You Roy Orbison haters need a box of Q-Tips....

2013 Review

Overall, it was an OK year.  I thought it was a lot wider than it was deep.  Many albums I heard had 2-3 great songs and not much else going on.  Cutting my disc to 75 minutes was a lot tougher than putting together top 10 albums. 

Because we don’t do honorable mentions, I can’t talk about Josh Ritter or Kentucky Knife Fight.

10) The Mavericks – In Time

9) Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer, Different Park

8) Superchunk – I Hate Music

7) GRMLN - Empire

6) The National – Trouble Will Find Me

5) Mikal Cronin – III

4) Purling Hiss – Water on Mars

3) Elephant Stone – S/T

2) J Roddy Walston and the Business – Essential Tremors

1) Jason Isbell – Southeastern

Hall of Fame

Approval Submissions:

Chuck Berry

Little Richard

Jerry Lee Lewis

Roy Orbison

Johnny Cash

Carl Perkins

My automatic 2 (The St Louis wing)

Johnnie Johnson

Uncle Tupelo

Jan/Feb Reviews

Patti Smith – An artist who I would like to have a ghits of.  On every PS album I’ve ever listened to, there are 2-3 really good songs.  Unfortunately, there is never any more than that, and this is no exception.  Toss out the opening cut and “Pissing in a River”” and what’s left is overblown pretentiousness which does nothing for me.  2.5 stars

Bronze Radio Return – An album that tries hard to walk that line between Americana and pop music with some success.  The title track and a few others have that sunny bop-a-bility that sounds breezy and effortless.  Ultimately though, too much of this falls into the Mumford & the Lumineer Brothers no rough edges blandness.  Its difficult for a band to distinguish itself playing such homogenized music.  The talent is here, but they need to take some sandpaper to the gloss.  2.5 stars

Deer Tick – Might have made my top 10 had I heard it in time.  Really like the mix of rock, blues and country and I’m a sucker for well written lyrics.  The title is apt when examining those lyrics up close and personal, but they get offset with copious up-tempo rocking.  Could have gained a ½ star by cutting a couple of tracks.  Highlight for me was the Vanessa Carlton duet.  3.5 stars

Mark Lanegan – 6 or 7 times through and I still don’t know what to make of it.  Some good stuff like “Head” and “Driving Death Valley Blues” get waylaid by slow acoustic drivel like “Bombed”.  The songs I liked, I really liked, and the songs I didn’t like were terrible.  Wish Poobah would submit something clearly great or clearly shitty next time, this one was a lot of work.  3 stars

The Wonder Stuff – Enjoyed this collection of a band I’d never heard of.  Heard a lot of the Waterboys influence, and a little of the Byrds at times.  Definitely has that late 80’s / early 90’s sound to it which dates it somewhat, but this was a keeper from start to finish.

Let 2014 Begin

Bronze Radio Return – Up, On & Over – 1.5

I think I got shit for submitting Mumford and Sons because they “ripped off“ The Avett Brothers.  I’m not sure where these guys fit in then.  I guess they were only missing some sort of family relationship name and they would have fit right in.  The other similarity I found was that the singer sounds like the band Passenger which I freaking want to punch that singer right in the face for sounding so annoying.  These guys at least had good enough catchy tunes to almost help me block out the annoying vocals.  Did I mention that the singer was annoying as shit? 

Deer Tick – Negativity - 3

I figured out why I struggle to like the music that is so popular with their rest of the group.  The singers don’t sing.  They just talk with music behind them.  The music can be great, but I can’t get over the vocals and the occasional yelling fit.  Deer Tick had song really good songs, but nothing that stood out without alcohol.  Cool band name though and appropriate title for the disc.

Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum 4.5

I knew that I’d love this album.  Some time ago our friend out west sent me all of ML’s disks knowing how I liked Tom Waits and seeing a similarity between the two.  Looking at the guys, apparently ML thinks he actually is Tom Waits too.  With the exception of a gravelly voice I thought that the disk was far more reminiscent of QOTSA (which I found out later that there was a collaboration with Josh Homme on this disk), or even the last couple of Johnette Napolitano solo albums.  One of the few complaints I have is that the songs are very short; otherwise I thought it was fantastic. 

Patty Smith – Radio Ethiopia – 3.5

Super freaky.  She’s just weird enough to make her interesting.  The music was hypnotic and listening with headphones was really cool.  I wish I was high, I think I might have really loved the disk.  The title track had a ton of Zeppelin and Pink Floyd influence and was probably my favorite track.  Her vocals are just so bizarre that I think it hurts rather than helps the songs, Not Yoko Ono bizarre though.  I guess that’s what makes an artist an artist. I liked it best when she did more “spoken word” than “singing”, but the album grew on me much more than I expected.

The Wonder Stuff GH

Solid fun collection of yet another band I’d never hear of.  Perfect music for a Monday morning at work when the rest of the office has to endure “Country Music Day”.  “On the Ropes” was an outstanding song!!!!  That song alone made the group great.

  

List 8 Bands

Journey – Because they are a guilty pleasure that actually has talent. 

Faith No More – Because fuck you, they are awesome and Mike Patton is a cutting edge genius

Beatles – Hello, they are the Beatles, plus they did make some pretty cool music

Tom Waits – Genius and doesn’t give a shit if you don’t think so

Peter Gabriel – See Tom Waits

Elvis – He just changed the culture when it needed a change.  Even if it wasn’t Elvis who made Elvis, he was still the one on stage and is a pop icon because of it.  That counts

Pick 2 Bands

Rush – Because it’s impossible for three guys to make that much sound and achieve the acclaim they have and still be cool down to earth guys who just want to have fun.

Tool – They've grown more than most bands I can think of over just a few albums.  Each album is so involved and have so much production, I hear something new every time I listen to them.  And, it only takes them 6 to 7 years to make those albums.