Label: Drive-Thru Records Released: October 16, 2007 Trampoline is aptly titled, because the album has a lot of bounce and not the teeny-bopper kind of bounce either. This bounce is the combined force of Steel Train’s energy and elasticity. The band’s biggest influence is perhaps the Beatles (and who would complain?) and they draw on everything from early jangly pop… Read more »
Label: PRC Released: August 14, 2007 The Wildbirds draw on a variety of late 60s and early 70s influences on Golden Daze. At times they turn it into their own sound, but at other times, they filter it through more recent regurgitations, most prominently the Strokes. The first few tracks on Golden Daze get old quickly. The driving rhythms of… Read more »
Label: Rhino Released: November 13, 2007 Like Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career, this collection is erratic. Some of it is amazing, some is trite, some is timeless and some is dated. The first disc is by far the least interesting. While some of the very early classics are on there, the videos generally show Paul’s escape to a pastoral life that… Read more »
Label: Arclight Records Released: November 13, 2007 Some bands cover songs, others rename songs, but Magnet School has made an album out of a song. At no point do they play or even directly lift anything from “Bullet the Blue Sky,” but its presence is profound throughout. Magnet School captures the blues, rock, psychedelia and even the passion of U2’s… Read more »
Label: Exile Productions Ltd. Released: November 6, 2007 In over 40 years of performing, Van Morrison has released records on a variety of labels. Until now, there has apparently not been a best of culled from his entire catalog. Still on Top is a single volume anthology of Van the Man’s hits ranging from his time in the mid-60s with… Read more »
Label: Released: November 13, 2007 Is there really such a thing as a comprehensive Led Zeppelin box? Yeah, it’s nine discs and includes I, II, III, IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence and In Through the Out Door in their entirety (I think we can let Coda and The Song Remains the Same slide). Of course that’s the… Read more »
Label: Small Stone Records Released: June 11. 2007 Despite all of its tackiness, the 70s seem to have provided quite a well to which bands seem to return again and again, some for a small drink before moving on and others for their very sustenance. Sweden’s Greenleaf is among the latter group. Stoner bands and their 70s hard rock influence… Read more »
November 12, 2007, Rams Head Live!, Baltimore Maryland Surprises at a show are a mixed bag. Most often they’re of the unpleasant sort when the band you go to see doesn’t live up to your (often over-hyped) expectation. Every now and then though, there’s a good one. On Monday night at Rams Head Live, I got three of them. The… Read more »
Label: Roadrunner Records Released: 2007 I’m gonna cut to the chase here. “Shout” is the biggest slice of musical joy I’ve heard since U2 released “Beautiful Day” seven years ago. The song bursts with unadulterated happiness. It’s hooks and harmonies grab you right from the start. A tide of pop beauty rolls in on driving rhythms, infectious bass lines and… Read more »
Label: Eleven Seven Music Released: October 23, 2007 With the possible exception of Dr Feelgood (and that’s even pretty questionable), Motley Crue hasn’t done anything meaningful since 1983’s Shout at the Devil, so it is quite beyond me why anyone would waste their time and money to see them. That being said, Carnival of Sin turned out to be a… Read more »