Review: Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City

Label: Hear Music

Released: November 17, 2009

In this decade, Paul McCartney has released as many live albums as he has studio albums. Even packaged with a DVD, Good Evening New York City, his third live release since 2002's Back in the US, begs the question, "Why another live album?" It doesn't take the album long to answer though.

Despite McCartney's late-career studio renaissance, his live albums have remained lackluster. Good Evening New York City finally rights that wrong with a live document as fresh as his recent material and as new as the venue itself (this was Citi Field's first concert). The set is very Beatles-heavy (nearly two-thirds of the material comes from the Fab Four days), but also includes a fair helping of recent material (including "Sing the Changes" from his Fireman side-project). What's happily missing is the saccharine sap that made up much of Macca's career from the mid-70s through the late 80s. You got it, no "Silly Love Songs," no "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," no "Coming Up." (Okay, "My Love" made the cut, but nothing's perfect, right?) Though the Beatles' classics need no overhaul, McCartney re-energizes them with fresh arrangements and youthful enthusiasm. That makes all the difference being playing old songs and playing songs like an old man. McCartney chooses the former and all these years later, both he and the songs can still get me excited. Fantastic!

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

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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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Review: The Slits - Trapped Animal

Label: Narnack Records

Released: October 20, 2009

Trapped Animal is the first studio album from the Slits since 1981 and comes 30 years after the seminal punk/reggae fusion of their debut, 1979's Cut. The passage of time and only returning with two-thirds of the band's core (Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt) certainly give reason to be skeptical of a new album in 2009.

Even going in with doubts, the new album quickly establishes a winning presence. It retains the Slits' natural mix of punk and reggae, but this time the former is a bit more angular and the latter closer to dub, giving things a tighter, more agitated energy. Occasional electro-pop and R&B infusions expand the album beyond the earlier albums' limitations, few as they seemed to be at the time, yet Trapped Animal is possibly their most cohesive record. Most importantly though, the Slits maintain the straightforward lyrical honesty that has always made their songs easy to hold onto.

Worst case scenario would surely have been to simply go through the motions of rehashing their past. Not much better would have been to completely overhaul their sound, producing something that, while new, had little connection to their own roots. What the Slits have produced, however, is an album that shows that they hadn't reached the end of the road when they broke up in 1982. In fact, Trapped Animal is very much on par with the now-acclaimed Cut and one of the best reunion albums I've heard.

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

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Review: Rachel Taylor Brown - Susan Storm's Ugly Sister and Other Saints and Superheroes

Label: Cutthroat Pop Records

Released: April 29, 2009

On the surface, Susan Storm's Ugly Sister and Other Saints and Superheroes is an album of bold piano pop that at times dabbles in showtune pomp, proggy complexity and Beatlesque near perfection. The songs have the nature of a musical soliloquy as they meander between upbeat and melancholy, never being fully one without the other. On the surface, it's a very good record. But what's beneath the surface is where the album's soul is. Brown draws parallels between superheroes and saints that finds some truths about being a good guy. Whether predominantly bold or subdued, violent or peaceful, each song is a vignette that shows the loneliness of the righteous path, but also delves deeper into what saints (and superheroes, in fiction) have found, a joyful asceticism. Few books on the subject could express as succinctly and easily what this album does about the peculiar happiness of humility and self-denial and Brown pulls it off in a quirky, down-to-earth manner that speaks endearingly to the soul.

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

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Review: Jazz Re-issues from Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Red Garland, Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Label: Essential Jazz Classics

Released: June 2, 2009

The mid to late 50s was a near perfect time for jazz. As post-bop and cool jazz emerged from Charlie Parker's bebop shake-up, the genre's top artists were refining the sound. In a few short years, jazz would be set on its ear again by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus among others who once again pushed the very definitions of the genre, but this period in the 50s produced some astoundingly good music even if, and perhaps because, it was perfecting the current state of jazz rather than running off to totally new horizons. Essential Jazz Classics has recently released a set of CDs that collects some of that period's best albums along with some interesting bonus material.

The Clifford Brown/Sonny Rollins/Max Roach Quintet's Complete Studio Recordings collects two classics, Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus Four. As good as Rollins is, he's simply overshadowed by Brown and Roach here as they bring much needed punch that makes these albums real standouts.

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

Art Tatum and Ben Webster's The Album features the lone studio collaboration between these two giants (and Tatum's last session before his death). The mastering doesn't do much to clean up this recording, but, while that's a shame, the bonus material featuring Tatum playing many of the same songs as a soloist more than makes up for it. The man was just a monster on the piano and it's nothing short of incredible to hear that fully exposed in this way.

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

The best known of the re-issues is Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. This Rollins classic is a great example of his smooth playing, but at times is upstaged by Max Roach's drumming. Roach is just a monster on the drums and that really makes this one a must hear album. This re-issue also includes Work Time, not considered one of Rollins' very best albums, but it certainly doesn't miss by much.

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

Perhaps the most interesting of these re-issues is Red Garland's The 1956 Trio, which features the A Garland in Red album with selections from Groovy and Red Garland's Piano. Of the four albums, I was least familiar with Garland's playing and that may be what made this album really stand out. He gets so much out of the piano and is equally dynamic on slow tunes as he is on the more upbeat material. Add some monster bass parts from Paul Chambers and it's clear why this album is worth re-issuing, particularly for those unfamiliar with Garland's work.

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

All in all, this is a fine set of re-issues, particularly for younger or more cursory jazz fans who haven't heard these great albums. All include liner notes with a lot of information that add a little education to these great listens.

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Review: Pomegranates - Everybody, Come Outside!

Label: Lujo Records

Released: April 14, 2009

It's not unusual to hear a new record and think, "Here's a band to keep an eye on. This is really good, but the next one could be amazing." What is unusual is for that potential to actually pan out. Considering the frequency of this scenario, there is surely a lot of ground to cover between potentially great and actually great. But don't ask Pomegranates about the unlikelihood of making good on the promise of their previous recordings, because they clearly don't know. Both their debut Two Eyes EP as well as last year's Everything is Alive full-length set high hopes. They were excellent albums, yet they didn't quite break free of their moorings. But now they offer Everybody, Come Outside! which finds them free and open and seemingly limitless.

The album is experimental. It has tremendous movement over the course of its 45+ minutes. From the big echoey chords that kick it off to the the 13 minutes of folkiness and ambient sound that close it, one thing is clear: This is not just a collection of songs. It is a single work, a musical story. To be sure, any track could stand on its own and no one is like another. Yet, the album is far more cohesive than any formula could produce and its wild energy comes from experimentation in not just the music, but the soul.

Most bands are contained by the genres from which the draw their influences. Pomegranates effortlessly ingest guitar pop, walls of jangle, sweet indie pop, punk aggitation, gentle folk, mathy precision and wild psychedelia, yet the album is so big that it contains these rather than being contained by them. Likewise, the musicianship is amazing on Everybody, Come Outside!, yet that is easily lost in the work itself, because each note, each passage serves the bigger picture. As with all great art, the work takes precedence over the artist, despite the work's artistic ambition.

Like many bands, Pomegranates made a promise with their first two releases. What makes them such a rare find is that they fulfill that promise on Everybody, Come Outside!. In fact, they exceed it. It strives and yearns, is desperate and joyous and is huge and personal. Oh yeah, and it rocks!

mp3: Corriander

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

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Review: Shirock - Everything Burns

Label: self-released

Released: February 3, 2009

Everything Burns kicks off as a fairly typical post-emo mainstream rock album. There are bits of alt rock and emo tidied up in a nice, easily digestible package and yet...there's something else, something deeper going on with this record. Underneath what seems at first to be a solid, but uneventful set of songs, there's an exuberance that is a true rarity. This band has a message and in their earnestness, they will save the world (or do their best at least). Once the message hits, the songs seem larger, truer, better. And by half way through, something else becomes apparent: They love U2. Their best songs filter mid-80s U2 through the subsequent alt rock and emo explosions and come up with something unique, yet familiar. Like their mentors, they have, at least on their best tracks, marry memorable, moving rock n roll with a message of hope. In case this message might be lost on some, the spoken word part of title track's intro spells it out. They are going to "love people." It's that love that permeates the album and changes it from a solid release to a magnificent experience.

Check out their site for tour details. This band isn't just singing about living life the right way; they're actually doing it. They've partnered with local charities at each stop and all proceeds help the communities in which they're playing. Mark one for the good guys!

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

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Review: Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt

Label: Fontana International

Released: November 11, 2008

There aren't many albums as low-key as Sunday at Devil Dirt. Every movement of the album is so subtle that it's difficult to discern. The first two tracks, "Seafaring Song and "The Raven," seem more like movie soundtrack material than the road into a dynamic album, but they set the sparse scene for the album's first stand-alone song, "Salvation," which makes it clear that this album searches and journeys. Throughout though, it does maintain the feel of a soundtrack (albeit of a very good movie), with songs like the jazzy, cabaret "Back Burner" providing segues in the story. None of these are filler in the traditional sense though. They're very strong tracks taken in context and enhance the songs they act as a bridge between as well as the album as a whole.

It's easy to think that Sunday at Devil Dirt is dominated by Lanegan's deep, rough echoes of Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop (and some would say Tom Waits, but Lanegan has a true quality that escapes the novelty of Waits' work). That gritty earthiness is the album's grounding. However, countering that is Campbell's thin, ethereal, almost angelic, yet sexy voice. The two together set the tone for the turmoil that exists between heavenly salvation and earthly struggle. These two contrasting voices find their way through the sparse musical scenes that range from subtle strings to folk to dirty jazz and blues. As carefully constructed as the album is, Campbell has written, and performed with Lanegan, a work that is intensely human in both disillusionment and hope. I wish someone would make the movie to go with this, because there's something greater than even this album in there.

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

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Review: Brandi Carlile - Live From Boston (aka iTunes EP - Boston)

Label: Columbia

Released: 9/16/2008

A cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" is on Live From Boston, so I figured I'd skip right to that track and see whether Carlile and her band managed to do right by Johnny's spirit.

They did.

What more do you want me to write? If that doesn't make you go listen, nothing will.

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

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Review: Cheap Trick - Budokan 30th Anniversary Edition

Label: Epic/Legacy

Released: November 11, 2008

I always had a tough time understanding why Cheap Trick was so popular. Sure, "Surrender" is among rock's greatest songs and they had their share of other decent tunes, but why would they stand out like they did? The answer I was told is contained in their live show and this 30th Anniversary Edition of their Budokan set, re-packaging the original At Budokan shows into one DVD and three CDs, is the best thing short of being there.

The DVD features original concert footage from Cheap Trick's two nights at Budokan in 1978 that only aired once and only on Japanese television. If nothing else, the wild flamboyance of Rick Nielsen adds to the band's already electric live presence in a way that cannot be conveyed in the audio (at least not completely). The filming does have the quality of a TV special, but that shortcoming does little to compromise the entertainment value of a great live band in their element, especially at that very moment that will catapult them into the upper echelon of popular music.

Two of the three CDs recreate the the 1998 20th anniversary issue of At Budokan, remastered for 2008, but the real gem is disc 2, the April 28th show in its entirety. Most live albums really suffer from being culled from multiple shows, because they lose the real picture of the band live, the flow, the energy, the bumps and bruises even. This package however, gives the best of both worlds and the opportunity to really get a feel for why these shows shot the band into super-stardom.

For what it's worth, I saw Cheap Trick at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore in the summer of 2007, over 19 years after the legendary recordings contained in this set, and they were still amazing. The Budokan 30th Annivesary Edition is a great way to understand what the big deal was about Cheap Trick, but, as good as it is, it's still not a substitute for seeing the real thing and three decades later, while their peers are fat, old and boring, Cheap Trick can still deliver. See them if you ever get the chance.

Rating: 9/10

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Review: Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam

Label: Ramseur Records

Released: July 22, 2008

The Avett Brothers' breakthrough album, last year's Emotionalism, was a work whose broad influences were felt throughout and whose quiet ambition made it both huge and intimate at the same time. The Second Gleam, while keeping to the Avett's signature sound, doesn't share its predecessor's breadth. Instead, it focuses on intimacy and gentle folkiness. Not a single track could be described as rousing, yet it manages to rouse the soul with its simple honesty. As ever, the Avetts prove to be deceptively fine musicians who aren't afraid to put themselves into their music in a way that reaches heights both technical and emotional. The album focuses on personal themes (the past, family, love), yet manages to express them in ways that they can be personal for each listener in his own way.

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

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Review: Mad Tea Party - Found a Reason

Label: Nine Mile Records

Released: July 15, 2008

There is an interesting revival of old-time music afoot. Tapping into vaudeville, string bands and vocal groups of the 30s and 40s, these bands' strengths can also be their limitations, making many strictly revivalists rather a modern look at the past. A few, however, manage to break the bounds of revivalism to make music that is as thoroughly modern as it is old-time.

Mad Tea Party is just one of those bands. Like their peers, both vaudeville and string band music runs throughout, but they aren't satisfied to have Found a Reason limited to just that. Like few of their peers, Mad Tea Party is part of the uke-billy scene, a small but perhaps growing subgenre where the ukulele rocks like never before. Ami Worthen's voice brings the charming, quirky beauty of the days before dull, cookie-cutter perfection to an album that has roots in the past but also stands firmly in more modern times with both social commentary and pop culture (was that a Pac Man reference?). They can follow-up a fun look at adolescent awkwardness in "I Never Was a Cool One" with the quiet sadness of "Waltz of Despair" and no one will blink. They just have that unique ability to move around like that and yet retain their purity in a way that only bands like the Dead and the Violent Femmes can.

Jason Krekel's licks are at times worthy of Chuck Berry as Mad Tea Party rips through some great rock n roll. Yet, they don't even stop there, moving into early 60s AM pop and surf at times as well. Mad Tea Party still manages to package this up into a distinctive homogeneous sound, taking detours that enhance the trip but don't change the destination. Their multi-faceted soul moves in ways that are both serious and fun, sometimes at the same time.

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

"Every Way" video

Mad Tea Party - "Every Way" (2008) from Skizz Cyzyk on Vimeo.

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Review: Bigelf - Cheat the Gallows

Label: Custard Records

Released: August 12, 2008

Make a list of all the grandiose artists and albums in rock n roll history and you probably have a map of the influences on Cheat the Gallows. Bigelf manages to seamlessly move from one of rock's big ideas to the next, making an impressive sound for themselves in the process. It's scary territory and in a sense, it's the train wreck that didn't actually wreck.

Take a song like "The Evils of Rock n Roll." Over the course of six and half minutes, it goes from Sabbath to Budgie to the MC5 to Deep Purple to Sweet, not in a haphazard manner, but so smoothly that you'll miss it if you aren't paying attention. The whole album works this way. "Counting Sheep," the album's finalé, is Dark Side-era Pink Floyd and then before you know what happens, it's dabbling in the dark, heavy riffs of Black Sabbath only to finish up like an old vaudeville show. They borrow from several Pink Floyd eras actually, hitting up Syd Barrett on "No Parachute" and then borrowing the grand theatrics of the trial from The Wall on "Blackball." At other times, they help themselves to Aerosmith's early swing, Bowie's outrageous flamboyance and Queen's bombastic showmanship. In short, they aren't shy. In fact, other than a few of the bands they incorporate into their sound, almost no one has been able to go this far over the top and survive. Instead, they thrive on a sense of theatrics and an underlying soul that keeps Cheat the Gallows, with its ironic skepticism about fame and fortune, from being a regurgitation.

Nothing is entirely original. Nothing appears out of thin air. Everything has influences, but there is a popular misconception that if those influences are discernible, the band is not as original as if they're hidden deep under the covers. Bigelf proves that a band can wear its influences on its sleeve and be on its own trip nonetheless. Cheat the Gallows has liberal helpings of everything big and bombastic about rock n roll in its pot, but the stew it cooks up is fresh and new and downright exhilarating.

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

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For another take on the album, check out the Heavy Metal Time Machine

Review: They and the Children - Home

Label: Kill Normal Records

Released: July 1, 2008

There are angry bands and then there are really angry bands. They and the Children are the latter. Their latest offering, Home, cuts right to the chase, brimming over with outright rage from the very start. The intensity level is so high in fact that it's quite a shock that the whole thing doesn't devolve into an inarticulate mess. Perfectly good bands have cracked under less pressure. TATC, however, become more articulate even as the rage factor goes up.

It starts with mix of speed and drone and slowly, subtly layers add to the music's density. The next thing you know, you're simultaneous drowning in hardcore and swimming in psychedelia. By "Invisible," the album's fourth track, the mind-bending space rock is no surprise and, while it provides a breather from the breakneck pace, it by no means takes it easy. In fact, it has perhaps Home's most burning moments.

TATC have found some strange point where hardcore, drone and psychedelia meet and the
confluence of the three turns out to be something akin to rocket fuel. You might get burned along the way, but it's a healing fire.

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

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Review: Spitfire - Cult Fiction

Label: Goodfellow Records

Released: April 29, 2008

There are two kinds of anger: one based on love and one based on hate. I've always found myself more attracted to the former. New Model Army's fury on "I Love the World" has always seemed both fuller and deeper than something along the lines of the Circle Jerks' "World Up My Ass." With that in mind, one look at the cover of Cult Fiction made it clear that it was going to be angry, but what type of anger would it be?

Spitfire convey themselves via a dynamic mix of brutal, churning hardcore and disturbing psychedelic passages. The breaks in heaviness never let up on the album's intensity though. In fact, it is the ability to change the pace and feel and intertwine the the elements (often with guttural screams running through the trippiness) that makes Cult Fiction such an emotional ride. It is an album for a world at war, a war both within ourselves and with others, an epic struggle between good and evil. For all of its extremes, this one is all about love though. The love of one who would lay down his life for his neighbor. The love that's angry about the world gone awry. The love that will fight rather than submit to despair.

Back in 1968, Peter Scholtes wrote a song called "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love" that expresses an ideal that dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. I thought of it when I learned after the fact that Spitfire was a Christian band. So much of the complaint about hypocrisy within Christianity has to do with this ideal being forgotten by many. But Spitfire has not forgotten. Mind you, their love is not nice, it's angry, it's downright furious, but it is indeed love and, on this record, it seems boundless.

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

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Review: Otis Redding - Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (2008 Collector's Edition)

Label: Rhino

Released: April 22, 2008

Otis Blue is a widely accepted soul classic and for good reason. It finds Redding running through some great soul tunes, many made famous by others, yet it never makes you long for the other versions (even Aretha's version of "Respect"). He's just that powerful of a singer. "Satisfaction," one of rock's most overrated songs, even sounds good when Redding does it.

Rhino's new double CD collector's edition includes both the original mono and stereo mixes as well as alternate takes, b-sides and two live shows. Frankly, I'll never understand the appeal to re-issuing a CD with both the stereo and mono mixes. There wouldn't have been a mono release of these albums had the world not been in transition between the formats. Why do we need them re-issued? Otherwise, the bonus material ranges from interesting to awesome. The live cuts are particularly hot and make the re-issue as a whole a very nice package.

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

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Review: Portishead - Third

Label: Mercury

Released: April 29, 2008

Lots of people are complaining that Third doesn't sound like Portishead. These people are smoking crack. In fact, they're probably trying to smoke crack through their ears, which means the crack smoke is blocking out the music.

I don't get the complaints of the crack smokers. Third sounds like Portishead. It is filled with the gorgeous richness and depth that made Portishead famous. No, it's not a repeat of Dummy or Portishead, but it builds upon them. It's the next logical step in a wonderful progression of music.

Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley are exploring new sounds, and they're doing it in a way that stays true to the overarching sound of Portishead. There are beats on this album that are unlike anything the band has ever done before. Many of the arrangements possess the same understated complexity as great movie scores by Ennio Morricone or Bernard Herrmann (who composed for Alfred Hitchcock). "Deep Water" is simply Gibbons voice over a ukulele, yet it possesses all of the emotional vulnerability for which Portishead is known (and it even adds a hearty dash of hopefulness).

The only flaw I can find is that the compositions occasionally wander too close to the generic minor-key tension that has become a goth cliché. It's a flaw that musicians of this calibre should have recognized, but on an album this good, it's completely forgivable.

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

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Review: Social Distortion - Greatest Hits

Label: Time Bomb Recordings

Released: June 26, 2007

I'm not usually that big on greatest hits collections unless they're from a singles-only pop band where there is no real context on the regular albums anyway. Every now and then though, a collection can tell you something that the individual albums didn't. Such is the case with Social Distortion's Greatest Hits.

Mommy's Little Monster was one of the first punk records I bought and as such will always have a special place in my heart. While it is one of the best albums to come out of the early 80s Orange County punk scene, it is also limited by its young, snotty view of the world. However, when taken into consideration with the later material, the depth of songs like "Another State of Mind" and "It Wasn't a Pretty Picture" (sadly absent from this set) comes into greater focus. It also makes something else clear: Mike Ness is a bit of a punk rock Johnny Cash.

Sure, they cover "Ring of Fire," but that does little other than plant the seed for the comparison. A close look will show the parallels. "Another State of Mind" mirrors the pledge of fidelity despite adversity in "I Walk the Line." Pop culture today glorifies time in prison, yet Social Distortion's "Prison Bound," like Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," tells the other side, the real side, of the story. From early on, Ness had the "Man in Black" mentality. Even when immersed in his own dark side, his lyrics, while desolate, are critical of the world that had gone awry around him and yet they offer a vague hope. The last line of "Mommy's Little Monster" is "Don't take her life away," not "Now her life is over." Over the subsequent years, after Ness had kicked his nasty drug habit, that hope became less vague, striving for a better life in "Ball and Chain" and finding faith in "Bad Luck." That hope is extended to the hereafter in "When the Angels Sing" and a dimension of redemption and reconciliation brings this evolution to fruition on "I Was Wrong."

Like Johnny Cash, this evolution from hell raiser to hope to redemption has a religious quality and in the true spirit of the Man in Black, the joy found in the end is not a shiny, happy joy, but a deeper joy that co-exists with, perhaps even requires, sadness and desperation. It is in context of this Greatest Hits collection that I finally understand why Social Distortion resonated with me 25 years ago and why their music still resonates with me today. The collection may be a few tracks short of perfect, but the lesson isn't about being perfect, just better than the day before and the album certainly accomplishes that.

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

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Review: Strangers Die Every Day - Aperture for Departure

Label: This Generation Tapes

Released: March 4, 2008

There are two approaches to marrying rock and classical. The first takes the worst of both and dummies them down for the least common denominator. Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Metallica's S&M have more in common with those old Hooked on Classics albums from the early 80s than they do with either classical or rock. They merely try to superimpose one genre onto the other and call it a marriage, but the simple fact is, it's not. However, for those interested in taking a step outside the mainstream, the relationship between the genres did finally come to fruition...in Godspeed You! Black Emperor. But now, Strangers Die Every Day has succeeded in this as well.

It may seem that being the other band in the genre is a slap in the face, but considering how earth-shaking Godspeed and the related A Silver Mt Zion project are, being second is hardly a point against Strangers Die Every Day. They address the glaring weanesses of both rock and classical, rock's being its inability to break out of its own confines and be truly dynamic and classical's is that it usually feels like the notes are being read rather than experienced.

Aperture for Departure, on the other hand allows the rock to slip its bonds and explore a broader musical landscape. At the same time, it loosens classical up with an off-kilter rawness that typical classical performances miss. It derives its dark mood from the classical layer while getting its drive and its edge from the rock rhythms beneath. On each track, the band strives more for emotional range than technical perfection, recognizing that rock's beauty stems from being blemished not pristine. This allows the music to build into manic noise or restrain itself to quiet passages that have real meaning to the listener, the rock listener in particular.

Overall, Aperture for Departure is classical in a technical sense, but its heart is rock n roll. The band's willingness to be loose and noisy makes for a vulgar classical even when the rock parts aren't overt. It is not simply classical music played with rock instruments, but its own genre that recognizes the two can enhance each other. It finds a common ground between them that has an almost folk nature in its connection with its listeners. No, it's not quite Godspeed, but it's very, very close, making it not just one of the most ambitious albums I've heard in some time, but also one of the best. There was only one 30 second passage on the whole album that failed to completely captivate me. It's that good from start to finish.

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

Esther mp3
Bicycle mp3

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Review: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - 100 Days 100 Nights and Angie Stone - The Art of Love and War

Label: Daptone Records

Released: October 2, 2007


Label: Concord

Released: October 16, 2007

It would seem that the essential component of soul music (old school or new) would be the soul itself, yet that is often just what modern soul and R&B lack. Too often even a good R&B singer has a tough time overcoming assembly line songwriting and synthetic backing tracks. It is this old versus new soul difference that separates the new releases from Sharon Jones and Angie Stone.

Without question, both singers have great voices. In fact, Stone's is probably technically superior, but that is the only place that she manages to measure up to Jones on these albums. When you strip away that sheen, what's underneath, the soul, isn't even close.

Years ago, Sharon Jones was told that she was too dark-skinned, too short, too fat and once she passed 25, too old. Jones didn't get a break until she was 40 (singing backup on a Lee Fields record). In the meantime, she worked as a Wells Fargo armored car guard and a corrections officer at Rikers (!), but she kept singing. Angie Stone's break came much earlier, having a hit record as a member of The Sequence before her 20th birthday as well as at least middling success until taking off in the last decade. I can't help but wonder if the "business" hasn't robbed Stone of something that it in turn augmented in Jones through her struggles. While that may not explain why, these two albums leave little doubt that Sharon Jones just has more soul.

Sharon Jones' voice is everything that a good soul voice should be. It can be bold, soft, sultry, strong, defiant. She connects on a human level, because she sings with more than just her voice. After all these years, there's no going through the motions. She has hunger and confidence despite being ripped off. Her energy isn't angry though, just righteous. Her backing band, the Dap-Kings, whose horns helped light the fire on the otherwise soul-deprived Amy Winehouse's debut, is the kind of natural, organic band that has crossover appeal in the rock world. They have more in common with the Family Stone or even the Allman Brothers and Black Crowes than they do with modern R&B sounds. Rhythmically, they propel the music, giving Jones even more force. The horns are so natural that they work in the capacity of background vocals. They're just that rich. The intense interaction between Jones and the band is what makes the album so big and bold, so natural and alive. 100 Days, 100 Nights is essentially a 60s soul album, but it doesn't come off like a revival. The record is very much in the here and now despite its vintage approach.

There's no doubt that Angie Stone has the voice to make a great record, but The Art of Love and War is just formula R&B. The beats are measured and precise. The piano has all the emotion of light jazz. The background vocals are generic. The result is an album that sounds as if all the pieces were recorded in isolation and queued up to have Stone's vocals recorded on top like karaoke. There's none of the human interaction that makes Sharon Jones soar. Instead, it's just cold, synthetic music that robs Stone of any emotion she may have brought. Neither Stone nor the backing tracks have any touch, any feel, any swing. While this might be acceptable fare for an indiscriminate modern R&B fan, anyone looking for real soul, the kind that would crossover into other genres, will be sorely disappointed. This is a superficial soundscape and you don't have to poke very hard to find that it's paper-thin.

Whether it's their past or their present or some combination of the two, there's a world of difference between these two very talented singers on their latest albums. Quite simply, Sharon Jones has made an album that knows the true meaning of soul and Angie Stone has not.



Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

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Angie Stone
Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 2/10
Dylan: 4/10
Aretha: 4/10
Overall: 5/10

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