So make it one for my baby and one more for Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout #203!
The Orchid Highway — The Orchid Highway (Naughty) :: They’re not the Beatles but an incredible simulation!
Wovenhand — Ten Stones (Sounds Familyre) :: Ambitious angst anyone?
Okkervil River — The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar) :: This is the absolute second-best cabaret angst record I’ve ever heard. It’s only the second cabaret angst record I’ve ever heard, but it’s the absolute second-best.
Skybombers — Take Me to Town (Albert Productions) :: Strangely believe it, Skybombers are the new Cheap Trick and Take Me to Town is their Heaven Tonight.
Fish — 13th Star (MVD Audio/Chocolate Frog) :: If you thought prog rock was dead, then you ain’t heard nuthin’ until you’ve heard this epochal space-spannin’ offering from Marillion’s main man.
Sally Tomato — Toy Room (Severe Enterprises) :: These words I speak are true: this ambitious four act rock opera is operating in an arena that’s so far out there it makes Welcome to My Nightmare sound like nap time in a deaf mute kindergarten.
Ayla Brook — After the Morning After (Saved By Radio) :: Sensitive love songs and plaintive paeans that anyone who ever had a heart can relate to.
The Homemade Jamz Blues Band — Pay Me No Mind (Northern Blues) :: The earthy Hendrix influence is undeniable but so is the playing, so it’s a whitewash.
Caamora — She (MVD Audio/Metal Mind) :: Are you ready for a bombastic two-disc rock opera based on the novel by H. Rider Haggard? If you ever owned a copy of Jesus Christ Superstar, you are.
Kiss — “She” (Casablanca) :: Honey, it’s not one a’doze.
SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Rhonda Silver — Twelve Pieces of Silver (Prism) :: Backed by the expert likes of Guido Basso and Jeff Healey, these silky smooth songs of songstress Silver’s smack of slinky late night rendezvous in a swank penthouse bar and morning after musings in a sodden neighborhood saloon. Even better, she belts out her original blues with enough gusto to make you down another round. So set ’em up, Joe.
Be seeing you!
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2009.
