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Oasis -
Dig Out Your Soul
Big Brother/Reprise/Warner Bros. |
I’m glad to see Oasis hasn’t completely lost their Beatles worship, but at least they are coming into their own a little bit: Dig Out Your Soul sounds like the Gallagher Brothers may have cut back a bit on the psychedelics and turned up the crunch on their distortion.
The newest album is pretty much what you would expect: lots of dynamic British rock with the style that this band has always embodied. The first single of the album, “The Shock of the Lightning,” is perhaps their strongest point: a really solid pop song, with minimal obnoxious effects. While Oasis dipped a bit after Be Here Now, the band is seeming to get their act together again. |
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VHS Or Beta -
Bring On The Comets
Astralwerks |
Bring On The Comets, third full length to Kentucky’s VHS Or Beta, is perhaps their best work, moving more in the direction of disco. Their earlier fliratation with Travoltaism was nice, but this full blown love triangle between themselves, disco balls, and Ian Curtis may be working out much better for them than anyone would have thought. Fun, upbeat songs with some great jangly guitar parts that don’t go on to long and really awesome lyrical flow. Nothing bad about this record. |
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Radiohead -
In Rainbows
Xurbia Xendless/TBD/Warner Bros/RED |
The band that continues to out-do themselves, Radiohead, didn’t cut a single corner on In Rainbows: from the opening hits of automated percussion to the piano fade out during closer “Videotape”. With almost 23 years of doing this, they have not only reinvented themselves countless amounts of times, they have also never lost sight of the goal.
Artistically driven (as seen from the unbelievable packaging of this record), to the vaguely absurd lyrical concepts, In Rainbows is as much a winner as any winner ever is. Another incredible release.
***Best Album Of The Week***
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Various Artists -
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
will.i.am/Interscope/Universal |
Black Eyed Pea's frontman will.i.am essentially takes up the majority of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa soundtrack. Note the orchestral interludes in-between all songs, and occasional alternative artist (Barry Manilow, anyone?), which takes a few turns here and there.
Overall, it's a bit silly: most of the original songs are songs about the movie, which are just juvenile and uninteresting. I guess this is a kid's album. |
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Watermelon Slim And The Workers -
No Paid Holidays
NorthernBlues/Redeye |
Slide guitar like no other. Watermelon Slim has something about him that sets him apart from the rest. Either his exquisite slide guitar playing, his slurred shouts that pose as vocals, or the actual rare quality of catchy-ness while playing the blues, there is something about this man. Intelligently constructed songs, and man, that incredible voice, makes this an incredibly well put together blues album.
***ARTIST TO WATCH!!!***
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Pat Metheny -
Day Trip
Nonesuch/Warner Bros. |
I can describe just about any track on this album, and tell you what you will be hearing with about one line per instrument: the drumming is faster jazz drumming with brushes, the bass is doing a great job at walking jazz bass lines, and the guitar play is basically soloing from beginning to end, bordering on masturbation. A few moments here and there have horn, but this, for the most part, is identical through and through.
Personally, I'm into this style of jazz: fast and upbeat, and almost taking notes from the free jazz movement, but generally monotonous from beginning to end. If you are interested in an hour of the same jazz song, this is perfect for you. |
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Various Artists -
The Motown Collection
Time Life/Universal |
Time Life just keeps doing what it does best with this hits collection. This album compiles standout tracks from across the Motown catalogue and provides a stellar document of early '70s funk and soul. None of these songs are new or exclusive to this release, but they are certainly timeless, and the CD is worth it for the convenience of having all of these songs together.
Motown created a sound with these songs, and jumpstarted the careers of countless legendary musicians. Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Jackson 5; they're all here. These songs are mandatory listening, so if you aren't familiar, now's the time.
***LATE BUT GREAT***
***Shelton's Single Of The Week: "Commodores: Sail On"***
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The Flaming Lips -
Christmas On Mars
Warner Bros. |
So, technically, this is a soundtrack to the DVD: a film that would come out of the Flaming Lips secret vault. All I know is that there is costumes, drug references, and lots of the Flaming Lips.
Oddly enough, the soundtrack itself isn't quite normal Flaming Lips. I'd say orchestral, but it lies closer to harsh noise: sounds, tones, but no real music. I know that there is a type of person who throws themselves off bridges for this band, so I'm sure you already know if you want this or not. |
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Sen Dog -
Diary Of A Mad Dog
SRH/Suburban Noize |
Frontman of both Cypress Hill and Kottonmouth Kings Sen Dog has finally gotten through his piles of weed to get around to writing his solo full length, entitled Diary Of A Mad Dog.
If you liked either of his previous bands, you certainly are going to love this. Lots of gangster-influenced beats but enough of a nu-metal edge on top of it to make it a bit more cheesy than I like. Really aggressive delivery with original flow, Sen Dog, despite anything else, has mastered his style as an MC.
***MIGHTY, MIGHTY!!***
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Underoath -
Lost/In/The/Sound/Of/Separation
Solid State/Tooth & Nail |
While Christian metalcore has always been a joke to me, I can't help but say that this album is pretty awesome. The cover art says it all: psychedelics to the extreme, with a music disc of Christian metal guys.
Living up to those standards, Lost/In are moving more in the direction of bands like MeWithoutYou or any of the other Tooth & Nail post-rock stars, with less screaming and more shouting, more experimentation with guitar work, and more interesting uses of structure. Heavy, yes. Catchy, yes. Christian, unfortunately yes. Good though? Yeah, I would say so. Not bad at all. |
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Various Artists -
Women Of Jazz
Putumayo |
Putumayo's recent release of Women Of Jazz is, undeniably, another winner. As the title suggests, the album showcases 10 of the most exceptional female jazz performers in North America right now: everyone from Melody Gardot to Sophia Milman, Cassandra Wilson and more, all adding their unique styles of jazz to the mix. Everything from Cuban influence to standards, to even a few original styles can be found on this perfect compilation.
***LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!***
***Shelton's Second Single Of The Week: "Etta Jones: Since I Fell For You***
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The Colour Revolt -
Plunder, Beg, and Curse
Fat Possum |
First off, this is some of the best artwork I have seen in a long time. A really long time. I can't describe the style, but this is really the sort of thing that catches my attention, especially with album after album consisting of picture after picture of the performer. Personally, presentation says a lot for a band, showing where they stand, what they want to show, and what sort of feel they are going for.
"Creepy" is what the album says, and that's what it delivers. For a band that has opened for names like Dinosaur Jr, Black Lips, Explosions in the Sky, and the Manchester Orchestra, you aren't going to be disappointed. They exist in the genre with the rest of these acts only in theory: they work with these bands, but musically are so original and individualistic that they seem to exist solely as their own category.
I can certainly hear pieces of Dinosaur Jr. and Black Lips in here, maybe elements of Arcade Fire, the Pixies, Black Heart Procession even, but they are not the sum of their parts. Guitars use the Modest Mouse approach of primarily single notes through and through, and use quite a bit of effects to layer them even more to the over all emotion. The singer's voice, while mixed incredibly low, carries the entire thing: an almost flow of consciousness feel to them only furthers what their intent is. Again, if album art counts for anything, this band's got everything. |
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Maria Muldaur -
Yes We Can
Telarc/Concord |
Maria Muldaur knows her niche, and she certainly performs directly to them. Liberal politics of coffee shop folk and the ever-loved blues and pop collaborations are really the sum of her parts, but, for the most part, really don't do much for me.
It's a bit more cheesy than the blues and folk I like. It is incredibly upbeat and pop, with hooks and a lyrical flow that could have come from an arena country artist, but it just isn't my thing. But, if any of these qualities appeal to you, and you need something upbeat and what seems to be inspiring, I'd say go for this.
***POLITICAL ALBUM OF THE WEEK***
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Roger Kellaway -
Live At The Jazz Standard
IPO |
New jazz records rarely blow me away. This one does. Roger Kellaway takes on a more free-ish jazz approach, and it sounds so much better than 90 percent of jazz out there today.
Interesting progressions lay a strong backbone behind the entire mix of musicians accompanying everything. Fast, emotional, and constantly moving, I highly recommend this for any jazz listener. |
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Honeyhoney -
First Rodeo
Ironworks/UMG |
The rock duo seems to be such a large part of twenty-first century music. Honeyhoney is the next in line with the trend, and, as always, seems to work out better than bands with more members to screw something up.
First Rodeo, their debut album, isn't what you would normally expect: produced songs, with different feels between them and lots of interesting tones and instrumentation, the album adds a sort of southwestern feel below it all, giving more of a sassy edge to the entire release. Fun, enjoyable, and definitely crossing through the yards of a few different angry genres, this is an album for those who are in the mood for something new and interesting. |
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David Byrne & Brian Eno -
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
Todomundo/Opal |
So two things about this: one, seeing as how this is Brian Eno of Roxy Music and David Byrne of the Talking Heads, I invision this having been much better than it actually is. In reality, this is still amazing. Eno, taking care of the noise that has been labeled "music", has created what I always wish I could: amazing pop music out of sounds that are so fuzzed out and so interesting that it gives traditional pop music feel to sounds, taken out of context, would drive most people mad.
Byrne, as always, does what he does best: great vocal melodies. A little less punk sounding then his band work, it is still great to hear his voice again. This is for anyone who likes anything interesting. |
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Sarah Brightman -
A Winter Symphony
Nemo/Bluenote/Manhattan/EMI |
Known with contemporary crowds to be one of the most boring artists out there, Sarah Brightman does not disappoint on A Winter Symphony: a grim approach to an already terrifyingly bleak holiday.
Strings mark the entire album to end with the most un-offensive progression, making the songs only recognizable by Brightman's voice, which is good. I only wish she sang something interesting. |
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Liars -
Self-Titled
Mute |
The contemporary band that has always taken the cake for "art-punk" for me is Liars: New York originated musicians working with everything they do and don't have to make some of the most interesting music out there right now.
The self-titled release jumps headfirst into their own makers, creating a sound that may have come from a terrifying heaven or hell, complete with the perplexing occasional chorus hooks and pretty regular regurgitation of a repetitious riff, over and over again. Lots of keyboards, and occasional dance beat, post-punk hasn't been this good since Gang of Four.
"SO NICE, GOTTA DO IT UP TWICE"
(created by the original NYC D.J. Jocko, 1955)
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Albert Hammond, Jr. -
Como Te Llama?
Black Seal |
I wouldn't quite call this garage rock, but it wouldn't fit nicely anywhere else, either. Lots of driving rock beats, with overdriven vocals carrying everything down the road like the rock our parents loved. Emotion and honesty are fully visible on this release, without coming across cheesy or overdone. ŔComo Te Llama? is another solid rock album. |
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pH10 -
Well Connected
Helmutplex |
Some incredible drum & bass from pH10, one of the best Jungle musicians coming out nowadays. Innovative beats, some of the more interesting MC work that I have heard recently, and, damn, some really mindblowing loops that put most of the rest to shame. Well Connected is a great bridge between electronic and hip-hop, perfect for anyone interested in getting into jungle. |
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Daryl Hall & John Oates -
Live At The Troubadour
Shout/U-Watch/DKE |
This album is the thing that any Hall & Oates fan will shit themselves over. A close and personal serenade from Daryl Hall & John Oates, being performed from one of the worst venues in southern California, The Troubadour, feels exactly what I would imagine seeing these legends would be like.
The stage bickering, the great renditions of classic songs with only the subtle accents of life performance shining through, and the genius writing of Hall & Oates. If you don't know the band, it may be worth checking this out. If you like this band, there is no reason you shouldn't own this immediately. |
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Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Song: Capital G
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I pushed the button and elected him to office and
He pushed the button and he dropped the bomb
You pushed the button and could watch in on the television
Those motherfuckers didn't last too long
I'm sick of hearing about the have and have not's
Have some personal accountability
The biggest problem with the way that we are doing things is
The more we let you have the less that I'll be keeping for me
Well I use to stand for something
Now I'm on my hands and knees
Trading in my god for this one
and he signs his name with a capital G
Don't give a shit about the temperature in Guatemala
Don't really see what all the fuss is about
Ain't gonna worry about no future generations
And I'm sure somebody's gonna figure it out
Don't try to tell me that some power can corrupt a person
You hadn't had enough to know what it's like
You're only angry cause you wish you were in my position
Now nod your head cause you know that I'm right..alright!
Well I use to stand for something
But forgot what that could be
There's a lot of me inside you
Maybe you're afraid to see
Well I use to stand for something
Now I'm on my hands and knees
Trading in my god for this one
and he signs his name with a capital G
Well I use to stand for something
But forgot what that could be
There's a lot of me inside you
Maybe you're afraid to see
Well I use to stand for something
Now I'm on my hands and knees
Trading in my god for this one
and he signs his name with a capital G
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Political Article:
Why I am a Socialist
By: Chris Hedges
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The corporate forces that are looting the Treasury and have plunged us into a depression will not be contained by the two main political parties. The Democratic and Republican parties have become little more than squalid clubs of privilege and wealth, whores to money and corporate interests, hostage to a massive arms industry, and so adept at deception and self-delusion they no longer know truth from lies. We will find our way out of this mess by embracing an uncompromising democratic socialism-one that will insist on massive government relief and work programs, the nationalization of electricity and gas companies, a universal, not-for-profit government health care program, the outlawing of hedge funds, a radical reduction of our bloated military budget and an end to imperial wars-or we will continue to be fleeced and impoverished by our bankrupt elite and shackled and chained by our surveillance state.
The free market and globalization, promised as the route to worldwide prosperity, have been exposed as a con game. But this does not mean our corporate masters will disappear. Totalitarianism, as George Orwell pointed out, is not so much an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia. "A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial," Orwell wrote, "that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud." Force and fraud are all they have left. They will use both.
There is a political shift in Europe toward an open confrontation with the corporate state. Germany has seen a surge of support for Die Linke (The Left), a political grouping formed 18 months ago. It is co-led by the veteran socialist "Red" Oskar Lafontaine, who has built his career on attacking big business. Two-thirds of Germans in public opinion polls say they agree with all or some of Die Linke's platform. The Socialist Party of the Netherlands is on the verge of overtaking the Labor Party as the main opposition party on the left. Greece, beset with street protests and violence by disaffected youths, has seen the rapid rise of the Coalition of the Radical Left. In Spain and Norway socialists are in power. Resurgence is not universal, especially in France and Britain, but the shifts toward socialism are significant.
Corporations have intruded into every facet of life. We eat corporate food. We buy corporate clothes. We drive corporate cars. We buy our vehicular fuel and our heating oil from corporations. We borrow from corporate banks. We invest our retirement savings with corporations. We are entertained, informed and branded by corporations. We work for corporations. The creation of a mercenary army, the privatization of public utilities and our disgusting for-profit health care system are all legacies of the corporate state. These corporations have no loyalty to America or the American worker. They are not tied to nation states. They are vampires.
"By now the [commercial] revolution has deprived the mass of consumers of any independent access to the staples of life: clothing, shelter, food, even water," Wendell Berry wrote in "The Unsettling of America." "Air remains the only necessity that the average user can still get for himself, and the revolution had imposed a heavy tax on that by way of pollution. Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat."
The corporation is designed to make money without regard to human life, the social good or impact on theenvironment. Corporate laws impose a legal duty on corporate executives to make as much money as possible for shareholders, although many have moved on to fleece shareholders as well. In the 2003 documentary film "The Corporation" the management guru Peter Drucker says: "If you find an executive who wants to take on social responsibilities, fire him. Fast."
A corporation that attempts to engage in social responsibility, that tries to pay workers a decent wage withbenefits, that invests its profits to protect the environment and limit pollution, that gives consumers fair deals, can be sued by shareholders. Robert Monks, the investment manager, says in the film: "The corporation is an externalizing machine, in the same way that a shark is a killing machine. There isn't any question of malevolence or of will. The enterprise has within it, and the shark has within it, those characteristics that enable it to do that for which it was designed." Ray Anderson, the CEO of Interface Corp., the world's largest commercial carpet manufacturer, calls the corporation a "present day instrument of destruction" because of its compulsion to "externalize any cost that an unwary or uncaring public will allow it to externalize."
"The notion that we can take and take and take and take, waste and waste, without consequences, is driving the biosphere to destruction," Anderson says.
In short, the film, based on Joel Bakan's book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power," asserts that the corporation exhibits many of the traits found in people clinically defined as psychopaths.
Psychologist Dr. Robert Hare lists in the film psychopathic traits and ties them to the behavior of corporations:
* callous unconcern for the feelings for others;
* incapacity to maintain enduring relationships;
* reckless disregard for the safety of others;
* deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit;
* incapacity to experience guilt;
* failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior.
And yet, under the American legal system, corporations have the same legal rights as individuals. They give hundreds of millions of dollars to political candidates, fund the army of some 35,000 lobbyists in Washington and thousands more in state capitals to write corporate-friendly legislation, drain taxpayer funds and abolish government oversight. They saturate the airwaves, the Internet, newsprint and magazines with advertisements promoting their brands as the friendly face of the corporation. They have high-priced legal teams, millions of employees, skilled public relations firms and thousands of elected officials to ward off public intrusions into their affairs or halt messy lawsuits. They hold a near monopoly on all electronic and printed sources of information. A few media giants-AOL-Time Warner, General Electric, Viacom, Disney and Rupert Murdoch's NewsGroup-control nearly everything we read, see and hear.
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in [a] few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones," Albert Einstein wrote in 1949 in the Monthly Review in explaining why he was a socialist. "The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
Labor and left-wing activists, especially university students and well-heeled liberals, have failed to unite. This division, which is often based on social rather than economic differences, has long stymied concerted action against ruling elites. It has fractured the American left and rendered it impotent.
"Large sections of the middle class are being gradually proletarianized; but the important point is that they do not, at any rate not in the first generation, adopt a proletarian outlook," Orwell wrote in 1937 during the last economic depression. "Here I am, for instance, with a bourgeois upbringing and a working-class income. Which class do I belong to? Economically I belong to the working class, but it is almost impossible for me to think of myself as anything but a member of the bourgeoisie. And supposing I had to take sides, whom should I side with, the upper class which is trying to squeeze me out of existence, or the working class whose manners are not my manners? It is probable that I, personally, in any important issue, would side with the working class. But what about the tens or hundreds of thousands of others who are in approximately the same position? And what about that far larger class, running into millions this time-the office-workers and black-coated employees of all kinds-whose traditions are less definite middle class but who would certainly not thank you if you called them proletarians? All of these people have the same interests and the same enemies as the working class. All are being robbed and bullied by the same system. Yet how many of them realize it? When the pinch came nearly all of them would side with their oppressors and against those who ought to be their allies. It is quite easy to imagine a working class crushed down to the worst depths of poverty and still remaining bitterly anti-working-class in sentiment; this being, of course, a ready-made Fascist party."
Coalitions of environmental, anti-nuclear, anti-capitalist, sustainable-agriculture and anti-globalization forces have coalesced in Europe to form and support socialist parties. This has yet to happen in the United States. The left never rallied in significant numbers behind Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader. In picking the lesser of two evils, it threw its lot in with a Democratic Party that backs our imperial wars, empowers the national security state and does the bidding of corporations.
If Barack Obama does not end the flagrant theft of taxpayer funds by corporate slugs and the disgraceful abandonment of our working class, especially as foreclosures and unemployment mount, many in the country will turn in desperation to the far right embodied by groups such as Christian radicals. The failure by the left to offer a democratic socialist alternative will mean there will be, in the eyes of many embittered and struggling working- and middle-class Americans, no alternative but a perverted Christian fascism. The inability to articulate a viable socialism has been our gravest mistake. It will ensure, if this does not soon change, a ruthless totalitarian capitalism.
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