Last In...God, It's Messy.

Amos Lee – Mission Bell

This CD made me admit to myself that I am ‘musically prejudiced’. If it was a Dave Matthews CD, I would have given it a 2. As I listened to it without prejudice, while I’m not a big fan of the Ray LaMontagne, white-boy sings soul/folk genre, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the different flavors in Amos Lee’s songs…his voice is pure and interesting, the production is clean and refreshing…the songs are good, the Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams cameos were a treat and this will get repeated listens on those Sunday mornings after pouring a second cup of coffee. 4 stars.

Something/Anything – Todd Rundgren

It’s a basic tenant of entertainment that you start out great, finish great and leave ‘em wanting more. Todd Rundgren certainly did that with this album…it’s pretty hard to beat “I Saw The Light” and “Slut” as bookends. It seemed that the more I listened to this, the more enjoyable it was. Turns out there are many good songs and performances on this that I overlooked at age 15. There’s a LOT more to this than just “Piss Aaron” and “Hello, It’s Me”… and all these years I thought the most interesting double album set of 1972 was “Exile on Main Street” This was an overlooked pop masterpiece…4 ½ stars, with ½ off for the silly studio antics between songs.

Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band – Where the Messengers Meet

This CD goes to this month’s topic – is there anything someone can submit that will get a “4” from everyone in the group. I know this is supposed to be good, I know they are an up and coming indie band, but I just can’t get into it. I don’t like the whiny vocals, the slower songs aren’t melodic enough for me to want to listen to repeatedly, and this is a fairly typical representation of this genre, and I don’t think it’s any better than a 2 ½, so there’s a pretty big gap to get to a ‘4’ in this genre for me.

Riot – Fire Down Under

Never got it, didn’t have it, it was a “buy only” on Rhapsody and the 30 seconds per song that you get to listen to was enough for me to give it a 3.5. D'Arcy...will you bring one of these for me next time? Thanks!

Wire – Red Barked Trees This is a CD that, even though post punk synth is not my thing, has a little of this, a little of that, all sequenced perfectly…It was a fun listen, not boring…The guitars cut through the synthesizers, the songs were well constructed, melodic where they needed to be and the vocals were palatable. I remember liking the late ‘70’s stuff from these guys, and it’s nice to hear people my age making vital alternative music that I can listen to and enjoy. 4 stars.

GH – Accordion

Thanks, Monsta for a nice, well thought out mix of rock…I had forgotten about the Pogues and Sousie and the Banshees and I didn’t have some of the live stuff like the Tom Waits, so that was a bonus…the only thing I expected to hear that I didn’t was a song from the Five Chinese Brothers, like Williamsburg or Baltimore…I’m sure there are a bunch more that didn’t make the cut, too.

Topic – Is there a CD that would get 4’s from everyone?

I misunderstood this question...I thought it meant, "Is there anything that we would all think is good, not great, and that we would ALL give it a "4". In reality, I guess the question was meant to mean, "is there anything that ALL of us would give at least a "4" rating? That changes my answer, since what I may think is great, Jay and D'Arcy may find "almost great", Ken, Sandy, Mike and Greg might find it "better than a 3-3.5" and so there are some albums, mostly "classics" that would make it. Most were mentioned at the meeting, so there's no need to dig further.