Jewel - Perfectly Clear

Valory/Universal

We're in a 1990s revival, in some respects; why not bring Jewel back while we're at it? That doesn't mean she sounds dated. Jewel has taken the ball-peen hammer of CMT production to the world of adult contemporary music, and I'd go so far as to call the results interesting.
There's a peculiar brand of sexual frankness in the CMT formula, and in this outgrowth it really becomes prominent. Lyrics like "Feels like cheating/feels that good" can't be readily ignored, in this case. Hey, Jewel is back!

The Almost - Southern Weather

Tooth & Nail/Virgin/Capitol/EMI

Even before I did a little bit of reading up on these boys, I somehow knew they were Christian. Call it an extended sense. But don't let that throw you off if you're a fan of bands with names like Underoath or Bullets for my Valentine (I haven't heard either, though I hear they're in the same boat!), because my extended senses (and ears) tell me this record could be a good time for you.
*********EDITOR'S NOTE: "'The Almost' sound as if the walls are coming down around them. And Aaron Gillespie, the lead singer, sounds like he's singing from an olympian mountaintop, and he means business."**************

Al Green - Lay It Down

Blue Note

The fact that an Al Green can put out a record in 2008 and have it sound like an Al Green record is an achievement; that it's really good pushes it right out of this planet's orbit into the inner-space region known as "awesome". There's enough in the way of reference to his previous work to keep it from being an absurd grasp at being contemporary, but it doesn't sound like stagnant rehash or cash in. The man helped birth the slow jam, and now he's come back to show us exactly how it is done. Top Shelf.

Miniature Tigers - Black Magic/White Magic

Modern Art

Simple, loveable pop from some kids who'd probably give you a hand pushing your car if it stalled out, and casually mention it to friends later in a game of one-upsmanship.
Things reach a preppy pitch-perfect on the closing track of the "Black Magic" EP, entitled Vietnam; I kind of wish they took the mindset of that song and smeared it all over the album but I'll settle for two dandy EPs, all the same.

Amos Garrett - Get Way Back: A Tribute To Percy Mayfield

Stony Plain

Garrett keeps it slow and bluesy, and this is a blues record so he's on the ball. The trick with the blues is to keep it real enough for the kids while keeping yourself clear of the realm of kitsch that so many listeners may demand.
Using an undoubtedly established name to base your album around (Percy Mayfield, in this case) is a good course of action, and when you've got Amos Garrett bringing it all to fruition you've guaranteed yourself a solid bit of listening.

Cheb I Sabbah - Devotion

Six Degrees

A rare instance of contemporary "world music" outgrowing the tired realm of exotica, Dj Cheb keeps himself real by employing the musical traditions of his musical subject of India rather than simply aping the surface aesthetics.
I can easily imagine this being played in the lounge of the Dehli airport or in a Rajasthani cafe that may or may not be air conditioned. Kudos to authenticity without cheap musical tourism!

Various Artists - Warped Tour 2006 Compilation DOUBLE CD

SideOneDummy

Remember when Gogol Bordello's immigrant shtick was new, and sometimes exciting? Remember when you knew someone who liked Slightly Stoopid? If you do, then you probably already own this record. Maybe you even bought it at Warped Tour in 2006! If you didn't it's still around, and it's not just the nostalgia that'll knock you over.
************LATE BUT GREAT***********

Sinead O'Connor - Theology DOUBLE CD

Koch

Sinead O'Connor gives us a sign that she hasn't entirely devoted herself to alternative catechism with a double album. Ms. O'Connor is stronger on her home turf of Dublin (half of this album was recorded in London, half in the aforementioned Irish capital), though that strength is owed more to the peculiar sense of intimacy one gets from the lack of extraneous instrumentation or production than a change in the qualities of her voice.
All the strings and studio musicians are reserved for the London portion and, while that certainly has it's value, it just seems less confrontational. And half (hah!) the charm of Sinead O'Connor is her religious identity, which sees itself best manifested on the second disc via a song lifted from "Jesus Christ Superstar".

Junkie XL - Booming Back at You

Artwerk/Electronic Arts/Nettwerk

Let the rave nation revival begin! Well, almost; Mr. Holkenborg hasn't been completely asleep since the start of the decade, and in more than a few places you can see the influence of the "French Touch" that gave rise to the better part of contemporary dance music.
Still, there's enough Ibiza nostalgia in there to bring a tear to the eye of many an aging Eurotrash; before you know it people will be remembering who that Grooverider guy was and Ecstasy will be cool again. Just you wait.

Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through the Noise

Zoe/Rounder

Keeping the instrumentation rich and the vocals at roughly the same volume level as the rest of the sound is what gives this album's legs their sturdiness. Aloofness is the basis of the intrigue, here. When will other musicians learn that histrionics and cleverness don't (or, shouldn't) work? The trick is to keep cool and let the people come to you.

Sister Hazel - Before the Amplifiers, Live Acoustic

Croakin' Poets/Rock Ridge/ADA

A college band from the times before college got cool again. These guys aren't looking to make new fans at this point, and that's what gives the record it's charm. Well, that and the fact that they credit a "lap steal" guitar in the liner notes. Sure to not disappoint anyone who went to the University of Florida between 1990 and 1997!

Sisters Morales - Talking to the River

Luna/Dig

The regional character of a fair amount of what comes out of the more well polished elements of the Southwest US music scene can be defined through by reference to the following things: the musical environment of the artists' childhood, some somewhat obvious incorporation of the artist's own family, and a perspective of Mexico that is distinctly rooted in the United States.
This record could almost be used as a rule of measure; there are elements of tejano, 70's FM radio and contemporary popular country, all in their respective right places. The gap between this music and the people who make it is smaller than in most cases, and there's something to be said for that.

Various Artists - Classic African American Gospel

Smithsonian Folkways

This is simply some of the very finest vocal music ever produced. There is a certain determination in Dock Reed's cry to ride easy that simply cannot be matched by anything outside of the musical world of the pre-war era in this branch of black music.
I've never heard dixie sound as somber as it does hung on the voice of Sister Erestine Washington, and with those two moments alone (though there are certainly more) I strongly advise you to listen to this fine collection of music.

Crooked Still - Still Crooked

Signature Sounds

If only all collegiate attempts at "Americana" could be this competent. While utilizing seemingly archaic instrumentation and calling yourself bluegrass (albeit "alternative bluegrass") won't do anything to pull American traditional music from the realm of novelty it will, at the very least, keep the rough aesthetics fresh in the mind of the public. It doesn't hurt that the sound produced is quite toe tapping, either.

Charlotte Sometimes - Waves & The Both of Us

Geffen/Interscope

Troubled young girls who move to New York City could be a genre, and Charlotte Sometimes could be the flag barer, if she isn't already. With the best reference point (both in musical styling and thematic content) being Amy Winehouse, I have the feeling that most of her fan base will know who she is before they hear her, and that would most certainly work in her favor.

Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal

Manhattan/Back Porch/EMI

This will probably be a divisive record among those who could pass for young; I see the majority of this fellows fans as the kind of people who graduated from college before 2005 but after 1997.
People who like their music anthemic in the vein of the Dave Matthews Band, as opposed to Springsteen.
There are some rockers, and a few sentimental numbers, and a few that'll make fans of Blues Traveler a little misty eyed.

Erika Luckett - Unexpected

Birdfish

When I think of "world music" as a genre, I don't think of ethnologue records from the bush; I think of musicians who section their work by geography when not by genre. Here, we see Ms. Luckett slinking her way through mellow pan-latin lounge and pop, though the instrumentation stays to the standard. Her songwriting is filmy rooted in a winning tradition of radio pop, though not ashamedly so; another hallmark of this genre is a certain eagerness to show one's influences.

Pinetop Perkins And Friends - Self-Titled

Telarc/Concord

Pinetop Perkins has been in the blues game since it became a game, and he's picked up quite the collection of collaborators along the way. Sometimes they almost drown him out, and that frantic energy is part of what makes you forget that Mr. Perkins is almost 95 years of age. That and the fact that he's still a dang good performer; includes collaborations with B.B. King and Eric Clapton.
***So Nice, Gotta Do It Up Twice (Created by the Original NYC DJ, Jocko, 1955)***

Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers - Miles From Home

Dionysus

It's almost a crime to hear this music outside of it's environment; it shouldn't be played on a home stereo or on headphones. It needs to be played, if not live, than over the PA at some well worn bar, just a bit louder than what one would consider comfortable. That isn't to say you can't enjoy it at home, or in a car while driving; a Flemish rabbit is just as big in Italy as it is in Belgium.

Hatchet - Awaiting Evil

Metal Blade

Walking, living dinosaurs of rock music? The music I was told to call "heavy metal" as a child? It doesn't matter if you like or ever liked this sort of music, if you're part of a pretty broad demographic it'll bring back a memory or two. Which is pretty nice, even those memories aren't your own.
People who like epic shredding and vocals that strike a sometimes uneasy mid-point between Rob Halford and the guy from Metallica will go ape for this. Positively.

Moby - Last Night

Mute

Moby has been the fact of electronica for what I believe to be a large swath of music fans, and he partially owns up to that role on his latest records.
A coherent analogue quality runs through the whole disc, from late era disco to late 1980's ambient (even the title of "Sweet Apocalypse" helps bring you back 20 years) listening. Now everything is smaller and more focused for Moby. And, may I say, much better than it's been in the past. center>

***If You Like Music, You're Gonna' Love This!***

Just to get a decent raise,
You got to turn on the magic charm.
Just to get some medical benefits,
You got to twist somebody's arm.

They say we're all one big family,
They say we're all in the same boat.
So why does their ass ride first class
While I'm barely staying afloat?

If this is how they treat their family,
I feel sorry for all their kin.
When they sit down to eat, they prob'ly take all the meat
And don't leave you nothing but the skin.

Ya'll heard about the ship Titanic?
Well, that's the kind of boat we're in.
If it ever goes down, you know management won't drown,
But you and me, we better learn how to swim.

I saw 'em at that big Christmas dinner,
They had a plate piled way up high.
All that gravy dripping off on the tablecloth
And the biggest slice of the pie.
They had us like a captive audience
As they sat there looking so smirky.
When they stood up to speak, hell, it took all week
Cause they were more full of shit than the turkey.

Political Article: This Land Is Their Land By:Barbara Ehrenreich Back To Top I took a little vacation recently - nine hours in Sun Valley, Idaho, before an evening speaking engagement. The sky was deep blue, the air crystalline, the hills green and not yet on fire. Strolling out of the Sun Valley Lodge, I found a tiny tourist village, complete with Swiss-style bakery, multistar restaurant and "opera house." What luck - the boutiques were displaying outdoor racks of summer clothing on sale! Nature and commerce were conspiring to make this the perfect micro-vacation. But as I approached the stores things started to get a little sinister - maybe I had wandered into a movie set or Paris Hilton's closet? - because even at a 60 percent discount, I couldn't find a sleeveless cotton shirt for less than $100. These items shouldn't have been outdoors; they should have been in locked glass cases. Then I remembered the general rule, which has been in effect since sometime in the 1990s: if a place is truly beautiful, you can't afford to be there. All right, I'm sure there are still exceptions - a few scenic spots not yet eaten up by mansions. But they're going fast. About ten years ago, for example, a friend and I rented a snug, inexpensive one-bedroom house in Driggs, Idaho, just over the Teton Range from wealthy Jackson Hole, Wyoming. At that time, Driggs was where the workers lived, driving over the Teton Pass every day to wait tables and make beds on the stylish side of the mountains. The point is, we low-rent folks got to wake up to the same scenery the rich people enjoyed and hike along the same pine-shadowed trails. But the money was already starting to pour into Driggs - Paul Allen of Microsoft, August Busch III of Anheuser-Busch, Harrison Ford - transforming family potato farms into vast dynastic estates. I haven't been back, but I understand Driggs has become another unaffordable Jackson Hole. Where the wait staff and bed-makers live today I do not know. I witnessed this kind of deterioration up close in Key West, Florida, where I first went in 1986, attracted not only by the turquoise waters and frangipani-scented nights but by the fluid, egalitarian social scene. At a typical party you might find literary stars like Alison Lurie, Annie Dillard and Robert Stone, along with commercial fishermen, waitresses and men who risked their lives diving for treasure (once a major blue-collar occupation). Then, at some point in the '90s, the rich started pouring in. You'd see them on the small planes coming down from Miami - taut-skinned, linen-clad and impatient. They drove house prices into the seven-figure range. They encouraged restaurants to charge upward of $30 for an entree. They tore down working-class tiki bars to make room for their waterfront "condotels." Of all the crimes of the rich, the aesthetic deprivation of the rest of us may seem to be the merest misdemeanor. Many of them owe their wealth to the usual tricks: squeezing their employees, overcharging their customers and polluting any land they're not going to need for their third or fourth homes. Once they've made (or inherited) their fortunes, the rich can bid up the price of goods that ordinary people also need - housing, for example. Gentrification is dispersing the urban poor into overcrowded suburban ranch houses, while billionaires' horse farms displace rural Americans into trailer homes. Similarly, the rich can easily fork over annual tuitions of $50,000 and up, which has helped make college education a privilege of the upper classes. There are other ways, too, that the rich are robbing the rest of us of beauty and pleasure. As the bleachers in stadiums and arenas are cleared to make way for skybox "suites" costing more than $100,000 for a season, going out to a ballgame has become prohibitively expensive for the average family. At the other end of the cultural spectrum, superrich collectors have driven up the price of artworks, leading museums to charge ever rising prices for admission. It shouldn't be a surprise that the Pew Research Center finds happiness to be unequally distributed, with 50 percent of people earning more than $150,000 a year describing themselves as "very happy," compared with only 23 percent of those earning less than $20,000. When nations are compared, inequality itself seems to reduce well-being, with some of the most equal nations - Iceland and Norway - ranking highest, according to the UN's Human Development Index. We are used to thinking that poverty is a "social problem" and wealth is only something to celebrate, but extreme wealth is also a social problem, and the superrich have become a burden on everyone else. If Edward O. Wilson is right about "biophilia" - an innate human need to interact with nature - there may even be serious mental health consequences to letting the rich hog all the good scenery. I know that if I don't get to see vast expanses of water, 360-degree horizons and mountains piercing the sky for at least a week or two of the year, chronic, cumulative claustrophobia sets in. According to evolutionary psychologist Nancy Etcoff, the need for scenery is hard-wired into us. "People like to be on a hill, where they can see a landscape. And they like somewhere to go where they can not be seen themselves," she told Harvard Magazine last year. "That's a place desirable to a predator who wants to avoid becoming prey." We also like to be able to see water (for drinking), low-canopy trees (for shade) and animals (whose presence signals that a place is habitable). Ultimately, the plutocratic takeover of rural America has a downside for the wealthy too. The more expensive a resort town gets, the farther its workers have to commute to keep it functioning. And if your heart doesn't bleed for the dishwasher or landscaper who commutes two to four hours a day, at least shed a tear for the wealthy vacationer who gets stuck in the ensuing traffic. It's bumper to bumper westbound out of Telluride, Colorado, every day at 5, or eastbound on Route 1 out of Key West, for the Lexuses as well as the beat-up old pickup trucks. Or a place may simply run out of workers. Monroe County, which includes Key West, has seen more than 2,000 workers leave since the 2000 Census, a loss the Los Angeles Times calls "a body blow to the service-oriented economy of a county with only 75,000 residents and 2.25 million overnight visitors a year." Among those driven out by rents of more than $1,600 for a one-bedroom apartment are many of Key West's wait staff, hotel housekeepers, gardeners, plumbers and handymen. No matter how much money you have, everything takes longer - from getting a toilet fixed to getting a fish sandwich at Pepe's. Then there's the elusive element of charm, which quickly drains away in a uniform population of multimillionaires. The Hamptons had their fishermen. Key West still advertises its "characters" - sun-bleached, weather-beaten misfits who drifted down for the weather or to escape some difficult situation on the mainland. But the fishermen are long gone from the Hamptons and disappearing from Cape Cod. As for Key West's characters - with the traditional little conch houses once favored by shrimpers flipped into million-dollar second homes, these human sources of local color have to be prepared to sleep with the scorpions under the highway overpass. In Telluride even a local developer is complaining about the lack of affordable housing. "To have a real town," he told the Financial Times, "Telluride needs some locals hanging out" - in old-fashioned diners, for example, where you don't have to speak Italian to order a cup of coffee. When I was a child, I sang "America the Beautiful" and meant it. I was born in the Rocky Mountains and raised, at various times, on the coasts. The Big Sky, the rolling surf, the jagged, snowcapped mountains - all this seemed to be my birthright. But now I flinch when I hear Woody Guthrie's line "This land was made for you and me." Somehow, I don't think it was meant to be sung by a chorus of hedge-fund operators.

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