The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent

Bloc Party – I’ve listened to it a half dozen times, and absolutely nothing about it registers. With the exception of the catchy “I Still Remember”, nothing stands out to me as being particularly good or particularly bad. It’s just kind of there. Sounds like 95% of what I hear on our alleged “alternative” station; not enough to make me change it, but not enough to turn the volume up either. Wish I had more to offer on this one, but it didn’t click at all. 2 stars

The Good, the Bad & the Queen – More like the Warm Milk, the Sominex and the Ambien. I’m sure there was a point to this disc, but I’ll be dipped in shit if I can figure what it was. Staggeringly, mind-numbingly, coma-inducingly dull, in fact I’m getting sleepy just typing this. I simply refuse to believe a member of the Clash had anything to do with this soulless piece o’ crap. 0 starzzzzzzzzz.

Mott the Hoople – Really nice collection. Simple, clever rock and roll from start to finish. Contains one of my favorite rock and roll moments on record in “All the Young Dudes” (“ I wanna re-late to you”). Inspired me to go out and by a collection of Ian Hunter solo stuff, which in my humble opinion is better than Mott. Well thought out and constructed g-hits disc.

Discussion

I thought we did the cover thing already, so to make it more interesting (and hopefully irritate Ken), I have limited my choices to Beatles songs where the covers were better than the Fab 4’s version:

“I Will” – Alison Krauss
“I’m Only Sleeping” – The Vines
“Don’t Let Me Down” – Two Cow Garage
“Nowhere Man” – Paul Westerberg
“And Your Bird Can Sing” – Matthew Sweet / Suzanna Hoffs

5 Bands Who Desperately Need to Change Their Sound

1. Liz Phair – The move from indie queen to Britney/Christine wanna-be has not been a good one. She needs to be exiled in Guyville again. Also qualifies for the “never should have changed” category.

2. REM – Enough already with the mid-tempo keyboard driven drivel. Pull Berry and his freaking aneurysm off the farm, crank Mr. Buck up to 10 and start rocking again. Also qualifies for “never should have changed” category.

3. Coldplay - Last disc put them into the U2-wannabe file, but they’re too talented for that. Need to quicken the tempos and turn up the guitars. Of course, if I was banging Gwyneth Paltrow, I wouldn’t be too concerned about how my next disc sounded either….

4. Tom Petty – Step 1, get the original Heartbreakers back. Step 2, kill Jeff Lynne and hide the body. Step 3, pay Rick Rubin whatever it takes. I can’t emphasize the importance of step 2 enough.

5. Dave Matthews Band – I want to jam a 12 inch steak knife through my ears every time I hear him. He needs to make an unplugged album. The first thing he should unplug is his microphone. Also qualifies for bands who desperately need to be exterminated.

5 Bands Who Should Never Change Their Style (For reasons that should be obvious)

1. Southern Culture on the Skids
2. Los Straitjackets
3. Two Cow Garage
4. Drive By Truckers
5. Pearl Jam