Week In Review: First Bargain Hunt Of The Year, New Music,

Last week we were dealing with snow and cold, by the end of the week, the front went through and temps warmed up to the fifties for a brief spell Saturday.  Thursday, a big wind event had speeds up to 63 miles an hour and shingles and semi's were being blown off the road.  Saturday turned out to be the first bargain hunt of the year to Davenport (where else?) and to find the new location of Co Op Records, a few doors down from Chuckie Cheese.  While it is nice to see a new record store, the problem was CO OP had not much for music, most of the inventory came from the old Locust Street location.  Brief stops were at Ragged Records to which I picked the new Mondo Drag but not the Multiple Cat new release, which record store clerk Benjamin Crabb is now playing in that band.  Which means next time I'm in town I may have to pick it up.  Spring must be coming down there in Davenport, the evil Redwing blackbirds were out and about terrorizing fellow joggers.  It wasn't all bad, I had a nice looking female jogger smile and waved at me as she jogged on by.   Alas, nothing was found at the thrift stores and most of the jukebox 45s from the last Salvation Army visit were gone.   Probably off to the local landfill.  Sign of the times:  The K Mart on Brady Street is now history, as well as the Aaron's store, which got located someplace else.

Friday Night I ended up working most of the night so I only caught the last set of Blue Scratch at Checker's Tavern.  It was kind of a confusing set so to speak, last month Catey Recker was going to take a couple months off to go back to school but here she was closing down the set.   Matt Johnson, the drummer did a much better job laying down the beat this time out, the guess was that when they played last month there, they may have not did much rehearsing and it sounded like that.  This time out, they were more tighter, although the whole gig ended on a awkward note, unlike closing things with Tush, they chose a song I wasn't familiar with and they quietly turned their amps off and started to tear things down.  Next week Blue Scratch moves on to Ramsey's Winery in downtown Marion.

Sunday jam at Rumors brought out some of drumming heavyweights, Rocky Smith, Matt Johnson  joined up, with Dave Bonham's last jam in town before his move to Davenport next month.  It probably came as a shock to hear Little Wing end on a Bolero beat via Derek And The Dominoes and soul singer Ernest getting into his bag of tricks, freaking out the local drummer on Got My Mojo Workin.  I should have threw in a copy of Muddy Waters live at Newport when I gave my Impulse High hats to him. While jam sessions have been fun, the glut of drummers has cut into playing time on stage but for the most part on idle I sit and chat with fellow musicians.  Usually Terry McDowell, taking most of the night off and comparing notes on how to do songs.  Certainly, every drummer has their own way of playing to the music and I'm no exception.  Even the most experienced will stumbled upon a beat or two, or slag through something that they are not used to play or never played that song.   I'm amazed on how a few of my contemporaries can't seem to master around the Rocky Mountain Way beat.  Or the baffled Texas Shuffle to which I spent many a time on You Tube watching them and it still doesn't translate to my playing.   So basically it's a art of improvisation and not throwing yourself off the one beat.  If I can come off stage and get kudos and good jobs, then I managed to do my job of keeping the beat.  I may not the best of the double bass drum rollovers, but I keep  a driving beat to make up for that shortcoming.

In 1944, Clare McIntosh took in a movie at the old Circle (later Camelot) Theater only to lose his wallet in the process.  While various owners have kept the movie theater going for years, nobody could locate the wallet and the theater closed down.  It has since reopened at The Talent Factory, a showcase featuring comedy acts and perhaps local bands.  But on renovating the old place, somebody found McIntosh's wallet while upgrading the upper apartments.  The guess is that Clare may have sat in the upper balcony and his wallet fell through. The owner of the place Larry  Sloan   managed to locate the wallet's owner back to McIntosh who is still living and lives in Runnels Iowa.

Tornado porn: On June 8, 1966 a Tornado tore through Topeka Kansas. Mike Leavanworth, stopped at a Estate sale and managed to find a treasure trove of color photographs and aftermath of this twister of 50 years ago and managed to put them out on flickr. The old photos tell quite a story: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46064258@N08/sets/72157650634571973

While Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town got nice record sales of His Master Voice Without The Dog Awards last week, Joey + Rory's Hymms made number 1 on the  country charts, selling something like 68,000 copies.  Which is saying something that Best Buy and Wally World didn't have that album.  While Joey Feek continues to cling on to her life, she's actually lived long enough to see the Gaither released album make the charts in a high position.   It's not rock or roll and why does Record World continue to look at such mindless wonder and not pay more attention to Look At Me Kayne West or Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick, or The Weekend is that Kayne, Kendrick, Drake and whoever doesn't appeal to me and basically music has been going down the pooper for many years.  And Joey + Rory are more in-tuned to country that I used to know rather than the stalker bro-country of Old Dominion and the Florida Georgia Chipmunks.  And the Feeks seem to be more down to earth than the who dats that are Cane Brown or what Farce The Music pokes fun at.  And Joey Feek remains a fighter, she's lasted longer than the prognosis gave her back in November.  You haven't seen her name in the passing list.

We will never work with each other again department:  Looks like the guys in Deep Purple would rather not share the stage ever with Richie Blackmore again, judging by the war of words between them and Richie.  Originally Ian Paice was open to the idea of even Richie showing up, but the DP manager said NO!!!!! and Ian Gillan, Blackmore's thorn in the side lead singer of the classic years would rather have Richie watch from the seats.  If it means anything, Steve Morse and Don Airey who have been in the band a long time (Morse has been Blackmore's replacement for over 20 years) will get to share the stage, and perhaps David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes might have a hand on these things.   It's a shame really to see bickering between the two camps because of old pranks gone wrong or prima donna acting, Blackmore's indifference on the Battle Rages On tour that finally put things to a head and Blackmore quitting soon afterwards.  To which we are never ever getting back together comes to mind and even in the honor of being inducted into a Hall Of Fame to which real fans have them in their own HOF beforehand, that bygones can't be bygones even for 15 minutes.  Kind of like the Peter Cetera Vs Chicago thingy.  I suppose singing 25 to 6 or 4 in E minor does work well for Petey since the dude is now 71 and can't hit that A minor high notes he once did.  We all get old and change comes.

We will never work with each other again department 2:  When voters stayed at home in droves in 2014, Mitch the Bitch McConnell, Joni Wonderbags Ernst won because of voter indifference.  Don't blame me, I voted and not for the Iowa Screech.  Since Andy Scolia died a couple weeks ago, McConnell, acting like the true authoritarian almighty along with senile old fuck Charles Grassley, with Orrin Hatch and South Carolina fuckface Lindsay Graham all say they will not even consider replacing Scalia till a new POTUS is elected.  Bullshit politics working as usual and of course the Grumpy Old Pussy party, has done nothing for the people unless Koch Industries buys another congressman.  While Obama has not done much for my liking his second term (TPP will put him in cahoots with Slick Willie's 1996 Telecom Act), he has managed to somehow do his job a lot better than the War Criminal Bush Jr and Haliburton Chaney.  Basically our democracy has been a laughing stock all over the world since Teabaggermania got into congress and it makes me fucking sick to see how the GOP controlled anything refuses to work with compromises and have no fucking ideas of their own for healthcare, although Rafael Cruz promises to carpetbomb those ISIS folks damn women and children and Donald Trump wanting to build a wall.  Meanwhile Ms. Ernst who thinks 7.25 an hour is perfect minimum wage, despite the fact that prices continue to go up  and who works minimum and having two/three jobs and still not breaking even, Ernst thinks they are the freeloaders.  Ernst got in on the bullshit platform of jobs jobs jobs and making Washington squeal.  Grassley, and McConnell did put in a judge when the bad bit actor Reagan was president his last year now says that it's wrong to even think about a new Supreme Court Justice in a election year.  This is why there should be term limits for these career bullshit artists, who a long time ago did their job but now have gotten too fat on lobbyists bribes and the Koch Brothers greasing their palms.  But then again, the system has been geared toward the rich and not the middle class or poor.  Voters in 2014 had the chance for change and finally getting rid of the Kentucky Turtleface, Koch fucking douchecanoe but everybody stayed home and the old bitch is back and doing a damn thing.  There's not a single Republican that's even worth a second look; Jeb Bush dropped out of the race and Ben Carson is close to as well.    Which leaves us, John Kasich, the less extreme out of a bunch of war happy chicken hawks, but you have Big Mouth Trump,  Marco Rubio and Rafael Theodore Cruz, the new 3 Stooges of hypocrisy.  At least Bernie Sanders has some sort of ideas to get America going in a different direction, Hillary Clinton can't be trusted, she's too cozy with Wall Street.  Basically I'm sick of seeing a Bush or a Clinton in the white house, and most of the news you see are tilted toward the GOP or Hillary.  But the obstruction that Grassley and McConnell have been doing for many years needs to go and term limits is one way of doing that, voting by the people for the people and get the old fucks out of congress.  The only hope is the see the ghosts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the rest who drew up the Constitution rise from the dead and give us a walking zombie revolution to oust the do nothing Koch suckers that has thrown this country into the fucking toilet since 9/11.  But the damage was started with a B movie actor being president in the 1980s and starting the trickle down economics that have done nothing for the working man, unless you were born into rich royality, or a fucking career politician.  If you're not, then you're screwed.  It's not the poor that sucking this country dry, it's the major corporations and the subsidies that they continue to get be it Big Oil, or The Church, or The NFL.  Let that sink in a while.

Not safe for work:  50 years of Playboy Centerfolds have come to an end since the magazine has decided to scrap the Centerfold of the month.  Many a dream date can be found at this site, which might disappear after a while. http://imgur.com/a/Uxug4

Due to the demand of last week's dream date picture: Ashley Graham.  Here ya go Tad! 

Of course Nicole Arbour had to cry about her S.I. cover.  Which I can assure you that Arbour will never grace a Your Dream Date here at Record World, unless I decide on a Fruit Loops Wacko of the Week.  In other words Nicky poo, jealous much? http://www.salon.com/2016/02/23/dear_fat_people_shlock_vlogger_freaks_out_over_ashley_grahams_sports_illustrated_cover_barbie_had_to_look_like_she_eats_cheeseburgers_to_make_feminists_happy/

Looks like Cheryl Tiegs has joined on the bashing too.  http://www.people.com/article/cheryl-tieg-slams-ashley-graham-cover?xid=socialflow_facebook_peoplemag
I have no time nor patience for has been ex beauty models who's time was gone about 40 years ago. This jive talk about every model should have 36 inches and anybody who doesn't is fat is reason why this world is going to hell in a handbasket. You wanna be skin and bones Miss Tiegs have at it but a full figured woman is much more fun.  History has shown that.

Like the rest of the music faithful, I had high hopes of the HBO Martin Scosarce Mick Jagger series called Vinyl but just about everybody and everything have called it trash.  What was supposed to be a show about music and the record industry in the 70s has turned out to be a pale version of Good Fellas and not in a good way.  In typical Martin S fashion plenty of F and MF bombs are dropped, plenty of gory violence is there but what is lacking is actual music. Contrary to 1973 The New York Dolls weren't heard outside of New York and the bit actors trying to be Peter Grant or Robert Plant don't help either.  While Richard Hell can be Lou Reed Jr (an asshole more or less for those who know him) his review of Vinyl has been spot on.  The HBO show continues to limp on for next Sunday.  Let's see if they have anything remotely related to music than Casino 2-Recording Industry Version.

Mark Lee Goodale is part of 45 RPMs.com and unlike me, he seems to have better luck scouring places to get vintage 45s.  I'm sure he's got about 20 or 30 of things on my want list but this week looks like he found a copy of Louie Louie by Paul Revere And The Raiders on a orange label.  The guess is that this might be a UK or Canadian copy. If it's a US version that would be a rarity. It's looks to be a US copy judging by the photo. http://www.45rpms.com/shop/

Another viewpoint of the Grammys: http://www.vox.com/2016/2/16/11014172/grammys-2016-review-spotify

Ratings:  I guess we're coming down the mountain, going from 251 views on Jan 25 to now 50 today even with updates of the latest blog.  I guess Russia got bored with us or read everything from the archives.  Looks like we'll be back in the 2,000 views valley from here on out.

Just like last season Iowa started strong and then flopped toward the end.  Whatever they had in sweeping Michigan State and Purdue is now long gone, looking like shit once again and Wisconsin beating them 67-59.  It seems like they built Carver Hawkeye Arena on ancient Indian burial grounds for once again the Carver Hawkeye jinx hit the home team, shooting 32 percent and watching The Badgers throw up three point baskets with ridiculous ease. The anti Iowa network ESPN rubbed it in the fans faces again, picking Iverson's windmill jam as number 2 in the plays of the day, but that's the least of Iowa's problems.  The bench scoring scored two baskets and Jarrod Uthoff who transferred down to Iowa will go 0-5 against his former team. It's simple to see that Iowa's starters are either running out of gas or become very tentative and timid since barely scraping by Minnesota and then Penn State whopping their butt.   It's one thing to start out strong but it's much better to finish strong and keep winning in March, rather than falling apart and losing.  What seemed to be a lock on winning their first B1G ten title, is now fading away with each bad showing and loss.  Doesn't matter, Iowa will make it to the NCAA with 20 wins but all signs are pointing to another one and done in the B1G ten tourneys and NCAA.  And every chance of Iowa stumbling, another dig from the likes of ESPN and the ESPN reject on Fox Sports  Colin Pumpernickel.  It's not been a good week for Iowa sports, with the wrestling team being upset at home by NC State and the Iowa women looking even more clueless then the guys with Penn State girls whopping them. 81-68 and being down by 19 at the half. Penn State girls are in rebuilding mode, with a 11-17 mark. The girls now 17-12 still have an outside chance to win 3 games to finish with 20 wins but that will take a couple wins before the season is over and perhaps a couple of wins at the B1G tourneys.  In other words they got their work cut out for them.   Just like the men.

Passings: Sonny James, legendary country music star who started his career playing fiddle on early Jim and Jessie recordings then hit a number one record with Young Love in 1958.  Known as the Country Gentleman, he later recorded for Columbia in the 1970s and Monument later on.  Died of natural causes Sunday, he was 87.

Monday marks the year anniversary of the death of Davy Jones of the Monkees.  In reality he's been gone for 4 years but the strangeness of being born on Leap Year's Day and dying makes it a fluke of sorts.  While the cute Monkee is no longer around but in recordings, his band mates are putting together a new album with help with some rock and roll heavyweights and Adam Schleisnger from Fountains Of Wayne helping.  Which means it might be worth hearing when it's done. But Davy Jones will appear posthumous on a old song or two. 

Record Reviews:

Mondo Drag (Riding Easy 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE7Kq2iP0UU
Like their retro rock brother Parker Griggs and Radio Moscow, Mondo Drag continues to have a love of late 60s and early 70s rock and roll, at times borrowing from the likes of Hawkwind and Meddle era Pink Floyd but unlike Radio Moscow, Mondo Drag is more of a band collective rather than the guitar hi-jinks of Radio Moscow, who kinda lost me after their first album. A few years ago, The Drag recorded a nice debut on Alive Naturalsound called New Rituals and then broke up and then reunited.  Working again with Pat Stolley (The Multiple Cat, Tripmaster Monkey), they return with a album that does the late 60s proud, in fact Zephyr damn near sounds like Mark 1 Deep Purple Book of Talisyn fame. Crystal Visions Open Eyes, owes to Kyuss at time, desert rock as imagined coming from the Midwest, (since the release of this album a year ago, they have moved to Oakland).  And the 7 minute Plumajilla starts out in a Hawkwind haze and then disappears into a Magna/Yes/Pink Floyd ending.  In a throwback to progressive rock of the 70s, there are 7 songs that total 34:40, an EP by today's standards.  Had I known this album sooner, it would have graced the 2015 best of list.  A year later it still sounds damn good.  Their new album The Occulation Of Light is due this weekend.  That will be on my want list.  Next to Porcupine Tree, Mondo Drag is one of the best new prog bands. https://www.facebook.com/mondodrag/
Grade A-

Sun Ra-Greatest Hits Of Sun Ra And His Arkestra (or Easy Listening For Intergalactic Travel) (Evidence 1999)

Perhaps the most outrageous of them all, Sonny Blount aka Sun Ra can play straight uptempo bop jazz one minute and then the next go out in to outer space dimensions with free jazz freakouts or chants. This is not exactly easy listening as in muzak jazz, Sun Ra can play it straight before deciding to add weird elements to his songs  We'll Wait For You, for comparison try MC5's Starship or Weasel's Ripped My Flesh by Mothers Of Invention.  Anyway, this overview, Evidence compiled 18 songs from 16 different albums, a handful of 70 plus records that Sun Ra put out on his own and sold at concerts when he was alive.  Evidence in the 1990s issued something like 21 of them.  Sun Ra's always had a top notch group with him, Marshall Allen and John Gilmore figured greatly.  The second half of the album does begin to get going, right around We Travel The Spaceways, and into the jazz meltdown of Thither And You, the jungle drums of Yucatan and Sun Ra's organ work on Otherness Blue and The Order Of The Pleasure Jesters is pure genius.  He even tries funk on The Perfect Man.  Still, Sun Ra's extreme free jazz moments are not for everybody although he's more tamer than Albert Ayler or Om era John Coltrane.  Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Volume 1 is the best introduction, or Nothing Is, the two albums that came out on ESP Disk years ago. But for an overall view of what Sun Ra did best, Greatest Hits does work.
Grade B+

Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons-Chameleon (Mowest 1972)

In the history of rock and reviewing albums The Four Seasons output can be a clusterfuck.  And most of their albums were uneven listening, the only albums I could sit through were Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, their bizarre meeting with Jake Holmes and Who Loves You, their 1976 comeback album with the way overplayed December 1963 and lesser known Silver Star as highlights.  Their Motown years continues Bob Gaudio's foray into middle of the road light rock although Chameleon is really better than what I would expected.  Frankie has two of his own, the failed single Love Ain't Here Like It Used To Be, a precursor to My Eyes Adored You and even for them a couple of harder light rockers as Sun Country and When The Morning Comes.  It might be a bit more consistent than Who Loves You the album, but without that big hit that got them through such as Who Loves You and (yep) Oh What A Night.   In that strange time of the early 70s, the thought of The Four Seasons and even Bobby Darin on Motown nobody could picture, Darin would signed with Motown and did a few singles and songs enough to make a posthumous album when he passed in 1973.  The Four Seasons on the other hand would drift on by, on to Warner Curb for a brief stab at the top forty a couple more times before becoming a oldies act.
Grade B

Nothing But Thieves  (RCA Voleur) 2016

Alternative music of the 2010s is so much different than what I was used to hearing years ago.  Most of those bands are now gone or a few remaining members have reunited and carried on with some fanfare (Lush, Primitives).  If I stayed too long at Best Buy convincing myself to buy something I usually end up regretting the whole thing so basically anybody new had better convince me that paying 8 dollars for an up and coming band that their music is worth hearing more than once.  So I give you Nothing But Thieves a band that has that Muse vibe in them, or Radiohead and even Jeff Buckley from reviewers who gushed over this new debut.  Granted I'm not a Muse nor Radiohead fan and Jeff Buckley's Grace rubbed me wrong from the word go, all said bands have their moments, you know my opinions of the overrated Kid A, but another band that reminds me of NBT is the forgotten Under The Influence Of Giants that made a one and one album for Island a decade ago but NBT is more in line of Muse,  Conor Mason is a fine vocalist, he does have that high yodel that recalls Bono or Thom Yorke.  For songs they pass by in the more acceptable 2 and a half to three minute range, the only four minute song on the album is the weeper Lover, Please Stay. And Painkiller actually has a guitar line that recalls early 90s grunge in a way.  Still, they have an eye on the alternative rock side of things with the smothering Excuse Me and the dancelike trance of Ban All The Music and Graveyard Whistling.  The slight drawbacks is when they slow things down to a crawl, Tempt You (Evocatio) the last song is a yawner.  Still, I give NBT credit for keeping my attention span going through most of the record, and perhaps some day they'll compete with Muse and Radiohead in musical headlines.  On this album, they keep things short and to the point.  That accounts for something.
Grade B+

King's X-Ear Candy (Atlantic 1996)

While people look back on less memorable albums of twenty years ago, I propose that in their time King's X was very far ahead of the times and didn't share into the grunge rock movement. Their harmonies came from the Beatles and Ty Tabor had envisions of trying to capture that Beatles spirit with a bit spiritual awakenings.  They might have been a Christian Rock band under rock pretensions. Their Atlantic years did spawn some surprises (Out Of The Silent Planet, Gretchen Goes To Nebraska) but even Love Faith Hope and Dogman found themselves in the cut out section a half year later.  But once they shed themselves of Sam Taylor in favor of Brendan O Brien on Dogman they stumbled but on Ear Candy they recovered quite nicely and in my opinion remains their best overall Atlantic album. Arnold Lanni was a better fit as producer than Brendan and the songs should have been played more often on radio rather than Soundgarden, songs like Mississippi Moon, which in deed capture Ty Tabor to be as important as a lead singer although Doug Pinnick gave a bit more color to songs like Looking For Love or Run or 67.  In some ways this album reminds me of Stone Temple Pilots Tiny Music, which also came out twenty years ago, Ear Candy having a lot of variation in their songs and music and why it didn't break as well as Tiny Music might be blamed on biased radio and a indifferent Atlantic promotions team that didn't do King's X any favors.  Sometimes classic albums don't get their due till years after it's been completed and forgotten till some rabid fans or a music mag coming across it by accident.   And maybe a decade from now, somebody will discover Ear Candy and elevate it into the classic albums of the 1990s. (I can only do so much, unless one of the 52 readers of the day goes out and listens to this on You Tube and then rave about it in their blog).   In a strange sense of irony, a year later when King's X moved over to Metal Blade to do Tape Head, their first for the label, some now out of work DJ was laughing at the fact that King's X was still around and was singing the praises of some band called Limp Bizkit and calling that the future.  Only problem is King's X made better albums, Limp Bizkit simply made noises.  And King's X still made viable and good to great albums but with Ear Candy they simply made their finest overall.   And it still holds up after 20 years.
Grade A 

Pentatonix  (RCA 2015)

Tad made an interesting point about new music and he reviewed the latest Tedeschi/Trucks album which you can read from here: http://tadsbackupplan.blogspot.com/2016/02/theyll-get-by.html
Though I cut back on reviewing new music this year I have made some exceptions.  The latest Nothing But Thieves which has some substance to that album, and I have heard mixed reviews on the 2 CD Dream Theater album,which would have bored me to death.  Pentatonix has some history, winning the third season of The Sing Off, to which Epic dropped them and RCA picked them up, which is strange since Sony Music owns both labels.  But this Arlington Texas based vocal group, who managed to wow the masses with their covers of other people songs, decided to do their debut album with original material. Now Accapella vocal groups are not new, The Nylons have done this, Bobby McFarren ditto and even the Manhattan Transfer, and let's not forget The Persuasions, Pentatonix updates their perfect pitch vocals with beatboxing, and other fun sounds and their songs are peppered with hip hop beats.  A Capella groups, once the novelty wears thin, end up being somewhat a freak show but Pentatonix cover's of other now music bands and artists showed they have lots of creativity to go around.  Na Na Na is this year's version of Happy, it's infectious and fun to sing along till about the 20th time the radio station plays it, then it's not so fun.  For sheer balladry Take Me Home is nice, and perhaps songs like Cracked, and Ref will be included on those soft rock radio stations.  However somebody should have told Jason Derulo to stay the hell home when he screams those high notes on If I Ever Fall In Love, Pentatonix didn't need him anyway.  For a band that relied on covers before this album, they should not give that up either.  I do admit I'm not a big fan of the the Great Sing Off TV show or The Voice, and the don't yell at me singers tend to get on my nerves in a split second (see Jason Derulo), but I do think there's some substance into this album not to get it a indifferent grade.  They're excellent vocalists and they're good at what they do.  Let's just call this a left field excursion into something I don't listen to much, worth a few plays and see what the future brings for them.  As for myself, I'll go with a more rock minded band.
Grade B-

Album Of My Youth: Kevin Salem-Soma City (Roadrunner 1994)

Salem was part of Dumptruck, a band that made a couple albums for Big Time and played on one of them before moving to a solo career.  Salem, along with Blue Mountain became the two regular rockers signed to the ultra metal Roadrunner Records in the early 90s and it's hard to fathom Kevin Salem sharing the same label with Coal Chamber and later Slipknot and it should have not worked. But Kevin put together a hell of a backing band featuring members from Roscoe's Gang (Keith Levanault, drummer extraordinaire).  If anything, Salem was compared to Freedy Johnston, since he appeared on Johnston's Can You Fly, but unlike Johnston was a bit less flashy.  Produced by Niko Bolas (Warren Zevon, Neil Young), there's a bit of garage polish on the mix and Lighthouse Keeper has a Freedy influence, but the band owes more to Crazy Horse or Roscoe's Gang, with Syd Straw providing female vocals to songs like Forever Gone or the sad ballad of Shot Down, and Diviner echoes of Crazy Horse comes through the lead guitar player.  Failed single Will would have been a nice add to the alternative rock and roll side of things.  If there's a complaint, it might be that the album does goes on a bit too long, it clocks in at 53 minutes, In A Whisper tends to wear out its welcome at six minutes plus, but it's the last song. But between that and Lighthouse Keeper it's a consistent listen throughout. This was one of those CDs that Jerry Scott played a lot at Relics Records in the 90s and if you went up there in 1994 you couldn't escape it. To which I think we were better off anyway rather than the second rate grunge crap that was going around.  In 1995 Kevin Salem opened for Blue Mountain at Gabes in Iowa City and I got to see Salem's acoustic show at B J's Records, I didn't make it to the show, my girlfriend at the time got food poisoning and we made the long trip back to Cedar Rapids.  Salem would make one more album Glimmer for Roadrunner before they dropped him and he went on to production work and raising a daughter.  He's made two albums since but from what I have read about them, they're not as rock and roll as Soma City. An underrated classic album of the 1990s from an artist that deserved a better fate.
Grade A-