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The Mong
Music Group Commentary
July 2009

Cracker – “Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey” – 3.5 Stars
Simply, a great, rockin’ album. Nothing new for Cracker but who cares when it’s this good. Between the new Green Day, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Chris Isaak, Robert Pollard (Boston Spaceships), and Superdrag albums (on top of the new Superchunk and Spoon singles), apparently 2009 is a '90s revival of '90s bands that [sans Green Day] sound as if they were plucked from their lost tracks of the '90s. (Phew, that’s a lot of '90s for one sentence.) All we need now is for Kurt Cobain to rise from the grave and reunite Nirvana.

Herbie Hancock – “Man-Child” – 1 Star
I can appreciate the musicianship as a time-capsule (hence the single star) but I cannot get past what is essentially a very, very bad seventies movie score. I swear that some of this stuff has actually been used in exploitation film soundtracks from that decade. Brutal! Just brutal.

Modest Mouse – “The Moon and Antarctic” – 4.5 Stars
Perhaps one of the best under-heard albums of the last ten years... Give me this scruffy, snotty Modest Mouse over the pop, slick Modest Most that came only a few years later. Sure, their crowd-pleasing, lesser-work is arguably a natural evolution both musically and commercially for any pseudo-obscure yet critically acclaimed band; yet, with Modest Mouse, as with Spoon’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” their “progression” seemed calculated and somehow devious...Almost a betrayal to longtime fans (so I hope they made some bank for our suffering). Anyway, other Modest Mouse standouts are “The Lonesome Crowded West” (for my money, their 5-star best) and “Interstate 8.”

Placebo – “Battle For The Sun” – 3 Stars
And I mean this as a compliment: a total D’Arcy band ... And yet another winner this month. Nice.

G’hits – Otis Redding
Gawd-dam amazing stuff. I’m thrilled to add this “G’hits” to my music library.

Alan’s Questions:

Question 1 - It's a hypothetical...you meet an amazing girl who really wants to get to know you better. Problem is that she wants you to bear your soul to her through a mix of music that you think expresses the depth and range of your emotions. She enjoys all kinds of music, but only has an attention span of 30 minutes...so what 30 minutes of music would you give her?

I’d give her Guided by Voices “Bee Thousand.” If she can handle that, she can handle anything else Mongillo. My wife actually passed this test. ...Or was it me who passed hers...?

Question 2 - Another hypothetical...you are dying. You are comfortable, but bed ridden and you know you only have 30 minutes left to live. You decide to listen to music with your remaining time alive. What do you listen to?

Probably a Black Sabbath mix.