Tagged: cdreview

I'm pretty sure Julie Lee is a liar. The Nashville singer-songwriter claims her album, Julie Lee & The Baby-Daddies, won't be released until March 6th, but this gorgeous, classic folk song cycle sounds like it was recorded decades ago. Julie's band includes Lucinda Williams' guitarist, Kenny Vaughan, and Del McCoury Band member Mike Bub. Both [...]

Miss Guy - established DJ and front-man for the recently reunited glam-punk band Toilet Boys – just released his first solo disc, "Dumb Blonde". Miss Guy has been a fixture in the downtown NYC rock scene for over fifteen years, co-written songs with Deborah Harry ("Charm Alarm") and Boy George ("Stay Away from Pretty Boys") and is now stepping out under his own name with the release of this new EP (and he has a follow-up EP readied for later this year). Miss Guy always showcased a wide range of musical styles when DJing and his new [...]

The Plimsouls touring "Everywhere at Once" live in 1983 Fan's of Peter Case's early work with the Nerves and Plimsouls have been richly rewarded over the past few years. The Nerves' original EP was issued in enhanced CD form as One Way Ticket , a rare 1977 Nerves live set was released as Live at the Pirate's Cove , a transitional project with Paul Collins as The Breakaways was released as Walking Out on Love , and a blistering [...]

This disc is being sold by major retailers as a Japanese EMI import but is allegedly a Russian bootleg. Regardless, it is a beautiful package and the two live shows on this disc document what a powerful live act Queen was early in their career. Both shows are sourced from radio broadcasts and are bookended around the release of the band's under-appreciated Queen II album. The first show captures the band a month after Queen II was recorded but six months prior to the album's release. During this show, the band [...]

While I've been able to identify the (with reasonably certainty) the dates and location all of the previous "Live on Air" releases that I've reviewed, Van Morrison's Live on Air release had me stumped until I realized it was a compilation. The disc's set list makes this disc look like it is from Van's 1973 show at the Rainbow Theater with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra. While there are a number of tracks from that show included on this disc, a few tracks are sourced from different live shows that span Van's career. Like most [...]

" I always thought artists like Fred Astaire were very cool. Writers like Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, all of those guys - I just thought the songs were magical. And then, as I got to be a songwriter I thought it's beautiful, the way they made those songs. " – Paul McCartney (Photographer: Mary McCartney) On Feb. 7th, Paul McCartney is releasing his first new disc in five years, Kisses on the Bottom . The disc takes its name from a lyric in the Fats Waller [...]

Scorched Transmissions' S/T debut is a work of art that has its ups and downs. Consisting of three members, Future Metz (Rapper), Avitar Virgonian and JD Casten, the group makes a Hip Hop album that definitely sounds original. For example, the track "iFold" features one of the most creative Hip Hop beats I've ever [...]

The UK-based Music for Nations label put out some pretty cool indie-metal releases in the 80's and 90's and its artist roster included Metallica, Godflesh, Trouble and Warrior Soul. The label shuttered in 2004 after which many of its titles become hard to find but The End Records recently secured a deal to re-release over 50 of the label's titles. Physical copies of the first twelve titles were released on Jan. 31st. The first title that I picked up off this new stack of releases is the third release by blackened Swedish thrash band Witchery, [...]

Man, I love power metal. It's a sub-genre that really doesn't seem to go over too well here in America, and I don't know why. I've heard people say its cheesy, but really, like we don't have any other cheesy things here? Or sometimes I'll hear that it's too "over the top", but have you ever watched WWE or any of that shit? Power metal seems like it would be made for Americans, but most American metal fans just don't seem to get it. Europeans, though, absolutely lose their minds over this stuff. [...]

Righteous Brother goes solo in 1968 and 1969 Following his 1968 break with fellow Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield, Bill Medley kicked off a solo career with this pair of releases for MGM. Both albums grazed the bottom of the Billboard 200, and three singles ("I Can't Make it Alone" and "Brown Eyed Woman" from the first album, "Peace Brother Peace" from the second) charted short of the Top 40. It would be Medley's last solo chart action for more than a decade, as he'd reteam with Hatfield in 1974 and forgo solo releases for [...]

This album is heavy as f*ck and will melt your face off! I always wanted to write a review that says absolutely nothing about the music on the disc (trying Googling "heavy as f*ck" or "melt your face off" and see how many times these phrases have been used in CD reviews). Most reviews that I've read of The Doors' 40th Anniversary edition of L.A. Woman use most of their inches talking about the disc's original release in 1971. With this disc having now been out 41 years, is there anyone out [...]

Glen Campbell lights up the Tokyo stage in 1975 Originally released only in Japan, this 54-minute set found Campbell entertaining with a tightly-paced set at Tokyo's Kosei Nenkin Hall in May 1975. The chart-topping run Campbell had started with 1967's "Gentle on My Mind" was slipping ever so slightly lower by the early '70s, as his television program ended in 1972. Campbell's albums started to edge out of the Top 10 and his singles out of the Top 20, but three days before this show, he released "Rhinestone Cowboy," and rode it [...]

Wow and Flutter are no dummies. With a storied career in the rearview and an exceedingly noisier one ahead, they understand that to engage listenership beyond the time-tested annals of pressing records, lasering compact discs, leaking downloads, touring, playing shows, they needed to somehow confront their audience's most likely focal point and manipulate the market. I'm here to report that never have I felt my desires so controlled as I do right now, sipping this 7.2 percent Double Deuce Imperial Ale, listening to the raw, calculated rock of Portland's Wow and Flutter. And you know what? I [...]

DOWNLOAD : Meat Puppets - Live at City Gardens, Trenton, NJ 5/9/87 ( Part 1 and Part 2 ) In April of 1987, the Meat Puppets released their fifth disc, Mirage . This disc was the band's first that sounded intentionally geared toward commercial accessibility and Derrick Bostrom has referred to the disc as the Pups "psychedelic epic". This is a transitional disc for the Pups, which catches them between the blissed-out country-punk of Up on the Sun and the pre-grunge alt-rock of [...]

The Residents' Rivers of Hades is currently available as a CDR which Ralph is selling through its eBay store . The band describes this release as " music conceived as an aural art piece to accompany the release party of The Residents toy figures recently designed by Steve Cerio. The original music was conceived to utilize two DVD players that were programmed to randomly play abstract bits of music. They would play 5.1 surround audio and each would play different things. The project (which required 12 speakers placed in a circle around the gallery) was entitled [...]

Shuteye Unison Album: Our Future Selves Genre: Rock/Post-rock I was expecting something loud, rough, and noisy when I turned on the first song. But then the album began to blend the rock-y, riff-y instrumentals with more mellow vocals, and there's something attractive about it. The album develops a very ambient sound, almost to the point of eeriness. Good [...]

To call The Residents "prolific" would be an understatement as the band seems to releases new and archival releases almost monthly. If you follow the band closely though, there are a number of themes that reemerge across the years and most of the band's recent projects first surfaced on 2009's Ten Little Piggies compilation (see previous review ). The Residents will be releasing a new CD next month, Coochie Brake , which is the second release under "THE UGHS" concept so I thought this would be a good time to go back and review [...]

Country-charting 1970s Nashville pop Jody Miller's recording catalog is often abbreviated to her first hit, the Grammy-winning "Queen of the House," and though its novelty answer to Roger Miller's "King of the Road" may get the most spins on nostalgia radio, it's hardly representative of her lengthy hit-making career. Her personal appearances on teen shows Hollywood-A-Go-Go and Shindig positioned her for pop success, but her follow-up singles found only middling results and failed to cross back over to the country chart. She had only one other hit for Capitol (the [...]

THE TIME IS NOW! www.destroyallconcepts.com www.destroyallconcepts.blogspo t.com DUB GABRIEL DROPPED THIS SINGLE LATE LAST FALL, A HIGHLY BEFITTING TRACK FOR OUR TIMES, A TIME OF SOCIAL AWARENESS AND CONSCIOUSNESS THAT HAS NEVER BEFORE BEEN SO GLOBALLY WIDE SPREAD. THIS DEADLY TRACK FEATURES SOME POIGNANT LYRICS BY NOTABLE UK DUBSTEP MC THE SPACEAPE (KODE9). [...]

ELECTRONIC BRILLIANCE FROM FRANCE! MARC BLANCHARD - HOME SOUNDCLOUD MYSPACE I'VE BEEN SITTING ON THIS SAVAGE LITTLE EP FOR OVER A MONTH NOW... IT DROPPED IN DECEMBER ON THE FRENCH NET LABEL OVVK RECORDINGS AND I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO IT SINCE THEN. I JUST THOUGHT I WOULD WAIT A [...]