THE '60S ONE.
Apparently the Irish lads from Underpool had been listening to Nuggets quite a bit around this time, in the process developing an utterly four-leaf-clovered leprechaun potato famine fondness for the infectiable melodies and note-built guitar hooks of such once-forgotten '60s masterworks as "Open My Eyes," "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" and "Lies." The result is a non-punk, non-power, all-CATCHY pop spectacle of clever guitar teamwork, bewitching ... read more

The perfect U2 experience. Sparkly production, reflecting sound waves on the axebone, melodies fit to be tied, a singer who hits notes you've probably never even heard of - oof, but there aren't many bands who can be both grandiose and understated at the same time. Understand? This is Beatles quality here, regardless of that whole playing on the roof crap. "Where The Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "With Or Without You," ... read more

I know for a fact that people from all walks of life will attempt to deceive you with their corporate lies about this album, but for length, diversity and showcase of all that is Trans Ammy, one cannot argue against this "warts, sods and all" collection of warts, which if you dig underneath them, also includes a CD of music. This is LIVE versions of great songs, ALTERNATE versions of other magnifique songs (Oops! Sorry! Didn't mean to speak French there! No sir, this site is for ... read more

Is there a man among us who doesn't remember the delight of an Atlanta Braves "Tomahawk Chop"? I doubt it indeed. Some would like to argue so, perhaps, but those would be the easily offended Native Americans, one of the most distressingly politically correct and liberal groups of people in the country today. Personally I say send 'em all back where they came from and leave America to the Americans, but no, we continue to throw them bones like gambling casinos and alcohol, making ... read more

With pretty much every album being phenomenal, it was difficult for me to decide on a "finest" Thinking Fellers album, but I ended up picking this one, as you've probably gathered by the happy little asterisks surrounding the album title. But the deal is this: if you try to treat this record as background music, you will despise it with every core of your being. To enjoy this record, you must set everything else aside and really pay attention to what's going on. "Why?" you ... read more

Please note: This record review was written in September 2005, nearly nine years after the other albums discussed herein.
Like The Police, The Clash, Modern Lovers, Television, Mission of Burma and The Feelies, Talking Heads are a band that I acknowledge an affinity for without ever actually getting the urge to listen to them. "Once In A Lifetime" and "Road To Nowhere" will pop into my head every now and again, but aside from that I basically live a Byrne-free existence. ... read more

This CD is so depressing that it is actually about to make me break down and start crying. This is not a band to turn to when you feel bad. I'm not sure exactly how they do it, but the tones they choose and the slow, methodical way they present them somehow set up a mood of unending gloom and pain. Life is never going to get any better. I am going to feel like this until the day I die. I don't want to, but I can't stop. I try everything they tell me to do and nothing works. I don't deserve to ... read more

It's not as noisy as the first one, and is produced a little more like a normal indie rock album (the first LP was definitely too rackety to make Alternative Nation), but this is the album that really made it clear that Superchunk was here to stay. It's also the least filler-heavy record they have made to this very day (ten years later to the exact second). The simple perfection and perfect simplicity of the songwriting demands to be cherished from the bash-and-jerk intro riff of "Skip ... read more

There are two things that I cannot tell you at this time: (1) exactly how much I love this album (because it constantly pleases the heck out of me) and (2) what this love says about me (because the album is creepy, pretentious, nonsensical, violent and incredibly long).

But there's one thing I CAN tell you: how to bake a petunia. First you pull the petunia out of the ground. Secondly you place the petunia into a baking pan, generally with aluminum foil on it because you don't want your petunia ... read more

This has always been one of my favorite hardcore albums, and I will now attempt to tell you why, in outline form. If you'd like to create an actual review from the outline, please do so. I on the other hand am suffering from the flu and feel like somebody just kicked a hole in my spine with a steel-toed jackhammer. Quite frankly, you're lucky I'm writing even an outline considering that my entire body feels like a 160-pound ballsac being squeezed by a professional wrestler.

I. First ... read more

Oooooh! So there is life after punk!!! This is the creative original post-punk guitar rock that they were trying to do on the last record before they got all bogged down in that "epic," and man is this one unstoppable. Fifteen songs, all of 'em great, from the Van Halen guitar intro "33322" to the Yes-ish acoustic fade-out "33322," all chockfull of great hooks, both musical and vocal...... In short, one HEY of a fantastic visit to Accessibleland. Yes, I admit that ... read more

Oh, what a great album this is. Like the debut Cars release back in 1978, the Strokes have completely rediscovered and repositioned good old-fashioned '60s rock and roll into a modern context that even "the kids" can dig! The beats are mostly uptempo and tons of fun, there are two guitarists playing jangly, chimey-type clean repetitive chord sequences with notes atop in a style SLIGHTLY reminiscent of early Stereolab, and the singer sings actual vocal melodies atop the slop of ... read more

If, like me, you have obsessive-compulsive disorder, then you know how hard it is to play the stereo at any volume other than that which your brain has pre-designated as "the correct volume." In my case, vinyl albums must be played at -36, unless my wife has fallen asleep on the couch in which case it must be -38, or if it's the morning and my wife is still asleep upstairs, it goes down to -40. If it's a spoken-word album - well, you know how hard it is to hear spoken words sometimes, ... read more

It only takes about ten seconds of this record to realize how great a progression the Stooges have made since their debut. The production, the swaggering, the chemistry -- an opening rimshot/guitar note rips into "Down On The Street": an imitable two-note guitar line (if you don't believe me, try and imitate it -- I have no idea what combination of reverb, distortion and fingerwork resulted in the fucked-up tone of that high note on the fourth beat of each measure, but I've never ... read more

The most diverse Stereolab release ever, jaunting the diddly-daddly through everything from trip-hop to new wave/punk rock to sixties bubblegum pop to basic Stereolab drone-and-pulse to lounge act grooviness and more - MORE!!!!! - all played with the same multilayered, multileveled gorgeous womanly vocals and instrumentation you've come to expectate from this band of people. Moog solos, fuzzy space noises shooting from speaker to speaker, clove cigarette art ballads, bubbling synth noises, ... read more

Steppenwolf has gone down in History as a 'motorcycle rock' band for three key reasons: (a) they're a bunch of smelly long-hairs, (b) I thought of this one in the shower but now I can't remember it, and (c) they recorded the song "Born To Be Wild." This crunchy, brooding hit has over the years become so synonymous with "big Hell's Angel guy riding a gigantic noisy chopper" that I literally cannot hear the sound of a motorcycle engine without getting its opening guitar riff ... read more

Bruce was one of the most important entertainers of 1984, and for good friggin' reason. This is his poppiest collection ever, with hooks galore!!! Fantastic rock and roll songs careen all over the place, with eons more in the way of memorable melody than we could possibly have expected from The Boss after that River semi-fiasco. This collection is upbeat, exciting, and totally fulfilling if you have any love at all for traditional rock and roll.
Classics include the title track (which is ... read more

From what I've read, the band members are disappointed with this one, calling it "too poppy" and not in sync with their original vision. Considering that most of the album is about as warm as a cold wind blowing and as energetic and cheery as a tired yawning old man, I have to wonder if their idea of "pop" is simply "that which possesses an actual melody," because these are much stronger songs than you're going to find on any of their other records.

Understated? ... read more

The companion piece to the movie, this soundtrack features eleven tracks spanning the "career" of the band from its early incarnation as The Thamesman (fey British children's song "Cups And Cakes") through the name change and early Stonesy sound of "Gimme Some Money" through the psychedelia of "(Listen To The) Flower People" into lots of great heavy metal parodies. Light-hearted metal. NWOBM metal. Slow "evil" metal. And best of all, pretentious ... read more

Just like with Radiohead's Kid A, it's impossible to listen to the first few seconds of this CD -- the slow fade-in of a heartbreaking organ refrain -- without getting a giddy feeling that something extraordinary is about to happen. And it IS! Sure, there's very little beauty or sorrow in the actual SONG ("This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us," or, as my Island Masters re-release calls it, "This Town Ain't Be Enough For Both Of Us"), but Christ Alive is it an incredible ... read more