Band: Nobunny Release: 8/2010 Label: Thirdman Records
1. “The Gutter” – A- 2. “Hocus Pocus” – B+ 3. “Mess Me Up” – A 4. “Give It To Me” – A 5. “Motorhead With Me” – A+ 6. “It’s True” – A+ 7. “Boneyard” – A+ 8. “I Am A Girlfriend” – A+ 9. “I Don’t Know Why” – N/A
10. “Your Mouth” – N/A
11. “Not That Good” – A+ 12. “It’s So Easy” – A 13. “Hippy Witch” – B+
14. “Monster Kiss” – A-
15. “Chuck Berry Holiday” – A+
Comments: This is thee live Nobunny album that everyone’s been talking about. The introduction “Today’s greatest rock and roll band on Earth…Nobunny ladies and gentlemen!” met by cheers of all of five people in the audience is more priceless than Jared Swilley’s “This is going to be the greatest live album of all time” on Los Valienteles Del Mundo Nuevo. Live at Thirdman is the product of a late arrival at Jack White’s homestead after a crazy night involving jails and cheerios. Nobunny starts off with “The Gutter,” an old country tune from the Raw Romance tape about spending your unemployment paycheck on smokes and booze and not having any money left over for anything else. “Hocus Pocus” is a dancer. “Sometimes my feet get the best of me” says Nobunny after that one. “Mess Me Up” is a classic off Love Visions that’s pretty raw. The next two are off the Give It To Me 7″ released in early 2009. “Give It To Me” is a punk rocker in the same vein as the fantastic “Motorhead With Me”. Dedicated to all the pretty girls out there is “It’s True.” “I know you heard it all before/And I don’t mean to be a bore but/you got eyes that sparkle like diamonds!/you got a smile that keeps me smiling!/you’re so cute there’s no denying…It’s true!” The raunchy incomprehensible “Boneyard” is just one of those live songs that is awfully hard not to love. Same is true with “I Am a Girlfriend” mainly because of the short “hey little girl” Ramones-esque interlude, but also because it is an incredibly sharp yet raucous live tune. So after that incredible stretch of songs, there comes a problem. Nobunny realizes he can’t play some songs live. No big deal! “I Don’t Know Why” is a soft acoustic number (presumably) that was never practiced before and “Your Mouth” pretty much the same except they practiced it once. So after about ten seconds of “Your Mouth” Nobunny does what he does best. He says “WE’RE JUST GONNA DO OUR REGULAR SONGS.” A ha! Good call, No-no. Fitting (but not really because we know Nobunny is the shit) that he dedicated “Not That Good” to himself (and his band). “It’s So Easy” is a Buddy Holly cover with a few lyrical modifications here and there. “Hippy Witch” is basically inaudible on Raw Romance, but makes sense here. “Monster Kiss” is a Halloween song. Yee! No better way to end a set than with “Chuck Berry Holiday” — the same tune that one fan of mainstream music only (MMO) has called a “catchy song!” Now, that’s something! I attribute that to Nobunny’s vocals and the guitar riff. It’s golden. That’s all I’ve got. See ya later, suckers! “It’s a black man in a white world!”
After the release of their first album too much critical success but virtually no commercial success, The Chameleons released their second album ‘What Does Anything Mean? Basically’ in 1985 to similar results. However this album was a far different from 1983 ‘Script of the Bridge’, in that it relied much more on slick producing and digital pedals. Here is my personal favorite track from that album “Perfume Garden” (but they are all good tracks).
One year ago on this fine day around this fine time, I was getting pumped to go see The King Khan & BBQ Show at the Middle East Downstairs! I would be in for treat. A treat that may not come again for a while.
Band: Weezer Release: 11/2010 Label: Geffen Records
1. “Tuning Up the Radio” – A 2. “I Don’t Want Your Loving” – A 3. “Blowin’ My Stack” – A 4. “Losing My Mind” – A 5. “Everyone” – A- 6. “I’m A Robot” – B 7. “Trampoline” – B+ 8. “Odd Couple” – A- 9. “Autopilot” – B+ 10. “Unbreak My Heart” – B-
Comments: Word. I think generally fans of early Weezer (TBA and Pinkerton) will think favorably of this release. This record (as a whole) is certainly edgier than “Beverly Hills” and the like. Death is old material encompassing a fairly vast variety of rock genres with 2010 production quality and aesthetics. There is some straight up power-pop, a little oldies/lighter pop, pop-punk, and some grunge. The first four tracks are absolute gems. The rest of the album is very good, but doesn’t quite have the passion (for lack of a better word) that is present on the first four tunes. The “Unbreak” cover borders on average. So maybe this is Weezer’s third best album ever?
After four years of being tied up in courts file sharing group Limewire has been issued an injunction that reads “This is an official notice that LimeWire is under a court ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software.” It adds that “downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorization is illegal”. Limewire has said it will come up with a new program to comply with the court order and put the user “back at the centre” of the music experience
If they sound familiar it’s because there are 20 different bands out there that copy these guys. The Chameleons (some times known as The Chameleons UK) are probably the most influential band you never heard of with three albums in the 80’s ‘Script of the Bridge‘, ‘What Does Anything Mean? Basically‘, and ‘Strange Times‘. They also got back together in 2000 and released a final studio album in 2001 ‘Why Call it Anything‘. From the opening track of their first album 1983’s ‘Script of the Bridge‘ Don’t Fall , two things are clear 1) these guys were years ahead of their time and 2) when they played together these guys were something special.
Note, Don’t Fall is the first track of the album, Here Today is the second track off ‘Script of the Bridge‘. I wanted to post the studio version and this was the best I could find so you get two for the price of one.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 