The Midwestern Wisdom - Dec

Whitesnake – Not a good sign when the most charitable thing I can come up with is that the best track (title cut) sounds like the Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen. The rest of it sounds like Sammy’s solo stuff, which as Ken would say, is ca-ca. Hair metal in general has aged as gracefully as Linda Ronstadt’s figure, and this disc is no exception. Speaking of figures, shame on D’Arcy for depriving us of the one truly redeeming feature of this disc, namely the cover. 1 star

The Yayhoos – Made a nice counter-punch to the parade of synthesizers and effects of last month (Floyd, TV, Coldplay). A rootsy, no-frills disc from a straight shooting bar band comprised mostly of ex-Georgia Satellites. This one is full of good tunes, tasty guitar licks, a touch of country, and humorous lyrics. Inspirational chorus: “Baby I love you, just leave me the fuck alone”. Any band that verbally beats the crap out of Hank Williams Jr. (“Monkey With a Gun”) and has the guts to cover Abba is ok in my book. 4 stars

Blitzen Trapp – Gets off to a promising start with 3-4 good indie pop tunes. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much downhill after that. Songs on the latter part of the disc aren’t strong enough to keep the momentum. Without exception, I find my mind wandering from tracks 5 on every time I play this. The good stuff is very good; there just isn’t enough of it. 3 stars

Everest – Tried to give this one the benefit of the doubt, due to the Neil Young connection. It just didn’t quite trip my trigger. Sounds like a coffee shop or Borders type of disc, mellow with the occasional flash of electricity. The one standout track was “I See it In Your Eyes”, which settled into a nice Crazy Horse-on- Prozac jam. The rest of it simmers, but never quite cooks. 2.5 stars

Golden Smog – My favorite disc of the month. I’m a sucker for Byrdsy Rickenbacker guitars, lush harmonies and great songwriting, and this disc has all 3 in abundance. The whole thing has a real off-the-cuff feel to it which is reflected in the humor (“He’s a Dick”, “Pecan Pie”) as well as the unlikely covers, my favorite of which is the Brian Wilson closing track. A well done g-hits that sent me to half.com to get more and made me wonder why as a mini-Tweedy pooper I hadn’t done so before.

Discussion Question

First album ever purchased was Elton John’s Greatest Hits. I have not listened to that particular collection in many, many years. However, I do still occasionally listen to other of his works.