Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 3 – 2– 5
Result: Standing In The Dark by Platinum Blonde.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about this album, which might make me the preeminent Standing in the Dark scholar working today. That’s probably a fairly accurate statement since image searching Platinum Blonde brings up fewer and fewer results for the band every year. Once the biggest Canadian pop-rock act working, the group is almost forgotten and, for the most part, rightfully so. Their 2nd and 3rd albums were exercises in rapidly diminishing returns, but for their debut album to be swept under the rug as well… well, that’s a crime against Canadian culture.
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The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are best known to the masses for their 1997 hit, “The Impression That I Get,” (also known to many as the ‘Knock On Wood’ song), from their platinum album “Let’s Face It.” You younger kids may know them from their song “Where’d You Go?” in Rock Band 2, or their cameo as the band playing in Clueless. However you may know them, or even if you don’t, you should know that they have a new album out called “Pin Points & Gin Joints,” which reflects the band’s progression from young kids melding ska and hardcore in the 80’s Boston music scene, to their current status as grownups who still have the passion to put together an album despite being a part-time band, being scattered around the country, and holding down other jobs, like frontman Dicky Barrett’s current gig as announcer for late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. I had the chance to reconnect with saxophonist and original member Tim “Johnny Vegas” Burton, who I haven’t spoken to since the heyday of ska music in the late 90’s, when I hosted a ska and punk rock radio show in New York. We talk about the current state of the band, future plans, and cover the Gunaxin.com 6 questions. Check out the band and their new album at www.BosstonesMusic.com. Yes, I know this is Simply READ, but here is a special MP3 interview not available on our show feed, so Simply Listen. (WARNING- Audio is not the best due to circumstances beyond my control.)
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 1 – 7– 9.
Result: Horse Rotor Vator by Coil.
Sometimes it’s hard to write objectively about certain bands or albums. Coil were such an important part of my life for so long, they’re beyond criticism. Whatever might be good or bad about their music, it just is. And that’s fine unless you’re trying to write a review about their 1986 sophomore album, Horse Rotor Vator.
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 4 – 4 – 10.
Result: Black Power: Music of a Revolution by Various Artists.
There are a lot of great compilations of soul, funk and R&B from the “superfly” era (roughly 1968-1974) but there aren’t too many worth hanging on to beyond the rip to MP3. Black Power: Music of a Revolution has kept its place on my shelves because it transcends merely collecting a bunch of songs onto a pair of foil discs, it tells a story.
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Nerd Hurdles.
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 4 – 12 – 10.
Result: Back From Hell by Run-DMC.
Hindsight can sometimes look kinder on an album than first blush. Conventional wisdom would have you believe Run-DMC’s fifth album, Back From Hell, is a disappointment. But what might have sounded like band-wagon jumping in 1990—their shameless embrace of the era’s flavour-of-the-week hard-funk and R&B samples—no longer comes off as scrambling to keep up with currents trends. Instead it indicates they’d remained masters long after they’d brought hip-hop to a mainstream audience.
» Jakob, co-host of
Nerd Hurdles.
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Mr. Dapper's Splendid Online Diary
Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 2 – 6 – 10.
Result: Coming Down by Daniel Ash.
I’m beginning to doubt the randomizing ability of my dice. If you’re an observant reader, you’ll notice today’s roll is only one digit off last week’s. You might also wonder—if you’re observant enough to surmise my CDs are catalogued in alphabetical order—why Daniel Ash is placed a mere four discs ahead of Magnetic Fields instead of in the A’s.
Well, dear observant reader, that would be because I sometimes file solo albums in with the artist’s main band. Especially if the album in question sounds almost exactly like their day job band. In this case that would be Love and Rockets and1991’s Coming Down does more or less does sound like the would-be follow-up to their eponymously titled 1989 album. Or, more accurately, the long awaited follow-up to Tones on Tail, his previous project with Bauhaus/Love and Rockets drummer, Kevin Haskins.
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 2 – 6 – 14.
Result: i by The Magnetic Fields.
Last week The Magnetic Fields released an album, Realism, to almost universally “meh” reviews. Fitting, since it’s an almost universally meh album. It really highlights what’s been Stephen Merrit’s Achilles heel for a long time—his voice. It’s just not a voice you can take seriously.
This had been fine in the past since his career has been built on lyrics so firmly planted in cheek, he looks like he’s miming a blowjob. Realism strips away the humour and the wit, which leaves some pleasant but boring ditties with a voice suited better to musical comedy than popular song. It’s the kind of disappointing offering that might make one question Merritt’s reputation as one of the top songwriters of his generation.
The last album of his to geniunely back-up that reputation up was probably 2004’s elegantly titled, i.
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 4 – 4 – 14.
Result: Folk Waste 3 by Various Artists.
This out-of-print, limited edition three-way split put out by micro-label Folk Waste features Hat City Intuitive, Rocks In My Pillow and Imp(s). A fair introduction to this free-folk/free-jazz/free-noise imprint, it’s a shame this material isn’t (yet?) available to a wider audience.
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 4 – 2 – 3.
Result: Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub.
Making good on the promises made by their debut, A Catholic Education, Teenage Fanclub created one of the few timeless classics of the 90s alt-rock heyday. Aptly—and cheekily—titled, Bandwagonesque has weathered better than many of its trendsetting counterparts. Time and distance set it apart from the glut of post-Nirvana bandwagon jumpers revealing it to be a truly enjoyable set of fuzzed-out, Big Star and Byrds-inspired pop-rock ditties in its own right. Continue Reading…
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Jakob rolls 1d4, 1d12 and 1d20 to select a CD from his collection to review.
Today’s roll: 1 – 5 – 13.
Result: Unlimited Edition by Can.
The danger with odds’n'ends collections is they tend towards half-baked experiments and an overall incohesive listening experience. Aggravatingly, there’s usually at least one of the band’s essential tracks on the thing. Can’s 1976 rarities compilation, Unlimited Edition, is no exception.
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