New Releases
Agent Sparks Not So Merry is produced by Mike Einziger of Incubus, and that is the only interesting fact I can find on these guys. But hope springs eternal.
Anthrax releases both Alive2 & Anthrology: No Hit Wonders - from one of the NYCs finest noisemakers. I can't say I enjoyed the return of Belladonna to the vocal spot (he isn't James LaBrie, but he still is annoying and I was much ahppier with John Bush as a frontman)
Bif Naked is a Superbeautifulmonster ,which also happens to be her latest - Probably more of the same from Bif, but that is generally a good thing.
Yngwie Malmsteen Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra. Yngwie is the most brain damaged moron to ever make guitar painful to listen to. Brickheaded pretension set to strings. Can't some Scandanavian death metal band just seek and destroy this insult to sound?
Mr. Oizo puts out their sophomore full length Moustache. One has to wonder if they'll keep the spastic sock puppet as a mascot.
Astralwerks is doing some reissues, including both Ha!, Revelations, and What's This For! from Killing Joke. Good on them.
The Bad Plus have a new album, Suspicious Activity? which continues in their semi-out, semi-off jazz experiements. Having heard their first two releases and seen them live (opening for Jason Moran 2 years ago) I can say they are somewhat overrated. I think they have drawn a lot of attention for their offbeat band persona and use of whacked out rock covers to draw attention, but otherwise they are just a competant jazz trio. For a real challenge, go see Jason Moran (which will probably make you understand why he was a headliner and they were opening).
Dave Douglas, who puts out albums at a pretty rapid clip, has Keystone out this month. If past albums are any indication, it will be at worst very derivative of something Miles has done, and that isn't a bad thing necessarily. I actually like Dave in general, sinec he does like to take risks and has no problem shifting gears from album to album and playing with different approaches and bases of material.
Earth, Wind & Fire are still going, and one has to sometimes wonder why. Illumination is the newest and I know next to nada about it other than it features some big hip-hop heavy hitters like Big Boi from Outkast and will.i.am from BEP. EWF albums as of late have veered a little too close to pop-jazz or watered down R&B (with better vocals) with only a couple songs on each release having a real fire. I am hoping that with the resurgence of interest in the past few years have rejuvenated Maurice White to take the reins and ride the groove hard again. While I doubt they will produce another Powerlight or Thats The Way of the World, but I can hope they do better than 2003s The Promise.
Jay Kay leads Jamiroquai to new heights with Dynamite, and thankfully this finally gets a US domestic release, after already being out in Europe and Asia for months. Featuring one of the best funk jams of 2005, the feral Feels Just Like it Should as a lead off single, this will most likely be ignored here in the states, which is a shame, since we could use more Jamiroquai and less of almost everything else on radio these days.
Anthrax releases both Alive2 & Anthrology: No Hit Wonders - from one of the NYCs finest noisemakers. I can't say I enjoyed the return of Belladonna to the vocal spot (he isn't James LaBrie, but he still is annoying and I was much ahppier with John Bush as a frontman)
Bif Naked is a Superbeautifulmonster ,which also happens to be her latest - Probably more of the same from Bif, but that is generally a good thing.
Yngwie Malmsteen Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra. Yngwie is the most brain damaged moron to ever make guitar painful to listen to. Brickheaded pretension set to strings. Can't some Scandanavian death metal band just seek and destroy this insult to sound?
Mr. Oizo puts out their sophomore full length Moustache. One has to wonder if they'll keep the spastic sock puppet as a mascot.
Astralwerks is doing some reissues, including both Ha!, Revelations, and What's This For! from Killing Joke. Good on them.
The Bad Plus have a new album, Suspicious Activity? which continues in their semi-out, semi-off jazz experiements. Having heard their first two releases and seen them live (opening for Jason Moran 2 years ago) I can say they are somewhat overrated. I think they have drawn a lot of attention for their offbeat band persona and use of whacked out rock covers to draw attention, but otherwise they are just a competant jazz trio. For a real challenge, go see Jason Moran (which will probably make you understand why he was a headliner and they were opening).
Dave Douglas, who puts out albums at a pretty rapid clip, has Keystone out this month. If past albums are any indication, it will be at worst very derivative of something Miles has done, and that isn't a bad thing necessarily. I actually like Dave in general, sinec he does like to take risks and has no problem shifting gears from album to album and playing with different approaches and bases of material.
Earth, Wind & Fire are still going, and one has to sometimes wonder why. Illumination is the newest and I know next to nada about it other than it features some big hip-hop heavy hitters like Big Boi from Outkast and will.i.am from BEP. EWF albums as of late have veered a little too close to pop-jazz or watered down R&B (with better vocals) with only a couple songs on each release having a real fire. I am hoping that with the resurgence of interest in the past few years have rejuvenated Maurice White to take the reins and ride the groove hard again. While I doubt they will produce another Powerlight or Thats The Way of the World, but I can hope they do better than 2003s The Promise.
Jay Kay leads Jamiroquai to new heights with Dynamite, and thankfully this finally gets a US domestic release, after already being out in Europe and Asia for months. Featuring one of the best funk jams of 2005, the feral Feels Just Like it Should as a lead off single, this will most likely be ignored here in the states, which is a shame, since we could use more Jamiroquai and less of almost everything else on radio these days.
posted by theloniusfunk at 7:11 AM
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