Cowboy Men Foghat Briefs

MUSIC COMMENTARY by The Mong

NEW

The Men – “New Moon” = 2.5
Competent and seemingly genuine, The Men sure are trying hard to do something special but, alas, “New Moon” is nearly indistinguishable from most other bands doing the Garage Rock Alt-whatever thing. If more songs were as strong as “I Saw Her Face” this could have been a great album.


OLD

The Briefs – “Sex Objects” = 4.0
A perfect fusion of British Punk meets LA Punk (as observed before reading their overview at AllMusic, although it is pretty obvious) on this nearly-perfect Pop/Punk album. I mean, if anthems like “Destroy the U.S.A.” and “No More Presidents” don’t at least make you tap your toes and crack a smile, well, there really may be something wrong with you.

Foghat – “Stone Blue” = 4.0
A blistering guitar-driven Arena Rock romp with some perfect slower moments for perfect pace; apparently this is the Foghat album to own.


G’HITS

Cowboy Junkies – G’Hits
A good collection and a very strong mix. Not a “go to” band for me but this sampling helps me understand why so many people love Cowboy Junkies. From what I’ve heard here and what I've heard before, this seems to be their best of the best so no need to dig any deeper. Thanks, Ken.


TOPIC

Part 1 - Your task is to create the "ultimate album" of one the artists you love. They were picked at random based on what spot your e-mail came into me. This is not a greatest hits per se, but an album you are creating using the following handcuffs:
- You cannot use more than 1 song from a given album
- Tracks on your album must coincide with track # from the album you are taking it from.  Ex: your first song must be the first song on the album it appears on, your 2nd song must be the 2nd song on the album it came from, etc.
- You cannot use greatest hits or live albums as a way around parameters listed above.
- Your album must be between 10-15 songs long


Assignments:
Mike M - The Beatles

1. “A Hard Day’s Night” – A Hard Day’s Night

2. “I’m a Loser” – Beatles ’65

3. “You’ve got to Hide Your Love Away” – Help!

4. “Bad Boy” – Beatles IV

5. “Boys” – Please Please Me

6. “I am the Walrus” – Magical Mystery Tour

7. “She Said She Said” – Revolver 

8. “Happiness is a Warm Gun” – White Album

9. “Girl” – Rubber Soul

10. “Lovely Rita” – Sgt. Pepper’s

11. “Every Little Thing” – Beatles for Sale

12. “Get Back” – Let it Be

And after twelve tracks the system breaks down. I know a lot of early-Beatles had UK and American releases but if it was counted by AllMusic.com as an official release, I counted it among the albums I could choose from. Oddly, I couldn't find a way to include anything from “Abby Road” since so much of it is songs that require consecutive play to make the whole. Still, a pretty good mix after all.


Part 2 - Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.  List the best song by each of the artists/bands you put on your hate list.


Bob Seger: I admit I will not jump to change the station when “Hollywood Nights” pops up on the radio. Otherwise, Seger is just so powerfully overrated, compounded by the unforgivable whining of “Turn the Page,” that really all that’s left to “say” is, suck it, Seger, suck it.

Dave Matthews Band: Sorry, not one. All his/their songs suck. Yes, all of them.

Billy Joel: “Captain Jack” is alright for a sappy, “second person,” nostalgic, self-indulgent, generationally-defensive anthem. Wait, that’s why I hate Billy Joel’s crap to begin with so, yeah, scratch “Captain Jack,” too.