Amy's Hopping Mad

Apparently she's had it with the abuse.

March Recap

Quaint and pleasant little meeting we had last week with little confrontation. No disc received huge raves and none complete pans, except U2, which all but 2 of us decided to take the road of negativity and bash them because its cool to do so. Doinks.

Mr. Pygmy Love Circus himself had the best one liners of the evening - and he wasn't even there! Midwest Mike was invited to partake via text and as expected provided nothing of interest or of use. Director of Cinema was also absent but provided the most provocative reviews of his DYN stint.... oh... wait... he didn't provide any reviews.

Best discussion of the night was deciding who were the hottest rock chicks of all time. The winner by a landslide was, you guessed it;



All in all, good beers were had, the abuse flowed like always and I of course delivered the best reviews.

Next Meeting is April 28th

New- Ken (went out today)Chris Isaak- Mr. Lucky
New- Alan
Old- Greg - Robbie Robertson
Old- Jay (switcheroo with Mongillo) in car forgot name.
Host- Jay as well... lucky guy

The rest will be sent when we get.

Ken's reasonable reviews

AC Newman- Get Guilty

Orchestral and dramatic with an Okkervil River and Band of Horses flair. Though I had no clue what in god’s name they were singing about half the time, it was the song composition that won me over. I felt that I could erase the spaces between the songs and the songs would naturally blend together like an early Genesis record. This isn’t a knock. (3.5)

U2- No Line on the Horizon

Sometimes re-charting familiar waters is a good thing. I had no intention on liking this after being bored to actual tears with their last release. I was all set to pre-review this one like the emails from the group jabbing at it. But I can’t. I like it. It has that jangly Joshua Tree guitar. It has anthem builds and emotive vocals being driven by a pulsing base. It borders on clever, though not actually attaining that. To me, it is better than expected good, solid U2. (3.5)

Good Rats- Tasty

A definitive Long Island bar band sound of the 70’s. One thing this bar band had that most probably didn’t was that they could truly play. The guitarist was excellent and the songs quite varied in style. While there is no mistaking that this is rooted in the 70’s, at least it is a good representation. Though popular in their territory, this wasn’t a band that would or could conquer the US (similar to NRBQ). Nothing special enough for me to reach for it often, it is worth keeping for those nights when a mustache, ‘fro and day-glo are in order. (2.5)

Spoon- Series of Sneaks

Why they were dumped by Elektra for this is beyond me? This is a solid, chance taking (as always) Spoon effort. Lots of starts and stops and direction changing and instrument experiments- but all pretty catchy and enjoyable. And short- which is fine by me because it makes you want more. Not Gimme Fiction but pretty damn good. (3.5)

Bottle Rockets- Best Of

This band has always been filed in the ‘I gotta check them out” file. Well finally that day has arrived. Not much to say that it no surprise that I liked this homey, Texas sounding (but not from) outfit, except for the song “Baggage Claim” which I think still hasn’t ended. Besides that a well done mix.

Topic;

Five solo/side projects;

• Jack White (White Stripes)- Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely”
• Mike Ness (Social Distortion)- “Cheating at Solitaire”
• The entire Traveling Wilbury’s discography
• Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)- “Jesus Christ Superstar”

Croquet Mishap;

I’m going to straddle the fence on this. It is both positive and negative.

Negative because I no longer have the memories or emotions that made the music I love so endearing to me and the guilty pleasures so decadent. Gone will also be the enjoyment I got from digging up history and offshoots of artists I have been a fan of.

Positive since I am now able to listen to music with an unbiased ear. I may fall back on the horse I rode before or a new pony. I can now listen to certain artists without rolling my eyes or with a preconceived notion about how they are going to suck (see U2 review) and actually LISTEN. I will be able to create new memories and emotions that I will remember more of since I am older and not cocked as often as I was when I was creating my original memories. But I implore all of you that if the pony I land on is an Eagles, Phil Collins, Bob Seger, 38 Special breed that you will kill me immediately for my family’s sake.

Bottle Rockets – What a kick ass good time guitar/rock/country collection. How is it I didn’t have anything by them? Oops, I DO have something, but I never listened to it. I’m just not paying attention obviously. This stuff is alternately funny, touching and passionate with the kind of plain talk lyricism that that puts so many esoteric modern bands to shame. Spent more time listening to this than the rest of the month's stuff combined.

AC Newman - Seems to be trying way too hard to be interesting musically. And it’s off putting. I like my melodies straight ahead with this type of songwriting and it just wasn’t. I’m guessing that this is the type of record that can grow on you as you absorb the quirky music, but I just don’t have the time. Not awful, just frustrating. 2.5

U2 - Yup, I knew I could review this without listening. New single that sounds like the last cool single is OK and the rest is a snooze. Let’s be honest, these guys were really never any good. Bono’s engaging, but they put out Boy, October and War (basically the same album released in 3 different versions) at a time (’80 – ’83) when just about anything would have sounded good by comparison. Couple of decent musical moments later on in the ‘90s when people mistakenly considered them relevant, but basically it was just Bono being a great self promoter. This is even worse than that. Boring. 1.5

Good Rats - What would happen if Hollywood combined Almost Famous and This Is Spinal Tap and they needed a band to write and record the soundtrack? Well they wouldn’t need to find a band to do that. Good Rats already recorded it.
So classically classic rock sounding that, listening to it in 2009, it straddles the line between classic and parody. Good music, but the "we’re pretty cool we’re in a band writing hip, smart tasty rock music for the people, man" feel of the album seems a bit much at times. Musically, it wins out, though.........3.0


Spoon - I thought this was really good when I first heard it – on a recommendation from Mongillo I’m sure. And it didn't disappoint a few years later. No real standout songs (that happens when EVERYTHING is really good - no bad shit to compare) and it's a little too reverential at times to the (overrated) Pixies, but that's quibbling and this has plenty of melody and loud guitars to satisfy me. 4.0

Side projects

Racontuers (does this count as two?)
Minus 5 (does whis count as five?)
Manitoba's Wild Kingdom (3/5 of Dictators)
Flatlanders (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock)
Tinted Windows (Fountains of Wayne and others. Yeah, I know it's not even out yet, but it's going to be great)

Croquet Question

Answer - I really haven't played croquet lately.**

**Note that the answer makes as much sense as the question.

Or perhaps Kant had the answer:

"All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?"

So there.

Make of this what you will!

U2: No Line On The Horizon- 1.5
There are two kinds of people in this world: Lovers and Loathers. The Lovers are gushing all over the place OMG, OMG THE best U2 record EVER!! OMG better than Achtung Baby. OMG!
The Loathers (me included) have our boots on all right cuz this album is loaded with crap. What a bunch of mind-numbing blandness. I think U2 is trying to be all things to all people and they missed badly with this one. Cedars Of Lebanon is the only decent track on the whole album but even that sounds like an out-take from The Joshua Tree.
I give Horizon a 1.5

AC Newman: Get Guilty-3
I’m a big New Pornographers/ Carl Newman fan. The guy writes great pop tunes. Intelligent, witty, and engaging. Each song on it’s own is a beauty. Yet, as a whole, this album loses me a little. The beginning is good, the end is good, but the middle is a little murky. I like it and I want to like it more but I can’t give it more than a 3.

The Bottle Rockets: Ghits
Nice compilation- thanks Mike. A solid alt-country rock band if ever there was one. I like the humor and edginess of Slobberbone better though.

Spoon: A Series Of Sneaks-4
I love Spoon. They don’t know how to make a bad record. Sharp lyrics, hooky melodies, very hip alt/pop music. A Series Of Sneaks was the teaser to Girls Can Tell- a masterpiece that packs more hooks into a single album than most bands have in their entire discography. Sneaks get a 4. My favorite album in this month’s offerings.

The Good Rats: Tasty-3
Indeed! Who are these guys? And, why didn’t they make it big? This is a solid rock band and Tasty is a good record. A couple of misses but a fun listen to be sure. Gotta give it a 3.


The Questions:
My top 5 list: 1) John Mayall- Turning Point
2) Rod Stewart- Every Picture Tells A Story
3) Neil Young- Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
4) Paul Simon- Paul Simon
5) George Harrison- All Things Must Pass

2. Not a negative at all. Look- a painter paints pictures on canvas, but musicians paint their pictures on silence. Music washes away from the soul the dust of every day life. I don’t care what kind of music you like. I care that you like music. Without music- life would be a mistake.

Missourian Meanderings on March's Mostly Mediocre Music

A.C. Newman – File this one under “crit-porn” with Fleet Foxes, Cat Power and Sufjan Stevens, as it seems to make reviewers harder than Quantum Physics. Darned if I can figure out why. A pretty unremarkable disc musically, stylistically and lyrically, yet certainly will be in NPR’s Top 10 at the end of the year. What’s frustrating is that I sense his band could cook if the reins were let loose, but the whole damn thing is just so restrained. 2 stars

U2 – I love U2, always have. But they’re now in the Stones’ “Steel Wheels” portion of their career, where they get rave reviews for shit on a shingle and live off their ability to deliver the goods in concert. “Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” is a great one, and “Boots” has grown on me. The rest of this is by and large forgettable. The individual pieces (Edge and Bono both sound great) are all there, but the songs are the worse batch since “Zooropa”. U2 has to answer to higher standards than other bands, and this doesn’t meet those standards. 2.5 stars

Good Rats – Funny how time screws with the memory. The title alone brought back fond recollections of a gloriously misspent youth on Long Island. WLIR, WBAB, drunken nights at Jones Beach, etc. The Good Rats were a staple of those years. I hadn’t heard these guys in 25+ years, so it came as a surprise that a fair amount of this disc stunk. With the exception of the title track and “Back to My Music”, most of this is just bad prog-rock lite. Chalk it up to youthful indiscretion. 2.5 nostalgic stars

Spoon – This is definitely a lot punkier and punchier than their more recent material. High energy to be sure, but their songwriting hadn’t quite matured yet. Exception and consequently the highlight is “Advance Cassette” which points towards the more soulful road the band takes when at its best. A good disc, but in an effort to get a rise from Mongillo, I’ll note that it is not as good as their last two. 3 stars

Bottle Rockets – Good little St. Louis band that started in the shadows of Uncle Tupelo. Although not the trailblazers UT were, they move seamlessly from rock to pop to country and write very solid tunes. There is a fair dose of smart-ass in their lyrics as well, which further endears them to me. Hope this went over better than Jamey Johnson….



Discussion Question

1) All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes – Pete Townshend
2) All Things Must Pass – George Harrison
3) Traveling Wilburys Vol.1 – Jeff Lynne & some other guys
4) Live at the Palladium - Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos
5) Don’t Worry About Me - Joey Ramone

II

What prompted this question was the year-end lists and the fact that our group came up with 60 different CDs we identified as being the best of 2008. Exactly one of these (Coldplay) was among the top 20 selling cds of the year. I began to ponder the snobbery issue, and wonder how much that plays into what we enjoy. The name of our group alone speaks volumes…

I would in fact view it as a negative event, and would be surprised if anyone in the group didn’t. On the one hand, there is probably more music that we don’t like than music we do like, so theoretically we would enjoy more music than we do now. However, I suspect all of us take great joy in having musical tastes that are out of the mainstream. The snob and “superiority” aspect of our listening is no doubt part of its appeal.

Greg's March Madness

A.C. Newman – Get Guilty – 3.5

I had to look and make sure I didn’t put on one of my Partridge Family albums, but I didn’t, it was just A.C. Newman. This was a fun little album that grew on me the more I listened. I found myself tapping through all of the corniness. I actually had to look up when this cd was released because I would have guessed it was an oldie.

The Bottlerockets – Greatest Hits

I guess it’s official, I’m not a Bottlerockets fan. I’m sure that they sound great after a few Budweiser’s and some party mix at Murphy and Scarletti’s, but I don’t drink Bud and I don’t do party mix and bars (said with a southern drawl). The band was a little too Georgia Satellites for me.

Spoon – A Series of Sneaks - 3

Nicely structured band. They were tight even though they sound raw. This reminded me of the Police. It didn’t sound like them, but to me the band had that same energy. I only gave the cd one good listen, but I really did like most of what I heard. Plus, Mike said that I am stupid if I don’t like them.

U2 – No Line On The Horizon – 3.5

I like it. Bono may be a bit eccentric, but they know how to make a catchy tune. This felt different than other U2 cds and it wasn’t the Joshua Tree, but it had just enough of the sounds of the older stuff that I liked what I heard. It won’t be on my favorite cds of the year, but I won’t turn it off when it comes on.

Good Rats – Tasty - 4

Really “Guess Whoish”, or maybe the Guess Who is really “Good Ratish”, I don’t know who came first. When I first put this in I didn’t think I was going to like it at all. But this is an awesome disk.

A List and an essay...

1) The 5 greatest solo or side project albums from an artist better known for his/her work with another band (or as a solo artist) are:

Not in any particular order:

Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson

Roger Waters – Amused To Death

Jack White - Racounteurs

Paul Simon – Graceland

Robert Plant – Principle of Moments

2) At the first annual Down Your Nose croquet tournament, you are struck in the head by an errant shot (Ken’s) and lapse into a coma. When you awake, your musical tastes have changed EXACTLY 180 degrees. If you thought the Beatles were the greatest group ever, you wake up thinking they were the worst. If you once despised the Bee Gees, you now love them (D’Arcy becomes a Springsteen groupie). If you thought alternative country was kind of good, you now think it kind of bad. Your 5 star reviews become zeros, your 1 star reviews become 4 stars, etc. Your opinion on everything you hear is precisely the opposite of what it was. You have no memory of your pre-accident musical tastes. Ignoring the practical issue of replacing your music collection, do you see this as a negative event? Why or why not?

There is a deeper consciousness that prevents me from liking country, polka or Kenny G’s music regardless of the circumstances. My brain is programmed and would remain in a self induced coma until my music tastes were restored (no comments from the peanut gallery). If this didn’t happen within a reasonable timeframe my brain would enter a self induced vegetative state at which time my medical directive would kick in saving me from a fate worse than death.

Keeping You Abreast of Danger!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b43c2bcbcd/boob-karate-from-that-happened

February Made Me Shiver...

Jamey Johnson – Jamey Johnson

I’m a country fan, so this was an easy listen for me. By and large, the songs are good both musically and lyrically and he has that deep baritone that adds a certain “Marlboro Man” macho to the CD. The flip side here is that my standards are pretty high in this genre, with Toby Keith being the “5”. Jamey and his band don’t quite get to that level, and I had to take points off for the extra pedal steel at the end of what seemed like almost every song and for the sound effects that led into some of them. From me, a 3.

The Killers – Day and Age

Good musicianship, interesting lyrics, well crafted pop songs…why don’t I connect with this? Probably because what I really want in my music are GUITARS! This CD has that feel of Bowie’s “Heroes”…it’s a full, dense production with “Human” summing up the listening experience. And track after track just kept going the same way. After a while, it got boring. I know if I give this another 5-10 listens I’ll sing along, but I’m not sure I will. 2 ½.

Them Changes – Buddy Miles

A good chunk of this holds up pretty well. I haven’t listened to this in 30+ years and as soon as I heard “the riff”, I was transported right back to high school. The second track gets points for interesting and odd chord changes that somehow work in a ballad, and it was worth listening to some of the inane lyrics on a couple of tunes to hear the Neil cover and the instrumental next to last track. This is a good reminder to go back into my old Sly Stone albums, too. The only thing that keeps this ‘down’ to a 3.5 is the glut of great music that came out when this came out.

Mofro – Funky, jam band stuff that was not as funky as Buddy Miles. It seems to be the type of CD you have to be in the mood for, and I guess I wasn’t in the mood for it when I listened, though the Cracker Break gets points for originality. 2

Best of Shellac – This is the perfect example of a band that is well recorded technically, but suffers from limitations on their instruments. A handful of songs are able to express their feelings succinctly and cleverly. For me, the tracks from “1000 Hurts” stood out. I loved “Prayer”…FUCKIN’ KILL EM”…and the Squirrel Song was cool. The Watch Song is great anger and aggression, but I can’t take 12 in row of this stuff.

I bought my first 3 CD’s in 1989. I resisted until I got a CD player as a gift. The CD’s were specifically to replace vinyl that was scratched or otherwise noisy. They were, Tommy – The Who, Blue Moves – Elton John and Get Your Ya Ya’s Out – Stones.

I’ve only downloaded one full length “CD” from i-Tunes. It is “Friends” by the Beach Boys. I have become fascinated with music blogs and “free” downloads of concerts and out of print music and so that’s where I spend my computer time.