Review: Mighty High - Drops a Deuce

Label: self-released

Released: October 12, 2009

True to the form they set with last year's full-length, In Drug City, Mighty High's new EP is nothing if not unabashedly fun. This 7" EP features two songs that waste nothing (except perhaps brain cells). "Cable TV Eye" is full-on stoner paranoia propelled by riffs they learned from hard rock leaning punk bands like Gang Green or the Circle Jerks in the mid-to-late 80s. It's thick and chunky and full of good things for your rock and roll appetite. "Hands Up!" is like a pep rally at a Texas high school if pot was the football team. It's recorded live and, to the band's credit, there is little distinction between this and the studio track. Their energy can't be contained no matter where it's being recorded. So, it's two sides, one studio, one live, and both rock uncontrollably. No pretensions, no cleverness, no tricks, no fakes, just rock and roll you can get high off of whether you smoke pot or not.

Top it all off with some fantastic R. Crumb-style artwork (seriously, it's almost as fun as the Cheap Thrills cover) and sweet baby blue marble vinyl and it's a package that can't be beat!

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Elin Palmer - Postcards

Label: Suburban Home

Released: October 23, 2009

When I think of an album that tells a story, I tend to think of concept albums where the story often takes precedence over the music, resulting in weak, but often needed filler. Elin Palmer's Postcard has a very narrative nature to it, but in a far different way than a concept album or a rock opera. Instead of imposing narrative conventions on the music, Palmer's music itself seems to be a story.

Postcard wanders between folk and post-rock, visiting chamber music and jazz and dabbling in polka, cabaret and even twee pop along the way. Palmer draws on these traditions almost like sub plots that are interwoven throughout, peering out subtly at times and taking center stage at others. Like any good story, this one has many pulses that at times are in sync and at others run counter to each other and Palmer's ability to both sensual and vaguely eerie leave the meaning of this work ultimately in the ears of the listener. She facilitates this by letting the songs, and the album as a whole, follow their own muse. Even the final track, which seems at first to be the album's dénouement, ultimately runs its own course and becomes the climax.

Even an album with an explicit story often fails to really tell it well. Music is simply more engaging when the listener participates in the art. Few albums do that as successfully as Elin Palmer's Postcard.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

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Elin Palmer: Swedish folk by a Denver rockstar from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

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Review: Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats - Meet the Meatbats

Label: Warrior Records

Released: September 15, 2009

Fans of Chad Smith's other endeavors, the funk/punk of Red Hot Chili Peppers and the generic hard rock of Chickenfoot, will find his Bombastic Meatbats project to be a surprise to say the least. It owes more to 70s fusion artists John McLaughlin and Herbie Hancock and jazz-oriented prog than it does to any mainstream rock influence.

At times, it really nails things. "Oh! I Spilled My Beer" builds on its funky groove, really freeing a wild, fun madness by the end. The mellow melding of soul and prog on "Tops Off" moves nicely, giving both sides of its nature space to breathe. The trouble is, though, that there are also tracks, like "The Battle for Ventura Blvd" and, to lesser extent, "Night Sweats," which wander too far into smooth jazz and light fusion to feel much better than cheap. In fact, much of the album has at least small bits of real badness, but as on "Death Match," it is saved by a combination of both fire and fun, often in the form of Smith's drumming and Jeff Kollman's guitar licks. Smith's group isn't going through an exercise in soul by any means, but they do manage to find enough life to keep things from becoming stagnant or completely self-indulgent.

By its nature, an album like Meet the Meatbats will suffer from too much noodling and too little soul and in some ways it's no exception to that rule. It does, at times, devolve into session-band-like fluff. However, despite playing an awful lot of notes, this one remains fun overall and that makes all the difference. The Meatbats also have the distinct advantage of not involving the ridiculously overindulgent and soulless Joe Satriani, so this is a much better diversion from the Chili Peppers for Chad Smith than Chickenfoot.

Ratings
Satriani: 9/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 5/10
Overall: 6/10

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DVD: Blue Cheer Rocks Europe

Label: Rainman Records

Released: June 26, 2009

There's a handful of bands out there whose influence has been felt far and wide decades after they made their mark, yet they never enjoyed significant commercial success. The Velvet Underground comes to mind. So does Nick Drake. There are others, but in heavy rock circles, one of these bands rises above all others - Blue Cheer. Unlike most members of this exclusive club though, Cheer continued to do their thing for over 40 years, even releasing a fine album recently, 2007's What Doesn't Kill You.

Blue Cheer Rocks Europe finds Dickie Peterson, Paul Whaley and "Duck" MacDonald (the "new guy" with only a little more than two decades of service) standing tall as they bring the sound they pioneered, and others have copied, to the stage. Ripping through material, new and old, they have both the energy of a hungry band and the tightness of a well-oiled machine. Peterson's voice is raw and passionate. MacDonald's riffs are heavy and grooving. Whaley's beats are driving end energetic. Although the video is a bit too sterile to fully capture it, it's easy to imagine the big dose of crazy that still permeates their show and it brings up the question of whether Blue Cheer might actually be better today than in their acknowledged prime. One thing is undeniable though: They still give the bands they influenced (some of whose members weren't even born when Cheer made rock heavy) something to shoot for. Just check out "Parchman Farm." I don't know if they could have done any better in 1967, when they first recorded it.

Sadly, this may be Blue Cheer's last document. Bassist, vocalist and founder of all that is heavy, Dickie Peterson, passed away on October 12, 2009. He once said, "We're more interested in the gig tomorrow night than being in the hall of fame." I suspect that making the music and seeing it blossom in other bands over the last 40 some years was the greatest reward for him. Rest in Peace, Dickie. Thanks for all the crazy tunes.

Rating: 9/10

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DVD: Jethro Tull - Live at Madison Square Garden 1978

Label: Virgin/EMI

Released: October 20, 2009

Jethro Tull live in 1978? Haven't we already heard that? The ill-timed Bursting Out was from European dates of the same tour and that immediately begs the question, of all the live Tull recordings sitting in the vaults, why release yet another form the Heavy Horses tour?

Depending on your feelings about progressive rock, this concert could be seen as either a high point of the genre or as an example of the overindulgence that forced it to collapse under its own weight (with a little help from the simple DIY ethos of punk). Certainly no other prog band brought rock, classical and folk together in quite as dynamic a way as Jethro Tull. This concert proves that they were a tight and musically adventurous group who could move deftly between pastoral folk and grooving heaviness just as easily live as they could in the studio.

One true advantage of this package over the aforementioned Bursting Out is the inclusion of the DVD. More than most bands, Jethro Tull, or Ian Anderson more specifically, is a visual spectacle. The engaging and eccentric Anderson, whether as vocalist, flutist, percussionist or simply frontman, walks the line between theatrical and simply insane throughout. However, he's anything but aloof (his crack about the balding Martin Barre being "close behind Elton John" was great). He somehow brings his outlandish personality down to earth, resulting in a performance that is both over the top and completely accessible.

The concert was filmed for satellite broadcast (the first from America on British TV) over 30 years ago, so the video quality isn't superior by today's high def standards, but complaining about it would be nitpicking. The concert is a real gem for prog fans and even entertaining to all but the genre's true naysayers. Does it warrant release despite being from a tour already documented with an official release? If this package only included the CD, the answer would be, "Not really," but seeing Anderson and company in action is another story altogether.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Balance and Composure - Only Boundaries

Label: No Sleep Records

Released: August 11, 2009

I love when a record is really busy, but doesn't get lost in the busyness. On the four song Only Boundaries, Balance and Composure fully live up to their name, balancing intricacies with listenable sensibility and remaining composed while the music swirls. "I Can't Do This Alone" combines a tribal rhythm with echoey guitar and yearning vocals into a song that pleads its case with both calm and determination . "Show Your Face" is reminiscent of Peter Cortner-era Dag Nasty, coupling earnest honesty with a desire to push the music beyond traditional limits. They accomplish the latter with considerable success, not just on this song, but throughout the record. Only Boundaries meets the challenges of exploration while leaving enough that's familiar to embrace.

No Sleep Records pressed 500 of these on black vinyl and the first 100 have a silk-screened b-side. It's a nice cover worthy of all of its 12 inches. For convenience, they throw in a CD copy as well.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Victor! Fix The Sun - Person Place or Thing

Label: Friction Records

Released: October 20, 2009

Albums that rely heavily on noisy dissonance and angular rhythms as a means of expression seldom even dabble in accessibility, but Person Place or Thing, the latest from Michigan's mathy post-punkers Victor! Fix the Sun, is clear evidence of what's missing from that narrow view.

From the ringing guitar and wild, frantic drumming that opens the album, it's obvious that this isn't just another post-punk exercise. The album constantly soars on one hand while grounding itself at the same time and this tension is its energy. "We Come from the Northwoods" breaks free of its simple, agitated roots into an amazing progressive flight. Early on, "Blind Man's Bluff" gives a nod to CCR before turning the corner into a wild punk tune. The title track's hard rock groove tugs firmly on its frenetic undercurrent. The laid back bass line and mellow hooky guitar part on "Paperthin Feather Fuck" is in direct contrast to the raw emotion that drops in and out with masterful aplomb. "Infested, Mother Approved" has gentle layering and airy, trippy passages while the rhythm wraps it as tight as a straight-jacket.

Throughout, Victor! Fix the Sun shows an innate sense of where the songs themselves want to go and they follow that rather than leading and overthinking. Person Place or Thing follows a fine tradition of bands that use style and genre in the way other bands use instruments. Rather than taking the narrow road, they explore the broad vistas that view music without limits.

Don't miss this one on vinyl. It comes in either amber or maroon (the maroon is beautiful) and the album art looks great in its full 12 inches. A free download offers the best of both worlds, so you can't go wrong.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Victor! Fix the Sun at the VFW (April 24th, 2009)
by lexen1

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Review: Admiral Browning - Magic Elixir

Label: Dancing Sasquatch Records

Released: April 2009

So much stoner and doom rock tends to be an exercise in heaviness alone. While that certainly has its place, few people can take the steady bludgeoning that it offers even as it fills that need in all who really love heavy metal for the mind-numbing weight of slow, trudging riffs that take Tony Iommi to the extreme. Sometimes, however, a band offers such crushing power in a more dynamic form that respects the song as well as pushing the limits of the heavy in metal.

Like Kyuss and Clutch before them, Maryland's Admiral Browning is just such band. The five tunes that make up Magic Elixir are quite a ride. Sure, there's the standard downtuned sludgy riffs, but, unlike most of their peers, that's only a small part of what Admiral Browning has in their heavy bad of tricks. Instead of going on ad infinitum, songs will suddenly take off with wild, frenetic energy or slip into spacey, psychedelic ramblings. They even through in some brighter, more colorful progressive hard rock, à la Rush, and it fits with strange perfection in the same song with hard rock freakouts.

The whole album really builds up to "Speaking in Tones," the 13 minute opus that closes the album proper. All the parts, stoner rock, psychedelia, prog, come together into Admiral Browning's unique vision of what heavy metal can and should be when its limits evaporate in the ground zero where they split musical atoms.

The untitled coda is a less structured jam that lets Magic Elixir down easy after an exhilarating ride into what can be. Its vaguely incomplete nature just begs the question, "What's next?"

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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Video: Prize Country - Regular Nights

Here's the first single off of Prize Country's upcoming album, With Love:

Free Buffalo Killers mp3!

Huma Bird Download

Right click the image above to download Huma Bird

Enjoy! Love, Buffalo Killers

Review: Grant Hart - Hot Wax

Label:

Released: October 6, 2009

The progression of an artist from a seminal band to a solo career usually tells us more about the artist now that they're freed from the shackles of band unity (in whatever form it existed). What's interesting about Grant Hart's Hot Wax is that it tells us some things about him, but more of where he came from and how that fit into his own art, both in Hüsker Dü and on his own.

The album opens with "You're Not the Moon," perhaps the best psych garage piece I've ever heard. The mix of pop, psychelelia and proto-punk creates a wall of sound that prefigures Hüsker Dü's oh-so-listenable noise. The baroque pop of "Barbara," along with the strangely innocent darkness of the words, isolates a quality that he's incorporated into much of his music over the years. He dabbles in Bowie and Mott the Hoople-era glam ("School Buses are for Children" and "Narcissus, Narcissus") and fuzzy 60s pop ("Sailor Jack"). "California Zephyr" has the pop bombast of Neil Diamond without crossing the line into corny sentimentality. The understated cacophony and strong melodies of the soaring "My Regrets," a bit the inverse of Hüsker Dü, is not only a bold closer, but also a segue from this "prequel," so to speak, into what Hart has already done in his long career.

While Hot Wax is a view into Grant Hart's musical origins, it is not simply reliving the past, à la John Lennon's Rock N Roll. Hart employs the help of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt Zion, two of rock's most forward thinking outfits. This isn't Hart replaying his younger days, but rather distilling his own music into its component parts. Not only does this illustrate where Hart's music came from, but also demonstrates both a love and deep understanding of his influences, such that he can make a record that returns to the past and pushes boldly into the future simultaneously.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

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Artists mentioned in the Clash's "White Man in Hammersmith Palais"

One of the Clash's finest moments was "White Man in Hammersmith Palais," a 1978 UK single that also appeared on the re-sequenced 1979 US issue of their self-titled debut. The beginning of the song was inspired by a reggae show Joe Strummer attended (and was disappointed in) and mentions three arists who performed. The song goes on to make serious, poetic social commentary, including the now common phrase, "Turning rebellion into money." While even a casual Clash fan (can there be sucha thing?) knows "White Man," most probably aren't familiar with the three artists whose names appear in the lyrics, so here they are along with this Clash classic.

The Clash:


Dillinger:


Leroy Smart:


Delroy Wilson:

Review: The Family Curse - White Medicine

Label: Fainting Room Collective

Released: October 2009

There's no doubt that the Family Curse really like noise in general and the Butthole Surfers in particular. The opening track certainly makes no bones about it, but also shows that they don't quite get it. It's random and pointless and they miss that even the wild abandon of the Buttholes and the better of their ilk had direction even when it wasn't particularly discernible. There was always the notion, swimming around in the music somewhere, that there was some point. By "Laughing My Way to the Bank," it seems quite clear that that's what this band would be doing if this record took off. However, "Back in the Water" begins to turn the corner. It's every bit as crazy as the first two tracks, but it has purpose and that purpose gives it form. It begins to break down as it meanders through what amount to two other songs within it, but at least the album looks like it's going somewhere. Much of the album continues to struggle as it wanders through their contrived stabs at shallow darkness.

All hope is not lost however. On the album's second to last tune (though tune seems like such a stretch for these exercises in dissonance), "Exodus from Birds in the Night," they draw on a higher school of noise - John Zorn. While they're still nowhere near joining his league (well, who is?), the song's subtleties are more moving and deep and its excellence not only saves the album, but sheds some light on the rest of the music, making all but their worst moments at least a little more interesting.

White Medicine spends too much time trying and too little time being and that's i's serious flaw. However, dismissing it entirely or dismissing the Family Curse would be a mistake. There's something there if only they can simply allow that to happen. Aside from one fantastic track, this record isn't very good, but this a band that clearly has a good record in them.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 4/10
Dylan: 4/10
Aretha: 5/10
Overall: 4/10

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