Review: Government Issue - The Punk Remains the Same

Label: DC-Jam Records

Released: July 21, 2009

This five song EP, in classic punk fashion, clocks in at just under eight minutes, but we all know it's quality, not quantity, that counts. These tracks, culled from two different shows, reflect GI's hardcore heyday in 1982-83. The recordings are good for early hardcore live material and the band is clearly in fine form at both shows. While this is not a substitute for the old Mystic Records' Government Issue Live, it does feature a few unique moments that make it a worthy companion. "Notch to My Crotch" finds John Stabb waxing not-so-eloquent with some rather crass improvised additional lyrics. Along with the appearance of the rare "Snubbing," there's material here that you just won't get elsewhere, but the EP's best offering is the wild, cacophonous version of "Sheer Terror" that hints at the more experimental GI that was still a few years away at that point. The Punk Remains the Same is certainly an essential for serious GI fans, but also has a lot to offer anyone who wants to experience why GI is still considered a great punk band by those who know.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: JFA - To All Our Friends (live)

Label: DC-Jam Records

Released: July 21, 2009

Back in 1985, I bought JFA's Live 1984 Tour LP. It's energy was as unbounded as the possibilities of my new found favorite genre and it quickly found itself in steady rotation on my turntable. Nearly a quarter century later, a new piece of live JFA vinyl is spinning in my basement and it's hard to believe that it still has much of that same thrashy skate punk energy. Sure, the pace isn't always quite so breakneck, but they make up for a more restrained "Johnny D" by blasting through "You Suck" and the still amusingly stupid "Cokes and Snickers." Of course, it does seem a little odd for guys in their 40s to be playing "Out of School" or for anyone to still care about preppies in 2009, but even those songs they still pull off with conviction. The couple of newer (meaning after the 80s) tracks on the album are no substitute for some of the crazy covers on their earlier live release, but considerably better recording quality makes To All Our Friends an essential for anyone who still loves JFA and old skate punk.

By the way, the LP comes on beautiful blue vinyl that just adds to the fun of having this one in your collection

Ratings
Satriani: 5/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: George Thorogood and the Destroyers - The Dirty Dozen

Label: Capitol/EMI

Released: July 28, 2009

George Thorogood's principle charm is that he plays the blues for people who aren't really all that blue. In many ways, he's a classic blues artist from his shuffling riffs to his beer-soaked voice, except, at his best...well, he's kinda fun. Thorogood's latest release, The Dirty Dozen, is at least sporadically successful in that way.

The album is grouped into sides as if it were on vinyl (and it is through his website). The first side is all new material. While it's mostly made up of run-of-the-mill blues and rockabilly, two tracks, "Born Lover" and "Let Me Pass," find Thorogood at his tongue-in-cheek, good-time best, making this a welcome addition for his diehard fans. The second "side" is made up of fan favorites, three of which were out-of-print in the US, but none of which is as exciting as one would expect of a "favorite." Like the first side, these tracks may be of great interest to his serious fans, but offer little for the rest of us.

While the album does have a couple of standouts and no real bombs, it lacks the excitement of his best work. George Thorogood is still more of "greatest hits" artist and The Dirty Dozen merely contains a few more contenders for that kind of release.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

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Warped Tour 2009: Flogging Molly

As expected, Flogging Molly put on one of the day's best performances at the Warped Tour stop in Columbia, MD on July 14, 2009.






Check out all of my Warped Tour 2009 pictures here.

Warped Tour 2009: Chiodos

Chiodos managed to bring both the intricacy and intensity of their sound to the Main Stage of the Warped Tour on July 14, 2009 in Columbia, MD.






Check out all of my Warped Tour 2009 pictures here.

Warped Tour 2009: Streetlight Manifesto

Streetlight Manifesto brought their soulful ska to the Warped Tour's Hurley.com stage in Columbia, MD on July 14, 2009. While it was one of the event's smaller stages, they showed that they could have held their own against any band on the tour. Unlike many of today's ska bands, these guys understand that the genre is ultimately soul music.






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Live: Robert Randolph and the Family Band at Artscape, Baltimore, MD

Date: July 18, 2009

Robert Randolph tore things up on Saturday night at Artscape, including two amazing Michael Jackson covers and plenty of crowd participation.

Warped Tour 2009: VAMPS

VAMPS was one of the Warped Tour's handful of hard rock acts. They flavored their version with equal parts of goth and sleaze, making them a unique act on the tour.





Check out all of my Warped Tour 2009 pictures here.

Warped Tour 2009: The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada brought their screamo madness to the Warped Tour main stage in Columbia, MD on July 14. They were, hands down, the most intense band I saw that day.





Check out all of my Warped Tour 2009 pictures here.

Review: Jazz Re-issues from Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Red Garland, Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Label: Essential Jazz Classics

Released: June 2, 2009

The mid to late 50s was a near perfect time for jazz. As post-bop and cool jazz emerged from Charlie Parker's bebop shake-up, the genre's top artists were refining the sound. In a few short years, jazz would be set on its ear again by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus among others who once again pushed the very definitions of the genre, but this period in the 50s produced some astoundingly good music even if, and perhaps because, it was perfecting the current state of jazz rather than running off to totally new horizons. Essential Jazz Classics has recently released a set of CDs that collects some of that period's best albums along with some interesting bonus material.

The Clifford Brown/Sonny Rollins/Max Roach Quintet's Complete Studio Recordings collects two classics, Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus Four. As good as Rollins is, he's simply overshadowed by Brown and Roach here as they bring much needed punch that makes these albums real standouts.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Art Tatum and Ben Webster's The Album features the lone studio collaboration between these two giants (and Tatum's last session before his death). The mastering doesn't do much to clean up this recording, but, while that's a shame, the bonus material featuring Tatum playing many of the same songs as a soloist more than makes up for it. The man was just a monster on the piano and it's nothing short of incredible to hear that fully exposed in this way.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

The best known of the re-issues is Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. This Rollins classic is a great example of his smooth playing, but at times is upstaged by Max Roach's drumming. Roach is just a monster on the drums and that really makes this one a must hear album. This re-issue also includes Work Time, not considered one of Rollins' very best albums, but it certainly doesn't miss by much.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

Perhaps the most interesting of these re-issues is Red Garland's The 1956 Trio, which features the A Garland in Red album with selections from Groovy and Red Garland's Piano. Of the four albums, I was least familiar with Garland's playing and that may be what made this album really stand out. He gets so much out of the piano and is equally dynamic on slow tunes as he is on the more upbeat material. Add some monster bass parts from Paul Chambers and it's clear why this album is worth re-issuing, particularly for those unfamiliar with Garland's work.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

All in all, this is a fine set of re-issues, particularly for younger or more cursory jazz fans who haven't heard these great albums. All include liner notes with a lot of information that add a little education to these great listens.

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Review: Nathen Maxwell and the Original Bunny Gang - White Rabbit

Label: SideOneDummy Records

Released: August 18, 2009

Having performed for over a decade with the increasingly popular Celtic folk/punk act Flogging Molly, Nathen Maxwell is faced with the double challenge of living up to yet not rehashing his band's strong body of work. On his solo debut, White Rabbit, Maxwell brings songs that have been simmering inside of him, some for over a decade, and prepares to meet these challenges involved in stepping outside of his established work.

From the funky opening seconds of the album, it's clear that Maxwell will have no trouble separating himself from the band he's been a part of throughout its rise. However, don't feel alienated Flogging Molly fans, because there is a decided folk nature to White Rabbit. Replacing the Celtic angle with a predominantly reggae approach, Maxwell has made a record that avoids the formulas practiced by the myriad of local reggae groups that seem to pop up in any town with a college. His take is sparse, quiet and personal with themes ranging from self-reliance to tenderness. By mixing his folk background with reggae's mellow nature, Maxwell finds a way to both step away from and live up to his established band. More importantly though, he's written some great songs that he performs with a gentle, human conviction.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Street Sweeper Social Club

Label: Street Sweeper Social Club

Released: June 16, 2009

In his mid-90s heyday, Tom Morello was a top guitarist, mixing skill, innovation and groove that was at the heart of Rage Against the Machine's hip-hop/hard rock hybrid. In fact, his sound was so successful that he rode it to mainstream success a second time with Audioslave during the first half of this decade. After an acoustic aside for the past couple years and reliving the RATM glory years, Morello is back for another shot, this time with Boots Riley of the Coup.

Fair or not, I've always felt that Morello's politics were somewhat of a pose, a marketing scheme. If something saved his music, it was it was really his inspired, creative playing. Sadly, that's just what's missing this time. Like so many fine guitarists before him, Morello falls into the trap of his own success. With Street Sweeper Social Club, he relies on what he's already done, only this time, he robs it of its urgency and energy, becoming his own version of a bloated arena rocker simply going through the motions.

On the upside, Boots Riley's performance is much more inspired. He uses the cadence of his voice to drive the songs. It's Riley who really gives the album's politics its intended bite. It's not enough to make this album essential listening for fans of either party involved, but at least it adds some substance and keeps the album from being unlistenably dull.

Overall, Street Sweeper Social Club lacks the musical adventure and political vehemence that would be the best case scenario for this pair. However, fans of Riley's work will be more pleased than fans of Morello's, as the latter really falls flat on this release.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 4/10
Overall: 5/10

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DVD: Iron Maiden - Flight 666

Label: UMe

Released: June 9, 2009

Before I get into this review, I really have to get something off my chest. I am sick to death of the 666 crap. Iron Maiden writes one song and titles one album related to this and it seems like it remains everyone's favorite focus. It just strikes me as rather sad that metal's least clichéd band still suffers one of metal's most overused clichés (even at their own hand in a sense).

Now that that's out of the way, this DVD features a great band making a great documentary about a great tour. Of course, it documents many of the amazing feats of the Somewhere Back in Time Tour which found Maiden playing 23 shows in 45 days on five continents (sadly, they didn't get to Antarctica). We get a good picture of Ed Force One, the 757 that carries the band, their crew and their equipment over 50,000 miles with Bruce Dickinson in the pilot's seat. Better still, it paints down to earth portraits of the band and the major players in the words of their touring mates that help to make clear what keeps a band ticking (still at the top of their game, no less) 30 years down the road. The energy of the live footage in the documentary (as well as the concert disc) would shame most bands still in the vibrancy of their youth.

All that being said though, what really makes this a standout rock documentary is that it gets to the core of what music really means and why this tour, perhaps more than any in Maiden's storied career, was so important. When other bands have stuck to the standard tour circuit of the US and Western Europe, perhaps occasionally hitting Australia and Japan, Maiden did what seemed like the impossible and brought a great rock show to countries that seldom if ever get to experience anything on the scale of Iron Maiden. Even the film's brief celebrity breakdown in LA, sadly featuring the always annoying and self-important Lars Ulrich, couldn't do much to detract from the real human story. It can really be summed up in the most poignant moment, after the show in Columbia, showing a fan, tears streaming down his face, offering up a prayer of thanks to God...for a concert. Here in the US, we often forget how lucky we are and, as a result, may never be able to fully appreciate a concert in the way that Maiden allowed so many on this tour to appreciate one.

Rating: 10/10

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Review: The Reptilian - Boys' Life

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars

Released: March 3, 2009

Any post-hardcore album worth its grooves (or bits and bytes as the case may be) ought to make one think of Fugazi, right? Well, this EP from Kalamazoo, Michigan's The Reptillian reminds me of...well...Cake. Yeah, the quirky, jazzy, hipper-than-thou hipsters of the 90s. Now, don't get me wrong though. The Reptilian doesn't compromise intensity for cleverness by a long shot. Instead, they enfilade the listener with quirkiness while rolling forward with a full-frontal, post-hardcore assault. Do you think a song titled, "I'll Ram My Ovipositor Down Your Throat And Lay My Eggs In Your Chest But, I'm Not An Alien!" sounds crazy? Wait 'til you hear it. Yeah, it's that good.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Flipper - Love

Label: MVD

Released: May 19, 2009

A reunion can be viewed in one of two ways. On one hand, it could be an attempt to cash in on the current popularity of the band's genre, something they may not have been able to do in their prime. On the other, it could be a way to expose the band to a new generation of fans as once great bands have a way of slipping into obscurity. Flipper's music is so anti-commercial that not even Kurt Cobain's endorsement brought their music to the mainstream, so it seems unlikely that former reason to reunite could be true. At the same time, they have remained the seminal art/noise punk outfit, so each generation has seemed to acquaint itself with their work. So, why reunite?

With Flipper, it's anyone's guess why they do anything and this is no exception. Perhaps their reunion for CBGB's sparked something, perhaps they enjoyed playing with Krist Novoselic, perhaps it just happened. After all, this band is no stranger to spontaneity. However it happened though, Love came to be. The album has the same heavy noisiness for which they've always been known, but there's something decidedly more deliberate this time. Though hardly accessible in any way, they have toned down the crazy into something a little more digestible. Love, which seems to be about a love that most people, myself included, don't quite get, still features that same half innocent, half debauched sweet sarcasm that underscores their art damaged existence. Overall, this new offering doesn't eclipse their catalog in any way, yet still provides a clear reason why this reunion is not just a one-and-done blip in their storied career.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10

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THe BAcksliders - Thank You

Label: self-released and free!

Released: May 16, 2009

Thank You's title may prefigure last year's You're Welcome, but the sound is moving forward. THe BAcksliders don't refine their previous effort, so much as distill what's clearly in their hearts. Whether it's the flat out energy of "Have You Ever Been Down" or the hard-edged soulfullness of "Last Call," the band has a great handle on the pure, simple energy of rock n roll. As further proof, they do right by Little Richard (a backslider himself, at times) on the cover "Keep a Knockin'" and channel the Shangri-Las on their own "Twisted."

Kim Bonner's voice has that beautiful rock n roll imperfection. It's raspy and gritty, relying on raw passion more than range and control, but it has so much substance that it's something almost tangible to hold on to. She works perfectly with the loose, open swagger of the band that bangs out songs with just enough hook to catch you and plenty of grit to hold you. They capture the wild mix of soul and garage rock that ruled late 60s Detroit and take it on a trip through their home state of Texas' fine tradition of outlaw music. As their name implies, the music embodies the internal conflict between worldly desire and divine goodness. I always hope the good wins, but for the BAcksliders, it still seems up in the air.

Best of all, you can download the album for free, no strings attached:

Thank You

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Website

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