Fellow music nerds, let me regale you with my bloviations on the first ten songs that pop up in shuffle mode this mighty fine Wednesday evening.  Huzzah!

“The Ballad Of Lupe Montosa” Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, Sonoran Hope and Madness

Odd how shuffle works…  I just bought this CD on Saturday and loaded it in my iPod and it’s the first cut of 30,000 plus songs this go round.  And that ain’t a prob cause this is a fine tune, Clyne in excellent cowboy song mode here about the demise of Lupe Montosa with some great harmonizing from his fellow Peacemakers.  Nice story lyric that sets the tone with some simple acoustic modification and fairly sparse instrumentation from the band, allowing you to focus on the heartfelt vocal.

“The Escape Artist” OSI, Music In Progress, Vol. II (Inside Out sampler)

From an InsideOut sampler (great label for progressive rock, check it out!) comes OSI and “The Escape Artist”, featuring a fairly simple yet chunky riff from Jim Matheos (also from Fates Warning) with spacy keys courtesy of Kevin Moore and guest drums from Porcupine Tree’s Gavin Harrison.  A banging cut, leans pretty close to modern rock with that riff but branches out into proggier territory midway through plus has a fairly staid and laid back vocal courtesy of Moore.  Proof positive that top notch musicians can write some heavy duty modern rock and sound 100 times better.

“A Slight Attack” The Tea Party, Triptych

Canada’s The Tea Party is a great band-  early days leaned towards the Kashmir-esque side of Led Zeppelin with the middle Easternisms but in latter years they stretched out to get a bit noisier, maybe more techno or industrial in a way.  “A Slight Attack” takes a Zeppish riff and dirties it up with some echoey drums and distorted vocal but throws in a couple of awesome curveballs via a dramatic, pomp rock vocal and equally dramatic piano driven section.  Toss in some oddball keyboard effects into the mix to bounce around the sonic spectrum and you’ve got quite a thrilling cut.

“Dirty Hands Empty Pockets/(Already Gone)” Corrosion Of Conformity, In The Arms Of God

Post grunge years I thought for sure that stoner rock was definitely THE next big thing to take over the world, but it wasn’t meant to be.  COC is one of that genre’s greats and “Dirty Hands Empty Pockets” gives you a good taste of the rock that they bring to the table.  Funky bass courtesy of Mike Dean, great Woody Weatherman riff, and the always excellent Pepper Keenan show you how its done.  As much as I love Stanton Moore as a drummer he’s a semi-odd fit, obviously enjoying the opportunity to pound the kit but it ain’t like his dayjob with the awesome and funky Galactic.

“Sometime” King’s X, Ear Candy

“Criminally underrated” is a phrase often thrown around anytime King’s X is brought up and I tend to agree.  “Sometime” is a classic example of what these guys do best, which is not only bringing the solid rock but nailing it with a great song and outstanding vocals.  Simple and effective-  great riff?  Check.  Solid bass? Absolutely low down and groovy.  Kicking drums?  Truly stomping.  Fab hook?  Definitely.  How about the vocal?  With Doug Pinnick it’s shut your mouth good, especially when he’s got the ultra clean Ty Tabor and Jerry Gaskill mixed with his soulful rasp.  Sing this from the rafters!

“Whistle For The Choir” The Fratellis, Costello Music

Man these guys are soooo good.  Toss in The Kinks and T Rex with a nice dollop of The Beatles and you’re in the ballpark as to what The Fratellis are all about.  “Whistle For The Choir” sounds like it could come out of the music hall or cabaret days of the 1920s or 1930s, just a nice singalong with acoustic guitars and a memorable lovelorn lyric (check out the whistling part too!).  Not many bands are making sounds like this these days, but The Fratellis proudly do and often rock things up quite a bit as well.  One of my favorite bands that started in this century- look for a Spotlight On post soon!

“Slow Marching Band” Jethro Tull, The Broadsword And The Beast

The Tull has covered quite a wide variety of musical territory, from hard rock to folk rock to on “Slow Marching Band”, what appears to be a bit of a pompy, beer hall singalong power ballad.  Sounds like an odd description but hey, that’s what it sounds like to me.  As always with Tull the melodies are interesting, this one mostly guided by a moving piano and the ever entertaining Ian Anderson on smooth vocal and intro flute passage.  “Locomotive Breath” this ain’t but for a change of pace in the Tull canon it’s a decent tune.

“Long Way From Home” North Mississippi All Stars, Hernando

I like my Allstars raunchy and low down dirty blues, but “Long Way From Home” sounds like some fuzzed out psychedelic trip; kinda bluesy, kinda space rock, kinda improv jazzy in the guitar solo and possibly stoned (ha ha).  Kinda reminds me of Space Cowboy Steve Miller but without the cool synthesizers, more like a fumbled mess recorded in a haze of pot smoke with lyrics made up on the spot (“Chickenfoot… and my mind is blown”).  Yet…  I like it for its oddness and wanting to be “out there” for the sake of being out there.  Or was that the point?  🙂  I dunno, you decide.

“Things Are Getting Better” The Kinks, Kinks Size/Kinks Kinkdom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhIY_R5_c6s

Who says songs under two minutes suck?  Not me!  “Things Are Getting Better” rides Dave Davies’ rockin’ Bo Diddley beat in 1:57, featuring a laid back brother Ray vocal and some cool boogie woogie piano and harmonica midway through.  Early Kinks were a mix of ramshackle rock and wistful melancholy depending on Ray Davies mood yet this cut certainly falls in the former category-  no wistfulness here, just an awesome blast of guitar and fun band vocal.

“Cold Turkey (Acoustic)” Cheap Trick, B-Sides Demos Outtakes Rarities

Snagged from the incredible B-Sides Demos Outtakes Rarities boot comes a high speed acoustic cover of John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey”, which the band had originally recorded fully plugged in and rockin’ at regular speed for the Working Class Hero tribute album.  Not sure if this version was recorded for future release, but it’s a fun run through the tune with some sprightly guitar from Rick Nielsen and the ever awesome Robin Zander on vocal.  Psst…  hey guys…  can ya officially release this one?

Wow, tough call for the top three songs this time around (Cheap Trick pun!) but I gotta go with “Sometime” for the gold medal followed by “Whistle From The Choir” and “Things Are Getting Better” for the silver and bronze.