Found in the Shuffle: Tim Armstrong – “Cold Blooded”

Song: Cold BloodedArtist: Tim ArmstrongAlbum: A Poet’s Life When “Cold Blooded” started, my first thought was “Huh, this must be some King Tubby or Impact All Stars song that I never noticed. Cool.” It’s not King Tubby, though, and it’s not Impact All Stars. It’s Tim Armstrong. As in, Tim Armstrong, the dude from Rancid. Could I have paid this… Read more »

Found in the Shuffle: The Who – “Miracle Cure”

Song: Miracle CureArtist: The WhoAlbum: Tommy Thank God this is only 13 seconds long. If it were longer, I would have to dismiss The Who as a bunch of Broadway-lovin’, showtune-writin’ saps. Which they were, but in a good way. Not this, though. This is capital-B, capital-A, capital-D. It makes me wonder if maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber was the secret… Read more »

Review: Man Raze – Surreal

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Label: VH1 Classics Released: June 3, 2008 A few months back, I heard a few pre-release tracks of this project which reunites Def Leppard’s Phil Collen with former Girl bandmate Simon Laffy and brings in ex-Sex Pistol Paul Cook. The line-up certainly sounds like it could be flirting with disaster, but that preview raised my hopes that this would be… Read more »

Found in the Shuffle: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars – “Seconds”

Song: SecondsArtist: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-StarsAlbum: In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 This has great energy. It’s obviously a U2 cover, but the All-Stars completely made it their own. Best of all, they made it African without compromising the basic Western roots of the song. I wish more world music was like this. (By the way, Bob reviewed… Read more »

Review: Title Fight – Kingston

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Label: Flightplan Records Released: January 29, 2008 Some time in the 90s, pop punk generally began placing the pop over the punk in its approach to the point that it might be difficult to tell the difference between A New Found Glory and Avril Lavigne. That’s sad, because punk has a long pop tradition that dates back at least to… Read more »

Review: Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) – Year of the Rabbit

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars Released: January 2008 Sometimes there is a very fine line between great and terrible. Great bands stay just on the good side and awful bands may only take a single step over. Queen’s bombast pushed right up to the line and they’re one of rock’s truly great bands. Meat Loaf (or really Jim Steinman) took… Read more »