I think I'm safely under D'Arcy's "no post before a meeting rule"

The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth
Ever notice that the 99.9% of all the good albums ever released have a great opening song. This falls into that category. “Cakewalk”, with it’s “..I wanna get paid” cadence opens this truly well done disc. Though they have Coldplay and Keane tendencies I still found this completely captivating. Fortunately they didn’t overdo the dramatic or get too self indulgent and they let the songs build naturally. Heard Murder By Death phrasings (“Hey Jim”) and mid-career U2 sprinkled about. Very England but very good. (3.5 leaning higher).

US3-Hand On the Torch
I’m ready to take the shlacking from my selection, but as rap/hip-hop goes this album is one of my favorites (of the 5 rap/hip-hop discs I own). At the time, US3 was the first to sample jazz classics and “Flip Fantasia”, their version of Cantaloupe Island is one of the most infectious club numbers ever. Some of Da Rhymes are bit mundane but overall it is a positive groove and its refreshing to hear urban music that isn’t touting their shorty and how cool they are. Not for everyday but a nice disc to mix it up.(3)

Walt Mink- Colossus
My first listen wasn’t favorable. The second was a little better and by the third Mink won, kind of. Hands down John Kimbrough is a guitar virtuoso. Crisp licks with nary a single guitar part being run of the mill. That is really what made me stop and take notice. Now lyrically, that’s another story. A few of the songs had moments where the dopey lyrics detracted from the great guitar work but it luckily wasn’t every song and or every line in any song. Just bad moments. It was fun to get a disc that dared me not to like it. (3).

Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer
I should have known where this going from the disc’s title. But unfortunately I didn’t. Sometimes the gayer the music the more fun it is and sometimes it just plain gay. This was the latter. Please, even before listening read the titles of the songs. Any song with the words Heimdalsgate, Promethean, Gronlandic, Kongsvinger, Shuggie should be shugged and shugged permanently. On first listen I got to “Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider” and I looked for any rodent to run over- I was driving at the time. On 2nd listen I got the same point and I looked for any rodent to run over- I wasn’t driving at the time. My 10 yr old animal lover daughter tackled me halting me from doing this vicious act. Then I played her the disc and she grabbed a shovel looking for anything to kill. I digress. I guess what I am saying is that I did not like this disc. (1)

Randy Newman- GHITS
Randy is another one of those songwriters who is so brilliant it hurts, and unfortunately it hurts his sales. The masses don’t get his subtleties. They miss his point. They get it when he’s scoring a movie, but not when he is just being creative. Some may say he isn’t rock- but I beg to differ. Randy is rock, cabaret, ragtime, Broadway, Americana, N’orleens, contemporary, protest…etc. This mix does a fine job in documenting a long career. Whether you are a fan or not, you should keep this mix for posterity.


Topics

I, The Producer
Something tells me I may share this one another member…

Prince to do his all-out-guitar-god-rock album. It would have to be at least a 2 disc set with a bonus disc of jam outtakes since they’d be awesome as well. It would be peppered with guest stars like (not inclusive) Joe Perry, Robert Randolph, Bootsy Collins, Steve Cropper, Booker T, JB Horns- artists that understand how to take a song and goooooooooooooo. The strategy would be get the parties in the studio turn on the tape and let it roll. Prince needs this to save his Jehovah soul and we need this to show it still can be done with a little American ingenuity.

Best CD so far: There are two hogging my disc player
´ Two Cow Garage- III
´ Mooney Suzuki- Have Mercy

Last Book
The Birth of Satan; Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots by T. J. Wray and Gregory Mobley

Ambulance Ltd – This one is hard to categorize, but it’s a gem. Parts of it are a little trippy (“Sugar Pill”) , other parts have a bit of a pop-sound to them (“Primitive”) and there is a Velvet Underground vibe through the whole thing. A unique CD that reminded me a little of Death Cab for Cutie’s last one in that it just kept getting better with each listen. I went to see what else these guys have done, and to my astonishment, this appears to be all there is. What’s the deal D’Arcy? 4 stars

L7 – Hungry for stink? I hope so, as this disc will definitely satiate your appetite. The freaking stink is everywhere. Vocals? They stink. Lyrics? They stink. Drummer’s ability? Stinks. Guitar work, production, originality, diversity; song structure? That would be (in order) Stink, stink, stink, stink and stink. Band members’ armpits and panties? I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess they stink too. This disc achieves the almost impossible accomplishment of making Hole sound like Wilco. It’s been a good long while since I have been subjected to anything this bad. 0 stars.

Sounds Like Violence – Yep, it sure does. In your face disc that would be better off with a little more variety. The guitar work is good, but the vocals are damn near intolerable, most notably on “Longing for a Warm Embrace”. About 20 minutes of this is more than enough, and songs start to all sound alike by the 5th – 6th track. 1.5 stars

Mitch Easter – Apparently Jay is afraid of the beating, as I have yet to receive a copy.

Tom Waits – If I had to put together a Tom Waits g-hits, 75% of what was on this one would not have been on it. This is not a negative comment on Greg’s choices. It’s just that Mr. Waits’ catalog is such an embarrassment of riches that putting together a single CD worth of his best material is impossible. Whether he is in ballad mode or full junkyard bash mode, he is brilliant. Lyrically, he has few peers and contrary to what many will say, his voice is his greatest asset. A national treasure.


Discussion Question

The desert island question has been done, but narrowing the choices to 5 is daunting.

1. The Clash – London Calling. The greatest album ever made, period. If my choice were limited to one, this is it.
2. Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison. Greatest “country” album ever made. Period.
3. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks
4. Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps
5. Drive By Truckers – The Dirty South

To leave off the Stones, the Who, Springsteen, Wilco, etc is just brutal…

The artist I would consider to be most influential above all others is Chuck Berry. Rock and Roll music doesn’t exist without him. The Beatles, Stones, etc have no jumping pad without the Berry riff.

Other “most influential”

Songwriter – Dylan
Guitarist – Berry
Keyboardist – Johnny Johnson
Drummer – Cant come up with one. I have favorite drummers, but I don’t know how influential they are/were. No one plays like Moon or Stewart Copeland, they are unique. Might have to give consideration to Watts and Starr. Simple drummers, but they surely influenced others.
Bassist – Same
Vocalist – Dylan. His phrasing and lack of a traditional singing voice opened the doors for Young, Springsteen, Waits, etc…