Reviews with the Enormous Title

June 2011

Music Club

Notes and Scratches- Uh-Oh

Uh-Oh is difficult to categorize. Its needle to the red bang your instrument as hard as possible, its folk, its Americana, its rock, its arbitrary percussion in odd places, its spaghetti western trumpets, its Wilco-Okkervil River highs and lows with most of the songs sad and depressing. Some of Uh-Oh is quite interesting and some dull. The vocalist's growled whisper grabs your attention but after awhile loses it and it is probably the weakest piece of this recording. There is pure emotion in the performances but I'm not sure if it enough. There is a killer album in there, somewhere but not in this issue.. 3.0

Black Angels- Phosgene Nightmare

Low key drugged up psychedelia that sounds like its name. Not as strong as Phosgene Dream but still mesmerizing. the Rain Dance Song stays with me all day... 3.0

Okkervil River- I am Very Far

I do like the fact that they veered a little with their sound opting for Spector like production and songs that could have been sung by Lucinda Williams or John Hiatt. Wil, I think is stuck in a melody rut, especially on the ballads. You can almost predict where he is going to go with a song and his use of horns is the same every time he uses them. Some  run too long  like "The Rise" which IS interesting but drags on forever. The creativity lies in the upbeat, full sound songs. I am still waiting for greatness from them but I feel they are slowly burning out with every release since Black Sheep Boy being a little less intriguing than it precursor. 3.0 barely

10 CC- Deceptive Dreams

White man blues/funk/soul that tries to be The White Album Beatles but misses. These guys can play and they know how create an arrangement but the final product is dated and recalls WTIC AM radio when Bob Steele felt like getting down. The lyrics are silly and production is too well done. Too bad because these guys probably had a better, edgier album in them... 1.5

Bad Brains- Rock for Light

Its one song repeatedly thrashed over and over with a couple of lame pseudo Jamaican dubs... 0

Hoodoo Gurus

Straight 80s guitar driven alt-pop-rock. Nothing fancy but all pretty good. Their earliest material is their weakest but the rest is pure power pop goodness.

Topic

	THEN
1	Ragged Glory	Neil Young
2	Cracker	Cracker
3	100% Fun	Matthew Sweet
4	Time Out of Mind	Bob Dylan
5	It's Shame About Ray	Lemonheads
6	Goo	Sonic Youth
7	Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell	Social distortion
8	Walk On	John Hiatt
9	Red Letter Day	Buffalo Tom
10	In Utero	Nirvana
	NOW
1	Ragged Glory	Neil Young
2	Cracker	Cracker
3	100% Fun	Matthew Sweet
4	The Days of Our Nights	Luna
5	69 Love Songs	Magnetic Fields
6	Time Out of Mind	Bob Dylan
7	Possum Dixon	Possum Dixon
8	Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell	Social distortion
9	It's Shame About Ray	Lemonheads
10	Goo	Sonic Youth