My Amazon 2011 Best of Lists.

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My Amazon DVD Reviews: "Suck"

Tune in to KCUS
4 Out Of 4 Stars

A giddy, goofy piece of rock and roll camp that delivers on all counts, from the homages to classic rock albums and pictures to the cameos from Moby, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Alex Lifeson, "Suck" makes glorious hash of the overworked vampire movie and rock band films. Dave Foley manages "The Winners," a mediocre band that travels in a hearse and can't catch a break. That is, until the sexy female bass player gets bit and becomes a goth idol. Before you know it, the band is gaining fans by the thousands, leaving a trail of groupies in their wake and Malcolm McDowell on their trail.

There is no real attempt to make this anything but a corny cult flick, even the 'animation' is hokey. Alice and Iggy are obviously having a blast chewing their parts, and there's an hysterical inside joke regarding Moby as the lead singer of a rival band. The original songs are just good enough to be Spinal Tapp-ish, but not too bad as to make you graon. The soundtrack itself contains the likes of Lou Reed, Iggy, Cooper, David Bowie and The Burning Brides, and is a true addition to the film. "Suck" is exactly the kind of film that should be on the A-List for a few decades' worth of Halloween parties.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Brendon Benson "My Old Familar Friend"

Raconteur Reconnaissance
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Brendon Benson has carved out a nice little niche for himself as a power-popper extraordinaire. He's cut albums that use the blueprint of bands like The Who and The Beatles (and then their acolytes, like Jellyfish or Matthew Sweet), but his three albums prior attracted mostly critical attention and a devoted cult audience. One of those fans was Jack White, who pulled Benson into the rocking Raconteurs, which raised his profile sufficiently enough to get him another record deal, this time with ATO.

"My Old Familiar Friend" will surprise those familiar with Benson only via his Jack White friendship, but not those who have loved his albums like "One Mississippi." Benson flaunts his love of Paul McCartney from the first notes of "Whole Lot Better." There's a kick of Motown in the swirling strings of "Garbage Day." "Misery" even has a little bit of an Attractions kick to it. All across the album, there's a cheerful vibe to which the sixties were the most fun of the musical decades.

What does that mean for you (or for Benson, for that matter)? Depends on your record collection. "My Old Familiar Friend" will slot in nicely if you slavishly pour over your Jason Faulkner, Matthew Sweet, Big Star and Badfinger albums. Seeing as PowerPoppers are something of an insular breed of fanatic, then that's about the best recommendation I could give as to whether or not you'll like this Cd and want to buy a copy for yourself.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Hall & Oates "Ooh, Yeah!"

Oops, Eah? 
3 Out of 5 Stars 

Daryl Hall and John Oates had such an incredible run on the charts that a collapse was inevitable, and "Ooh Yeah" was that album. It's not a bad album as much as an average one, and after a four year break between studio albums, average equated bad in the ears of the public. Add that "Ooh Yeah" is overproduced, and the duo's string broke here.

There should be a caveat inserted in here that the times were also changing; Phil Collins was white soul-man of choice by now and his songwriting was hitting a peak in this period. "Ooh Yeah" still managed three top 40 singles in the top 10 "Everything Your Heart Desires," along with "Downtown Life" and "Missed Opportunity." There's also a trilogy of sorts with "Soul Love," "Real Love," and "Keep On Pushing Love" as the album's closers. John Oates gets a solid vocal on "Rockabilty," while "Rocket To God" is one of Hall's better album tracks.

The ultimate problem, though, is the production. Pumped full of 80's electronic keyboards and faux soul horns (think Huey Lewis), most of "Ooh Yeah" now sounds like an obvious date stamp. Which is a shame, because it seems like Hall and Oates recognized that error by the time the follow-up, the far more acoustic "Change Of Season" and the career comeback in 1997 of "Marigold Sky." By then, it was too late to regain their chart dominance, even if they've regained their maturity and excellence. "Ooh Yeah" is an 80's album and sounds the part.

   

My Amazon Reviews: John Lennon "Walls and Bridges"

Ah! Bowakawa pousse, pousse!
4 Out Of 4 Stars

Coming out from his infamous "Lost Weekend" period in Los Angeles, John Lennon returned to New York with a batch of songs and renewed focus. From that wellspring came "Walls and Bridges," Lennon's first album to contain a solo number one single. I know a lot of Lennon fans characterize this album as one of Lennon's weaker albums; I happen to have a certain nostalgic love for it.

After all, Lennon had befriended Elton John and Elton famously bet Lennon that "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" would be a chart-topper. This being 1974, Elton was at one of his peak periods and it's his piano and backing vocals that propelled the song. Lennon lost the bet and the payoff was to be a guest at Elton's Madison Square Garden show, which infamously was Lennon's last live appearance and the duo performing "I Saw Her Standing There" eventually appear as the B-Side to Elton's "Philadelphia Freedom." The album also contains the one time John and his son Julian appeared together on record, as Julian plays drums with his dad as the album closes on the oldie "Ya Ya" (which John eventually recorded for inclusion of the "Rock 'n' Roll" album).

Even with these touching moments, Lennon had compiled some wonderful songs. "Number 9 Dream" is a mystical, hallucinatory dream diary where Lennon took words and thoughts from dreams and formed them into a nugget of psychedelia. "Scared," which opens with a lone wolf howl, is emotionally naked and can't be seen without the backdrop of his separation from Yoko. Nor can the stark "Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out," which also bares its soul in a Dylanesque manner.

"Walls and Bridges" was the final album of original material from Lennon until "Double Fantasy" with Yoko six years later. While it was the last of Lennon's solo written albums, it often lost. With such open and autobiographical songs as "Going Down on Love," the bitter "Steel and Glass" (allegedly written about Lennon's disgust with Allan Klein) and even the jubilation of "Whatever Gets You Through The Night," it deserves better.

 

My Amazon Reviews: Til Tuesday "Coming Up Close: A Retrospective"

He Wants Me, If Only Part of The Time 
4 Out Of 5 Stars

That brilliant line came from Til Tuesday's biggest hit, "Voices Carry," and is likely the song most folks recall the band by. It also launched both the band and their lead singer/songwriter, Aimee Mann. While Mann has since embarked on a critically acclaimed career as a solo singer/songwriter, "Coming Up Close: A Retrospective" both follows the breif, three album arc of Til Tuesday and shows Mann's evolution. "Voices Carry," both the single and first album, was typical of the MTV 80's. Synth and drum heavy, the photogenic Mann quickly struck a chord as the girl in the video to stand up in the opera scene to scream at her creep boyfriend. The songs "Love In A Vacuum" and "Looking Over My Shoulder" (which peaked at 61 on Billboard but oddly is left off this set) followed in the same vein.

While the band was set for a successful follow-up, Mann's songwriting had begun to shift into a more personal direction, as well as losing the funky new-wave style. "Welcome Home" was a great album, but lack of a "Voices Carry" clone lead many to peg the band as one-hit wonders. The stinging "What About Love" did manage to peak at 26, but the song "Coming Up Close," a terrific song about the twilight of a relationship, stalled at 59. There's also a taste of the quirkier points of her solo career with "Will She Just Fall Done," a poppy song about a dysfunctional girlfriend.

The rest of the band was feeling left out by the start of the third album, "Everything's Different Now." Only Mann and Drummer Michael Hausman with session players, it's basically Mann's first solo album and is partially about her breakup with songwriter Jules Shear (who co-wrote the title track). It included a collaboration with Elvis Costello on "The Other End of The Telescope" and Til Tuesday's last charting single, "Believed You Were Lucky" (a censored version, which completely changed the tome of the song) that peaked at 95. "Everything's Different Now" officially embarked Mann on her pop-folk voyage, as well as a legal battle that held up her solo recordings for another seven years.

"Coming Up Close" finishes out with an unreleased track by the original band called "Do It Again," with no other info about its origins. It's a pretty good song, but that was it for any reunions since Mann has been touring and recording steadily since. Overall, since only the debut remains in print, this retrospective is a worthy overview of a band whose output has been long overlooked.