Week 8

Listening to The B-52's, Megadeth, and Nelly in a row nearly made my head explode. The combination was like drinking beer, liquor, and wine all within a short stretch of time. Or for non-drinkers like watching Sesame Street, a slasher movie, and a chick flick in the same day. While my musical tastes vary; the mix of all three in the same day may have been too much. Still, it makes the days of captivity in the corporate world go by quicker in a much more enjoyable fashion.

This week I took in 2 concerts at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro - Vetiver and North Mississippi Allstars. Both shows were awesome, but could not have been much different in terms of musical styles. Vetiver is mellow songwriter folk-style music while NMA play LOUD blues rock with a lot of Mississippi mud thrown in. The thing both have in common though is their approachability. The musicians mingled with the common-folk at the Cradle and they are just down-to-earth people that truly appreciate their fans. Enough babbling and on to this week's set (2/22-2/28):

Chris Hillman - Clear Sailin' (vinyl)
Stone Temple Pilots - Core
Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae
Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
The B-52's - Cosmic Thing
Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction
Nelly - Country Grammar
Dave Matthews Band - Crash
Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green
Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow

Chris Hillman was a member of several pivotal bands from the 60's including The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Manassas. Artists included in those bands are legends like David Crosby, Gram Parsons, and Stephen Stills. Clear Sailin' is a nice listen, but contains no hits which makes it all the more enjoyable. Hillman is an amazing song-writer with credits on many other artists albums including Tom Petty, Beck, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, The Oakridge Boys, and Nazareth.

Last week left off with Velvet Revolver and this week ties over with Stone Temple Pilots near the top of the list. Core is a great debut album from one of the 90's biggest bands.While they were often compared to Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains, STP proved they weren't just imitators as they grew through subsequent releases. Weiland went on to join Velvet Revolver and has now left to rejoin STP. Core remains my favorite album from STP.

I finally got to see Wolfmother back on 11/03/09 at the new Fillmore in Charlotte with Heartless Bastards opening. One quick aside, the Fillmore - Charlotte is an amzing venue. They are drawing great bands which means they will certainly be relieving me of several dollars for years to come. Back to Wolfmother - Andrew Stockdale is back, from the self-titled debut Wolfmother, with Cosmic Egg. The entire band around him has changed, but the sophomore release and new supporting cast do not disappoint. Wolfmother brings all the elements of metal, hard-rock, and lyrical story-telling together in each song. I recommend buying the double disc release of this album since some of the best songs are left out of the regular release.

Ten Years After is another one of the Woodstock bands that goes almost completely unnoticed as time goes by. I first learned of this band from watching the Woodstock documentary where they are featured playing I'm Going Home. The band did not achieve the commercial successes of many of the bands that played the festival. However, commercial success has no bearing on how good the music really is. Cricklewood Green is a great greasy blues-rock album from a often overlooked blast from the way-past.