Just In Time...Another Bastard Checks In.

Rodriguez – Cold Fact

I got very interested in finding this CD and his other one from a year later after seeing a documentary about him about a year ago. For me, he’s kind of a “Mexican Dylan”…I like everything on this CD, but it’s especially listenable when he settles into that acoustic guitar/folk singer groove. Greg, are you personally projecting with this pick? There are a bunch of songs where he’s pissed off at women…4.

The The – Infected

This has every element of mid ‘80’s music I hate all rolled up into one CD…big echoed snare drums, totally forgettable songs, synth-laden tracks, horrible vocals…and a name too cute by a half. I’m glad I missed this the first time around. 1 ½…even though the ½ is for the devil on the cover…it would have been worth a full point if they would have left him masturbating as originally drawn.

The Boys – To Hell With the Boys

This band was way bigger in England than here, but I remember hearing about them in ’76 or so…I think they had two albums before this one. I like the power pop/punk crossover in this, did I hear a guitar riff that was the melody of “Pleasant Valley Sunday” in the first track here? Anyway, Independent Girl sums up the reasons I like their sound, though the album could have been more solid start to finish. 3

Ana Popovic – Can You Stand the Heat

This CD confuses me…first, she can really play the blues…she’s “Jeff Beck” good…but, to paraphrase Sen. Lloyd Bentson, “I listen to Bonnie Raitt…Bonnie Raitt is a favorite of mine, and she’s no Bonnie Raitt. There’s just something too slick about this…not enough soul, even amid the virtuoso guitar work. This is really evident in the non-blues tracks like the cover of “Every Kind Of People”…Anyway, points for being a hot looking Serbian woman…if this were some guy (like Joe Bonnamasa), I’d probably give it a 2, but since it’s her…2 ½.

Greatest Hits – Marshall Tucker Band

This band for me is like an actor that you know for one role…every time you see him (or her), you think of them in that one role. Every time I hear this band, I immediately sing to myself, “Heard it in a love song…heard it in a love song…” Maybe it’s the flute…but anyway, that’s their greatest hit…and it’s not here. So through the first 6 songs, I listened and sang “Heard it in a love song” to myself. Then, a blues/boogie sound that I never identified with them before with some pretty cool country rock, good fiddle and guitar solos, so by the time “Can’t you see” replaced the other earworm, I was ready for more blues, and I got it in the last track, the BB King cover, so thanks, Jay.