April's Pearls of Wisdom

Chris Issack - Isaak is not entirely new to me, having heard a song or two, including some holiday songs, in the past. This, though, is my first venture into the full on Chris Issak. Please make it stop. The music isn’t bad - he obviously has a nice voice, similar to a latter day Roy Orbison at times - but one melodramatic song leading into another got wearying. I mean how many ways can he ask whether she'll miss him as much as he’ll miss her. Thank god for Trisha Yearwood and Michelle Branch, who’s voices broke the monotony of Isaak's cloying whining. Even listening to Best I Ever Had, one of the better songs on the CD, was tough the first time around because I kept expecting the other shoe to fall. Lo and behold, he didn’t lose this chick. Whatever! Not bad, not good, just annoying – 2.0

Boomtown Rats - Problem here is that this particular version of the CD is, based on the inclusion of one song and the reworking of the song order, is a dramatically different CD than the one that I first heard in 1979 when it came out as an import. The original started with Like Clockwork and was an up-tempo, lyrically interesting (for the time) pop punk record with a tempo-changing Thin Lizzy meets Bruce Sprinsteen song – Rat Trap – tacked on at the end. For this version they pull Joey’s On the Street again (another Springsteen meets Thin Lizzy) from their first album and bookend the real album with these out of character songs, giving the whole exercise a sense of disconnection. Too bad, because it was a pretty cool record for the time. My bad for not adhering to the original order. The original gets a 3.5 from me.

Robbie Robertson - Sort of interesting step out for Robertson at the time and I think this was his first solo record after the demise of the Band. It’s decidedly un-Band like and while that’s too bad on a certain level, the last thing he needed to do at the time was do a solo Band album. So we’ve got this overly lush, AOR record that deservedly got some FM airplay back in the day. Sounds a bit like U2 at times, but maybe that’s because Bono was involved on some level – don’t have the specifics – but he obviously likes that sonic wall sound the embodies U2’s better stuff. Ultimately, while well done, it just doesn’t hold my interest. 3.0

Blue October - Original comment - Not crazy about this, but I listened to it less than any thing else and never got through the whole thing. Updated comment - now I know why I never got through the whoe thing. Some really interesting followed inevitably by something unlistenable. 2.0

Little Feat – A great, under-appreciated band. Funky and polished in a sloppy sort of way. Fat Man in the Bathtub is a perfect example of that. They are precise at times, but their best stuff has a lazy feel that belies it’s polish. The songs from Dixie Chicken, one of 1973’s best records, stand out. Once Lowell George died – and quite frankly even before that – they started to fade artistically as stardom lurked just beyond their reach and they got too slick. I could listen to Dixie Chicken over and over. It's a nearly perfect record.



Magazines

Rolling Stone till 1976 - Punk and new wave rendered Rolling Stone irrelevant in 1977.

Creem - Boy Howdy profiles, Robert Christgau and Lester Bangs. What else do you need? Irreverent and snotty with a great sense of humor. Creem was the anti-Rolling Stone.

Bomp Magazine – Initially created by Greg Shaw as a collectors fanzine specializing in british invasion music. Shaw switched gears when he recognized the punk movement as the next Briitish Invasion with all of the energy and DIY attitude that characterized the British Invasion. Essentially invented Power pop and to this day, even after his death, his wife carries on with some of the most interesting independent pop and punk stuff available. www.bomp.com

Trouser Press – A more mature contemporary of Bomp, Ira Robbins chronicled the punk and New Wave movements with intelligence, if not the kind of passion that Shaw did. Still the definitive guide to the punk and new wave era. www.trouserpress.com

New York Rocker – When you could get copies, it worked the NYC scene better than anyone else.

There are a few good magazines out there now - most from the UK, but none that really matter to me. The internet has made rock magazines nearly obsolete in their current form. And I'm less tolerant of long articles about dopey musicians because few them are interesting to me beyond their music.




Rock Critics

Greil Marcus – The king of the egghead rock critics, he wrote one of the great books on rock music ever – Mystery Train

Lester Bangs – the Hunter S Thompson of rock critics, a true fan who saw through the record company bullshit and was not afraid to tell those that could help him the most to go fuck themselves just to spite ‘em. Deservedly a legendary figure.

Robert Christgau - The best guy out there right now - reliable, yet often times obscure, his depth of knowlege and experience make him a must read. www.robertchristgau.com/
Click on the users guide in the upper left corner. You can spend alot of time clicking on the Random A list from there.

Greg Shaw – No one critic is more influential for me. The most knowlegable Punk and Power Pop critic ever and he has a way of explaining what it means to love rock and roll music in the same way Nick Hornby explained being an Arsenal fan in the great book Fever Pitch.

Ira Robbins – Trouser Press, the bible of alternative rock, still lives on the internet (see above) and while it is less thorough than other databases like All Music Guide, it is more reliable critically, with fewer articles written by fans of the bands.

Very late synapsis....

....so to save time I feel this sums up the meeting pretty accurately;

Down Your Nose April Meeting

Owed for May

Greg- Host
D'Arcy- Old
Mongillo- New
Monsta- Old- sent Van Halen's Women and Children First
Sandy- New

Meeting is June 2nd

lets read more about music

Mg 4-28-9

Robbie Robertson

I’d forgotten just how good Robbie Robertson is. Whether it be The Band, or this cd he just writes good music. Here he surrounds himself with great people, the del feugo guys, peter Gabriel and it works. Grand epic songs, and atmospheric ballads they are all here. Hell even hearing Rod Stewart butcher Broken Arrow every day I still like the tune.
3.5

Boomtown Rats
Its funny but Bob Geldoff musically will always be remembered for two songs, one he wrote, one he didn’t. But forgotten will be just what a nice little band The Boomtown Rats were. Part Oingo Boingo, part Brit Pop, they put out decent discs regularly but in the end are probably a better greatest hits band than individual cd band. Tonic for the Troops is their best how ever and the cd is good throughout. Good not great. Some quality instrumental play that let us the listener show that yes the band did have chops.
3.0

Blue October
Now here is an angry individual who know how to spit venom at the people who have cause him pain even if it is him self. I really liked this band. The singer sounds like Fish and the band has that early Marillion feel. Just a bit more pissed, and a bit heavier. Love the single especially the bee comment. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem brewing. As the cd plays the guitars disappear a bit replaced by keyboard and violin. Not good. Although the last songs anger clears that up pretty quick.
3.5

Chris Isaac
Another quality outing. However what tends to bother me is he has a tendency to build a song but never gives us the crescendo that would really make the song over top. Instead he relies on his voice to slowly bring back to the song. That being said he has some good songs here especially the duets and the straight pop tunes. 3.0



Spin, when it was owned by penthouse and guicione jr didn’t give a shit. Got it free for about two years when they went out looking for bands rolling stone would give any press to

Kerrang a magazine named after the sound of guitar strings being hit. Focused on metal when it was still interesting although a bit clichéd now. Three of my favorite critics came from here and when the graduated the magazine suffered.

Q it’s a brit pop magazine nuff said
CMJ just for the reviews and the free disc

Classic Rock Where my favorite writers have landed. A magazine with its foot in the past but a toe looking towards the future. Championed Dirty Sweet Two Cow and Damone and still loves to point why Lizzy and UFO are relevant. Above all its focus is on guitar-based music. What’s not to like?

Favorite reviewers

There was a writer/ reviewer in the early days of spin that would use song titles from the artist as he wrote about the artist. No clue of his name but his style and taste were something I found to be necessary reading.

Dave Ling, Malcome Dome, Geoff Barton. All came out of the early Kerranng magazine and started promoting the NWOBHM flag. All could take something that was audio, put down in words that left you a picture of what the cd sounded like. That is something special. Of the three Dave ling is probably my favorite because his tastes are closer to mine. But either of them giving a good review means I am probably going to check out the cd.