Mudhoney -- Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

  Without a doubt the best release from the greatest 90's Seattle band.  This record is a mix of Avant-Garde Guitar Grunge and Garage Blues Punk.  They did it so well that it made their mainstream contemporaries look like a bunch of Jock-Rock wanna-be's!

REM -- Green

  I can't say I'm a huge REM fan, their early work is pretty good, but this period for the band marks the beginning of the end, in my eyes.  Yes yes they did get way more success, recognition and became the mainstream, but they started to lose that The Cure meets Husker Du quality to their music.  I found the riffs cheesy and the vocals annoying.  I wouldn't call it straight up bad, just mediocre.

Billy Preston -- Organ Transplant

  A mix of originals and covers specially arranged by Sly Stone.  Although you'd think it'd be good, Preston and Stone working together, unfortunately it is not, it's basically elevator Muzak, I couldn't believe my ears -- what a disappointment.  Plus it's one of those hunk of junk Pickwick compilations, which they re-worked an old album, Wildest Organ In Town!, dropped a couple tunes and gave it a new name!  Oh well that's how it goes ... sometimes ...

Sly And The Family Stone -- There's a Riot Goin' On

  Sly's answer to Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On.  Unlike the happy party time Soul sounds of his previous efforts, Sly slips into a dark lonely place, playing some deep Funk.  The album itself sounds muffled due to so many dub, over-dubs and re-dubs, making it clear that Sly preferred to work alone, otherwise it has a Brian Wilson quality to the production, the sounds of a man figuring it out with his own wits, politically charged, making his own flag, telling it like it is, the TRUTH .... RUTH!

Lena Horne

  So after having a wonderful visit from my best buds and touring the local landscape for junk shops aka cheap records, I had to sink my depressed head into "the sound of silence."  But what better way to cheer yourself up with, what the back of the album says, "arguably the greatest entertainer" of all-time!!!!  Forget the Beatles, the Stones, I now have the greatest!  With a review like that I was damn ready to sell my whole collection and play Lena Horne back to back for the rest of my life! 

  All sarcasm aside, my girlfriend picked this one, for some odd reason I kept thinking Mary Poppins style Disney music ... but the fact that she picked it and is showing interest in records, I had to buy it by default.  Perfect pick when you have grandma over for dinner and want to skip out on listening to her Kenny G CDs all night long!!!

Minor Threat -- Complete Discography

  At this point in music Punk Rock became so glamorized and soaked in drug culture ... there wasn't any place left to go ... except for New Wave or worse.  It took some working class kids to bring Rock music back to reality ... like Minor Threat.

 I remember when I was in my teens, a Minor Threat video hit our little Punk scene in my Dirty Old Town ... that thing musta gotten bootlegged and passed around more than the last dirty needle at a junkies convention -- Ha!  Even though the music sounds really aggressive, especially to my parents at the time, there really isn't anything bad in a Minor Threat record, it's way better for kids to grow up on this stuff than let's say ... hmmmmm ... anything else.  It's funny to think about everyone I knew was growing up on Hardcore Punk.  Soon enough it'll be played on Classic Rock stations everywhere tagged as the songs we grew up with ...

Nina Hagen -- NunSexMonkRock

  What's this?? The sound of total madness, possibly the soundtrack of a schizophrenic mind or Regan from the Exorcist??  I'd say yes!  NunSexMonkRock is one wonky-ass record, a real Punk Operatic Electro mash of the crazies.  I get the fact that it's art for arts sake, and that it is nothing less than pure feeling, no one could make such a bananahead album without coming from a visceral mind frame.  This release is virtually unlistenable, unless you have the volume turned way down while you are doing the dishes.  Although there is one exception, Born In Xixa, it sounds like The Cramps meet Trout Mask Beefheart, with some deeply strange lyrics about a European American junkie farmers planning a reunion of freedom ... it's the only saving grace that keeps this record in my collection, well ... maybe the cover too!!  As to the meaning behind NunSexMonkRock, who knows and who cares ... we can't take these things too literally, especially when dealing with a possible crazy person!

Funny Footnote: Why does almost everyone I know in Montreal own this album???  Hmmmmm ....

Dead Kennedys -- Bedtime For Democracy

  The fourth and final Dead Kennedys release is their worst, but still stands as a Punk Rock classic from a notorious band.  I'm not a huge fan of the Kennedys's crossover to Hardcore, the music itself does not suit them, I always thought they should have stuck with what they were good at, the Surf Punk sound -- that was their musical innovation.  Biafra's ego on Bedtime is pumped up to the max, although that's his shtick, but it's hard to buy the social commentary coming from the dude who wrote Chickensh*t Conformist while conforming to Hardcore which is where the scene had shifted.  Anyway there was almost the makings of something great but it got drowned in profane idealism and shameless self-promotion.

Al Green -- Greatest Hits

  This Greatest Hits album is know as the "best executed" collection of all-time.  We all know and love these sweet Soul ballads sung by the most tender singer I can think of, days like Valentine's Day couldn't survive without artists such as Al Green who vocally embody's the special holiday of love.  Even though we try not to buy into the whole corporate consumerism of V-day we can't help but get our lady's a symbol of our love, and what better way to celebrate it with, but the smoothest, panty remover (did I just say that?? yesssss I did!) music you could find ... Al Green's Greatest Hits!

Stephen Stills -- 2

  This hunk of junk second solo release by Stephen Stills has the perfect album title, the number 2, think about it!  Sound wise this record is all over the place, like he's not too sure who he wants to be, that or he's just doing a mish-mash of styles hoping that his chances for a hit song are greater, nevertheless as an album it's very irritating for the listener, a Folk tune, a Rock number, then a full tilt Soul track.  Personally I never liked Stills, even in the Buffalo Springfield days, I found his songs cheesy.  So as far as this album goes I think it's total sh*t, like the title!

Slint -- Spiderland

  Slint's monolithic sophmore album, Spiderland ... it's hard to describe and categorize this Post - Math - not so Grungy - Indie - Spoken Velvet-ish The Gift style - Rock record, but that was my best attempt!  No wonder these College kids, who had a burst of brilliant creativity, lost themselves in metal illness and stress while recording.  Honestly I didn't know sh*t from shinola about this band until my buddy Jon totally schooled me and bought me a copy ... it's hard to like this record, but easy to love it!

Genesis -- Live

  For starters I got this album for free, or else I wouldn't have given it a mere try ... and I can't say I was able to listen to a full track on this record ... maybe if there was something that resembled music on the album I would have been able to withstand one of their epic sh*t storms of sound.  I don't know much about the whole Prog scene ... and God knows I've tried ... but what I do know is that when it comes to this genre of music, only the German Krautrockers really know how to pull it off, maybe they weren't the first to invent it, but they are the only ones to execute Prog in a listenable fashion.  So f*ck Genesis and get that stupid triangle off your damn head!

Muddy Waters -- Electric Mud

  This not so good Sludgy Guitar Blues album by Muddy Waters was a valiant attempt to modernize his sound to what was currently going on in music, resulting in total bubkis.  The only good thing I see, other than that it is made by a legend, is that it gives the whole 60's Psychedelic Blues scene a thumbs up from the man himself for changing his music, the proof is that he's trying to play it their way, meaning, his humbled majesty has found good things in their version of the Blues.

The Meters -- Struttin'

  Super Funking Soul brotha outfit The Meters are pioneers in their genre.  Struttin' is mostly, with the exception of three tunes, an instrumental album, the riffs and rhythms are so intricate you get the impression that this is a musicians only release.  The three vocal numbers sung by Art Neville are great Soul numbers, and are not meant to be forgotten just because they have vocals, for these Funking instrumental snobs.  These guys have worked with a slew of luminaries, including doing back-up on Dr. John's most famous albums and tracks.  Get your Chicken Strut on!  And have a Funkin' good time!

In The Court Of The King Crimson

  A mish-mash of musical styles all colliding together to make one album, you've got Jazz-Metal, Synth-Folk and New Age Blues ... basically Krautrock not made in Germany, so we call it Prog.  Now when I got this record I was fully ready to bash it's gawd awful head to the ground, but I didn't hate it, I still don't really know what to make of it ... I do think it's got some bad 60's kitch that I'm sure sounded like future people music, but as time passes it just sounds dated and sometimes cheesy.  All in all I file this one in the not-quite-sure pile, where it's going to go from there, who knows, it's gonna have to go to the court of the King Jerm-son again!

Joni Mitchell -- Blue

  I was never a huge Joni Mitchell fan, mostly because I had only heard the big radio hits, which I found totally irritating, especially the vocals.  But I kept hearing about her Blue album, so I decided to give it the old college try ... and I loved it!

 Lyrically this is probably the most personal record I have ever heard, covering such topics as ... the ex-husband ... break-ups ... hippies ... Europe ... Canada ... LA ... personal nostalgia ... love ... child abandonment (don't judge, what can you do when you are too young and dirt poor!) ... and whatever else I failed to notice or mention, but you get the point.  

   Mitchell's use of alternative tuning, various instruments and interesting vocals (not Big Yellow Taxi style, which I still can't stand) makes her folk sounds vibrant and beautiful. She is a true artist ... and not only because of her innovative songwriting, she's also a painter, which is usually featured on the album covers, but not this one -- oddly enough ... maybe she was feeling too Blue ...

John Mayall -- The Turning Point

  This album marked a change for Mayall, his now Bluesbreaker-less career gave him a chance to do what is known as low volume music.  The record is recorded live at the Fillmore East in 1969, I wonder if the crowd was expecting mellow Blues, or if they anticipated a Bluesed out Psychedelic rave up.  Personally I loved it, I found this record to be a great innovation in 60's Blues music, I also found it refreshing that they added elements of Cool Jazz Saxing it's way through the music, resulting in Cool Ambient Blues -- just skip the closing track!

The Sonics -- Boom

  Seminal classic sophomore release by The Sonics.  These guys sound like a white-atized updated version of Little Richard!  Cheaply recorded intentionally, meaning they stripped down the studio to have more of a live raw sound, and cranked their amps up to 11, resulting in a Garage Punking masterpiece!!   KAAAHHH -- BOOM!!!