Don't Be Such A Titus, Andronicus.

Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

This is a very cool CD…I knew after listening to “The Enemy Is Everywhere” that there would be no guitar heroics or great musicianship here, but the fact is, great punk/pop rock has been made throughout the years without great musical chops or even much technical proficiency. This CD has that spirit…it also has clever lyrics to go along with simple rock sensibilities. To me, it was solid, fun, snarky and nasty all at the same time…they had me at “tramps like us, baby we were born to die.” 4 .

X – Los Angeles and Wild Gift

I loved both of these albums when they came out, so it was fun to listen to again in their entirety – a casualty of the I-Pod era is that I only hear these songs mixed in with others these days – and I was curious to see if they’d stand the test of time for me, which they do. Nobody harmonizes like these guys, it’s an element of their work that is unique and, in contrast to Titus Andronicus, Billy Zoom knows his way around a rockabilly lead. The two albums are a little different…Wild Gift has shorter, punkier songs than Los Angeles, but every song is cool and they both deserve to be called “classics.” 4

Icarus Himself – Mexico

So here’s the thing…I like the pop sensibilities here, The sparseness of the sound is OK, the vocals are fine…but I FUCKING HATE drum machines. It’s a Thanksgiving dinner with instant mashed potatoes. I can’t get by the artificial sounding percussion, even though the closer on this is a pretty cool song. This would be better as Icarus with a drummer, although as a two-piece, it’s respectable, even though it doesn’t hold a candle to the Black Keys. 2 ½.

Hanson – Shout It Out

If I had a 7 year old, I’d be listening to this in my car all the time…but I don’t and while I like my music on the pop side, this is too sicky sweet even for me. That said, it’s well produced formula pop and I’ve heard plenty worse. Just because one of these kids sings for Tinted Windows, I’ll give it 2 ½..

Bash & Pop – Friday Night Is Killing Me

This is one of those albums that backs up the notion that when the real songwriter is out of the picture, it just doesn’t matter how good the music sounds. Tommy Stimpson has plenty of help on this from some of Tom Petty’s band and others, and it really does sound good, but at the end of the day, it’s just good, not great like a Replacements album. 3.

Blue Oyster Cult – GH

This is a great underrated guitar band…I remember them as more of a heavier rock band than a rock n roll band…this a really good, broad cross-section of their stuff that highlights that terrific guitar work. It definitely sounds ‘70s/’80s and the big hits like “Don’t Fear the Reaper and “Godzilla” are burnt for me, but a lot of these songs are interesting enough for repeated listening, so thanks, D’Arcy for giving me something that I will happily add to the classic rock folder of my I-Tunes library.

Since I'm a radio geek, and the topic was in my wheelhouse, I answered the questions off the cuff, with no written notes, and while I'm sure I was quite erudite and insightful, I have no idea what I said. Oh well...