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

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Paul McCartney's Good Evening New York City is coming November 17th

Considering that McCartney has done some of his best post-Beatles work over the last decade and a half, this new CD/DVD release is intriguing to say the least.

Check it out:

Get a free video and mp3:

Review: Creedence Clearwater Revival-The Singles Collection

Label: Concord Music

Released: November 3, 2009

Of the 30 tracks that make up the two CDs of CCR's The Singles Collection, over half are songs we all know like the back of our hands. However, unlike a traditional greatest hits collection, this one includes all the b-sides as well. Sure, some had two sides that were popular enough to be more like a double a-side single, but there are still plenty of lesser know gems here.

The liner notes, a crucial part of any anthology release, have some interesting material, but the more narrative style puts readability over information. The best part of the package though, music aside, is the poster showing all the single covers. It's not anything that hasn't been done before, but it's always great to see the original covers. The four videos on the DVD are a nice bonus as well.

In addition to the double CD, Concord Music is releasing a 7" set that includes all 15 singles with the original artwork in a deluxe box. If that doesn't sound like a winner, I don't know what does.

You can check out the whole thing at AOL Music.

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



If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

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: 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: Flying Machines

Label: Meteor 17

Released: September 22, 2009

Flying Machines recently won Converse's "Get Out of the Garage" nationwide battle of the bands contest. Their music has been featured on TV's Psych. They're a band on the way up. So, what's the hype? Well, their guitar driven pop rock (a la the Killers) fits in nicely with the current mood of the mass consumer music market. The well-crafted songs have solid hooks, yet don't get overwhelmed by their own catchiness. Sound good? Well, don't jump in too soon.

They churn out some solid arena rock on "Talk About It" and driving guitar pop on "I Can't Stop." Hints of ELO-slick Beatlemania haunt "On a Whim," while "I Don't Remember Why" is piano-less Elton John in its best moments (and Phil Collins-ish in its worst). When Flying Machines works Queen into the mix, it seems like things are taking a turn for the better...until it becomes clear that their Queen lacks the flamboyance and intense creativity of the original. "Gina Don't Call Me" does take off in places, boding well for there being a better band lurking under these thinly veiled stabs at commercial success, but their heads quickly wrest control of the album back from their hearts. The Queen-meets-power-pop finish on "Hopelessly Alone" and "Clearing the Boards" is almost catchy enough for willful suspension of disbelief to finally kick in, but it's too little, too late. Every song is technically very good, but poking holes in their paper-thin veneer isn't all that difficult.

Flying Machines' first offering dots all of its i's and crosses all of its t's. Every box on the checklist is checked off. What they don't realize though is that the things that make a great rock record aren't on any checklist and it's those things that are missing. Identity, intensity, soul. There's no formula for that and, thus far, Flying Machines hasn't found it on their own. They're okay as a short term fix, but, like their older peers, they won't take long to wear thin.

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

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Review: The Treat - Audio Verité/Deceptive Blends

Label: Rockular Recordings, Ltd.

Released: June 15, 2009

One of the best things about the Treat's last album, 2007's Phonography, was its ability to really move around through rock's past. It was the movement from influence to influence that gave the album a lot of its life and that's why their new approach is a little bit disappointing. The double CD Audio Verité/Deceptive Blends is organized more like a double LP with four sides, each with its own direction, and that makes the whole affair more of a sterile exercise than a celebration. While it's a significant hit to the album's overall energy, there are still some good fine songs here even if not displayed as well as in the past.

The first "side," Side Rock, takes a straightforward approach, dealing mostly in 70s hard rock (with the exception of the rather pop-oriented "On the Waterfront"). I could have done without the opener's bow to AC/DC, but things kick into gear with the bombastic "Showtime." Whether tapping blues rock or glam or something in between, the Treat show clearly that they can rock in a way that brings the past alive.

Side Acoustic is broader than the name suggests, dabbling in acoustic psychedelia as much as folk or blues. Syd Barrett and Led Zeppelin make their mark on the side's best cuts, which far outshine the weak, meandering "Sweet Jasmine."

On Side Electric, they take another stab at hard rock with the heavier "Massive Attack" and the edgier, bluesier "Anger Management." With the exception of the psyche trippiness of "Silent Voices," this is ground largely covered by Side Rock, only amped up a bit.

Side Experiment is a bit of a misnomer as experiemntation isn't really what the Treat is about. These "experiments" are more about reliving the experimental music of the late 60s rather than reliving its experimental spirit. Still, there are some fine detours into psyche, funk and early prog even if nothing really goes out on a limb.

The Treat essentially attack their music in detail on Audio Verité/Deceptive Blends and that does a better job of illustrating their skill than it does of making a great album. Even if they prove their point on all four counts, which is questionable at times, my head understands it better than my heart...and that is the album's principle flaw.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 5/10
Overall: 6/10

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Review: Pictures of Then - Pictures of Then and the Wicked Sea

Label: self-released

Released: August 4, 2009

If Jeff Lynne was more quirky than slick, he may have found himself in the neighborhood of Pictures of Then and the Wicked Sea. From the start, the band makes it clear that they have both bombastic, big guitars as well as carefully crafted hooks up their sleeve, yet they manage to be grounded at the same time. They can be as easily driven by huge chords or swaggering riffs as they can be by acoustic intimacy or 70s countrified pop. Like Lynne, they borrow heavily from the Beatles' sound, but not as much from that band's creative adventurousness. While they do operate in a safer zone, it doesn't make them dull, because they give their influences a unique voice. Throughout, there's enough hint of indie cleverness to bind it all together, no matter which path a song takes, ultimately finding the happy ground between wild and careful and drawing on the best of both worlds.

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

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MP3: John Mellencamp - "If I Die Sudden"

John Mellencamp will release Life Death Live and Freedom, the eight song live companion to last year's Life Death Love and Freedom. Get a sneak preview mp3 until the album is released on June 23rd.

"If I Die Sudden" MP3

Review: Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Label: Hear Music

Released: June 9, 2009

Elvis Costello has had quite a long and varied career to say the least, making albums bordering on punk on one hand and working with the likes of Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint at others. The genres he's avoided, like metal or hip-hop, are surely more by choice than inability. There's no question that as both a performer and a songwriter, he has few peers in terms of the breadth and quality of his work. That's not to say he's all things to all people, but that, as particularly evidenced on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, he's Elvis Costello to whatever audience he chooses.

This time around, Costello takes on a particularly rootsy, unabashedly American form, dabbling in folk, country and bluegrass throughout. What he displays here, as he has so often in the past, is that he really doesn't play in each of the genres he engages so much as he adapts those genres to work with his distinct songwriting.

This works particularly well here for two reasons. First, Costello can write some great songs. There have been plenty of points in his career where the songs weren't up to the standard he had set, but they certainly are here. This is the strongest set of songs I've heard from him in some time and many could just as easily have been performed in a style he explored on another of his albums. They just work fundamentally, maintaining that which makes them distinctly his work.

Second, he understands the subtleties of the style in which he's working. These aren't just pop songs with some sting band instrumentation and a twang in his voice. The arrangements are careful to both evoke country music's vivid history and retain Costello's unique qualities. In addition to that, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane demonstrates an understanding that goes deeper than the music itself. It walks country's fine lines between the secular and religious and the happy and the sad.

The album succeeds largely because it isn't a superficial carbon copy, but a continuation of a long tradition. Elvis Costello hasn't inserted old-time country into his repertoire, but rather inserted himself into country's rich history.

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

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Bob Dylan - Together Through Life

Label: Columbia Records

Released: April 28, 2009

When Bob Dylan released Love and Theft back in 2001, it seemed that he had more good music left in him than anyone expected. Five years later, Modern Times said otherwise (though many surely disagree). It was tired and old and adult. Now, in 2009, Dylan offers up yet another late career album that will perhaps give a clue as to which of the previous two albums reflects his true state.

One thing that's been interesting about Dylan is that his voice, far from technically pristine, has always been, in a sense, an act of rebellion in and of itself. Even as it's changed a bit over time, it has always been something that makes his music happen on his terms. At times on Together Through Life though, Dylan's voice loses its personality and devolves into kind of a Tom Waits shtick. That's a shame, because Waits as a performer is almost pure novelty. This isn't the nod of master to student, but more the master caving in to a caricature of himself.

Still, Together Through Life is a loose, old-timey album. It doesn't quite have the urgency or poetry that marks his best work, but there is a certain spontaneity that refreshes the album whenever it's on the verge of really dragging. What really made this album interesting though was David Hidalgo's presence on accordion. It seems odd that a background instrument used sparingly would have such an impact on a record, but it's perfect in the arrangement and Hidalgo's playing is incredibly emotive, supporting the songs where Dylan fails to do so. It would be noticeable even on a great album, but really stands out on something more middling like Together Through Life.

This latest offering from Dylan falls somewhere in the middle of his catalog quality-wise. There were times when it reminded me of his mid-80s output (Empire Burlesque rang in my ears at times) and that's good stuff, just not on par with his prime (or with Love and Theft for that matter). Unfortunately, falling right smack in the middle, it gives little indication whether Love and Theft or Modern Times was the anomaly.

The vinyl release is particularly nice. Despite being a standard length album at around 45 minutes, it's issued on two slabs of 180 gram vinyl in heavy stock inner sleeves. The artwork isn't quite amazing, but well worth seeing in the larger format. For convenience, a copy of the CD is thrown in as well.

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

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: U2 - J Adams Where Are You Now?

Label: PR (or that's what it looks like on the back)

Released: unknown

I picked this bootleg EP up on ebay and thought, "Who is J Adams? I wonder if it's the skater? Nah..." When the record came, I found the following dedication:

Dedicated to: Tony Alva, Shogo Kugo, Jimmy Plummer, Jim Muir & the "Z" boys."

So, what do these pioneers of vertical skateboarding have to do with U2? Beats me, but that makes it even cooler. It's an odd little rarity with a mystery to boot.

The skater connection isn't the only thing that's unique about this little 7". It contains the only public performance of "Womanfish," a song U2 was considering for Joshua Tree that never made it onto a studio record. This, along with "I Trip Thru Your Wires" (as it's titled on the back of the record) makes up the b-side that was recorded January 30, 1986 for the Ga-Ga television show in Ireland. The sound quality is decent, but the live energy is interrupted by bits of the show that sneak into the recording.

The a-side was recorded March 11, 1987 in Dublin and contains strong performance of "Exit" and "In God's Country." The sound quality is nothing to write home about, but is easily listenable and doesn't polish any of the liveness out of either song.

I doubt that J Adams Where Are You Now? is a top-notch U2 collectible. It's too short and the quality is mediocre by the standards of bootleg aficionados. However, it does contain a track not available on any commercial release and an interesting connection to skateboarding that I've yet to discover.

If you're curious about "Womanfish," you can hear it at the U2 Sound Library.

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: Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream

Label: Columbia

Released: January 27, 2009

"The Wrestler" is the bonus track on Springsteen's latest album, Working on a Dream. It's a honest tale set to poignant music. It connects in the way we expect Springsteen to connect. However, it is appropriately labeled as bonus material, because it really doesn't fit the rest of the album.

The strings on the opener, "Outlaw Pete," are a bit much. "Mr Lucky Day" is a good mainstream rocker, but lacks any real humanity. Springsteen finally connects on "Queen of the Supermarket," even getting away with some corny lyrical ideas that only he could pull off, but as the song builds, it too becomes more a caricature of Springsteen than the real deal. And it couldn't get much worse than "Kingdom of Days" which would sadly need little reworking for Muzak.

All isn't lost though. The rootsy "Good Eye" features better, subtler playing than is typically found on a Springsteen record. The Boss' take on Johnny Cash in the verses of "Life Itself" serve him well. At first, "Surprise, Surprise" seems like light pop, but it feels good and true. Juxtaposing it with "The Last Carnival," a darker, lower-key closer that mixes folk and a heavenly backup chorus, strengthens both songs and ends on a note more along the lines of the best that can be expected from the last 20 years of Springsteen's career.

Comparing Working on a Dream to anything in Springsteen's prime is just unfair. However, just over a year ago, he managed to dig down and churn out a decent album that didn't come across as a comfortable old man trying to relive what he found on Nebraska. There are enough good songs here to indicate that his well isn't dry, it's just no longer as deep as it once was and an album every year and a half might just be too much at this stage.

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

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

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

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Rod Stewart - The Definitive Rod Stewart

Label: Warner Brothers

Released: November 18, 2008

Rod Stewart may have the perfect rock voice. It's raw and honest and warm and he expresses emotion with ease. Its rough edges are its primary strength. The first handful of tracks on this collection, rock songs tied tightly to their folk, boogie and blues roots, are ideal vehicles for Stewart's perfect imperfection. The heartfelt "Maggie May," the earthy "Mandolin Wind," the rollicking "Stay With Me" all draw the best out of Stewart and he in turn elevates them in a way that few if any singers could.

The trouble is that as Stewart cleans up his sound and adapts to the changing world of pop music, he tempers his strength. Sure, it doesn't all go south with the disco stylings in "The Killing of Georgie," but he has started down the slippery slope. Stewart still brings his best on "You're in My Heart" and makes it easy to forget that without him, "The First Cut is the Deepest" would be an average rock song at best. Even "I Was Only Joking" has its moments. But by "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," Stewart had clearly crossed the line. Stewart is a great rock singer, but he wasn't able to re-invent himself to turn down each new pop avenue.

To be fair, Stewart doesn't kill his later material so much as it kills him. The synth pop of "Tonight I'm Yours" is the polar opposite of everything Stewart had done right earlier in his career. Even a rocker like "Infatuation" is so inundated with bad 80s production that it sucks out anything Stewart brings. Where the late 60s and early 70s were the perfect time for Rod Stewart, the 80s were anything but. "The Motown Song" has some charm and "Reason to Believe" from Unplugged is at least somewhat of a reminder of Rod Stewart the rock singer rather than Rod Stewart the pop star. The previously unreleased "Two Shades of Blue" sat in on the shelf for ten years and frankly, it could have stayed there. Nice try with the classical stuff, but Rod needed more rock, not more phony sophistication.

Also included in this set is a DVD of Stewart's music videos. It's not a bad bonus, but it'd still be a better idea to skip this and just buy the early albums individually. Videos are never a good substitute for better music and his early album tracks hold up better now than does his mid to late period output.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 6/10
Overall: 5/10

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

DVD: The Who - Kilburn 1977

Label: Image Entertainment

Released: November 18, 2008

I've always known that the Beatles are rock's greatest band. There's no denying it. But I do have to wonder why I question that every time I listen to the Who. I think it's because the Beatles made rock music what it is, but the Who actually embodied it like no one else. (The Clash is probably the only band that I think of in the same way). The two shows on this DVD are a lot like hearing that stutter in "My Generation" or the huge guitar of "Baba O'Reilly" for the first time. It's just great rock n roll in its purest, most deliberate form.

By the time of the Kilburn show, the Who had an incredible catalog with which to build a great show. By the time they've amassed this kind of material, most bands have been at it too long and lost too much of their hunger to deliver on their own greatness, but nothing could be further from the truth about the Who. They come off a year-long hiatus and yet, other than the recording quality, they sound like they'd spent that year pounding out these songs in a garage, not relaxing on the fruits of their labors. "My Generation" gets reworked, but everything here feels as fresh and new just on the electricity alone. Interestingly enough, this came the same year punk exploded and I can't help thinking that punk may not have been necessary had other bands been playing it like the Who, with wild, reckless abandon and the heart of kids. I know, that's two bold statements in one review, but I don't make them lightly.

You'll watch the Kilburn show and think, "Man, this is one of rock's greatest bands at the peak of their power!" Then, throw in disc two and wonder, "How could they have been at their peak in 1969 also?" The answer is simple though. The Who never lost their sense of what their music was about and who it was for. They just stayed that good. Neither the video nor the audio for the earlier show is as good as it was eight years later for the Kilburn show, but somehow it gives an even better sense of how loud the world's loudest band was. You could turn the volume down to a whisper and there's still a very tangible sense that it's just LOUD.

Who is rock's greatest band? It might be almost unfair to answer right after watching this one.

Rating: 10/10 (only because I can't give it 11!)

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Review: Amadan - Pacifica

Label: Afan Music

Released: December 9, 2008

Amadan incorporate bits of the Clash, Billy Bragg, John Fogerty and the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, but what I suspect they're really going for is the Pogues mix of traditional Irish folk and biting punk rock swagger. They don't nail the latter, but their success in other areas makes them a worthwhile listen.

There's no doubt that Amadan is a rock band, not a folk band. Their boisterous guitars and barroom swagger make that quite clear. At their core, there is straightforward rock n roll as it's always been played in garages around the world. What they attempt is to incorporate elements of the Irish tradition into their tunes. It's been done successfully before by the likes of Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys as well as the kings of the subgenre, the Pogues. However, these bands all create a chemical reaction between their two influences, making a single inseparable sound. Amadan, on the other hand, seems to simply try to interject a tin whistle here and a folk passage there and not only is it not seamless, but it is also very flat. Where the other bands use traditional elements to really take off, Amadan instead is clean and measured and safe...and dull.

That aside though, Pacifica has some fine tunes and the performance is rough and gritty and in many ways all that it should be. Luckily, the Irish bits come and go quick enough that the rest of the album can still be enjoyed.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 4/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

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Review: Trio of Doom

Label: Legacy Recordings

Released: September 30, 2008

The term "supergroup" may be popular music's greatest misnomer. Sure, supergroups are typically made up of musicians who have done some super things, but more often than not, the meeting of their superness is just not all that, well, super. So, as legendary as the meeting of Jaco Pastorius, John McLaughlin and Tony Williams may have become over the years, there's always room for skepticism.

Trio of Doom, as Pastorius called the two-time meeting of these three great musicians, is not the typical supergroup though. They formed to play a live set at the 1979 Havana Jam festival in Cuba, so it wasn't a commercial endeavor. However, they brought such great stuff to that stage that they reconvened in New York a week later and put the songs down in the studio. For whatever reason, those tapes (both from the live ad studio sets) sat around until Trio of Doom was released on CD last year. Now, they arrive in the format they were intended for in 1979.

The songs here may not be among any of the artists' top work (though likely not too far off either), but the performance is what makes this greater than the songs themselves. Pastorius brings the fierce intensity that made him such a dominant force on an instrument often kept in the background. McLaughlin's otherworldly playing is as good as perhaps it ever was. But, it is Williams' drumming that forms the common ground between these two planes and a lesser talent would let the whole set fall to pieces. The studio tracks are no more refined, expressing fusion in its truest sense with all the power and agility of a rock power trio.

So often, supergroups lose focus and power in the virtuosity of their component players, making music that limps and struggles and ultimately fizzles. Trio of Doom, on the other hand, burned brightly, intensely and quickly for a few weeks in 1979. Years later, we finally know what a supergroup really should be.

Last year, music fans received a gift that had been withheld from them for nearly 30 years with the release of Trio of Doom on CD. This year, Legacy Recordings makes that gift even sweeter with this beautiful 180 gram vinyl issue.

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

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Review: Various Artists - A Blackheart Christmas

Label: Blackheart Records

Released: November 18, 2008

Every year at Christmastime we're treated (or subjected) to another collection of rock artists' takes on our favorite holiday songs. These albums tend to be a mixed bag made up of songs that will appeal to fans of the particular artists at least as novelties and others that are real bombs. The best case scenario might even include one or two renditions that are truly special.

A Blackheart Christmas does not have any real misses, but most of the tracks don't really transcend happy novelties for fans of the bands appearing. The Vacancies take on "Father Christmas," perhaps the best rock Christmas tune ever, is a fine listen, but doesn't go anywhere special. The drunken swagger of the Cute Lepers' "Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You" is a fun option for a non-traditional holiday. The rough edges on Thommy Price and Nefertiti Jones' "Winter Wonderland" give it punk appeal without losing its "happy holiday" sentiment.

Unlike most holiday comps though, A Blackheart Christmas has a pair of really special tracks that, in a (less-than-perfect) perfect world, might become Christmas classics. The Dollyrots give "Santa Baby" a snotty punk treatment, in lieu of its traditional sexy swing, as if it was meant to be about a down-and-out misfit rather than a well-to-do diva. Better still, Girl in a Coma turn "I'll Be Home for Christmas" into something dark and foreboding rather than hopeful. These are the Christmas carols for the "other half" in a sense.

Will this album replace Bing's "Little Drummer Boy" or Nat's "O Holy Night?" Probably not, but there's always room for a few more Christmas classics, especially when the might reach out to listeners whose world may not be so idyllic.

Rating: 7/10

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.