Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

Bang Zoom To The Moon
3 Out Of 5 Stars

By the time of "Love Bomb," tensions in The Tubes was at a boiling point. Fee Waybill was on the brink of launching his solo career, while the rest of the band wanted to get "Love Bomb" out there. For whatever reason, Capitol Records decided to put their muscle behind Fee's "Read My Lips" while "Love Bomb" slid under the radar. Even worse, Fee's album was a commercial dud. It turned into a lose-lose situation, effectively breaking up the band and Waybill with a solo stint that excited exactly no-one. Even worse, "Love Bomb" was easily as good as "Outside/Inside," the previous Tubes album.

The band had re-enlisted Todd Rundgren to produce again, as he also helmed one of the Tubes' most artistically satisfying albums, "Remote Control." As is typical with any Rundgren production, his hand weighs heavy on the proceedings here. But the Tubes had some great material up their collective sleeve, including the terrific first single "Piece By Piece." Todd even helped make an ahead of its time computerized video. But again, with no label support, it vanished with barely a trace. You can still find the vid on YouTube, and it's worth a look-see.

The real genius was to be found on what was originally the album's side two. A twenty minute collage of mini-tunes strung together as a medley, it should have been a critically acclaimed masterwork. It shows just how musically adept the Tubes in their prime truly were, even with the sideshow style of their burlesque concert act. Mixing found sound, narratives, and "Theme From A Summer Place" mashed up with "Wooly Bully" (keeping in mind that mash-ups weren't this commonplace as now) into another ahead of its time number (there weren't any other rock bands that I can recall at the time using samples), it holds "Love Bomb" up all by itself.

Still, Capitol bet on Waybill's solo career over this, and when you compare the two, it's frustrating. One one hand, you had the Tubes and Todd Rundgren working an arty album, and Fee recording with David Foster, most of Toto, and an up and coming songwriter named Richard Marx. Don't get me wrong, "Read My Lips" is as good as any 80's pop album from the period, but "Love Bomb" should have been salvaged from the scrap pile. Given a decent remaster from the folks at BGO Records but not adding any additional liner notes, this is a must for Tubes fans and probably Todd fans, too.

Quintessential
5 Out Of 5 Stars

I usually try not to give 5 star reviews to best of packages, but "Experience Hendrix" does everything right. Let us also face a dubious reality; Jimi Hendrix has been repackaged and reissued as much as, if not more than, The Doors, The Beatles or any other great artist to have ceased to be. How many versions of "Hey Joe" do you need, after all? However, with 20 songs from 5 albums, extensive liner notes, a lot of great pictures, "Experience Hendrix" beats any other single disc Hendrix anthology out there. It's also given a loving remaster, with the squeals of Hendrix guitars and the phase-crazy production in all its experimental glory.

All the songs you'd expect would be here ("Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and - even though I could go the rest of my life without hearing it again - the Woodstock version of "Star Spangled banner"), along with chocks of Hendrix incredible work. The delicate "Little Wing" always gets my juices going, "All Along The Watchtower" is one of those rare moments where an artist completely claims another writer's iconic work (Dylan) and the not as frequently heard songs from the uncompleted "First Rays of The New Rising Sun" show what Hendrix was imagining his future to be like. This is classic stuff, and issued in a classy set.




This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

That is likely because he's overshadowed by Scott Weiland and all his accompanying drama. But Scott is a strikingly versatile vocalist, capable of the grungely howl that put them on the map to the soulful croon he employs on "Creep" and the acoustic version of "Plush." He is also one of the 90's more oddball frontmen, as anyone who ever saw his Bowie/Glam phase around the time of "No 4" could tell you.

Mix all these together and "Thank You" cooks like a great singles comp should. Despite not being on chronological order (and maybe even to its benefit), these fifteen songs hold together as a great listen. You can slip this in the player and keep cruising without hitting skip once. "Interstate Love Song" (from "Purple," my favorite STP CD) alone makes this a great in-the-car discs, so if all you need from STP is the radio stuff, "Thank You" fills the tank.

Bring The Darkness Back
4 Out of 5 Stars

Well, someone must not have been happy with the Capitol/Interpol corporate merger. Just one album, the experimental "Our Love To Admire," and Interpol find themselves back with independent label Matador. This self titled album with the exploding gray Interpol logo with a black background sums the whole thing up; the music is dark and fractured. In short, a return to form.

This is both good and bad. While there is nothing here as mind blowing as "The Lighthouse" was on the previous album, Interpol's mixture of Joy Division/Psychedelic Furs malevolence and malaise pulses through the core of this album, with black growls like "Success" and the sad drone of "Always/The Man I Am" piercing through the murk. Alan Moulder did these mixes, which reflects his expertise in making bleakness sound alluring, with guitars sounding like they're blaring from the back of an auditorium and making things bass heavy. That approach works even better on the uptempo "Barricade," building the song to its final punch.

Overall, the knockouts are not as consistent as they were on "Our Love to Admire," but "Interpol" is more cohesive as an album. Interpol go back to basics on this album, and the payoff is worth the listen.

No Energy Crisis Here
4 Out of 5 Stars

I was a little concerned when I heard Gogol Bordello had made the leap to major labels (Colombia/American). Would the suits at CBS tamp down the energy of Eugene Hutz and his cross-cultural/generational band of music makers? Would Rick Rubin enhance these guys or suck them dry?

My fears were allayed as soon as "Pala Tute" kicked in. It's as ferocious and as fun/funny as anything the band has done to date. And as a reality check to the folks that have given "Transcontinental Hustle" tepid reviews, nobody, and I mean no-one, rocks an accordion and fiddle like Gogol Bordello. The buildup that climaxes "When Universes Collide" is new even for GB, showing that the band is still fine with taking risks. And both "Raise The Knowledge" and the title song continue to mine a fierce political streak.

In short, any band that claims to find their inspiration "in my headphones is Bob Marley and Joe Strummer" is going to have a hard time watering their sound down. "Transcontinental Hustle" is already one of  my favorite albums of the year, and I'm really happy that GB survived the transition with their soul intact.

Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
None.

Day 17. A song that you hear (too) often on the radio.

Meet Eddie Ramone
4 Out of 5 Stars

I guess getting Bush out of the White House has calmed Eddie Vedder down a little. "Backspacer" is an open and airy slice of rocking - dare I say it - fun from Pearl Jam, whose righteous rage has clouded many of their albums for the last ten years or so. This time, they take a cue from one of their influences by making a short (barely 35 minutes) album with tightly wound songs, the longest of which sprints to the four minute mark. Just call it "Rocket To Seattle."

The lead single, "The Fixer," sounds like "Wishlist" on speed-dial. Complete with an "Uh huh huh huh" intro and some super power chords, Eddie enunciates (!!) the manners in which he'd like to save a little love in his life. (Curiously, it is also one of the numbers Vedder didn't write.) Like much of their self-titled 2006 album, "The Fixer" and songs like "Got Some" and "Supersonic" are the sound of Pearl Jam openly embracing classic and classicist rock, with guitarist Stone Gossard banging out muscular riffs in almost gleeful abandon.Vedder has also broken into a sensitive place. With songs like "Just Breathe," which sounds like a leftover from his soundtrack for "Into The Wild," he and the band touch a nerve that their younger selves would have only been able to stab a claw hammer into. It's their best ballad to date.

Their age is kind of showing on "Backspacer." "Ten" has reached its 20th anniversary, and "Backspacer" reunites the band with producer Brendan O'Brien to excellent results. The difference is that all parties are now OK with just being a terrific rock band without forcing embellishments or drawing out the proceedings. The band still treats Rock as the means to deliver a message (as "Got Some" and "Unknown Thought" still show); just now the message is delivered with a firm handshake instead of the shaken fist.

Because Baseball is Starting...
5 Out  Of 5 Stars

Probably one of the 80's most unexpected comebacks was this album. John Fogerty dropped "Centerfield" in early 1985, the same year Bruce Springsteen was dominating the world with Born in the U.S.A.. Prior to this, Fogerty's post CCR albums had not been wildly received, with his The Blue Ridge Rangers being released under a pseudonym and the second slipping through the cracks...followed by a nine year silence.

All that changed the moment the crackling riff from "The Old Man Down The Road" roared from MTV. Sounding more alive and energized than either of the solo LP's would have suggested was coming, it swamp-rocked it's way to the Top Ten, and driving "Centerfield" to number one. There was a lot of nostalgia here, as "Old Man" sounded so much like "Running Through The Jungle" that Fogerty's arch-nemesis at the time, Saul Zaentz, sued him for self-plagerization (Fogerty won). "Big Train From Memphis" memorialized Elvis, and the title track became appropriated by baseball teams nationwide. Fogerty was fired up, eager to prove his place in the rock pantheon, and filled with righteous indignation over his betrayal by Fantasy and his former bandmates.

It made "Centerfield" feel good and effortless, a triumphant return of one of Rock and Roll's good guys. But under closer scrutiny (and kind of like Springsteen's juggernaut), there is a dark streak to "Centerfield." "I Saw It On TV" took a direct shot at Richard Nixon, a broad swipe at Ronald Reagan and a not-so-optimistic glance at the way that the sixties seemed to be drifting into hazy nostalgia rather than a warning beacon we shouldn't let fade.

The old man rocks among his dreams, a prisoner of the porch;
'The light,' he says 'at the end of the tunnel,
Was nothin' but a burglar's torch.
And them that was caught in the cover are all rich and free,
But they chained my mind to an endless tomb
When they took my only son from me.'

Even meaner in spirit (and therefore, cooler) were the two potshots at Zaentz, for whom Fogerty all but spits upon in "Mr Greed" and "Vanz Can't Dance" (originally "Zanz" before a threatened lawsuit prompted a revision). That meanness turned to spite by the time Eye of the Zombie came out (and Fogerty went into another almost decade long hibernation), but when placed next to such good-timey fare like "Rock and Roll Girls" and the sheer rock joy of "Searchlight," the personal zingers were understandable. After all, Fantasy HAD screwed him over, and this was Fogerty's chance to vent. It wasn't until the 90's that he played a CCR song in public again, bitterly refusing to allow Zaentz a peeny of royalties. Having great new music made it all the more entertaining, as Fogerty hit the road with this album.

"Centerfield" remains Fogerty's best solo album and a highlight of the mid-eighties. He has also since come to terms with his past, and the terrific Revival is easily his best CD since this one.

Back to Philadelphia,
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Todd Rundgren went back to his hometown and went for the sound of Philadelphia on "Nearly Human." There's a delightful abundance of Philly White Guy Soul spread across this poppy return to form, as he decided to eschew the gimmicks and just have his band record the album live in the studio. This resulted in two of his best late 80's songs, "The Want of a Nail" with Bobby Womack and the ballad of despairing "Parallel Lines."


His sense of fun is also back, as his spry cover of Elvis Costello's "Two Little Hitlers" indicates. The Tubes join him for a rocking number called "Feel It" (both Prairie Prince and the late Vince Welnick eventually joined Todd in a few of his touring bands). And finally, there's the stunning "Hawking." Todd sings his heart out on one of his most soulful ballads. As usual, "Nearly Human" shares many of the delights of knowing you're not always going to get a standardized album when Rundgren decides to let one out. This remains one of his better 80's albums.