My Amazon Reviews: Various Artists "CBGB Original Soundtrack"

The Spirits of the '70's
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Offering conclusive proof that the 70's were more than disco balls and The Captain & Tenille, this punky soundtrack to the movie "CBGB" mixes in classic New York punk and new wave, along with some classic proto-punk and the late owner of the club, Hilly Kristal, singing a country inflected ditty called "Birds and The Bees." It's enough to make you sappy for the old, ugly pre-Disneyfied Times Square.

The mix is pretty cool, as well. While you get some of the more obvious (IE famous) bands to break out from the CBGB stage (Blondie, Talking Heads), you also are offered some of the better bands that got brought into the big label league, only to fall victim to an audience (and more often than not, record labels) that just didn't get it. Those bands include delights from The Dictators, Laughing Dogs, Tuff Darts and others. Then there's the notorious of the bunch, like Wayne (eventually Jayne) County and Johnny Thunders. There's also quite a few others that fell somewhere in the middle, building a well known reputation but never equaling the talk with the sales (New York Dolls, Television, Dead Boys).

If it seems to you that the bands I'm pointing out are all pretty darn different from each other (Dead Boys' nihilistic punk is not the same as Blondie's power pop is not the same as Television's arty guitar compositions), then you're right. The tiny stage of CBGB's was a place that hatched all sorts of Bowery Bands, and while the DIY ethic was often the same, the bands could often be miles apart. So having the likes of the MC5 ("Kick Out The Jams"), Iggy and The Stooges ("I Wanna Be Your Dog") and The Velvet Underground ("I Can't Stand It") along for the ride shows that the roots of the NYC Scene came from just as many sources as the sounds the new bands were making on their own.

There are a few nods to the aftermath of the time, including Joey Ramone's posthumous "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" from 2002 as something of a footnote to the period. The neighborhood that fostered musicians and junkies is now gentrified and the original club closed. Kristal died in 2007, a year after the bar closed over a rent dispute. At one point, some jokers in Las Vegas wanted to open a club that carried the namesake amid all the rest of the phony glitter. There's real gentrification for you. But as Richard Hell sings, "I was saying let me outta here before I was even born!" which about sums up the heart of this whole soundtrack. While the trendier of the 70's NYC luminaries were headed for Studio 54, a whole batch of young ne'er-do-wells were smashing their way out in the opposite direction, preserved here on the "CBGB" Soundtrack.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Talking Heads "Fear Of Music"

What Are You Afraid Of,
5 Out Of 5 Stars

Kicking off with the celebratory "I Zimbra" and closing with the haunting spaciness of "Drugs," "Fear Of Music" was the first album where Talking Heads managed to mix all their influences for the first time as a whole. The funkiness that seemed buried under the surface of the previous two albums comes to fruition on the classic "Life During Wartime," and the experiments that just seemed like art-school JO came into musical fullness. This was the Talking Heads' ode to New York City, and it still holds as one of their finest albums.

There's a lot of rumbling claustrophobia ("Cities") wonder at the outside world ("Animals") and general anxiety ("Memories Can't Wait," "Heaven.") I always thought that this was the album where David Byrne stopped thinking about inner city paranoia and actually statrted seeing bodies dangling from hooks on the walls; hence his fear of "Air" and dread of "Life During Wartime." Even with Byrne's more pointed mindset, this would be for nothing if the rest of the band wasn't pulling their weight. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz score points for their rhythm chops. It is their propulsion that takes "Wartime" and "I Zimbra" into dance turf, and Jerry Harrison's guitar and keyboards add the the enigmatic swirl.

This is obviously a bridge album given how the danceable throb of muscle that was "Fear Of Music" would ultimately give way the the polyrhythms of "Remain In Light" (and the Byrne/Eno project "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts"). But for this moment, the Talking Heads took their NYC Arthouse Groove and served it up to a mainstream audience in the quirkiest form of anxiety ridden pop. Next to the friendly accessibility of "Little Creatures," my favorite Talking Heads album.

     

My Amazon Reviews: TV On The Radio "Nine Types of Light"

The other side of the prism
4 Out Of 5 Stars

TV On The Radio have been one of the most proggy groups of the last few years. Mixing elements and references from everyone from the Flaming Lips to David Bowie, their music has been a wonderful batter that pours out from each CD. For "Nine Types of Light," TVotR have moved into a new direction: relationship songs.

The first single was almost a straight ahead pop song. "Will Do" unravels slowly, like a lush R&B ballad with a seductive lead vocal. Had that song been the direction of the entire CD, I think most TV fans might have been too shocked to handle it. No need to worry, though, on "Nine Types of Light,: the following song is a buzzy beat number "New Cannonball Blues." Lurching from sassy vocals to a wailing falsetto, it has its own take on blues-rock that jerks along on its powerful drumline.

I also love the Bowie cop on "No Future Shock" and "Repetition." Kip Malone gives TV fans a new dance refrain as he barks out "Do the no future!" in a world that's gone insane. Same with the hard rocking "Caffeinated Consciousness" that ends the album, which hardly feel out of place on a Red Hot Chili Peppers album (or a little too much like INXS's "Guns The Sky" younger brother). To the other end of the spectrum, "Killer Crane" stretches out for over six minutes, with a "Dear Prudence" reference and refined and patient unfolding. Same with the album's beginning, "Second Song." "Confidence and ignorance approve me...I tried so hard to shut it down, gently walk away," is sung over a slow build. There's almost an acquiescence involved to "Nine Types of Light" that makes it fascinating.

Listening to this album made me often thing of the Talking Heads. That New York band followed their most dense and career altering album "Remain in Light" with the sunnier and poppy "Speaking in Tongues." "Nine Types of Light" finds TV leaving New York for Los Angeles and taking a sunnier view of the world. (Although no-one will mistake TVotR for Taylor Swift.) "Nine" is a great album, also standing as a tribute to band member/bassist Gerard Smith, who passed away from lung cancer in April of 2011.