| Listen for Shane (home) past editions here Recently Worthy: Beulah Yoko Saw these guys on Oct 21st, and they were coolaroo, so many good songs. Moody and pretty and kinda cocky about it (like me). 3 of the 5 members spent the time in between the horny pop “The Coast is Never Clear” and “Yoko” (album #4 in a stiff-free career so far) getting divorced so it’s coming from a ‘Surf’s Up’ space and I love it. Raveonettes Chain Gang of Love This album is a total rip off of early feedbacking Jesus & Mary Chain and I like it a lot. A guy and a chick and Danish and sexy. And the songs don’t suck at all. Jet Get Born Sounds like AC/DC/Oasis or just another perfect nite at some dive bar in a place I’ve never been. Sorta like great rock and roll in a Hawaiian shirt though, I dunno I haven’t drunk to it yet and I suspect I should to appreciate it fully. Big Star Big Star Story http://www.rykodisc.com/Catalog/CatalogArtist_01.asp?Action=Get&Artist_ID=21 This is pretty cool – a little all over the place with rehearsal takes and unmarked alternate versions and it suffers slightly from weird sequencing (‘Holocaust’ should be further down the track list), but it’s a good slice of life from a band whose legend status lives on thanks to That 70’s Show and fawning record geeks worldwide. Strokes Room on Fire This one is so much better than the first one and the first one was nice. It’s more Cars than New York with synths and fuzzy guitars and distorted vocals – in a word the new album is more diverse and still catchy and without the sameness of Is This It? The dinky drums (the thing I like least about them) are less robotic in the style changes from little strokes of reggae to swooshing art rock. Book of Next Month Club: Chuck Palahniuk Diary Can’t bring myself to read this one yet for fear it might tilt back my temporary stalemate with baseball induced depression. The blood-red socks will not wash out. (The Bard would have loved baseball, can’t you just hear it: “Benvolio steps in, he’s 1 for 3, credited with a hit on that suicide squeeze in the 3rd, picked off when shortstop Tybalt executed the hidden ball trick .. seems like a fortnight ago the way this one’s shaping up…”?) Much more bearable than Tim McCarver describing the ‘elegant gait’ of Mariano Rivera as he comes out to stick a dagger in us. A curse on both your houses. Red Sox…Crucifixion isn’t the word, but it comes to mind. Pour a beer on the curb for: Elliott Smith wrote sad stuff from the dark corner of the room. Look at photos of him – he always looked uncomfortable to be in the seeming piercing daylight. Maybe that’s why he wore that white suit to the Academy Awards, his chance at illumination. The 1st I heard of him was when we missed him opening up for a very drunk Mary Lou Lord about 7 or 8 years ago at the now-defunct X-Rays in Toronto. She kept slurring on about how great he was so I checked out his first album and loved it. He wrote the prettiest chord changes, songs that were sad and warm, like a hangover smile before the caffeine hits you. Missed Misery. STQ |