Rocktober's Reviews

Little Steven & Disciples of Soul- Men Without Women
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Put Bruce’s vocals on this, and it could be one of his. Little Steven does his best Dylan of the 80’s nasal whine. Heard very little soul or lyrics for that matter in this one. (1 because he is Little Steven for god’s sake)

Amy Winehouse- Back to Black
Sorry Mike H this is a repeat for you…..If Ronnie Spector gave Billie Holiday singing lessons then released a recording produced by Phil Spector- that's Amy. Very interesting for a boozing, hop head tramp. There are a few swings and misses but generally a good, sincere ecclectic throwback disc. (3)

Maps and Atlases- Tree, Swallows, Houses
I’ll be honest. I was very afraid to put this one in after Mars Volta, Faith No More and those Pygmies. By I breathed a sigh of relief after the first song. M&A, I am sure, will not be the favorite of everyone for the month but I enjoyed it. The best way to describe this is to call it calculus music. Very Zappa, very intellectual, textured and very difficult. Each song became augmented but no so abruptly as to lose the songs’ basic structures. These are very adroit musicians. (4).

Imperial Teen-Seasick
Go 90 degrees from M&A and you get Imperial Teen. Very good, gay, fun pop rock. Nuthin’ fancy and that is okay. First half outweighs the second half but the second half is still palatable. “Butch” and “Imperial Teen” are my favorites. Hard to believe that there IS a Mike Patton connection here……(3.5)

Poster Children- GHITS
Not wanting to be shown the fucking door….. I actually enjoyed this punk tinted pop-rock outfit. Liked the newer material over the older but it is definitely a keeper. “Zero Stars” jumped out to me as did “Music of America” and “Dream Small”.


Topics

I believe I am going in a different direction, but it is what jumped into my mind first.

Tribute:
A live rock performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. Since I was a kid this musical (yes I like musicals- let the ridicule begin….now) and I know it verbatim. The movie is downright stupid the stage version is okay, but I always thought this would be great if it was done straight out as a rock show. Hell Deep Purple’s Ian Gillian played the original Jesus and future pedophile Gary Glitter a priest. I would play the part of Judas. There would be no acting or silly pomp, just a rock concert version of show in its entirety. Would be fairly a note for note rendition with a few added solos on the “groovier” numbers (“What’s the Buzz”, “Everything’s Alright” and “Superstar”).The final encore would be an amped up version of the opening number “Overture” to introduce the band and just rock out. The band would be called ‘Jesus Was A Man Not a God’. (for D’Arcy it would be JWAMNAG).