“Another Tricky Day”, The Who Face Dances

A great latter day track driven by an awesomely cool punchy and sliding bass line from John Entwistle alongside the occasional power chord blast from Pete Townshend, Tricky Day shows the band quite strong post Keith Moon’s untimely death.  Moonie’s replacement Kenney Jones is bedrock solid, laying down the backbeat for the band and plenty of room for Roger Daltrey and Townshend to weave in and out with some great vocal interplay.  Throw in some color from keys and some acoustic into the mix and you’ve got a tune that shows that there was still life in The Who post personal tragedy.

“Disillusion Town”, The Knack Normal As The Next Guy

Ahhh, the curse of the one hit wonder and that hit being the lead song on your first record.  But alas!  The Knack always had a “knack” for a good tune, Disillusion Town offering up a great blast of Beatle-y\Byrds-y pop with a nice psychedelic guitar solo to boot.  Melody for miles, great singing from the always fantastic Doug Fieger, and as always on Knack cuts some of the coolest drumming on the planet for this kind of 60’s influenced pop rock-  a little bit of Ringo, a little bit of Keith Moon, and just a touch of 60s session great Bobby Graham to make you shake and shimmy.

“I Will Possess Your Heart”, Death Cab For Cutie Narrow Stairs

First time I heard this song I got sucked immediately into the bass groove, and that was actually the single version.  In some ways this is almost two songs in one, with the first four minutes a bunch of trippy goodness led by a groovy bass and drum pattern with some ambient guitar awash in reverb and spaciness topped with a repetitive piano hook.  Halfway through Ben Gibbard’s vocal brings it down to a small hush and then the groove picks back up and takes you home.  Lyrically a bit on the stalkeresque side but certainly paints the picture for you.  VIdeo is the album version in its eight minute glory.

“Savage World”, Primal Rock Rebellion Awoken Broken

Due to my love of Iron Maiden, I will always pick up any side projects that the fellas do, this one headed up by ace guitarist Adrian “H” Smith alongside one totally unique vocalist in Mikee Goodman.  Other than the heavy guitar, this is pretty far away from H’s day job as it’s quite a bit more modern and moodier across the board.  Vocally this IS NOT for everyone as Goodman has his own dramatic style.  He does express quite a bit of range throughout, mixing in cartoony yelping with some actual singing here and there.  H is a little more free to roam here and there and get a little bit noisier than usual, which is cool to hear.

“Sandy Beaches”, Delbert McClinton Live From Austin

Not my normal cup of tea as this is a bit too smooth and “yacht rock” for me (blame the horns), but hey, Delbert is reliable as ever and can certainly sell a song.  It’s pretty far removed from the bluesy R&B that he’s more famous for, sounding more like a hit soft rock song from the 70s.  If you want to slow dance with the one you love, this is certainly up your alley.  A little trivia note for you-  Delbert has been doing a yearly floating music festival for 20+ years named “Sandy Beaches Cruise” and I guarantee he’ll play this one every year!

“Don’t Go”, Ugly Kid Joe America’s Least Wanted

Rock fans likely remember “I Hate Everything About You”, but may not have been familiar with the talent in this funk metal rockin’ outfit, which is a damn shame as grunge came along and totally killed everything that smelled remotely hairy.  “Don’t Go” is a groovy bit of funkiness with suitably crunchy guitar and great vocal from Whitfield Crane, feeling vaguely southern rock come chorus time.  Probably the best part of these guys was their sense of humor, which doesn’t really come through in this song but an overall sense of good time fun does.

“Electric Twilight”, Vicious Rumors Vicious Rumors

I think all heavy 80s bands had cool, atmospheric guitar pieces either as individual segues between songs or actual song introductions, used either to show off the guitarist’s chops or to offer up a little bit of light and shade to balance out the heaviness.  Vicious Rumors has always featured strong guitarists and was the launching pad for one Vinnie Moore, but this time the guitar work is handled by Geoff Thorpe and Mark McGee, getting a bit ethereal and flashing some Led Zeppelin with touches of mandolin and acoustic with the electric.  Only about two minutes but a bit of fresh air on the CD.

“Everybody’s Got A Mountain To Climb”, Allman Brothers Where It All Begins

A Dickey Betts composition and one that sounds a bit Little Feat-esque, but with that unmistakable stellar slide work between Betts and Warren Haynes.  Unfortunately this would be Dickey’s last go round with the ABB and he pulls off a fantastic vocal here, sounding a touch like Gregg Allman here and there with the Betts twang.  Lyrically a bit of a feel good song too as we all have our own mountains to climb in life.  Did I mention the slide work?  Yeah I did, but I got to mention it again as Betts and Haynes always gelled so well together.

“Promised Land”, Reverend Play God

Former lead throat of Metal Church David Wayne sticks with what he does best, grabbing some hot players (ironically from replacement Mike Howe’s old band) and busting out material very close to his old band-  not quite thrash metal and something a little more heavier than something like Judas Priest.  In “Promised Land”, Wayne swings back and forth between menacing shriek and smooth croon.  Toss in a little bit of groove towards the end before coming full circle to the heavy stomp as Reverend Dave belts it out in fine fashion.

“Hi Fi Mama”, ZZ Top Deguello

Ahh, that lil’ ol’ band from Tejas with a short and snappy number from probably my fave album of theirs Deguello.  To me pre-Eliminator is their best stuff and it’s always a treat to hear Dusty Hill on vocals, who sings as if there’s no tomorrow.  Sure, he can get a little carried away at times but he’s got such a convincing growl that that stuff just washes away.  Throw in some horns (totally different from the Delbert horns mentioned earlier) and some of the coolest licks ever from Rev Billy G and you’ll be dancing your ass off in no time.  Have mercy!

Some awfully tough choices for best song of the week but I’ve gotta to with ZZ and “Hi Fi Mama”.  The Who and Death Cab come in #2 and #3 for the week.