Flavors, Volume VI
I think you know how this works, so let's not fiddle about, shall we?
*+*+*+*
Nina Gordon - �Tonight and the Rest of My Life� (2000, Warner Brothers)
When Nina Gordon left Veruca Salt in 1999, I was afraid to think of what might happen to her, seeing as she had taken Veruca Salt producer Bob Rock with her (the man many would point the finger at for ruining bands like M�tley Cr�e, Skid Row, and Metallica). As it turns out, this is one of very few times I'm
not pissed to see his name on a CD, because it's a REALLY good CD... You can see what she meant to her former band - now with only Louise Post, Veruca Salt has become a little darker, murkier, and CRAZY bitter (a lot of it likely attributed to the messy split between the bandmates), a bit more like Hole or something (in fact, ex-Hole bassist Suzanne Sokol plays for VS, now). �Tonight...� is a really smooth album, showcasing Gordon's sassy, (Veruca) salty rock styling with her sweet pseudo-pop - throw in collaborations with Jon Brion (who works with Aimee Mann quite a bit) and you have a CD worthy of adding to your collection.
PICK TRACKS: 2.) �2003� (which I heard playing overhead at Festival Foods about a week ago - kinda spooky), 4.) �Badway,� 7.) �New Year's Eve,� and 9.) �Number One Camera.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Veruca Salt, the Breeders, Juliana Hatfield, Liz Phair.
http://www.ninagordon.com
*+*+*+*
Alice in Chains - �Dirt� (1992, Columbia)
One of the best rock albums ever made... still as good as the day I bought it. I do believe it is also the CD responsible for blowing my friend's speakers (uh, the first time, that is). Maybe you could call it a concept album - one that tells a story of the depths of an addiction that ten years later finds us with a vacancy where (yet) another gifted soul once stood.
PICK TRACKS: 2.) �Dam That River,� 3.) �Rain When I Die,� 6.) �Junkhead,� 7.) �Dirt,� 11.) �Down in a Hole,� and 12.) �Would?�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Old Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam (see a theme, here?).
http://aliceinchains.com
*+*+*+*
Live - �Throwing Copper� (1994, Radioactive/MCA)
Whether you've liked everything they've ever done or are just a �fair-weather friend of Live� (heh), �Throwing Copper� might have represented their biggest commercial success (with four popular singles); whether or not it's my favorite Live album, I'm not sure (no really, I'm not). They have grown a lot since 1991's �Mental Jewelry,� and people that give them Hell for being �too preachy� or something maybe are not listening close enough... Produced by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads (and one of the overseers of
http://garageband.com - a very cool website/idea).
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �Dam at Otter Creek,� 3.) �I Alone,� 7.) �All Over You,� 8.) �Shit Towne,� 9.) �t.b.d.� (for �Tibetan Book of the Dead�), 12.) �Pillar of Davidson,� and 14.) (the uncredited) �Horse.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Soul Asylum, Better Than Ezra, Collective Soul, Dishwalla.
http://friendsoflive.com
*+*+*+*
Faith No More - �King For a Day... Fool For a Lifetime� (1994, Slash/Reprise)
Absolutely, totally, INCREDIBLY underrated album. The first of the two �post Jim Martin� FNM albums (Mr. Bungle's Trey Spruance handling guitar duties on this one). I read a couple reviews that called this album �less spirited� than other FNM releases, and my response is simply, �What-the-hell-ever... put the crackpipe down and listen, maybe?�
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �Get Out,� 2.) �Ricochet,� 4.) �The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,� 8.) �Ugly in the Morning,� 9.) �Digging the Grave,� 11.) �King For a Day,� 12.) �What a Day,� and 13.) �The Last to Know.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Bad Brains, P.I.L., Helmet.
*+*+*+*
The Cult - �Beyond Good and Evil� (2001, Beggar's Banquet)
Another of the rare CDs I don't get uptight at seeing Bob Rock's name in the producer credits. The Cult, post-punk turned arena-rock overlords, hadn't put out an album since 1994's (superb yet obscure) �The Cult.� Soon after, singer Ian Astbury decided to part ways with guitarist Billy Duffy in an effort to �rediscover his soul� (and to form a side project, Holy Barbarians). In 2000, they reunited along with onetime Cult drummer Matt Sorum (who left in '89 to join Guns 'n' Roses) to do �Painted on my Heart� for the �Gone in 60 Seconds� movie soundtrack. Go figure they would be bitten by the reunion bug, but this reunion has had TONS more substance to it than most of the �cha-chingers� of recent years. It's definitely in the top three all-time Cult albums (with �Electric� and �Sonic Temple� being the other two, in whatever order you see fit). The Cult have updated their sound a little since the post-punk days of 1984, but �today's Cult� is a mighty fine piece of work...
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �War (the Process),� 3.) �Rise,� 4.) �Take the Power,� 5.) �Breathe,� 7.) �American Gothic,� 8.) �Ashes and Ghosts,� and 12.) �My Bridges Burn.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Hanoi Rocks, Love and Rockets, Gene Loves Jezebel.
http://www.thecult.net
*+*+*+*
Frank Zappa - �Sheik Yerbouti� (1979,1990 Barking Pumpkin)
If someone unfaimiliar with the late Frank Zappa were to ask me about him, I would point to �Sheik Yerbouti� as a good introduction to the madness and the magic, as well as one of the cooler lineups Zappa had (boasting fantasto-drummer Terry Bozzio, guitarist Adrian Belew (who later joined King Crimson), and keyboardists Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf). Maestro Zappa and friends always provided the listener with some smart, supremely complex, never-fail humorous tunes...
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �I Have Been In You,� 2.) �Flakes,� 3.) �Broken Hearts are for Assholes,� 7.) (the totally righteous instrumental) �Rat Tomago,� 9.) �Bobby Brown Goes Down,� 12.) �Baby Snakes,� 16.) �Jewish Princess,� and 18.) �Yo' Mama.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Captain Beefheart, King Crimson, Devo.
*+*+*+*
The Who - �Tommy� (1969, MCA)
One of my earliest memories of the Who, actually... well, it was about '75 - one of my cousins was getting married, and there was a great big reception. I spent most of the later part of that evening in the basement with all the teenage kids (with the funny smell)... at one point, one of the kids (who would later marry another one of my cousins) sat me down, put this album on and told me all about �little Tommy Walker...� I always thought the movie kinda sucked...
PICK TRACKS: Well, it's a pretty fluid piece of music. I mean, we're talking about the original �rock opera.� If you really had me try to narrow down �highlights,� I'd go with 1.) �Overture,� 7.) �Christmas� (the �See me, Feel me, Touch me� song), 8.) �Cousin Kevin," 9.) �The acid queen,� 10.) �Underture,� 13.) �Pinball Wizard,� 16.) �Tommy can you hear me?� 21.) �I'm Free,� and 24.) �We're not gonna take it.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Pink Floyd, Sweet, the Yardbirds, Mott the Hoople, the Beatles.
*+*+*+*
Black Label Society - �1919 Eternal� (2002, Spitfire)
It's NOT that I have pretty much come to dismiss Ozzy Osbourne as nothing but comedy, anymore. It's not that Ozzy's last three albums have all kinda sounded the same. It's just that (guitarist) Zakk Wylde on his own is a different experience... From the Pride & Glory days to the mostly acoustic �Book of Shadows� to the Black Label Society, Zakk Wylde is the king of dishing out the �alcohol-fueled brewtality...�
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �Bleed For Me,� 2.) �Lords of Destruction,� 5.) �Bridge to Cross,� 6.) �Battering Ram,� 7.) (the brilliant, acoustic) �Speedball,� 9.) �Genocide Junkies,� and 10.) �Lost Heaven.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: C.O.C., Allman Brothers, Government Mule, Down.
http://www.zakkwylde.com
(suh-weet - SPANKIN' NEW TODAY - as I write this, anyway - wow)
http://www.gibsoncustom.com/News&Events/news14.htm
*+*+*+*
Prime STH - �Underneath the Surface� (2001, Giant/Reprise)
California-via-Stockholm alt-rock outfit Prime STH grabbed a lot of attention as an opening act for bands like Faith No More and Rage Against the Machine in the late '90s. I caught them on an episode of HBO's Reverb around Christmas-time last year (the Reverb websites are currently SO bad, they offer no help whatsoever, and reverbnet.com doesn't even exist, anymore).
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �Underneath the Surface,� 2.) �I Don't Envy You,� 3.) �I'm Stupid (Don't Worry 'bout Me),� 5.) �In My Head,� 7.) �Even the Score,� 9.) �She,� and 11.) �24 Song.�
SIMILAR SOUNDS: Live, Our Lady Peace, Default.
http://primesth.com
*+*+*+*
Charlie Hunter Trio - �Bing, Bing, Bing!� (1995, Blue Note)
If you were to pop this CD in, you'd be thinking, �Okay, drums, sax, organ, guitar, bass...� BUT, there's only three people in the band (thus the word �trio�). So, how do they do it? Well, surprisingly, it's NOT studio trickery, but the magic of the 8-string guitar (well, and Mr. Hunter, too)... that's right, not merely a 7-string with an extra string, no no... this is a standard 6-string guitar with two bass strings on the bottom end - and a curved fretboard that is unlike anything you've ever seen... AND the guy pulls it off, playing big, juicy, Hammond B3-sounding guitar chords and moving bass lines AT THE SAME TIME. This CD also features one of THE COOLER cover tunes, ever - an incredibly well-done version of Nirvana's �Come as You Are� (about the only other cover I've ever heard that is remotely as compelling is, incidentally, Tori Amos' version of �Smells Like Teen Spirit�).
PICK TRACKS: 1.) �Greasy Granny,� 2.) �Wornell's Yorkies,� 4.) �Come as You Are,� 7.) �Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing,� and 8.) �Squiddlesticks.�
***Any opinions expressed above don't mean shit, but are the property of Anthony Phillips and Xtatic Media - get their permission to reprint it, see?***
