The Dead Milkmen -- Beelzebubba

  Fourth album by goof Punk luminaries The Dead Milkmen.  What can one really say about the Milkmen?  They make me think of the Violent Femmes, but electric and silly!!  Although this is the one that made them famous with hit track Punk Rock Girl, unfortunately after Beelzebubba things started to go down the drain ... damn fame, f*ckin' things up, again!!!

Julie Doiron -- I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day

  Released in 2009 but somehow is a modernized throwback to the 90's Eric's Trip sound and even recorded by Rick White, album by Julie Doiron.  You know what I was thinking during the duration of this ... forget Feist, Doiron is the real deal ... and she is and was a strong part of inventing the sound everybody wants today, so all power to her!

Apples In Stereo -- Science Faire

  Indie Pop Lo-Fi mega nerd alert album/ compilation by the Apples In Stereo.  What is there not too love about this 60's influenced loosey goosey band?  Nothing, because they are goddamn great!  Although word on the street is they don't like to play the old songs in concert??  That I'll never get!

Mazzy Star -- She Hangs Brightly

  Debut killer, somber, lush cool album by Mazzy Star!  I f*ckin' love this one, it's hard to pin point all the feeling and emotion that goes behind that beautifully dark and haunting voice, accompanied by the slow tempo Blues jangle.  These guys definitely started something here, so stealth, but at the same time so big, you can hear it in the music of today 20 years later ...

The Flaming Lips -- At War With The Mystics

  ... so!  I was thinking the other night, why am I limiting myself only to my record collection?  Well I do know that answer ... anyway ... point is I have a couple of boxes of neglected CD's and a box of dusty old tapes, which I clearly love ... I've been lugging them around long enough!  Last night I jimmy rigged my laptop to my killer set up and decided enough with this format snobbery, records are still better, but I wanna listen to some music!

  At War With The Mystics, the eleventh Flaming Lips album is drenched in 70's style psychedelia mixed with a dreamy futurist Pop vibe.  What I love about this band, other than their live shows, is that they are totally arrogant, over-the-top, pretentious, hippie weirdos in all the best ways, and definitely will be a staple classic in years to come.

Year One! And I'm done!

  Howdy readers,

  It was one whole year ago today I started this thing with Astral Weeks, and man, what a strange tumultuous year it has been ... it's gone from good to weird to bad to weird to good to bad to worse and everything else in-between ... well you get the point.

  My record collection went from a humongous horde to a well maintained stock pile of goodies, plus I bought myself a new setup, which I had never done before, I usually just had the junk shop variety players which can be totally unspeakable.

  Point is, I had set out to review an album every working day for a year, so it was like I was getting paid.  I discovered some new stuff, re-discovered some old stuff and uncovered some total sh*t ... while some of the reviews were inspired, some were uninspired and some were a total sham.  I might be back eventually, although it's going to be whenever the f*ck I want! Ha!  But at the same time I might just leave it as it's own work of art!

Anyway thanks!

Sayonara!

J!

P.S. Sorry to all the albums that didn't make it!  Better luck next time!!!!

Robert Johnson -- King Of The Delta Blues Singers

  As I sat there alone, contemplating existentialism, my own potential ultimate purpose, or maybe I am just a carbon based creature experiencing random events in a meaningless sea of utter bullsh*t ... there's no life ... there's no love ... but there sure as sh*t IS a Robert Johnson!

  Johnson's story is the quintessential music legend ... going to the crossroads to have a meeting with the devil ... trading his soul for a guitar playing mojo hand, and man, you know what, some of those instrumentation's are so damn slick you start to believe that the legend might be fact.  King Of The Delta Blues Singers features all the best known Johnson tunes.  Thematically the numbers are mostly dark and almost mythological.  His sound is very much in the Folk Blues tradition of the time, but has that modern Blues feel in the noodlings, almost like snippets of the future, the birth of modern music.

  The man himself sounds like the ultimate badass, drinking, smoking, and lusting after married women, all-the-while he's got the devil on his side.  His murder is left in mystery, story goes he accepted a jug of whiskey, the jug was laced with strychnine by a woman's jealous husband, against Sonny Boy Williamson's advice, Johnson drank it, and soon after died.  Although I had read it might have been his then girlfriend who shot and killed him out of a jealous rage ... or better yet, maybe it was the devil initiating his first victim of the 27 club ... we'll probably never know, what I do know is thank God for these recordings, too bad someone had to shake hands with the devil first!