Yippee!!

Hey everybody! Halloween is just around the corner. This time of year brings to mind one thing and one thing only. PUMPKINS! Nobody cares about pumpkins any other time of the year. I mean, what’s up with that? They are like orange and junk, you can totally cut out awesome faces from them, and cook up the seeds for a flavorless treat! Who can ask for more? So this year, carve out a space for a boom box in your pumpkin, pop in one of these CD’s and you’ll have a singing pumpkin! Won’t that be cool??

Wes Cunningham – Everyone Wins – ***1/2 – Great to hear from Wes Cunningham again. This album continues the great sounds found on his previous two releases. While it doesn’t have the full production value of those, the songs are still great, and interesting, and cool!

Reigning Sound – Love and Curses – ***1/2 – Can’t go wrong with Reigning Sound. A nice collection of songs. Not quite as relentlessly energetic as the last one was, which adds a bit more depth, pulls you in a bit more. Keep it up!

Between The Trees – Spain – *** – A nice set of emo-tinged indie rock tunes. But doesn’t go too far off into that emo direction, revealing just solid, smart, rock that is very interesting.

Collective Soul – Rabbit – ** – Well, they do one thing well, and that is making over-produced driving rock. However, they have been doing that exact same thing over the last 4 or so albums. I just don’t see the growth I like in artists.

Muse – The Resistance – *** – It’s gonna be hard for any band to top Muse’s last album, it was just so great, am I right? So, of course this new album by Muse falls a bit short. But standing alone, and not comparing directly to that album, this is a solid record that has a good sound. It ends with a 20 minute symphony, which is quite good and could be a movie score easily. Muse has always had that cinematic mentality, and this symphony just brings it to the top.

Rock To It!

Hey everybody! I am just cooking with these reviews lately! It’s insane! or is it just inane? I guess we’ll never know for sure! But one fact remains, and that is that if music be the food of love, then play on! Because love is VERY hungry right now, and it needs to gorge on a huge heaping platter of music, deep fried in a harmonic batter, drizzled with melody, double-dipped in a chorus of voices, served hot and fresh. Dig in!

Among The Oak & Ash – Among The Oak & Ash – ***1/2 – An album of folk songs sung by Garrison Starr and Glen Phillips, two of my favorite vocalists. And they add a certain energy to these songs, so it’s not your standard folk sound, but stays very respectful to the originals and makes it very engaging and interesting.

The Duckworth Lewis Method – The Duckworth Lewis Method – ***1/2 – A cool collection of songs from Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) all about Cricket. But don’t let that stop you, these are just fun, cool songs. Some are old-timey, some very poppy, all great and melodic, check it out!

David Bazan – Curse Your Branches – *** – David Bazan does a great job of combining his unique vision of music, with his introspective lyrics. And it’s something you don’t get out of a lot of artists. This, his first “solo” release, seems to be even more open than Pedro the Lion stuff, though that’s only a half-step for Bazan, never shy from speaking his mind.

Brendan Benson – My Old, Familiar Friend – **** – I love Brendan Benson. There, I said it. Got a problem? OK, good then. Now that we understand each other, I love this album. After that short detour with the Raconteurs, it’s nice to hear Benson back with all the power-pop bells and whistles still on. Fun, engaging, and delicious!

Cheap Star – Speaking Like An Elephant – ***1/2 – Great power pop ala Big Star, Posies, etc. Great stuff! Stands tall among their influences to make a nice collection of songs. I can only see them getting better.

Wasting Time

Well, if you haven’t been able to tell from my previous blogs, I sure like wasting time. However, I consider all my time well used. I’m not sure what it’s all for, but I always try to do things I want to do whenever I can. I get the most stressed out when I am expected to spend time doing something I don’t really do. I try to subvert it if possible, which of course leads me to listen to music while working, have some process running on my computer, I always have something in the back of my mind that needs doing. Maybe I’m crazy, but that’s just the way it is. And that wraps up the non-specific generalization hour, come back next time for more! Review it!

The Dead Weather – Horehound – *** – I can’t say this album was the most enjoyable thing I’ve heard in a while, but it does have some good moments. It’s dark, but it has pretty good energy and some interesting hooks and lyrics.

Fooling April – Three – ***1/2 – Fantastic piano-pop/rock from this group. They excel the most when they are being confessional and sort of letting their freak-flag fly. But they bury that stuff after some fairly standard (but good) pop/rock anthems.

Chris Richards + The Subtractions – Sad Sounds of The Summer – **** – This is a very strong release for this year. They have a template of some power-pop, similar to Velvet Crush, a dash of alt.country, and some very strong hooks, especially in the first few tracks.

Kevin McAdams – It’s My Time To Lose My Mind – *** – Very good release from this guy, the drummer from Elefant. It blends a nice pop sensibility with a bit of electronic elements thrown in. While the key to this album is the interesting and catchy songs, the electronic soundscape adds a nice dimension beneath it all.

The Friday Night Boys – Off The Deep End – *** – Fairly standard pop-punk sound, which isn’t really a bad thing, it’s fun to listen to and is certainly entertaining and dancable. A tad over-produced, with some auto-tune fairly prevalant, but overall pretty fun record.

Fun Time Go!

Hey pals, what’s going on? So I think we all said some things last time that we regret. I’m sure there are things we’d like to take back. But you know what? It’s over, it happened. There’s no going back. All we can do is keep going and try to get past it. I mean, I guess if there would have to be a “winner” in this situation, I think it’s pretty clear who that is. So I mean, I guess an apology from your side, wouldn’t be disregarded. No, I mean, like, it doesn’t matter, but I mean, right is right, right? So I guess, just do the right thing. I mean, it doesn’t matter, though. Wait… OK, listen, just read these reviews, we’ll talk more next time. Thanks.

Kyle Vincent – Where You Are – *** – If you like powerful, slow-churned power pop, it doesn’t get much better than Kyle Vincent. This new album is no exception. Its spare production, focused on the piano and voice, make it a beautiful record to just take in. And the songs are great!

Young Fresh Fellows – I Think This Is – ***1/2 – It isn’t often that a band that has been working for almost 30 years can still sound so fresh and young. It’s perhaps a curse of the name that they must always stay this way, but I’m not complaining. They can still bring it, they revel in weird off-beat concepts and just fun-filled music. Keep it up fellows!

Discovery – LP – *** – An interesting project. This type of electronic dance music has never really been my cup of tea. But having the guy from Vampire Weekend interested me. While the album doesn’t have the great hooks I always look for, it does differentiate itself from other similar music.

John Brodeur – Get Through – *** – Great to hear from Brodeur again, his albums seem to be few and far between, but when they come out, they are really good. Lots of interesting lyrics, cool melodies, and overall a good time.

Dan Bryk – Pop Psychology – ***1/2 – Dan Bryk is a great, unique artist, who plays great poppy music, with smart, funny lyrics, that talk about his own life, things he’s thinking about, his own hang-ups and such, but in a way that is relatable to all.