I enjoy the jauntiness of this drawingImpressions: When I was in first grade, I would avoid getting beaten up by older kids by drawing pictures of the KISS on other kids' folders and textbook covers. I vividly recall referencing photos in magazines of KISS members rocking outlandish costumes, having pet tigers, crazy pyrotechnics at shows or shooting fire and/or blood out of their mouths onstage. It all seemed so larger than life. I was too young to buy their records so I never actually heard … Continue Reading ››
Impressions: Having been exposed to ZZ Top in the dreaded '80s, I grew upthinking these guys were just weird, long-bearded curiosities who made goofball music videos and spun guitars around their midsections. But this rockin slab of '70s blues/rock shows they can play a little when those guitars stop spinning. "Waitin for the Bus" starts off the set with a catchy, crunching riff and from there there's no let up ("Have mercy! I've been waiting for the bus all day!") Fun, no-nonsense tracks with airtight production and
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Impressions: Pretty rocking, soulful Stax-influenced blues record that came out during a huge year for music, but doesn't cop to psychedelic trends of that year. Still fairly modern and you can see why everyone stole from Albert King's stinging guitar style. The arrangements and funky back up from Booker T. & The MGs are predictably excellent, even for overly-familiar songs like "Kansas City." Songs are rock solid, and occasionally … Continue Reading ››
Probably the album they play at that party in "Eyes Wide Shut"
#492
Eurythmics, Touch
Release Date: 1983
Previously Owned: No
First Time Listen: I think so
Impressions:
I thought I was in for a real '80s electro-pop treat but after the majestic, icy sweep of "Here Comes The Rain Again," this album surprisingly, became a little bit of a slog. Must have sounded good on a Walkman at the time, but much of the album's dated, clunky bass and percussion wore on me. Dave Stewart's Kraftwerk/Art Of Noise affectations made the second … Continue Reading ››
Those corncob condos in downtown Chicago are as weird on the inside as they look on the outside.Impressions: Nice. Well, I'll admit I'm a huge fan of this era of Wilco and I'm glad to see this album make the cut.
The oft-told back story of this record is enough to fill up this whole blog alone: longtime members fired, label initially rejected the album, Wilco bought the album back and, later, resold it back to the record company for more than initially … Continue Reading ››
Previously Owned: Sort of... have a bunch of MP3s from this one
Impressions: When this album first came out, someone threw MP3s from this album on my work server and I thought they were audio files from our company's management committee meeting. It's got that now-popular '80s-via-'00s sound by Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann that features big drums and bigger keyboards and some nice hooks. Parts funky, trippy and sarcastic without getting too, too annoying, Oracular Spectacular is a definitely an product of … Continue Reading ››
Release Date 1972 Previously Owned: No First time listen? Yes
Bonnie Raitt's for no manImpressions: Having always heard Bonnie Raitt in the context of admirable but moderately boring blues/rock on WXRT, I was not really psyched for this one. But this record sort of hung in there as an admirable, nicely-performed California soft-rock/bluesy/folk/soul brew that went down pretty easily. The songs are short and had enough surprises to keep me interested (mostly in the form of fun New Orleans-flavored horns on tracks like "Give It … Continue Reading ››
Release Date 1969 Previously Owned: No First time listen? Yes
The ScaggsterImpressions: I wasn't expecting much. I don't think I was quite aware of Boz Scaggs and his name was kind of a weird turnoff to me. Boz. Scaggs. (shudders) I mentally lumped him in with other '60s/70s artists who were ostensibly tasteful, yet low-charisma blue-eyed soul/rock "regular guys" like John Hiatt, Dan Fogelberg, Randy Newman, George Thorogood. In other words, not really my cup of tea. Album starts off solidly with "I'm Easy"-- a … Continue Reading ››
Release Date: 2001
Previously Owned: No
First Time Listen: Yes
It looks like that shadow on the left is holding a dogImpressions: Pretty simple on the surface: dirty guitar+bashing drums+straightforward vocals= garage to counter the digital era. It works. The opening song, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," fulfills that formula. But after that, they throw a few extra tricks: some acoustic guitars on Hotel Yorba and then keyboards on "I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman." Some nice, hummable tunes, especially the needle-in-the-red punk rock "Fell In Love With … Continue Reading ››
Impressions: Before this came out in the late '80s, there was music created by bands and music created by DJs. If you wanted to dance, you listened to music made by machines or samples, and when you didn't want to dance, you listened to music made by people. Okay, I'm oversimplifying, but it sure seemed that way back then. Outside of New Order, rarely did both strands meet without … Continue Reading ››
A guy tries to listen to every album on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of all time list, and some other stuff
