My Amazon Reviews: Flaming Lips "Hit To Death in The Future Head"

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Landing somewhere in the middle of The Flaming Lips' catalog is "Hit To Death In The Future Head," which has long felt like a transitional album in their continual chameleon-like career. The shift seems to be in a move away from the acidic psychedelia into psychedelic Beach Boys. Kinda like goodbye Sonic Youth, hello Beatles' White Album. This most easily found as the lazy roll of "The Sun" or the peppier, undeniably catchy "Gingerale Afternoon." Wayne Coyne is also exploring the possibilities of his singing voice; this is the first Lips CD where his singing really shines all they way through.

It may be also worth noting that "Hit" was the last Lips album to feature guitarist Jonathan Donahue and drummer Nathan Roberts were aboard. Donahue contributes plenty of guitar freakouts, like on "Frogs" and "The Magician Versus The Headache," along with all the whacked out sounds mixed into the CD's half-hour "bonus" track of cacophony. (Shades of 1997's Zaireeka, anyone?) There are plenty of epic moments to be found here, but the follow-up album was the powerful "Transmissions From The Satellite Heart," the Lips' artistic and commercial breakthrough. As such, "Hit" is a cool listen, but not the place to start of you want to discover why Flaming Lips can be such a magic band.

    

OMG - OK Go goes to the Dogs

My Amazon Reviews: "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" Steve Almond

Oh, the perils of Music Geekdom  
4 Out of 5 Stars

I picked up "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" after hearing author Steve Almond on some NPR show giving a hilarious interview about the lifespan of, in his words, a rock and rolling "drooling fanatic," and how one becomes one, lives as one, and eventually writes about being one. The salient points of the interview readily established him as a man roughly my age (likely younger) and his on-air self profile rang eerily close to my own musical maniacism. Indeed, he was a fellow traveller! I had to have this book. Which makes it hard to recommend it to anyone but a middle aged fellow traveller. On a personal scale, I give it 5 stars, but for those for whom musical hero worship is utterly alien, "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" is more a 3 star book, so I rate it 4 to split the difference.

Almond's musical journey is intensely personal and oft-times extremely snarky (and even for a lefty like me, the constant Bush-slaps got in the way when they should have been edited away). His snark occasionally turns back on himself, and that gives the book a few of its best moments. His exegesis on why Toto's "Africa" is genius is a riot, and the secret confession of being a Styx addict and loving "Paradise Theater" in spite of his older brother is almost worth the price of the book. On the other hand, Almond falls into the trap most rock writers fall into, and that is believing your favorite obscurity is Godhead.

In this case, the object of his desires is one Bob Schneider, a Texas singer songwriter. Almond takes this to an extreme, tracking the man down at his home and engaging him in a sadly painful dialogue, revealing another pitfall of artist worship, when your idols break your heart. Sadder still, they break your heart because you've jammed them into a corner that they can never work out of. I actually felt sorry for both Schneider and Almond by the end of the chapter. (And just as geekifically, I promptly went out and bought Schneider's "Lovely Creatures" after. Very Sneaky, Mr Almond.)

Which underlies the attraction and distraction of "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life." Unless you're the kind of "DF" who would be naturally stoked to find out what Bob Schneider (or Joe Henry, Aimee Mann, Nil Lara and a series of other artists Almond is hot for) does to merit such magnificent praise in this book, you might wonder what the commotion is all about. Not me. Because as Almond himself accurately predicted, as soon as I saw the words "free CD" in the introduction, I put the book down and hit his website as fast as I could. Because I am that kind of person.

My Amazon Reviews: Rush "Spirit Of Radio"

He's a signal turning green
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Mercury Records put this Rush anthology out to commemorate the band's 30th anniversary, basically a quickie release to capitalize on one of the label's best selling catalog artists who has since moved to another company. Yet as I write this, there's an article that the Tribeca Film Festival awarded their 2010 Heineken Audience Award to "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage," a documentary on the Canadian rock band's 40th anniversary together. With the exception of John Rutsey (who left after the 1974 debut), it's still the same three men.

Each one contributes an essential component to the band's chemistry: Alex Lifeson's guitar, Geddy Lee's unique vocals, and from the second album on, Neal Peart's incredible drums and lyrics. And while the first three albums were basic power trio hard rock, by "2112," they hit the magic formula. Peart's sidelong story about a future fascist society brought to revolution by a rogue guitarist brought the band into their first successes in the USA. They had forged an unlikely fusion between progressive rock and heavy metal, a vein they'd continue to mine into the future.

Two similar albums ("Hemispheres" and "A Farewell To Kings") followed the science-fiction story line, then they made another major change on "Permanent Waves." While Peart's lyrics were still heavy on the cerebral quotient, the songs themselves were tighter. The approach paid off with the album become the band's first top ten and "Spirit Of Radio" just missing the Top 40. "Moving Pictures" was even better, moving Lee's keyboards up in the mix and delivering one of the great rock anthems in "Tom Sawyer." It was Rush's second creative pinnacle after "2112."

They had absorbed the current influences of the times and become even stronger for it. It's hard not to discern the influence of The Police on "New World Man," for instance. While following albums each have their moments (and they're all here, especially "Subdivisions" and "Time Stand Still"), Rush never hit that level again. They remain one of rock's virtuoso bands and still make superb albums, however this best of stops in 1987. It's a good sampler; those who want more could do better with Gold.

My Amazon Reviews: Kraftwerk "Tran Europe Express"

Elegance and Decadence
5 Out 5 Stars

Having already created the aural electronic equivalent of driving on one of Europe's most famous roadways, Kraftwerk set about making the soundtrack to riding Europe's best known railroad line. "Trans Europe Express" is the electronic album that launched thousands more; everyone from David Bowie to Afrika Bambaataa to Radiohead has cited this album as an influence. In its 2009 remastered incarnation, "Trans Europe Express" gains in clarity and depth, and reinforces the fact that this 1977 album was decades ahead of its time.

TEE was the album where Kraftwerk began to manipulate not only their sound, but their look. The cover photo was a stylized studio shot and the innersleeve reveiled the very first images of the band as mannequins, an image that would become even more extreme in years to follow. The non-synthesized instruments from "Autobahn" were removed entirely and the interlocking title track/"Metal On Metal"/"Abzug" playout as a trip along the tracks with the monotonous clickety clack of the drum machines simulating the rolling cars. The deadpan voices chant the title and name drop meeting Iggy and Bowie in Berlin (an episode that really happened). It was the sound of the future, and sounds incredible even now.

Max Headroom finally headed for DVD!

"Max Headroom" starred Matt Frewer as a reporter whose mind is downloaded into a computer to create a virtual clone who exists in the digital world. Amanda Pays, Jeffrey Tambor and W. Morgan Sheppard also star in the series, which ran for 14 episodes on Cinemax and ABC in 1987 and 1988. Set in the near future, "Max Headroom" depicted a world of television run amok.

Shout! Factory has a "Max Headroom" complete-series DVD set slated for August 20, according to a spokesperson. Episodes are being transferred from their original elements to provide the best quality, and Shout! Factory is planning a robust range of extras for the set. Bonus content may include the original U.K. telefilm 20 Minutes Into the Future, upon which the series is based, though nothing has been confirmed. Max Headroom also appeared in a series of Coca-Cola commercials in the 1980s, raising speculation such content may also be fodder for bonus material, but Shout! Factory said planning the extras is in the early stage.

(From Home Media Magazine)