My Post's Later Than Your Post...

Angels - I wasn't familiar with them before this, but I liked everything about this CD. Good musicianship and they rock. I'll go deeper into their catalogue for sure. 3 1/2.

Peter Frampton - I had to set aside my prejudices here because Frampton Comes Alive was the most over-hyped and over-played record of the year I graduated high school, and all I wanted to listen to was "It's Only Rock and Roll" and "A Night at the Opera". Gloing back to this with a fresh perspective allowed me to enjoy it. The songs are highly familiar, his voice is fine and he is a decent guitarist. Enough to give this a 4.

Ringo - It's the same album at 71 that he might have put out at 61, that probably put out at 51 and that he was planning to put out at 41...but he gets props for continuing to record and play, even if it's tired, somewhat stilted and not very memorable. 2

QOTSA - I appreciate them more that I would if I didn't get a lot of exposure to them at work. They are a solid rock band with good songs, good hooks, well produced, etc...It's not a CD I'd put on for a Sunday Brunch with the family, but it certainly is good night time car music. 3 1/2.

Atmosphere (GH) - Not my favorite genre. Not my favorite practitioners of the genre. If Andrew Dice Clay fromted a band, this is what it would sound like. Made me long for the Bloodhound Gang. Ugh.

Topic...So, how do we get from Alejandro Escavedo to Velvet Crush to Lucinda Williams? Lynn Blakey. Background singer extraordinaire, sang on "Man Under the Influence" (Escavedo) and "Teenage Symphonies to God"(Velvet Crush)along with other VC albums. Then, as a member of 'Tres Chicas', covered Lucinda Williams' "Am I Too Blue" on their album "Sweetwater."

As a bonus, to bring this full circle, Lucinda Williams contributed a song to "Por Vida", A Tribute to the songs of Alejandro Escavedo, which was a charity effort for the Alejandro Escavedo Medical and Living Expenses Fund.

back and posting and a little late

Ringo

This is what you expect from a Ringo release. Nice tunes that are played well by very good musicians. They are also immediately forgotten. 2.0

Peter Frampton.

I guess I am used to hereing only the hits when I think of Frampton. What one tends to forget is how good a guitarist he is. I found myself enjoying this listen and only skipping over the songs that I have heard as nauseum . Surprisingly fun 3.0

Queen of Stone Age

Chris Goss needs more recognition. Listening to this cd just tells you how important his masters of reality cd was to this genre of music. In fact it was almost my old this month. He bwas Kyuss’s producer and did the first queens cd. He only appears as a musician but his fingerprints are all over the disc. But what makes this a truly great cd is when these guys build on that sound. Maybe it’s the influence of ween and foo fighters to the sound but it works. Don’t get me wrong there isn’t a week song on the cd, but songs like Another Song and Go with the Flow just jump out at you. 4.0

Angels

I always thought if a record had three great songs then I should buy it. My friend played me three songs from these guys Wasted Sleepless Night, Face the Day, and Devil’s Gate and I knew I was buying it. So in return for my investment I got Thin Lizzy meets Ac Dc with a little Rose Tatoo on the side and 9 great songs. These guys influenced a ton of bands just by how many covered their tunes but unfortunately outside of Australia they never got huge. Great riffs, memorable choruses, the occasional organ in the back for atmosphere is why this cd always ends up on my personal rotation. 4.5

Atmosphere

Beastie Boys wanna bees without the talent when it comes to the mix. Highly repetive lyrics too.

Boo Hoo the Topics too Hard....Wah! Post

March  2011  Music Club

Peter Frampton – Comes Alive? Pre show? Warm up…?

It doesn’t matter if you like or dislike Peter Frampton or like or dislike Frampton Comes Alive! The album is iconic. It was huge. The fact that a nobody (ok he played in Humble Pie and had 4 releases prior) came on like on a whirlwind with a live album to become, at the time, the biggest selling live album of all time. Pretty big. This recording appears to be a bonus disc in the Deluxe Edition of a radio broadcast warm up to the concert in San Francisco. It does showcase competent, well-constructed songs with very good guitar work. To me, the songs hold up pretty well but maybe that is sentiment speaking because I actually own an original vinyl copy and like the album. Any way I found myself enjoying revisiting this set and understand I may stand in the minority. (4)

Ringo Starr-Ringo 2012

Here’s what I like; Ringo is 71 and at least trying. He’s writing songs, touring and having a damn good time. He’s put together a good band and not going down wussout lane. But really- it’s a middling recording. “Anthem”, “Slow Down” and his redo of “Step Lightly” are fun, a few have goofy lyrics (“In Liverpool”) and few should have never seen light of day (his version of “Rock Island Line” and “Samba”). But I do appreciate the effort. Who would have thunk that Ringo would become the most creative Beatle… (2)

The Angels-Darkroom

My favorite part of the DYN Music club is hearing something you’ve never heard of and really digging it. That’s The Angels. No excuses, straight ahead, riff, 4/4 rock. After listening I noted how I heard AC/DC in here (“Face the Day”) which made sense after googling that they are from Australia, toured with them and AC/DC helped them get a record deal. Too bad they couldn’t get the attention of the US audience because they deserved it. (4)

Queens of the Stoneage-Songs for the Deaf

I like this and I hated it. The more they veered toward Eagles of Death Metal (“You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire”) the more I liked. The more they leaned toward Them Crooked Vultures and Alice in Chains (“The Sky is Falling”) I didn’t. They can rock, they’re inventive and they can total freak out but for me I like it when they just rock. (2.5)

Atmosphere

Believe it or not, I actually listen to some rap. I am particular as I like some articulation, inventiveness, creative subject matter, good cadence and a riff doesn’t hurt. At their best Atmosphere provides this. They tell stories, they are self-deprecating, they are socially conscious AND I really think they can get a good groove on. The mix I provided spans their entire career and I tried to give you a little of everything- even the “I’m the king shit” attitude stuff that I normally don’t like. I know this will get bludgeoned tonight but I am prepared. I wanted to provide a GHits that I know no one had any of.

Topic

Here is who had what to connect;

alan	alejandro escovedo	velvet crush	lucinda williams
jay	andrew Uk	todd snider	imelda may
tom	beck	the answer	graham parker
d'arcy	bruce springsteen	taylor swift	magnetic fields
greg	Dr dog	sloan	gomez
Ken	DBT	Rolling Stones	Moody Blues
monsta	fields of nephilism	replacements	foxy shazam
sandy	fountains of wayne	my morning jacket	randy newman

Mine:

DBT-------------à Played a show Saturday, February 11th, 2012 - 9:00pm - Cannery Ballroom with Bobby Keys and the Suffering Bastards. Bobby Keys was a long time saxophonist with the Stones and good friend of Keef. -----------àRolling Stones---------àEd Spoto, a production engineer for Crossroads Audio who has worked shows for Stones and the-------à Moody Blues

March Madness

Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf – 4.5

There is very little wrong with this album as far as I am concerned. Dave Grohl on drums. Josh Homme is a seriously bright guy. He has the right formula on this album. Even the title is brilliant, “Songs for the deaf”. It’s so ironic because deaf people can’t even hear this shit. Not one song seems out of place except for my favorite song, The Mosquito song. What a cool creating song “all of us food that hasn’t died” Brilliant. This cd never gets old for me.

Ringo Starr – 2012 - 4

Something tells me that Ringo didn’t have a lot to do with the core Beatles songs, but Anthem could have been right off of Abby Road. The song was a good song, just not too original. Not knowing a lot of solo Ringo stuff I was continually surprised how many drum riffs that he recycles from Beatles songs. Most of these songs could have worked just as well in the 80’s 90’s or the past generation. As for his voice, he does have one of the more unique voices and scoring Barbara Bach is a plus. This was my favorite cd this month.

Atmosphere – GH

When I first turned this on I lasted 20 or 30 seconds before I determined that I hated it and was going to pan it. I knew that I’d have to at some point give it a real go though. I did that this morning. I won’t say that I’ll listen to it again, and the disc could have been three songs and I would have been happy, but it really wasn’t that bad. Some of the instrumentation was really good and the lyrics were good too.

Peter Frampton - Peter Frampton

Great strong solid voice, but his tone and pitch seems off. Not like David Lee Roth off, but still. I liked every song and the guy can play the guitar.

The Angels – Dark Room - 2

These guys remind me of what Kiss would have been like if they decided to do pop instead of “Metal”. Nothing that blew me away other that the album cover.

Dr. Dog had an album called Sloan Ranger otherwise I got nothin

Sloan

Gomez

Opinions to Live By For March

Angels - Only heard snippets on Amazon because
somehow I didn’t get it – or lost it- but this is great stuff. 4

Ringo Starr - Not offended by the album as a musical endeavor. Some of it is almost listenable. What offends me I guess is its very existence.
For some reason having the least
important member of what could be argued is the most important group of all
time release an album AT ALL in 2012 seems to be an insult to the memory of
Lennon and Harrison.
If not for a bad decision by Pete Best, this bozo is a bartender in some
dump in Liverpool….at BEST. He should
retreat into his home, count his blessings and his money and not pretend he was
really important enough to release records. 1

Queens of the Stone Age - I happen to like this band quite a bit and
this is a good representation of why. 4

Frampton – Hey, it’s the “quality” version of Frampton Comes Alive. Frampton wasn’t great, but he gets a bad rapbecause he sold so many records. He
doomed the double live album forever forever and is genuinely regarded in manycircles as a talentless hack. Let’s befair, though. He only became atalentless hack after he got successful.
His two Frampton’s Camel records were pretty good at the time – I should
know – I used to listen to them at a friend’s house. Yes, I was on the front edge as usual. And also bought Frampton and Something’s Happening when they came out. Both pretty good, thogh somewhhat lightweight, albums. Do You Feel is a great song that unfortunately died an overexposure death of massive proportions. The rest of the stuff is passable and it was kind of nice to hear it again, 3

Andrew WK Todd Snider Imelda Mae - No link exists

What a great start to 2012.....

Ringo Starr– Trashing Ringo feels like picking on the kid riding the short bus, but this was brutal.  It’s full of over-produced bad songs saddled with clichéd “peace and love” lyrics. Adding insult, the drumming limps along like a 3-legged dog and of course is front and center in the mix.  He and Paul need to stick to touring and counting their cash.  No reason for either of them to enter a recording studio ever again.  1.5 stars

QOTSA –  Probably gonna be in the minority on this one, but as with most things Dave Grohl, this disc did nothing for me.  Couple of decent tracks, but for the most part, paint-by-numbers hard rock.  The concept, such as it is, adds nothing.  2 stars

The Angels – Never heard of these guys, so this was a good discovery.  No frills rock and roll reminiscent of Mott the Hoople and early Ian Hunter.  Sound-wise, it’s definitely got that late 70’s feel to it, which is part of its charm. Would be interested to hear more from these guys if there is any.   3.5 stars

Peter Frampton –  I was hoping this selection would allow for a thoughtful re-appraisal of and perhaps even an appreciation for Mr. Frampton, but uh, no.  He’s a very underrated guitarist who has some good material, but almost none of it is on this disc.  I would gladly pay money to insure that I never heard “Baby I Love Your Way” or “Do You Feel Like We do” ever again. 2 stars

Atmosphere – I’m sure Fearless Leader thought I’d hate this, and I wanted desperately to prove him wrong. I couldn’t.  At best, its 3^rd or 4^th  rate Public Enemy.  Incredibly repetitive, not particularly funny or political, it left me wondering what the point was other than fulfilling Poobah’s dogged determination to submit something “different”.  While I truly appreciate his spirit of adventure, the music, such as it was, sucked.

Discussion Question

Fun idea. Someone (and I suspect I know who) needs to have the phrase “nothing too obscure” explained to them….

Fields of Nephilism to the Replacements