Week 7

This week was spent listening to more music outside of my project than covered here. Specifically, I listened to many of the vinyl gems now in my collection, in addition to going to watch John Mayall. What an amazing experience!! He is a phenomenal musician that has surrounded himself with an equally (or even more) talented band. As I stated in Week 4 he has played with musical giants like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Paul Butterfield. During the entire show it was awe inspiring to watch all the unspoken dialogue between every member of the band as they traded solos and made space for each within the music which kept me totally captivated. The amazing harmonica playing of John Mayall left my jaw-hanging, but the the bassist Greg Rzab ripped it all the way off. He is easily the most amazing bassist I have ever seen in person. He is obviously talented and it hasn't gone unnoticed from looking at his bio.

This week started with a trip back to cover some of the "new" music accumulated during the week. Much thanks to everyone that contributes to my musical addiction. This week's set (2/15-2/21)

Don McLean - American Pie
Jeff Beck - Beck Bogert Appice (vinyl)
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A.
Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield (vinyl)
Jo Dee Messina - Burn
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
Collective Soul - Collective Soul
Foo Fighters - Colour And The Shape, The
Lacauna Coil - Comalies
Puddle Of Mudd - Come Clean
Confederate Railroad - Confederate Railroad
Gin Blossoms - Congratulations I'm Sorry
Velvet Revolver - Contraband

Puddle Of Mudd is one of my favorite bands from the past decade with Come Clean topping the list of their releases. The hits Blurry and She Hates Me don't end the album's worth. My favorite song Drift & Die is one of many deep cuts that leave you feeling like Puddle Of Mudd is a complete band and not just another shallow pop-metal. The diversity in each track make this album flow without feeling like they were following a formula.

Velvet Revolver is my favorite band of the last decade. This super-group consisting of former G N' R members Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum along with Dave Kushner of Wasted Youth and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots produced one of the baddest rock n' roll groups ever assembled. Contraband is a straight-forward hard rock album laced full of epic Slash solos, heavy but catchy riffs, and lyrics that exude rock n' roll. VR released one more album, Libertad, before Weiland departed. Rumors are always swirling about who will step in, but as long as Slash is driving this project I have no doubts it will be good, or better.

I haven't listened to Born In The U.S.A. in probably 15 years or more. My Mom had the vinyl and it too has been rescued from the attic and added to the collection. Sure this album has hits like Glory Days, the title-track, and Dancing In The Dark, but my favorite track is Cover Me. Not sure what it is that I like so much about it, but that song has always been one of my favorites. As I stated in previous weeks, my appreciation for The Boss has grown recently.

The highlight of my week was listening to the debut Buffalo Springfield album. The group was together for a short time, but every musician went on to success with Stills and Young achieving the highest level of success. The entire album is unreal and it starts with one of the most powerful songs of the era - For What It's Worth. Stills is the primary songwriter/singer, but room exists for a few of Neil's tunes. All-in-all a truly timeless album full of wonderful songs cemented in a time when music, song-writing, and change were just a little more meaningful - and Buffalo Springfield were innovators.

Buffalo Springfield, left to right:
Stephen Stills
Dewey Martin
Bruce Palmer
Richie Furay
Neil Young

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Week 6

Patronage is defined as the financial support or business provided to a store. This week I visited Nice Price Books (both the Carrboro and Durham branches), Chaz's Bull City Records, and CD Alley. The financial support came mainly via me relieving them of several vinyl records. Stephen Stills and Aerosmith releases seemed constitute the majority of my purchases, but Beethoven, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, & The Band were included. Yes, if it hasn't already been stated enough, this music obsession appeals to my addictive nature. As one person stated, there are certainly worse things to be addicted to. Without further ado, on to this week's set (2/8-2/14):

Jeff Beck Group - Beck-Ola (vinyl)
Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King
The Lemonheads - Car Button Cloth
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cardinology
The Casual Fiasco - Casual Fiasco, The
Jupiter Coyote - Cemeteries And Junkyards
John Fogerty - Centerfield
Chickenfoot - Chickenfoot
Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
Christina Aguilera - Christina Aguilera
Lenny Kravitz - Circus
Mounatin - Climbing!
Grand Funk Railroad - Closer To Home
Led Zeppelin - Coda
Kid Rock - Cocky
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses

This week began with a large flavor for indie bands. The Lemonheads were surprisingly very good. The first time I listened I wasn't sure if I liked them. That was nearly a year ago and this time through it hit me right. Jupiter Coyote's Cemeteries And Junkyards marked the 100th album of my listening project. The Casual Fiasco is no longer together, but some of their former members have kept their careers going. Been meaning to check them out - no time like the present. There is one album in this week's set that doesn't fit. Let's play "One of these things is not like the other". Please feel free to comment, but realize that just because I have certain music doesn't necessarily mean I consider it my style. Moving On!!

Ryan Adams - not to be confused with Bryan Adams -  who hails from Jacksonville, NC has released nearly every song he has written this decade. Some of his solo work is less-than-ordinary, but Cold Roses and Cardinology with The Cardinals contains some of the finest alt-country work recorded. Each album is a solid collection with no tracks that need skipping. Cold Roses is my favorite of the two albums.

Grand Funk Railroad's album Closer To Home is one of my all-time favorite albums, which is why I added it to my growing vinyl collection during this week's shopping spree.. We're An American Band is the band's most well known single (from the album with the same title), but their best selling album is Closer To Home. While the entire album is solid, the first 4 tracks are the highlight. Nothing Is The Same was how I learned about this album, through seeing Rose Hill Drive cover it many times. "When something keeps right on knocking, well my friend you better let it in". Let this album in and you won't be disappointed.

Mississippi Queen might be the only song many people know by Mountain, but this band made plenty of great music beyond that one hit. In fact, when Mountain performed at Woodstock in '69 that song wasn't even in rotation. The Woodstock performance was actually only the band's 4th live performance. When mentioning the great classic rock bands from the 60's and 70's Mountain and GFR are often overlooked  which is a shame. These two bands had a large influence on the music during that era and both of these albums are prime examples why.

Week 5

Between work, a wedding, the Superbowl, two new hobbies/interests, and adding another layer to my music obsession it's been a busy week. My Dad has had the Led Zeppelin vinyl Led Zeppelin IV forever (at least my entire life). Since vinyl has been making a comeback in recent years I ventured up into the attic to rescue said album from the hazardous climate. I pulled down several other vinyls and went to another of my favorite used music/book stores (Nice Price Books) and purchased two of Aerosmith's vinyls: Get Your Wings and Rocks (which happen to be MY favorites). The new hobbies I mentioned are an interest in glass bottles and the author Ray Bradbury. On the way to the wedding, I stopped at an antique store outside Littleton, NC to see what they had. I purchased an old liquor bottle and some Pepsi-Cola salt/pepper shakers. I spent several hours researching the bottles and will share some of that useless information later. As for Ray Bradbury, the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes recently went through my Netflix queue as it was a child-hood favorite of mine. While picking up the vinyls I purchased the Ray Bradbury title Dandelion Wine to read, and plan to read some more of his titles depending on how this one goes. At a minimum I want to read Something Wicked This Way Comes once I locate a copy. Without further ramblings, onto this week's set (2/2-2/7): 

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
Buckcherry - Buckcherry

Buffalo Killers - Buffalo Killers

Megafaun - Bury The Square

Gov't Mule - By A Thread

Beachwood Sparks - By Your Side

The Black Crowes - By Your Side

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

I know - pathetic to only get through only 8 albums in a week!!

The haunting music of Nick Drake began the week. His album Bryter Layter is a mysterious, yet intricately beautiful album. Drake's posthumous popularity was sparked mainly by a Volkswagen commercial which used the title-song Pink Moon. While shopping one day I picked up an album which was not Nick Drake's, but looked identical on the cover. I walked over to the Nick Drake section holding the Japanese rock band Boris' Akuma No Uta next to Bryter Layter.  Stunned to discover the exactness in its recreation. I still haven't checked out Boris, but perhaps I will revisit that album to see what they're all about. Many more artists have cited Nick Drake as an influence including Rich Robinson. He stated, "The reason I got into open-G tuning was because of Nick Drake". That tuning is used in nearly every Black Crowes song recorded. Sadly, Drake only released three albums during a four year period (1969-1972) at which time he overdosed, whether intentionally or accidentally is debated, on prescription antidepressant pills.

Buckcherry's self-titled debut album is pure rock n' roll album. This band reminds me of the 2000's version of Guns N' Roses or The Rolling Stones. Excess, drugs, sex, loud, blues riffs, with wild party-story lyrics. Don't get me wrong, musically they aren't an epic band (yet), but they have all the swagger those two bands exude. Everyone knows them for the song Crazy Bitch or Sorry (from the album 15), but those songs do not define this band. The rest of their music is solid in it's own right. Buckcherry, along with their latest release Black Butterfly covered earlier, are great albums.

When the Black Crowes toured in support of Warpaint, they had the Buffalo Killers opening much of that tour. Recently their debut album made it into my possession. These guys are talented. Hailing from Cincinnati, OH they sound more southern rock harkening to bands like the Allmans or Mountain. This album was great, but I can't wait to hear their newest album Let It Ride which was produced by The Black Keys front-man/guitarist Dan Auerbach.

My absolute favorite local band is Megafaun. Their newest album Gather, Form, & Fly is one of my favorite all-time albums, but this week their debut Bury The Square was in rotation. These guys are impossible for me to categorize because their music has hints of blues, rock, country, folk, pop, and art-music flavors without fitting into any category at all. They live in Durham, but have toured nationally for some time. Having seen them nearly a half-dozen times now, I can safely say they are remarkable musicians, never boring, down-to-earth good people. When Gather, Form, & Fly makes it into the set expect a long review.

In my opinion, By A Thread is the finest album Gov't Mule has released since their early days. This album was recorded at Willie Nelson's studio in TX, features a new bassist, and has contributions from Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top). The arrangements, mix, feel, and lyrics are vintage Gov't Mule. This album reminds me of what AC/DC and Metallica did last year with Black Ice and Death Magnetic. The album is fresh while remaining true to the band's original sound. Warren Haynes is an absolute guitar god. When your side projects are The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers, I reckon you have to be pretty darn good.

Since I've already covered By Your Side and talked extensively about RHCP, no need to go into depth this week. Horsehead and Virtue And Vice are great tunes from By Your Side. Californication is my favorite RHCP album period.

Week 4

So, this long snow weekend cooled down my progress on the blog in addition to having little to no time to breath. I hoped to finally finish the B's over the weekend, but playing in the snow and taking care of a sick child were top priority. There was just enough recovery to squeeze in some sledding down my old neighborhood streets. It's always great to make new memories that bleed into old memories. I am late in posting and have digressed enough, so on to this week's set we go (1/25-1/31):

Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
Pearl Jam - Binaural
Champion Jack Dupree - Blues From The Gutter
B.B. King - Blues Summit
John Mayall - Bluesbreaker With Eric Clapton
Widespread Panic - Bombs And Butterflies
Ry Cooder - Boomer's Story
Toby Keith - Boomtown
Boston - Boston
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
George Jones - Bradley Barn Sessions
The Wallflowers - Breach
Staind - Break The Cycle
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
The Rolling Stones - Bridges To Babylon
The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse
Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
Cry Of Love - Brother
The Allman Brothers - Brothers And Sisters


This week felt like Bob Dylan week. I made it through more from his catalog in addition to two of The Wallflowers (Bob’s son Jakob Dylan) albums Breach and Bringing Down The Horse. The Bob Dylan album Bringing It All Back Home has my favorite tune of his - Maggie's Farm. The album is a fine example of Dylan's lyrical story-telling with, classics like Mr. Tambourine Man and It's Alright Ma, which is what makes him perhaps the greatest song-writer ever. Jimi Hendrix was a HUGE fan and as we all know covered All Along The Watchtower (not from this album) to make it his own. And Jakob has put out some pretty solid music as well. The Wallflowers charted with hits like One Headlight and 6th Avenue Heartache. Jakob has a solo disc out (Seeing Things and a new one due out on 4.6.10) which has made it onto the "wish list".

Cry Of Love was Audley Freed's band started in Raleigh back in the early 90's. Audley has gone on to play with The Black Crowes (including the Jimmy Page shows and with Chris Robinson on some of his solo work), gigs with Joe Perry, and sadly enough he toured with The Dixie Chicks. Even great guitarist sometimes have to do plug-and-play to pay the bills on their sports cars, huge houses, and whatever other vices they have. His greatest work still remains the album Brother. (which was recorded in Raleigh with the same producer (John Custer) Jive Mother Mary recorded their debut All Fall Down). Kelly Holland the original lead singer plays in the area with cover band Crush doing R&B standards. Drummer Jason Patterson has played with Corrosion Of Conformity. This album charted nationally and had a couple of hit singles (Peace Pipe and Bad Thing). Great album and great band - too bad they split ways!!

Bruce Springsteen's breakout album Born To Run was truly a joy to listen to. I have come to appreciate and enjoy The Boss as my musical tastes have grown. It's amazing how complex and yet so simple this album is to listen to. Bruce used Phil Spector to produce this album and Phil used his famous "wall of sound" technique. I also listened to another album which used an interesting recording technique, Binaural by Pearl Jam. I won't bother trying to recount what I learned about the binaural process, rather you can check it out if you're so inclined. Pretty much all of the music I have listened to has been through a fair set of full-ear headphones. The listening experience is so much nicer and with these two albums it was even more enjoyable. I haven't gotten into Bruce or Pearl Jam heavily, but with this weeks set I am excited to hear more from both artists.

The highlights of this week for me were listening to Champion Jack Dupree and Ry Cooder. Champion Jack Dupree's Blues From The Gutter is exactly that. An album about real life struggles without any frilly lyrics  Notably, Jack got his moniker as a boxer, which he did at the encouragement of Joe Louis. Dupree also spent his early years at New Orleans' Colored Waifs' Home for Boys where Loius Armstrong spent many of his years. Ry Cooder's Bommer's Story is an equally inspiring album of folk-country-blues inspired music. Ry Cooder is more well known for doing studio work (mainly slide-guitar) with legends like Little Feat and the Rolling Stones.

After listening to John Mayall this week I checked out what he was up to these days, only to learn that he will be rolling through Carrborro's Arts Center on 2/17/10. I won't get into everything about him now, but the guy has played with EVERYONE. To name a few John McVie (Fleetwood Mac bassist), Eric Clapton, Paul Butterfield, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor (of Rolling Stones guitarist). Barring another snow storm or financial ruin I plan to attend. And three shows the following week at the Cat's Cradle including North Mississippi Allstars.