Looking forward to another year of reading half the group's reviews

Amon Tobin – Not a big electronica fan, but I thought this started out pretty good, and then lost steam by about the 4^th track.  After that it was just background noise, except on “Precursor” which just plain irritated.  Not my cup of tea, but I’ve heard worse in the genre.  2.5 stars

Ian Hunter – When “Shrunken Heads” was released 6 years ago, I never imagined it was the beginning of a full-scale Ian Hunter rebirth, and in fact I attributed its artistic success to Jeff Tweedy’s production and co-writes.  Clearly, that is not the case.  This disc, like the last two, melds an Exile-era Stones vibe with Hunter’s pithy lyrics which run the gamut from wistful (“Life”) to pissed-off (title track).  This is one of music’s greatest resurrections of the last 20 years, and I hope there is plenty more to come.  4 stars

Spirit – Yikes.  Just couldn’t connect at all to this slice of hippy-trippy pie.  A lot of it reminded me of Blood Sweat and Tears, who I abhor.  There were a couple of ok songs, but a lot of it sounded like a soundtrack for one of those completely outdated movies from the late 60’s. Sorry to sound like “the man”, but I just wasn’t diggin’ it.   2 stars

World Party – My favorite kind of best-of.  One where I’m vaguely familiar with the band and come to find out there was a lot more to them than I knew. While “Ship of Fools” is the crown jewel, there is plenty more here to enjoy. The “Goodbye Jumbo” material was the best IMHO, but the whole thing went to the Zune for posterity.  “Is It Like Today” is the best Kinks song Ray Davies never wrote, and I took perverse joy in D’Arcy willingly putting a Bob Dylan cover on.  Best group g-hits in eons. 

Discussion Questions

As we discussed hall of fame nominations last week often it was said without this band we would never have (fill in alt country band here). Is thisreally true? Is there any band/musician that this actually applies? Orwould someone else been able to provide the spark needed?

Dismissing the gratuitous alt-country swipe, the answer is absolutely yes and can be proven in two words:  Chuck Berry.  Rock and Roll doesn’t exist without Chuck’s double-stop opening riff to “Johnny B Goode”.  Without that riff, there’s no Beatles, no Stones and ergo, no rock and roll.  Would someone else have discovered that riff someday?  Maybe, but Chuck did and his work is the foundation to the genre.

A friend of mine recently said that I am getting older I don't want to learn

anything new. Does this apply to music? As we get older are we truly
looking for new music or just filling the fact that favorites from the past
are fading away? Are we are looking for new favorites to fill in the void in
the void or truly looking for new music?

Not sure exactly what D’Arcy means by “new music”. If he is talking about styles or types of music, I’m definitely not seeking it out. I know what I like and what I don’t like at this point. There’s no reason to download Peruvian death folk samplers to see if its any good. If I run across something new, great, but I’m not seeking it out.

The second part of his question is spot on. Some of my “old reliables” are anything but these days, so I look for artists that play a similar style of music in order to scratch that itch. Perfect example for me is Gaslight Anthem who make the kind of classic Springsteen records Bruce no longer seems capable of.