Album Reviews

I was wrong. These four Frankenstein monsters created by Capitol in 1964 out of parts stripped from various UK originals sound fantastic and yes, revisiting them after decades of neglect and dismissal opened a floodgate of intense memories-for me my freshman year at Cornell- of my roommate at University Halls #3, of a dorm band fronted by a kid names Ozzie Ahlers, and their big hit “Master the Bate,” and especially where and when I bought each of these albums, and how I reacted upon hearing them. When I heard the fake stereo version of “I Feel Fine” for the first time in 3 plus decades I flashed on the first time I ever heard the song: on WKBW, Buffalo, which was a clear channel we could pick up on the AM radio at night in Ithaca. I remember who I was with when the song aired, what he was wearing and even how the dorm air smelled. Hearing these songs strung together in this order creates a totally different vibe than the one you get listening to the UK originals: more muscular, and justd plain more American. That's both the problem and the pleasure, however.

A collection of songs mostly written by fellow-Canadians is kind of a thin album concept in my book. Frank's Come Fly With Me-now there was a concept album! And Lang hasn't exactly chosen adventurously-you can probably name them all without having read the credits. Can it be that there are no obscure Canadian singer/writers worthy of our attention?

Richard Buckner has one of the most instantly recognizable voices in Rock music today. A plaintive wail that expresses sadness better than anyone save perhaps Mark Eitzel, Buckner's latest (and sixth overall) album, and first for progressive independent-label Merge Records, features a nice mix of his traditional acoustic laments as well as some bold electric guitar-laden rockers. Recorded at Wavelab Studios in Tucson as well as Tophat Studios in Austin Texas, Dents & Shells contains fascinating insights into the breakdown of relationships and the regeneration of the human spirit following such events. Buckner has recently gone through a divorce so it is not a stretch to read into these tunes from an autobiographical perspective.

Petra Haden, the very talented daughter of bassist Charlie Haden, and former member of That Dog has released an a cappella version of The Who Sells Out that is charming, entertaining, ingenious and loads of fun.

I've seen literally hundreds of copies of this 1959 Weavers release, but until this reissue, I've never seen a stereo copy. Didn't even know it existed in a black label “Stereolab” edition.

"Keep Your Jesus Out of My Face,” is a bumper sticker I'm contemplating having printed so I can stick it on my car's rear end, and tell people who are offended where they can stick it. That's just how I feel about religion, and Jesus, and Yahweh, and Zeus and Poseidon, and Mary, and the rest of the endless myths that hobble and delude mankind into thinking the latest iteration is the truth, the way, the best, my way, or the highway, or whatever. More evil has been committed in the name of religion than any other institution invented by mankind and nothing you're going to tell me is going to turn me around.