbourne or elsewhere).  Actually found the CD Spirit Of Place in the dollar bins at Pawn America in Mad City and it has a few more bonus tracks added on.

3.  Making Time-The Creation 1966  I have a love hate when it comes to commercials using songs of the past.  Sometimes they bring out the good in the obscure (Nick Drake comes to mind) sometimes they simply annoy me (that annoying Nissan song by Foster The People, anything Sheryl Crow peddles).  It saddens me to see this failed song of the 60s get recycled for a crappy beer commercial (Thank you and fuck you Bud Light or is it Coors Light). The Creation was the closest band that could sound like The Who and they had a great guitarist in Eddie Phillips, one of the earliest who used a violin bow.  Another connection to The Who:  Shel Talmy.

4.  Coke Song/I'm Okay You're Okay-The Cooties 1997   A minor super punk band featuring members of MXPX and 90 Pound Wuss singing the praises of Coca Cola and the next song which would appear on the next MXPX album Going By The Way Of The Buffalo.  You can probably find this album Let's Play House in the local dollar bins at your local junkshop.

5.  Om-Ray Stevens 1976  Haven't heard much from the Ray Stevens Tribute page of late but then again he's got better things to do in maintaining all things Ray.  This was the B side to Honky Tonk Waltz and remains one of my favorite unknown Ray Stevens songs.  No, it's not a cover of the Moody Blues number but Ray playing live telling the audience to sing along whenever necessary.

6.  Stonehenge, Who Knows?-Nik Turner 1994   Better known as the sax player in Hawkwind for many years, Turner's albums have been kinda hard to find but actually he was more in tune of keeping the space sound alive better than Dave Brock did in the 90s although the hippy dippyness kinda makes it unlistenable for both Turner and Hawkwind 90s.  I still dig this.

7.  I Put Away My Idols-Dion 1983   Tired of the pop rock business, Dion went straight into gospel rock and while most of it is your usual Jesus Praise, Dion would actually pepper it up with a bit more rock on some songs including this title track which I think won a GrammyTM for best Gospel Song.  Eventually Dion would return to secular rock with the failed 1989 Yo Frankie for Arista (overproduced by Dave Edmunds if you can believe that) but Dion would actually rediscover delta blues and do tribute albums to that style.

8.  Nausea-X 1980  Another dollar find CD at Pawnamerica last week up in Mad City.  Los Angeles by X is a classic punk rock album.

9.  At My Most Beautiful-REM 1998  Yep, they seem to be making frequent appearances on the top ten ain't they?  From Up, another dollar CD from Pawn America.  Get them before they're gone.

10.  Hots On From Nowhere-Led Zeppelin 1976  This got plenty of airplay on Q 103 back in 76 however it wasn't released as a single, rather Candy Store Rock got the nod and didn't place very high on the chart.  Hell, I tried looking for the single but ended up buying the album instead.  Still, have the album to this day and never did get the CD itself.

Finally, we bid Mike Davison goodbye as he leaves Pearson Inc for the green pastures of Go Daddy dot com.   Hope things go well for y'all.