A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records

  This is the best Christmas album of all-time, and unlike most, it isn't a joke!  I am sad to announce that I do not have this record!  I was going to buy it on e-bay, but I felt that the price tag was way too high, I thought there'd be millions of copies floating around, but being released the same day as JFK's assassination probably brought the album sales way way down, I might pay the hefty price after all ... I almost cheaped out and bought the dinky CD ... but why would I insult the artists and producer by doing that!?  As well as being the ultimate X-mas record, it is Brian Wilson's favorite LP ... which makes a must have into a ............. ME WANTEE!


update: MEEEE GOT-EEE!

Tommy James And the Shondells -- The Best of ...

  Total Bubblegum Rock 'n' Roll bananahead Tommy James and his Shondells.  As much as this music is like a cheese factory, these tunes are all recognizable, and you can't help but love 'em -- well most of 'em!

Patti Smith -- Easter

  Punk poet extraordinaire Patti Smith!  Her usual brilliance is, in my opinion, not present on this record.  Other than hugely offensive, Rock N Roll Ni**er, the album just sounds like sloppy Classic Rock ... it's not that I'm too offended by their use of the dreaded N word, I get the poetic shock Warholian outrageousness, but do they have to scream it over and over and over, it kinda looses it's power and becomes shock for shocks sake, and why does it sound so separate from the rest of the album ... the tune is a wickedly sharp punk number, reminiscent of the MC5, while the rest of the record is a Springsteened biblical diatribe, who co-wrote Because The Night, and rejected it for his own record ... yikes ... is that the caliber of songs we have here ... rejects?  I wish I had found Horses instead, this review would have been totally different, the hit song is good but the album is a miss ...

Miles Davis -- Kind Of Blue

  Mega cool, super smooth Miles Davis masterpiece Kind Of Blue.  I really don't know what to say that hasn't been said already, the accolades are endless ... point being, get this record and let the music speak for itself!

Chubby Checker -- For Teen Twisters Only

  The King of the Twist craze, and it's still my all-time favorite dance!  Man this record makes me laugh, it's like life according to the twist, Lose Your Inhibitions Twist, Love Is Like A Twist, and ultra ridiculous our skeletons where made to do one thing, Twistin' Bones, are just mere examples of how far Checker takes it.  Otherwise this album is great, like a nice watered down James Brown ... and remember, "Adults Twist At Your Own Risk!"

Kiss -- Dressed To Kill

  Yearrck!  Total over the top Rock 'n' Roll debauchery, Dressed To Kill.  Now I do have a guilty pleasure for Kiss style Rock music ... but is it actually good ... NO.  It seems to me this is exactly what Punk Rock was setting out to destroy, although some of the Punk sound and aesthetic is taken somewhat from these guys, but they stripped it down like a Dadaist and re-invented it.  Everyone likes the idea to Rock 'n' Roll All Nite, "and party everyday," but realistically if you did you'd be a brain dead moron wondering why someone won't C'mon And Love Me ...

The Animals -- Animal Tracks

  US release of Animal Tracks works more like a compilation than an actual album.  These Animals are hard edge Garage Blues royalties who certainly know their licks, my only real problem with the record is Burdon's sporadic opera tones he explores with his voice, which he turns up to eleven later in his career.  These guys definitely had a leg up on the Doors by a couple years, thanks to Alan Price's brilliant keyboard playing.  So just "Bury My Body, I don't care where they ...."