Titus was a TV show wasn't it

Mg 8-24-10

Hanson
Hanson has a history of having of a few good songs on each disc and the rest just okay. And yes I have listen to them all. After flirting in the past with power pop when writing with Mathew Sweet they have settled into a piano based sound pop sound. Not Billy Joel more like Something Corperate meets Ben Folds. It seems to work for most of this cd. Taylor has a real good pop voice, but at times the music is just too damn clean. What I wish for this band is if they find a producer that gets them a little dirty. They have a great cd in them. This is getting closer but they are not there yet. 3.0

Titus Andronicus
Epic, grandiose, truly operatic. This punk band seems to be onto something. They have taken their raw approach from their first cd and skipped a few levels. Has a Pogues feel to it in both sound and storytelling, but far more raw and spiteful. Only concern is length. Makes it hard to listen in one sitting. The barrage of sound would do better in slightly smaller doses. A good producer hopefully will harness their great sound but cut down a bit of the fat. Still only a minor concern for one of the best cd’s of the year. 3.5

Mexico
Nice atmospheric cd. Interesting use of sounds to create a good pop cd. Voice sounds a little like Bob Geldof by way of Will Sheff but that seems to work here. Being an ep. Will be looking forward to the whole cd to see how this project grows. 2.5

X
Okay we have had both members solo cd’s and one from the band. I can say that X and its parts have been thoroughly dissected by this group. What I have learned is I like John Doe, do not like Exene, and that applies here. Never a big fan and going back did little to change my mind. Only listened to the first cd because really felt no need for the second. (Although this sneaky way to get two cd’s in must be nipped in the bud). Typical X for me 2.0

Bash And Pop
Given the pedigree of this band you would think that it would be great. Basically a Tommy Stintson solo album, with the heartbreakers and wire train members as back up. Two groups of musicians that have made other artists shine. Instead it falls flat. It might be the fact that Stintson’s voice is too thin to show the weariness and pain that his fellow band mate Westerberg was able to. It might be that his Richards like riffs while impressive seem to fall short in driving the songs forward. It just maybe that the material just doesn’t have the oomph to make it memorable. It’s probably all of these. What you get is Replacements like but that’s just not good enough. 2.0









Blue Oyster Cult
Noticed they were playing the infinity and thought why not a greatest hits. Had forgotten the early stuff as listening lately is basically Reaper, Godzilla, Burn. But they had some truly great songs on their earlier cd’s. Quality lyrics provided by Patti Smith, Sandy Pearlman, and Richard Meltzer, was supported by a very talented band, with a wall of guitars and a vastly underrated drummer Albert Bouchard. Not all was good; standards did slip as they went on. But each cd had a few good songs, thus a greatest hits help those while the earlier cds suffer from having to limit them. Whether teaming up with Ian Hunter or just on their own, the music was deep, thoughtful, layered and just rocked.

I think that there is hope for a truly unformatted radio. Now extreme varieties of all types of music will never make it onto public radio, but each type will have representation within the play list. Currently I know of no such radio station, but the one that come closest is DRC. Yes an oldies station but as 90’s become oldies will they represent the big rap hits from the era. They already do some hard rock and pop R&B. It will be interesting to see how the stations adjust.

I always found myself turning the station under the guise that I know this tune lets see if I can find something better on. This past month I decided to leave the songs on. Hey guess what they are really good songs.

Meaning no, but rock was the only music that was described as sounding dated. With so much selection out there now if you are willing to look for it, sounding dated has become its own little niche. So rock has become more like other types of music and just has a smaller back catalog to work with.

Ride Captain Ride, Blues Image