So these are all of the reviews dating up to April 2005. Many of them
were done long ago, and I am now violently against my reviews of some
of them. Just keep that in mind if you see something strange.
I also have a list of my cassettes (mostly 50's
doo-wop, rockabilly, pop). So check out the
reviews for
those as well. Why aren't they on the same page with the rest of
the music? Because I'm an idiot.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
My 50’s Rock/Rockabilly/Doo Wop/Garbage Collection
Dobbins Report – Chris Reviews Whatever Tickles His Fancy
Andre Reviews Various Classic Rock Albums, such as the Kinks, Beatles, and Toto
Legend!
***** - Rocks my pants off. Must have.
**** - Rocks my socks off. Probably must have.
*** - Nothing got rocked, really. My shoelace may have twitched a bit. Worth checking out, but that’s it.
** - Don’t go running out to get this. Don’t even walk. Waste some time with it if you are really really excruciatingly bored.
* - Hurts the ears to listen to. Either proudly display that you have a cd that bad and laugh at yourself, or burn it. But never listen to it. Ever. Actually, scratch the cd so that it will never work. Whatever you can.
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1988 Summer Olympics +
I was walking down the
street with a friend in |
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AC/DC: Live **** I must say, this is a
tasty bundle of joy. Plenty of energy, although they don’t differ much
at all from their studio work. Terrific stuff. At the very least, you
get a greatest hits out of it. |
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Adam Sandler:
They’re All Gonna Laugh At You! *** Adam Sandler?
Isn’t he the guy that I found hilarious in grade 7? Yeah, he is the
guy! Oh Adam… screw that. This album is
still funny. Ridiculously immature, often garbage, but sometimes
terrific. |
|
April Wine: Greatest Hits
Live 2003 (2 disc) ***+ Well, they may be old
men, but they can still rock out quite nicely indeed. There are some
nice solos on here, a great cover of a King Crimson tune, and every
song is at least decent. There’s an old Chinese proverb that goes
something like this – “You may be ashamed about your love for April
Wine, but there will always be a Trooper to make you feel good about
it. Trooper sucks.” |
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Aqua *+ I’m a Barbie girl, living
in a Barbie World. My grade 6 anthem. Yes, I’m ashamed. But would I
change it? Not for the world. Not for the world. |
|
Bachman-Turner Overdrive:
BTO’s Greatest **+ I was really surprised to
find out that BTO started in the early 70’s. That was pretty
surprising, but it really surprised me because it means that The Guess
Who were from the mid-late 60’s. I just expected the Guess Who to be
mid 70’s and BTO to be early 80’s. I guess that it also means that I
give both bands I tiny bit of extra credit for originality, though not
much. Actually, none for BTO. A bit for the Guess Who. Anyhow… There
really isn’t anything interesting or unique about these guys, but they
wrote a few solid songs. Hey You and Takin’
Care of Business are the best songs on the album, with You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, Flat Broke Love and Let
It Ride getting honorable mention. The rest of it gets old pretty fast.
Most of the songs drag on at least a little bit. So just download those
songs, and be happy with that. Although most stores have one of their
greatest hits cds for less than $10, so I guess if you want to spend
your money on something… |
|
Barenaked Ladies: All Their
Greatest Hits, Disc One (1992 – 2001) **+ These guys are the pride
of |
|
Beach Boys: 20 Golden
Greats ***+ Well… the Beach Boys are
pretty cool, I guess. I don’t know if I should feel ashamed about that
or not. In 1961 though, there wasn’t really any other good music, so
their simple existence during that time makes them good enough for me. |
|
Beatles: One ****+ Yeah, you want me to give
them five stars? Well screw off! The Beatles aren’t getting five stars.
For one thing, I’m not a huge Beatles fan. For another thing, a bunch
of my favorite Beatles tunes aren’t on here. Damn those songs for not
being #1’s. LSD, A Day in The Life and I Am The Walrus aren’t on here. |
|
Big Shiny 90’s (2-disc
compilation) **** Well… I must say that
every time I listen to this, I like it less. It is 2 cd’s of the most
popular songs of the 90’s. Therefore, I’ve heard most of them too much
by now. And I never, ever, want to hear Porno for Pyros.
|
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Big Shiny Tunes 2 ***+ Oh the memories.
Screaming Song 2 during lunch in my grade 6 portable. Actually, I think
that back when this first came out, I never listened past track 8. Just
thought you should know that. |
|
Big Shiny Tunes 7 *+ Nickelback, Staind,
Theory Of A Deadman, Puddle of Mudd, Jimmy Eat World, Sum 41. How can you
possibly argue with that lineup? (er… that was sarcasm, just for the record.
For those of you that can’t detect e-sarcasm.) |
|
Billy Idol – Greatest
Hits *+ He could have made his
greatest hits an EP, but I don’t complain. |
|
Billy Joel – Greatest
Hits (2 Disc) ** I’ll get back with
something witty for this one. Just you wait. |
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Black Keys – The Big Come
Up ****+ Whoa! They know how to
rock in |
|
Bloodhound Gang: One
Fierce Beer Coaster ** As embarrassed as I am to
say this, there are some pretty clever lyrics in here. Yes, the album
is made for grade 7’s, but clever stuff, sometimes. |
|
Bloodhound Gang: Use Your
Fingers + Nothing clever. Nothing
good. Total crap. Grade 7’s wrote this album, it would seem. If by
grade 7’s I mean grade 5 kids. If by grade 5 kids I mean…
|
|
Blue Man Group *** Some cool sounds in here.
Gets old after a while. See them live though. Amazing. |
|
Blues Brothers: The
Definitive Collection **** Blues purists, avert your
eyes. I love this cd. The Blues Brothers,
a cover band consisting of John Belushi
and Dan Ackroyd, and a bunch of really
good bluesmen behind them, are better than they have any right to be.
I’m personally a really big fan of Belushi’s
vocals (and Ackroyd’s backing vocals and
harmonica)… he’s got a great blues voice. Another nice thing about this
cd is the range of covers that they
do… they cover Randy Newman, Isaac Hays, a bunch of blues bands, and
also The Coasters and The Chips, a couple doo
wop bands. The Chips song, Rubber Biscuit, is awesome – pretty much Ackroyd singing pure doo
wop gibberish. The intro to the Coasters song, Cell Block Number Nine
(and outro to Newman’s song, Guilty) is
awesome. A couple other standout tracks are Everybody Needs Somebody To
Love, and Think (sung by Aretha Franklin). Anybody who has seen the
movie The Blues Brothers probably knows those two. And then, Dan Ackroyd got fat and John Belushi
got dead. And I got sad. |
|
Bob Seger
& The Silver Bullet Band – Greatest Hits Just might be one of the
blandest bands ever. He wrote some ok songs. But so damn boring. I
mean… Holy bored, batman. |
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Bush: 6teen Stone ***+ |
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Bush: |
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Bush: Razorblade Suitcase
**+ |
|
Bush: The Science of
Things *** To be honest, I feel
dirty giving these guys an average of 3 stars. They are completely
uninteresting. I don’t know why I own all of their cds. I guess the
main reason is that 3 or them are burnt and
the other 2 I got for $2.50 each. Yeah, that’s my reason. |
|
Bush – Deconstructed + Can you say money grab?
Who was the moron that came up with the idea of making an album of Bush
remixes. |
|
By Divine Right – Bless
This Mess ***+ I hereby bless this mess.
The first dose of By Divine Right that I got was a little song that I
like to call 5 Bucks. Luckily, that’s what By Divine Right decided to
call it, so we had something in common from the very beginning of our
relationship. Anyhow, 5 Bucks is an amazing song, and you’d best get it
in a hurry. Drive-Thru, if you know what I mean. However, we should
start at the beginning. BDR is a Canadian band that put out their first
album in 1995. I have yet to get my greasy paws on it, but I will. The
band is kind of starting to maybe get little bit of a fanbase (that’s a lie), now that they’ve had 3
albums (first this one (1999), then Good Morning Beautiful (2001), then
Sweet Confusion (2004) with songs that have seen a bit of radio play. I
think that’s right, at least. I might be lying to you again though, so
watch out. I’m as deadly as a snake, and twice as deceptive. The song
varies from faintly technoish mid-pace
rock (I just completely made up a genre), such as Come For A Ride
(another great song), to purely awesome gulps of rock syrup like “5
Bucks” and “Who Am I”, to slow soft acousticy
pearls of beauty. Which, by the way, I don’t generally like as much as
the gulps of rock syrup. I absolutely love the vocals for this band,
provided by a cool cat that goes by the name of Jose Contreras. He has
a really sincere, emotional (but not in the crappy emo
whiny style of emotion) feel to his voice. He has so much soul. And 5
bucks. The music for these guys is great too, even though I can’t
really describe it. I will try again in a different By Divine Right
review. Which I’ll probably be typing up in 20 minutes. But, as the
French say, you can’t win them all. What songs should you check out,
did you ask? Well, obviously you’ve already listened to 5 Bucks since I
recommended it at the beginning of the review and you seeked it out immediately. Other than that, get
Who Am I, Nothing-A-Go-Go and Goodbye Paralyzer.
I gave this a 3.5/5 just based on a few songs that I’m really not a fan
of (mostly the slower stuff). |
|
By Divine Right – Good
Morning Beautiful **** Good morning to you, too.
I have only 2 problems with this album. The first is the opening track,
Dedication. It’s a pretty solid song, but its
extremely soft and quiet, and is not a fitting opening song. It would
probably have worked much better as a closer. The other problem is that
some of the songs, such as Angels, Hugger of Trees and Kick This Bummer
drag on a bit. It’s not a big problem for me, but it would probably
improve the album a bit if they were shorter. And now onto the good
stuff. Tracks 2-6 are amazing… Supernatural, Soul Explosion, |
|
Cake: Fashion Nugget ***+ It appears that Dobbins
and I meet again. This was my first Cake album, and it’s a pretty solid
one. These guys have a very distinct sound… Which I can’t describe at
all. But listen to a couple of their songs, and you’ll know what I
mean. The album opens with Frank Sinatra (a really good song, in my
opinion), and then kicks into the first Cake song that I ever heard
(and the song that got me into them), The Distance. Cool bass in that
song. The third song, Friend Is A Four Letter word is a pretty slow
song, but the guitar in it is awesome. It’s simple, but really powerful
guitar somehow. The trumpet is good too. Crap. I’m listening to the
fourth song right now, Open Book. I really didn’t plan to go through
this cd song by song. I really didn’t.
This song isn’t too amazing. It’s got a really cool intro, and pretty
solid lyrics. Next song, Daria. The music
is really good, actually the lyrics are
pretty good too. I don’t like the chorus though. Just him saying Daria. And it bugs me. Next song is called Race
Car Ya-Yas… and talks about “the land
where large fuzzy dice still hang proudly like testicles from rearview
mirrors.” So that makes the song worthwhile. And then the song that is
probably one of my favorite covers of anything ever. With a great bass
line. I Will Survive. They turn this song into a really tasty groove.
Awesome guitarwork in here too. They head
off in a different direction for track 8 with a hillbilly lick singing
about cars. The music is actually pretty cool on it. The lyrics are
lame. Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps and It’s Coming Down are nothing to
write home about. Or write a review about. And then there was Nugget.
Awesome song. It’s a bit of a rap I guess, but backed by awesome music.
I know what you’re thinking right now – “Ok, I get it. These guys can
play lots of styles. But they would never play country. Never!” Wrong,
you fools! She’ll Come Back To Me. Pure
country. I’m not a big fan of this one. It goes nowhere… Except into
the next song, Italian Leather Sofa! I love the music to this song. And
the lyrics too. Back into Cake style. Whatever that is. Traditionally,
the last song, Sad Songs and Waltzes has been my least favorite song on
the cd. But the lyrics are great. The
music doesn’t do it for me, but I guess that’s kind of the point of the
song. You’ll know what I mean when you hear it. So yup, Cake. A very
versatile, very talented band. I think I should give them 3.5 stars,
just because I’m never in the mood for Cake. But they get 4. |
|
Cake: Prolonging the
Magic **+ This cd
just doesn’t do it for me. I can’t even pin down what the problem is.
There isn’t as much cool, upbeat music for one thing I guess. It also
lacks multiple great songs. |
|
Cake: Comfort Eagle **** Of my Cake cd’s (I don’t have
Motorcade of Generosity), Comfort Eagle is probably my favorite. The
grooves are funkier, and the rest is fresh like American apple Cake.
Onwards… Opens with an awesome song, Opera Singer, which is basically
the life of a dairy farmer… er… Opera
Singer. Just checking if you were paying attention. Good song. One
thing about Cake that kind of sets them apart are
the chorusy fuzzy guitar bits that happen
once in a while. Otherwise, its pretty quick little twiddles. It’s a
very bass driven band, but the guitar is great. Short Skirt/Long Jacket
was probably my favorite Cake song for a while. It was their single
from this album, methinks. Anyhow… I’m sick of it now, so I’ll give my
memory of it. Great song. Now that that’s over with… Commissioning a
Symphony in C is another song with great music and lyrics. It’s about
Commissioning a Symphony In C. If I knew about that kind of stuff, I
might be able to explain why that’s an unusual thing to do, but it is
apparently. I really cherish Arco Arena, a short instrumental with a
really heavy feel to it, even though it isn’t. Comfort Eagle’s another
good typical Cake song, which you’ve heard if you’ve seen Shallow Hal.
My favorite song on here is called Love you Madly. Awesome bass on this
song, cool trademark Cakian guitar. And a
really poppy chorus. Is awesome. All of the other songs are good, which
I guess makes this album 4 stars. I hate it
when I don’t feel like I gave an album enough credit, like now. I think
my problem with Cake is that they sort of feel like a novelty band. I
don’t really think that I’d like them if they weren’t, but it makes me
never really feel like listening to them, so four stars.
|
|
Changed – A Tribute To
Change Of Heart **** Let me start with some
shocking news. I have never heard a single song by Change of Heart.
But, By Divine Right are on this cd and they told me to buy it, so I got it. And its pretty good. It opens really well with a
cover of the song “Directions for Going” by Babs
Eager and The Flaming Chihuahuas. It then heads into uncharted
territory with a technoish cover of
“Mystery” by Rebecca West. So I still don’t know what kind of band
Change Of Heart really is. But they seem cool. Into a Flaming Lipsish third track by the Mercurymen…
still cool. Track 4, “Pat’s Decline” by Clack Babbage is great. Acousticy for most of it, but with cool heavier
bits a couple times in the middle. I’m sure that it’s a really well
done cover. Track 5 is kinda Dave Matthewsy. Not too impressive, though not awful.
Track 6, “There You Go” by Wayne Omaha” starts off with some really
creepy keyboard, and then rocks into one of the best songs on the cd. And then gets creepy again. Track 7 is kinda ambient technoey
stuff. Track 8 gets the cd rocking again. Garagey punk. The next track is one of the
best…. “Yeah, It Matters” by Don Kerr. A bit of a weird speed, I think.
Jumble of noises at the beginning, with a cool sounding electric violin
throughout. “Erosion” by Chris Brown is good too. He’s got a cool
voice, and there are wacky noises going on in the background. And the
foreground. Track 11 is another technoey
song. I like this one quite a bit, actually. Jumble of drums. And
voices saying random things. Just like Change of Heart may have done.
The next song, by Moonkarma struck me as
sort of slow Nine Inch Nails style. Really good. And I like the band
name. Moonkarma. Its
like karma… but moony karma. Do you have good karma, bad karma, or moonkarma? It’s an important question that
everybody should ask themselves at least once in their lives. Track 13
is unimpressive, though I guess its ok. Parts of it somehow remind me
of slower bits from So… I declare this to be
an awesome cd. Makes me want to hear stuff
by the actual band. And someday I will. I promise. Unless, of course, I
have a change of heart. Teehee. 4
I actually just found out
a little about the band. It wasn’t easy. Anyhow… I think they kinda started out as a funk/dance band, fronted
by a young lad named Luther Vandross. He
left, and they started rockin’ out a bit
more. I think that most of the stuff on this cd
is post-Luther. |
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The Constantines
– Self Titled *** I saw these guys at the
Tulip festival in |
|
The Well… check out my review
for the self titled cd if you want to know
what the band sounds like. But just for the sake of acting professional
in my reviewing, I’ll say something about their sound in this review.
They sound like a heavier version of the Tragically Hip. I like this cd more than the self titled one. I really like
two of the songs on it – Nighttime/Anytime and Insectivora.
Shine a Light is good too. I actually think that this cd may just deserve 4 stars. And a better
description of the band. But they aren’t gonna
get either of them for now. Actually, I just realized that there’s a
bit of Dave Matthew’s in these guys too. Just for the record, I hate
Dave Matthews. But he’s here. Stealthy Dave, they call him. And we’ll
call the heaviness |
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The D4 – 6Twenty **** Welcome to 4 of the
greatest D’s ever. The 4 D’s. The D4. 4 Dozen? No! 4. Just 4. 4 Ds. Well, I’m glad that’s out
of my system. Or is it? What does D stand for? Not dozen, we already
decided that. 4 Decades? Nar. 4 Dreary
Chad Kroeger lovers. Heavens no! 4 Dogs?
No, that’s just silly. Tenacious? No, because Tenacious doesn’t begin
with a D, obviously. 4 Doubtlessly Rockin’
Rollin’ Fellows from Anyhow… great garagey rock band. A little more skilled than
the average band out there though, I’d say. There are a bunch of
tasty-cake guitar solo’s in here, a couple juicy (but thick, like a
milkshake) bass solos, and some nice tom-drummery.
And there are lyrics too. Not very good ones, but they’re there. Take
my word for it. It opens scrumptiously,
with a very rockingly fast first song.
Rock and Roll Motherfucker. That’s what the songs called. Not what I’m
saying. Even though it is. So I guess I agree. Well, rock and roll. The
cd may not quite be motherfuckerful. That can be Chad Kroeger’s job. Because he sucks. And he’s a
human placebo. Yeah, you like that insult, don’t you? You’re gonna go running around calling people human
placebo’s, aren’t you. I know. I deserve an award for that one. So
yeah, onwards with the review. From henceforth whencewards,
there will be no more random talking. Everything I say will be about
the cd. Guaranteed. The next song is the
closest thing to a single from this cd,
called Get Loose. Another really good song. Get up, get out, get loose. The breakneck pace is maintained
through the third song (god.. did I really
just phrase it that way. So un-D4 of me. They would have said something
like… ROCK AND ROLL MOTHERFUCKER! Anyhow… track 3 is called Party. Do
you get the idea? This isn’t a “hmm… I’m
going to sit around and reflect on life for a couple hours” kind of cd. This is a “hmm…
YES! We shall prance mindlessly with great vigor tonight!” Mmmm… next song! Called Come
On. Opens with some bombastic bassery. I
shouldn’t have used bombastic, I know, but I wanted some alliteration
to happen. A couple other songs of note… Exit To The City actually has
some ok lyrics. Nothing life-altering, but they’re solid. And it’s got
a tasty guitar solo. And cool music throughout anyhow. They kinda got a Guns ‘n’ Roses thing going on
towards the end. You’ll see what you mean when you listen. And you will
listen. Heartbreaker is just an
awesome song. The vocals are great. The music is great. Everything is
great. Ladies Man starts out with another awesome intro. Thumpy thump thump
on the drums. Biddly Biddle Bid on the
bass and whaong whaong
whaong on the guitar. Can you picture
it better now? Good intro, eh? Anyhow, another great song. And then comes the cd’s best
song. Pirate Love, a Johnny Thunders cover. Awesome intro. Delicious
guitar and bass solos. I could eat those all day long. Perfect cover. I
actually like it better than the original. The rest of the cd goes on in much the same way… straightforward
rock and roll. A nice guitar solo on Rebekah,
cool music for Mysterex. Good other songs.
Basically, this is not a cd to sit down
and think about. Or review. So, if you don’t want to be put in a good,
upbeat energetic mood, go listen to Dave Matthews. Or Chad Kroeger, the human placebo himself. |
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Dashboard Confessional –
MTV Unplugged *+ I’ve never been a big
Dashboard fan anyhow, but I liked them enough to get a friend to burn
this for me. Its horrible. For the entire cd, the damn audience (which seems to be mostly
15-25 year old women with nothing better to do then worship Chris Carraberra (sp?)) is singing along. This
probably happens at a lot of the concerts for crappy bands, but the
sound producer dudes usually have the decency to limit the crowd noise.
God this cd is annoying. As in, so
annoying that if you ever see it in a cd
store, break the cd case in 2 so that
nobody will have to suffer through listening to it. You might even be
able to throw that on your resume as volunteer work. |
|
Dire Straits – Sultans of
Swing – Greatest Hits ***+ 4 stars may be a bit
generous, but these guys have enough really good songs that I don’t
feel too bad doing it. They also have a few really crappy songs on this
cd. Their good stuff has a pretty
unique sound, with Mark Knopfler’s cool twiddly guitar playing, and a pretty good voice.
I’d say that there are 6 great songs on this cd,
and at least 5 more decent songs. Good enough for me. |
|
Dispatch: mix *+ About a year ago, I
really liked these guys. I couldn’t find any of their albums in |
|
Eric Clapton: The Cream
of Clapton *** I hate this guy. I’m
sorry. I just do. “Ooh, I’m Eric Clapton. I was once in Cream, but they
rocked too hard. So I decided to go on a solo career and make adult
contemporary crap. And all of my good solo songs will be JJ Cale covers.” That’s what he said. I heard him
say it. |
|
Eric Clapton: Unplugged ** See above. Multiply by 5. |
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Eve 6: Eve 6 *** Once upon a time, only
about 5 months ago, I really liked this band. I got really excited when
the were the headliners for the
“Essential” Music Tour with Yellowcard and
|
|
Eve 6: Horrorscope ** Welcome to Eve 6’s worst cd. Most of it is whiny crap. The stuff that
isn’t whiny is just crap. |
|
Eve 6: It’s All In Your
Head **+ Once again, it’s mostly
whiny crap. It doesn’t bother me as much though. There is only one
really bad song. |
|
Everclear: Slow Motion Daydream
***+ Well… its
probably Everclear’s worst cd. Maybe one of the two worst. But it’s still Everclear. The big single from it, Volvo Driving
Soccer Mom is entertaining mindless pop, while songs such as New York
Times and Sunshine are just good songs. After this cd,
the band broke up, which at once is both sad and kind of a relief. They
just aren’t putting out great music anymore. I hope to see more from Alexakis in the future though. I don’t know in
what form that would be, and I don’t really expect it, so I guess I’m
unhappy that they’ve broken up. The music in this album, with the
exception of Blackjack, is pretty light. Once again, the focus is put
on Art’s lyrics. They aren’t quite as whiny in this one. I guess
they’re a bit more reflective than the previous albums. But that’s
that. The end of Everclear. Argh. They should get back together. |
|
Everclear: So Much For The
Afterglow ****+ Everclear’s third album. The music
in this one is way more upbeat than the previous albums, and isn’t
really grungy at all. The lyrics on the other hand, are still angry and
depressed. This is the album where Art first had real money and had
gotten over his addictions, and it really lost a lot of the anger of
the other two. Somehow, though, it still doesn’t seem forced. And the music is great. And the lyrics
are great. And it gets 4.5 stars. |
|
Everclear: Songs From An American
Movie Vol. 2 ***+ Of all of the everclear albums, this is the one that I’ve
listened to the least. Mostly because it’s burnt and skips a lot. I
like most of the songs in
this. The lyrics are a bit weak for everclear,
but they don’t offend me with their weakness at all. I do wonder though
how sincere this cd is… I mean, Art is
long over his drug issues, he’s got oodles of money, he’s a rockstar… so how long can he keep on singing
about those things? The passion just isn’t there for some of these
songs. |
|
Everclear: Songs From An American
Movie Vol.1
**** Songs from an American
Movie 1 and 2 came out at the same time, but they are very different
albums. Volume 1 is Everclear’s poppiest, lightest album. That isn’t to say that
it isn’t good… it is. There are some great songs on here, such as AM
Radio and Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison cover). There are still the
typical depressed everclear songs. This cd is also the host of my least favorite Everclear song, Honeymoon. Or the Honeymoon
Song. Something like that. Give them credit
though for trying out other instruments than guitar bass and drum. This
album would probably do better than 4stars if it didn’t have the
honeymoon song and especially didn’t have the god-awful obligatory song
about his daughter. I should probably give this more. Outside of those
two songs, I’ll say 4.5. |
|
Everclear: Sparkle and Fade ***** This… is just a great
album. The music is much less dirty than World of Noise, which gives it
bonus points for me. Not to say that the music is perfectly clean.
There’s still plenty of distortion and all that jazz to go around.
However, the music seems secondary to the lyrics in this, or at the
very least the lyrics are more prominent and highlighted than in World
of Noise. The lyrics are just as bitter and angry although his voice is
much more developed for this. He does less of the screaming banshee
style singing, and more of the soft “look at me, I don’t have to scream
and I still sound like the most angry person ever” style. Between singing about his addiction to his aunt’s suicide
to how hard people are on him for having a black girlfriend, Art Alexakis delivers a compact disc of fury (a
compact disc of fury? What did I just say?), but this one seems more
reflective than world of noise. This is the sound of a band that has
matured as musicians and a singer/songwriter who has truly come into
his own. The big single from the cd, |
|
Everclear: World of Noise ****+ I’ve just had an
epiphany. This is one of the most perfect albums I own. Firstly, it was
made for well under $1000. The music is extremely dirty, which I
usually hate. But it is amazingly appropriate for this album... The
lyrics are angry and depressed, and Art Alexakis
screams them out with more passion than any other singer that I can
think of. The music itself is so raw. There is nothing in this cd that suggests insincerity, no signs of forced
lyrics or emotion. I will also say that I often have trouble listening
to this cd. But every aspect of it, from
the underproduction to Alexakis’ raw
emotion is perfect. And Fire Maple Song is one of the best songs ever.
On a bad note though, most of the music is pretty unvaried… mostly
straightforward loud grunge. |
|
Fleetwood Mac – Greatest
Hits (2
Disc) ** I really hate this band.
I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the crappy music. Maybe it’s
the singer. Maybe it’s the lyrics. Maybe it’s just that they suck. Who
knows? |
|
Franz Ferdinand – Self
Titled ***+ Franz Ferdinand is a
really cool band in desperate need of a songwriter. The current one has
the attention span of a fruit fly. Most of the songs on this cd involve about one line of verse for every
line of chorus. But the music is really groovy. Check out Dark of the
Matinee, Tell Her Tonight, and of course, Take Me Out. |
|
George Carlin: Parental
Advisory, Explicit Lyrics ** I’m going to start by
saying that comedy is not meant to be listened to on a cd. It’s just not worth it. Buy a dvd, or download the stuff. I love George
Carlin, but the cd just doesn’t do it for
me. |
|
Godzilla: The Album **+ Firstly, what the hell
was Jimmy Page thinking? Why did he play |
|
Grateful Dead - What A
Long Strange Trip It's Been (2 Disc) 2 discs of rambling crap
with no musical value. A couple good songs. Casey Jones and Touch of
Grey are cool. |
|
Hawksley Workman – For Him And
The Girls ****+ This cd
is brilliant. The opening song, Maniacs, makes me laugh every time. It
opens with a bunch of yodeling, and then Hawsley
yelling “DI-NO-SAUR-UUUUUS”…. He then sings about the fatsosaurus a bit. Since this is my first HW
review, I’ll say something about who he is, I guess. Workman is a
Canadian multi-instrumentalist/songwriter. He plays most of the
instruments on the albums, and rocks them all. He’s a big fan of
yodeling, screaming randomly, etc. Most of his songs also have pretty
drastic musical change-ups in them too. Nothing bland here. So, back to
the album review. No two songs on this
album are really all that similar. The next two songs are also amazing
– No Sissies, which is as close to generic Hawksley
Workman as they come, and Sad House Daddy, where his vocals are
awesome. The next song, Tarantulove, is
possibly my favorite on the cd. The music
on Tarantulove is very reminiscent of
Cake, actually. And once again, the vocals and lyrics rock. I honestly
didn’t mean to make this a song by song review, but every song on this cd is so unique. Anyhow… the next song is a
slower one (featuring a banjo, I think). The vocals on it are nice, but
I’m never as big a fan of HW’s slower
stuff. Bullets is another great song. Nice
lyrics, great vocals. And then Don’t Be Crushed is just a really nice
slow song. The singing is great, and the lyrics are too.. “thank god your
timeless cause my watch got stolen”. Ok, so it doesn’t come across as
well on paper. But it’s a great song. I'm gonna
speed up this review a little bit now. All of Us Kids is another great
song with awesome lyrics and vocals. Up to the final 2 songs, the
tracks are all great. The last 2 are decent, but not exceptional like
the rest. This cd shows how versatile Hawksley Workman, and shows how good a singer,
songwriter and musician he is. His vocals are so passionate and at the
same time funny. Great cd…
|
|
Jet: Get Born **** Ah… it appears that Mr.
Dobbins and I are about to have a point-counterpoint deathmatch. Minus the death. And probably minus
the point-counterpoint. And I guess without those, there’s no match,
either. Basically, I’m trying to say that we’ve both reviewed this
album, so it’s double the fun. This album pretty much
has two types of songs, fast garagey
stuff, and slow alt-country acoustic stuff. Its
pretty much divided half and half between the two kinds. As Chris said,
Are You Gonna Be My Girl basically rips
off the music from Lust for Life. And they do a really good job of it.
Rollover DJ is a great song. I think it’s pretty much a rant about how
people like crappy music. Or at least this one DJ. And its got a really cool keyboard bit in it. Other notables on the cd are Cold Hard Bitch (not cold hearted bitch)
which is just a cool rock song, Move On and Come Around Again, which
are really well done slow alt-country songs, and Lazy Gun, which opens
with a really cool drum beat and reminds me of Nirvana. I think that the more I
listen to this cd, the more the slow songs
stick out to me. They are really well done, and I really look forward
to their next cd, which I think will be
songs more like Move On and Come Around Again. I’ll agree with Chris
that the best vocals on the cd go to
Timothy, and that the worst song is Radio Song. But he’s crazy for only
giving this 6/10. |
|
Jimi Hendrix: Experience
Hendrix, the best of… ***** If only Courtney Love
hadn’t killed him. |
|
Jimmy Page – Outrider *** Aerosmith? Why did Aerosmith change their name to Jimmy Page? I
don’t understand. Doesn’t Jimmy Page have that name trademarked? He
should sue Steven Tyler. Because I’m sure that people buy this album
thinking that it’s the person Jimmy Page, when really its just a band. And then people lose respect for
Jimmy himself. Bottom line, this is
disappointing. The vocals mainly sound like Steven Tyler. I don’t know
who it really is – I very much doubt that it’s Page. On one of the
better tracks, Only One, Robert Plant sings. It’s still not all that
impressive though. The guitar work is very bland and generic on most
tracks. Basically, this album
sounds like any one of a bazillion bands that tried to be Zeppelin and
failed. The two best songs are
slower and bluesier – Hummingbird and
Prison Blues. There is nothing at all
here that hasn’t been done before, and Jimmy’s lucky to get his 3
stars. I couldn’t make myself give less to the guy. |
|
Joan Jett & The
Blackhearts: The Hit List *** At the very least, this
album is entertaining. To avoid any confusion in the ensuing mayhem
caused by another gibberish review, this is not a
greatest hits, but rather a collection of covers that Joan Jett
has done. Pretty much all of the covers on here are pretty well done.
She covers a couple of songs that I haven’t heard. Over the course of
the album, she “covers” a pretty wide range of music. Get it? Covers?
Eh? Eh? She starts off fast with a nice cover of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt
Cheap, and then slows it down a bunch of tads for Love Hurts. Let’s
ignore the fact that she covers the Sex Pistols. More like the Suck
Pistols. Because they suck. She regains my respect with a really nicely
done cover of Celluloid Heroes by the Kinks. Well, I like her version.
I’ve never heard the original. Back into overdrive now, with Tush. I’m not a big fan of her cover of the
Chamber’s Brothers tune Time Has Come Today. She then does a Hendrix
cover (of a song that I’ve never heard – Up From The Skies) that I
can’t imagine sounds like the original. I don’t like it much either. Joanny does justice
to CCR’s Have You Ever Seen The Rain, and
does a really nice job with Love Me Two Times, originally done my Mr Morrison and his Doors. And then finishes on
a disappointing note with a bad cover of a great song – Roadrunner by
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. She gets 3 stars for her effort
on this one. I found that she didn’t butcher any of the songs, and did
well with most of them. However, she also didn’t do much interesting
with any of them. Actually, she tries to jazz up Roadrunner, but
doesn’t do a great job of it. So, that’s that. |
|
John Lennon - The John
Lennon Collection Well… history went the
worst way possible. John Lennon died in 1980. Now now,
stop weeping, I’m not finished. I’m pissed that John Lennon died in
1980, too. I wish that he had died in 1970! You know, before he did all
of that garbage solo stuff. There is another alternate to him dying in
1980. Him still being alive! That would be good too. See, the way that
I look at it, his image is inflated today because of his death. If he
was still alive, nobody would have any respect for him. People would
see him as a crappy musician with bad taste in women. Take that, Yoko! |
|
Johnny Lang: Lie To Me
**** Listening to this cd, I’m a bit surprised at how straight-forward
blues it is. I was kind of thinking that it was just adult contemporary
crap. You know, like Clapton. And I guess some of it still is. Lang moves around a fair bit on this, from the
chilled out (but still loaded with tasty mini-sols) blues of Darker
Side and Still Wonder to the upbeat zaniness of Good Morning Little
Schoolgirl (a Stevie Ray song? A song that
Stevie Ray convered?
I don’t know. I’m pretty sure its not a
Lang original though.) But it is good, and that’s what matters. I’m
going to come straight out right now and say that I’m not very good
with my blues sub-genres. I’m quite sure that “upbeat zaniness” has
never been a genre. Until now. His blues-jazz in Rack Em Up is quite nice as well. And then he said,
“you know what? I like Clapton [Peter’s note: Crapton]
quite a lot, and I think that I’ll play a “blues” song. Just like the
Eagles did. It shall be called When I Come To You, in honor of me being
suckered into making crap music.” Anyhow… he jumps around in lots
sub-genres that I make up, and he’s pretty good at all of them… Another
very good song is “There’s Gotta Be A
Change” (which, ironically is right after that crappy song. Ironic
because of the title. Get it? Because the Langsta
was like… “no! This crap won’t do! There’s gotta be a change! Wait a second – that could be
a good song! I’m back!”). Oh, wait. Nope. He apparently said “There’s Gotta Be A Change” after writing that song, not
before it, because the next song is back into Crapton
territory. It’s straight off of Clapton’s Pilgrim album, which is the
worst insult that any song could ever get. Matchbox may be the best
song on the album, where he rocks out quite tastily on the guitar while
trying to be Ray Charles with his vocals. I may be making up the Ray
Charles part, but I think I’m telling the truth. I just realized that I
neglected to mention the title track. Lie to Me is a pretty solid song…
his vocals are cool on it, and the guitar is good too. Not as
traditionally styled as the rest of the stuff on here. Well… that’s the Langsta for you. I hope you enjoyed your time
with him. |
|
Limp Bizkit:
Chocolate Starfish and Hot Dog Flavoured
Water (?) + I honestly have no idea
how I ended up with this cd. All I know is
that I was looking through my cd’s
and found this. So lo and beyhold, I have
a Limp Bizkit cd.
How fun. |
|
Metallica - Greatest Hits More Like bootallica. Or craptallica.
Or Wearelosingfanssoweshouldmakeadocumentaryallica. |
|
Nine Inch Nails - The
Downward Spiral **** This album is no Pretty
Hate Machine, but it’s still pretty rocking. I find that my boy Trent
doesn’t make this album as poppy (PHM is poppy??) as Pretty Hate
Machine. It seems a bit more like generic industrial rock, even though
it still blows any other industrial rock that I’ve heard out of the
water. Piggy is a great song,
with very nice vocals and great drums. March of the Pigs is terrific –
Mr. Reznor is pretending to be furious,
but then you realize that he’s not serious when he says in a cheery
voice with the music stopped “take the skin and peel it back – now
doesn’t that make you feel better?” He’s such a fun loving guy, without
a care in the world. Good ole Trenny. And
Closer is another great song – you’ve heard it, even if you don’t think
you have. Once again, Whereas on PHM pretty
much every song great, Downward Spiral has 4 or 5 great songs and the
rest are just decent. However, the cd gets
bonus points for being so joyful and uplifting. |
|
Oasis: Definitely Maybe
***+ Hmm… definitely maybe. At
first I thought it was a pretty clever, catchy title. Nothing
brilliant, but solid. Then I realized that definitely maybe makes
perfect sense. As in – there is certainly a possibility. That is a
translation of definitely maybe. Which just makes
it a deceptive title. Overhyping itself, like everying
that has to do with Oasis. Anyhow… This band really does not
astonish me. However, occasionally, the Gallagher’s manage to cough up
little hairballs of ROCK! Live Forever is a great song, and Up In The
Sky and |
|
Offspring: Offspring ** I’m pretty sure that this
album was done in ’89 or ’90, back when the Offspring lads weren’t 40
or whatever they are now. Crazy old men. I like their early stuff about
as much as I like their newer stuff. Not much. On this album, they are punkier than on |
|
Pearl Jam – Ten ** Simply not the album that
it is supposed to be. Congratulations on your debut album, Pearl I know that there’s a
good chance at the time it was made that I would have liked this album.
Luckily, I wasn’t old enough to give a damn. Actually, funny story: as
a kid, I would make tapes off the radio and the jewels of the cds would
always be Pearl Jam and Greenday songs.
The rest of the tape would have the Lion King soundtrack recorded onto
it. Anyhow, I’ve come to the
point of my life where I’ve heard so many Pearl Jam imitators that I’m
sick of anything that sounds like them. Even Basically what I’m trying
to say here is that the time warp did you bad buddy. And I can’t help
you out on this one. Vedder Was Better Creed made me Forgetter |
|
Pearl Jam – Vs. *** Two years after releasing
Ten, Pearl Jam learned a lot. They ditched the crappy cover art for a
damn cool thing that I’m going to call a llama (it’s clearly not a
llama). The llama gives Pearl Jam a ferocious edge that the prior album
simply didn’t have. Not only that, but they updated the crappy silver-cd-with-writing with a righteous orange cd. Killer. Now onto the less
important aspect of Pearl Jam: The music. Quite a bit more
interesting then the music on Ten, Vs. serves up better guitar, better
vocals, better everything. We’ve all heard Animal,
and I’m a big supporter of that song. We’ve all heard Daughter.
I’m not such a supporter of that one, but I’ll give it a bit of respect. W.M.A has such a cool
bass riff, and then the guitar comes in and is like “hey, im pretty cool too”, and the drums come in and
their like “yeah, lets rock”, and then Eddie Vedder
comes in and says “this songs got way too much potential, let me bring
it down a notch”. More proper bass riffage on Rats… very Sublimey
song actually. Not true at all. But the bass line is. Anyhow, bottom line – a
few tracks set this album above Ten. They are still simply not a great
band though. Flying through the timewarp It’s 1993 Desperate for new music, Pearl Jam jumps out in
front of me And I say ok. That was easy. |
|
The Police – Every Breath
You Take (The Singles) ** The title of the cd makes me sad. I wish it was just called… The
Singles. Or in honor of that stupid song (and the general lameness of
the band itself) the band could rename themselves The Singles. The cd
opens nicely, with Roxanne. Not much to it, but it’s a solid song.
Message In A Bottle is another solid one. Walking on the Moon is
probably the best of them. Just in time for me to get sick of this
band. There are the songs that sound exactly like Roxanne, and the slow
ballad craps that sound exactly like Every Breath You Take. Speaking of
which, it just came on. I’m going to play a game while I wait for this
damn song to end. I’m going to think of as many words that begin with
‘s’ that are related to this song: Single – Because that’s
what sting should always be. sting – What a killer bee or
really deadly something should do to Sting. Stalker Seductless – Because Sting is an
ugly bastard. Sucker-punched – Once
again, Sting’s got it coming. Slapped Sex? – Not for Sting! Super-lame Soiled – Is what happened
to rock and roll when this came out. Shitty Sucky Shocking Senseless – People for
linking this. Somehow Arousing Smite – Cammon God… do it! Well, that’s And the rest of the cd is crap. Also, another word that I thought of
after the song ended is sappy. Probably the best of all those words,
actually. Sappiest song ever. |
|
The Premiums: Recognizer
***** I would like to introduce
everybody to Chris Public and Steve Vibrolux,
The Premiums. And Chris Public and Steve Vibrolux
would like to introduce you to something called Proper Rock and Roll. |
|
Rammstein: Sehnsucht
** Two words for Rammstein – Du
Suck! Oh, you think that’s a lame joke? Well Du
Goaway! Anyhow…
Rammstein were a bunch of lads that
were all the rage in 1998 or so because of their hit song, Du Hast. Them and Aqua. They should get together
and form a supergroup. With the Hanson
brothers, too. That would be awesome. The
Hanson eunuchs could sing “mm-bop” non stop, Rammstein
would cover the German beastly singing, and Aqua… hmm… I guess that
they would be the chorus. Yeah – Rammstein
= verse, Aqua = chorus, and Hanson = constant mmm-boppin.
And they would be called – Barbie and Her Berlinian
Boyband? Adolf
and his Cacophony of Castration? Ahhh… I
give up. I got the band together, someone else can figure out a name. Anyhow, this, along with
Harvey Danger, was my first cd. One of the
two cd’s is
good. This isn’t the one. The synth has
occasional entertaining moments, such as in the title song and Engel,
but otherwise I find this music extremely bland. It’s just industrial
rock with a German guy singing. However, their cover of Stripped by Depeche Mode is really good. Anyhow, I better run and
get tickets for Du Water Bop. Because
that’s what they decided to call themselves. I can’t wait for the show.
Some Hanson fan is gonna come onto this
site now and find out when they try to buy
tickets that this is all a big lie. Because Hanson fans are stupid. |
|
Semisonic: All About Chemistry * Ok. I already did a
review for this. Somehow it died. I’m sure that I said something witty
and clever in it, but retyping this, I’ve decided that this album
doesn’t merit any humor. Music this bad is not a laughing matter.
Bottom line, this cd reminds me of boybands, or some such lameness. |
|
Sex Pistols: Never Mind
the Bollocks, here's the Sex Pistols *+ More like… never mind the
Sex Pistols, here’s a steaming pile of crap on your shoe. Because I’d
rather that. There’s nothing good or cool about the Sex Pistols. The
band is pretty bad, and the singer is awful. And screw whatever message
they were sending. They can’t play music, and therefore they’re a bad
band. In one day, I’ve bashed Nico and the
Sex Pistols. I think one of those two things will piss anyone off. And
maybe bashing The Police and that satanically bad Semisonic
album will annoy people too. But I don’t care about those people. |
|
Silverchair: Frogstomp
**+ Before I talk about the
album itself, I want to ask the world what the hell is up with the
booklet. It’s 6 pages, and six of them have
frogs on them. All identical frogs, except different colors. Three of
them are green. The other three, which each have the names of the band
members under them, are red, blue and orange. The green ones are on the
front cover, the back cover (with the track listing), and under the
third green frog, it says “on the third day god created llama”. What
the hell is going on? Did some frog mother somewhere give birth to 6
little frogs (3 of which can play instruments)? And why are they all
identical? What kind of sick world do we live in that values frog
individuality so little? Pretty cool frogs though… Well, I’ve now wasted
enough time that I’ll probably finish writing the review at about the
same time that the album ends. It kicks off nicely, with
some heavy bass wackiness opening for However, after those two
songs, I get pretty bored of this cd. The
only other song on this cd that I like
quite a bit is Shade. The rest just kinda
seem like the same song repeated a bunch of times. Fuzzy music, and semi screamy
mid 90’s vocals. So the songs on this cd
are kinda like the frogs. 1 red song, 1
blue song, 1 orange song, and the rest are green. |
|
Silverchair: Freak Show *** Not too much here that’s
different from Frogstomp. I would say that
this one has a bit more variety, but not too much. It’s also a bit poppier, I think. It opens well with Slave, and
then proceeds to bore me for a few songs until Cemetary
and the best song on the cd, The Door. On
Petrol and Chlorine, they got things a bit interesting by bringing in
some eastern instruments, as well as a viola, a violin and a cello.
It’s a pretty cool song, one of my favorites by them. It then proceeds
to finish off by boring me with a few more badly done Nirvana covers.
Except they changed the words. |
|
This is the moneygrab (er…
soundtrack) to an episode of |
|
Steve Miller Band:
Greatest Hits 1974-1978 *** You know what sucks? When
you find out that a cd is scratched to the
point that it’s really annoying to listen to at times. Like this one.
If I’m lucky, the scratches will avoid the 4 or so tracks on here that
I care about. Because there isn’t much here. Get what I'm saying? I
think you do. I’m going to try to
describe Steve Miller. Picture the Eagles. Now multiply the cool factor
by two, turn up the rock 1 notch, turn down
the country 2 notches. Throw a bit of solo Clapton into the pot, and
you’ve got the Steve Miller band. “Take the Money and Run”
and “The Joker” are easily the best songs on the cd.
Fly Like An Eagle and Rock N’Me take third
and fourth place. Other than those, there isn’t really anything all
that great on here. “Threshold” is pure filler – a minute of lame synth with no musical value whatsoever. Most of
the songs are pure generic rock (hence the Clapton + Eagles
concoction), with nothing interesting about them. Steve’s vocals are
nothing to write home about, and I always struggle to respect a band
that uses three guitars and does nothing interesting with them. So,
Steve, take the three stars and run. Be grateful. |
|
Stray Cats - Live and In
Studio ***+ Opens with a great song –
Stray Cat Strut – which you shall all download immediately. Just not
this version, because the quality is crap. Maybe that Walmart employee went to the studio where they
were recording, and put a $5 (walmart)
microphone beside the crack in the door. To the credit of this cd, or the Stray Cats, or the walmart employee – whoever deserves credit – the
‘Cats cover some good 50s rock songs on here… Summertime Blues by Eddie
Cochran, Beautiful Delilah by Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly’s Oh Boy.
Notice that I said “the ‘Cats cover some good songs” and not “the ‘Cats
do some good covers”. Summertime Blues and Beautiful Delilah are both
good, but Oh Boy isn’t so hot. The vocals are a bit annoying. Really
annoying, actually. Just to allow time for
the cd to catch up to the review, I’ll
describe the Stray Cats sound a bit. They are pretty much 100% uptempo rockabilly. There really isn’t much more
to say about them than that, actually. Is there even such thing as slow
rockabilly? They are led by Brian Setzer,
who is a solid vocalist and a good guitarist. This cd
is actually a good cd. Other than Oh Boy
there aren’t any bad songs. But the quality is so bad. Rumble In
Brighton is a really good song. Setzer’s
vocals make Rock Around With Ollie Vee
sound like it was done in 1958 or some such year, which is cool. In
fact, a ton of this cd sounds like its from 1958 (or some such year). Rock This Town
is a great song, and really well done. I’m starting to like Setzer’s singing more and more. It’s such good
rockabilly singing. Bottom line? Live AND In Studio gets 3.5 gold
stars. There are only a couple really good songs on here, the quality
is bad, and I’m convinced that it’s not a real cd.
Which brings me to my next awarding of stars – that Walmart employee gets 5 stars and a promotion,
for being so damn sneaky. |
|
The Strokes: Is This It **** Good evening. I’m just
going to shake off a month of rust. It’s been a while. [shakes]. It’s off now. Time to rock. I’ll admit
that I jumped on this bandwagon after it didn’t exist anymore. I was a
little slow discovering the Storks. Heehee.
Storks. However, I don’t know what happened to the people that were on
the bandwagon. Maybe the music police broke up the party. You know, the
one’s that go around declaring that crappy music is the only way to be.
Music Nazis, I guess. So, after the music nazi’s
had made sure that nobody was listening to good music, I came along,
found the abandoned bandwagon, tied a couple of horses to it, and rode
off into the sunset. The Storks flew above me, serenading me with their
beautiful sing-song voices. (Here is an
artist’s rendition of that life-changing event) Even though one
song doesn’t really differ much from the next, they’re different enough
to make me happy. I cherish Julian’s voice, which I’m not going to try
to describe. Mostly because you all know what it sounds like. Same goes
for me trying to describe their sound. I especially like Soma,
Someday, Last Nite, Trying Your Luck, and
Take It Or Leave It. And those solo’s on Soma and Last Nite? Juicy. Short, but juicy. It’s like orange
juice... you can have a big glass, but if there’s not enough orange in
there, it’s just watered down. But each of those short solo’s contain
the juice of 19 oranges. So, the Storks get 4.5
stars. |
|
Sum 41: All Killer No
Filler * Oh god they suck. Why
must they be so bad. And why do I own this.
Its pure whiny bland lyrics backed by plain, generic music. And that’s
all the thought I'm giving to this one. Also, the Bradley theorem: Generic + Whiny + 41 +
Boring = 41
|
|
Sum 41: Half Hour of
Power *+ It is possible that this cd is deserving of two. But as they say…
innocent until proven guilty. And these guys are innocent of rocking.
They didn’t even have to plead insanity. Because there is no doubt that
they ever rocked. I’ll admit that there are some ok moments on here.
Well, one, really. It opens with an ok instrumental. It makes me think
that Sum 41 was framed. Somebody wanted me to think that they were
guilty of rocking a little bit. But I am a judge of law and I don’t
fall for those shenanigans. Court dismissed. |
|
Supergrass - Supergrass
Is 10 - The Best of '94-'04 ****+ First off, I would like
to say that I feel bad for Supergrass
living next door to Sum 41 on my list. They’ve got the good neighbor –
bad neighbor thing going on. Supertramp on
one side, Sum 41 on the other. I should evict Sum 41. Anybody want some
(sum) cds? Anybody? No? Or, another option to solve the neighbor
situation for Supergrass would be to sqeeze in another neighbor. You know, make it a
duplex. It’s tough though. What bands are between Sum and Supergrass? I could try to get into the Super
Furry Animals, I guess. But not too much. If I got into them too much,
I would feel bad for them too, and have to squeeze another band in
there. But on with the show… Supergrass. I
would like to say happy 10th birthday to them. I would like
to also say that this is a scrumptious cd.
Inside of the cd, there are 718 calories
of rock per song. So fatten up. Songs such as “Pumping on Your Stereo”, “Alright”, and “Mansize
Rooster” are a few of the exceptional tracks on the cd, although all of the songs range from good to
awesome. Supergrass are
masters of clever, catchy lyrics, rocking piano and synth parts, and nice guitar work. I wouldn’t
say that there is any amazing musicianship in this band, but all of the
parts come together beautifully for Supergrass,
with a sound ranging from awesome groovy licks to pretty electronic
stuff to ballady piano tunes. I actually
regret not buying all of their albums. And now to file a complaint with
the landlords about those boring little shits nextdoor… |
|
Sympathetic Sounds of Jacky White, you’ve done
gone and did it again. Mister White noticed that there were some rockin’ |
|
The Presidents of the This album is after they
got really popular with a few songs from their first album, like Lump,
Kitty and Peaches. So they followed up with this one, which I'm
pretty sure nobody liked. So anyhow… Get it? Because the bands
called the Presidents of the Anyhow – to me, this
album is pretty hit or miss. I think its miss or miss with most people,
but I enjoy parts of it. It’s largely novelty rock, but not so much
that it’s annoying. I also never find the lyrics funny, so I hope I'm
not supposed to. The Presusas, as I’m
hereby gonna call them so that I don’t
have to write all 98 or so letters of their name, are kind of in
between rock and comedy. Sometimes they’re able to rock out, and
sometimes the lyrics are good. And sometimes they don’t rock and they
lame talk. Sorry about that… I just wanted to rhyme. The album opens well with
Ladies and Gentlemen, asking all listeners if they are ready to “rok”. They lose points for trying to spell it
like that. I also enjoy Volcano, |
|
They Might Be Giants –
Flood *+ 45 minutes of crappy
polka music and futile attempts at humour.
Birdhouse In Your Soul is the only real saving grace for this cd, but as they say, it takes 2 to tango. And
even more to make a cd that isn’t total
shit. Like this one. |
|
Velvet Underground - Best
of…
(Rock!: ****+, “art”:*+) For a while I was
struggling with how I would go about grading this. So get prepared for
a breakthrough in reviewing technology. A brain-walloping, some might
call it. I just hope that you don’t call it that. I sure don’t. This
final grade for the cd is hereby broken
down into two sections. The ROCK! section,
which includes all songs sung by Lou Reed, and the “artistic” section,
which includes all songs sung by Nico. Get
it? I’m glad for you. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about,
Nico is the monotone voice that can
be heard on some “artistic masterpieces”, such as Femme Fatale and All
Tomorrow’s Parties. On the other hand, there is Lou Reed, owner of one
of the coolest voices ever. You know, the
guy with the ROCK AND ROLL masterpieces. None of that “artistic” crap.
Anyhow… Heroin is an amazing and really creepy and disturbing song
about soccer. Er… Heroin, sorry. My
mistake. Stephanie Says and Pale Blue Eyes are rather pleasant ballads.
“I’m Waiting For the Man” is Lou Reed at one of his higher coolness
levels. But the cool goes off the charts on the last two tracks. Sweet
Jane and Rock and Roll. Sweet Jane is an unbelievable song. You’ve all
heard it. But it’s amazing. Rock and Roll as well, to a somewhat lesser
degree. So – ROCK! Section (Lou):
****+ (no matter what else the dude did… Heroin,
Sweet Jane, I’m Waiting For The Man, Pale Blue Eyes and Rock and Roll
get the 5 stars. “artistic”
section (Nico): *+ (um… she’s a monotone
gimmick)
|
|
Violent Femmes - Add It
Up (Greatest Hits 1981-1993) |
|
Von Bondies
- Pawn Shoppe Heart Their name is Bondie. Von Bondie(s). |
|
Warped Tour 2004 (2 disc)
** Let me introduce you to
this 52 track beast of a punk compilation. As much as I wanted to turn
it down, I couldn’t make myself do it. It was $12, and had 52 bands. I
figured that I would like at least a few. Anybody up for a track by
track? I’ll keep it short and sweet. Rapidfire.
Multiball. All those things. New
Found Glory – No News Is Good News (Anybody who likes these guys needs
New Found Music. No New Found Glory is Good New Found Glory), NOFX –
American Errorist (Good bass, cool solo,
no effects), Flogging Molly – To Youth (I’m sorry, but the whole Irish
thing seems like such a gimmick. It’s not a bad song, but they’re just
flogging a dead horse with the Irish thing. Not Molly. Unless Molly’s a
dead horse), Anti-Flag – Rank-N-File (I like this one, and I don’t know
why. It seems like such generic punk. The singer is good, I guess. And
they have a nice band flag.) Since the last band joke was so lame, I’m
only going to talk about tracks that I really like, really hate, or that have names that I can make fun of.
Thursday – Tomorrow I’ll Be You (What day of the week will tomorrow be?
Because if its Thursday, then the band
Thursday will be tomorrow. Therefore being Thursday. And You. And
Thursday will be everyone that listens to this song. Unless they don’t
listen on a Wednesday. Get it? Anyhow – I don’t really like this band…
the screaming very rarely does it for me, and I’m not too fond of the
music either), Bouncing Souls – Anchors Aweigh (Instead of being a
band, because they aren’t very good at it, they should be shoes. And
change their name to the Bouncing Soles), Yellowcard
– Breathing (I really like this song, actually. Um… soccer!), Pennywise
– Something To Change (as an old saying goes - Pennywise, Good Music
Foolish), Motion City Soundtrack – Capital H (It’s a decent song by a
band that I like quite a bit. As for the name? You can come up with
something this time), Atmosphere – The Keys To Life Vs. 15 Minutes of
Fame (out of the middle of nowhere (as if it flew out of the sky… the ATMOSPHERE) here’s a rap song. Not bad by rap standards,
but still not very good), Sugarcult –
Destination Anywhere (Another song that I like quite a bit. It’s less punky then most stuff on here. It’s a pretty sweet song. Like sugar. And they have a cult following),
1208 – Fall Apart (I love this band name! In 1208, And now onto cd 2. For another 80 minutes of me being bored,
perhaps. By bands with dumb names. Good |
|
Ween – Mollusk *+ What am I supposed to
like about these guys? The music? They lyrics? I mean, they have a huge
cult following I think, and I just don’t see why. The music is garbage
weird polka and the lyrics are just forced humour
garbage. At least it seems forced. Maybe
they just don’t know that they aren’t funny. Or I don’t have a sense of
humour. Actually, I think this album
is meant to make fun of prog rock, which
makes me respect it a bit. The title track is kinda
funny, and the music for “I’ll Be Your Johnny On The Spot” is cool for
2 minutes. And then they come up with “It’s Gonna
Be Alright”, a sappy, crappy love song that can only be taken
seriously. And then they follow that up with pure novelty crap “Waving
My Dick In The Wind”. Who the hell are these guys? If I want infantile humour, I’ll consult Tenacious D. If I want slow
love songs, I’ll look somewhere other than Ween.
I don’t understand it. It’s like a secret club, and I don’t know the
secret handshake. And I don’t want to. |
