Smart and funny tale of a band who almost sorta made it
588120
I was in college at Kentucky during the Government Cheese years, and I saw them several times in Lexington.  I actually witnessed or was aware of a few things Tommy Womack mentions in the book, and my recollections match what I read.  He tells it like it happened without any b.s. or exaggeration.

Honestly, within the Lexington music scene, Government Cheese was considered to be, well, cheesy.  They were a fun band, and they always drew well here, but they weren't really taken very seriously in Lexington.  Womack discusses some management issues the band had, and what he talks about actually explains a lot of the stuff that people criticized back then.  After reading Cheese Chronicles, I view Government Cheese in a different light today than I did when I wore a younger man's clothes.

Cheese Chronicles follows a good chronological order, and Womack's tendency to mention other things that were going on in the music world at the time really helps put the reader in the moment.

My perspective is skewed, because I actually knew about Government Cheese.  But this is a fun read even if you've never heard them before.  If you like rock 'n roll, this is worth your time.
619594
I sort of accidentally came across this band and kind of fell in love. They are amazing musicians with enough tongue-in-cheek to be fun without turning themselves into a bluegrass version of Weird Al. Definitely check them out!
1584188
Singer-Songwriter Nic Armstrong has gotten all democratic and taken his name off the marquee, joining his former backing band in the IV Thieves. They also ditched England for the hothouse music scene of Austin, Texas and recorded this album which combines shaggy garage rock and roll with Beatle-esque pop flourishes. The album has a couple of rockers that have been groomed as singles like "You Can't Love What You Don't Understand" which has a roomier more well produced sound, and "Take This Heart" which adds some psychedelic touches to the fist pumping chant along lyrics. The most interesting songs come later as the band mines the Revolver/Rubber Soul sound of the Beatles quite deeply with complex but pleasing harmonies on "Catastrophe" and the scorching "Take This Heart." Escape the home country if they like, but they still sound like an English rock band in the lineage of Oasis and The Libertines whice are pretty heavy company, so there's nothing wrong with that. While they haven't yet become a very original group, they wear their influences proudly and make good, tight retro-rock. If any of the bands mentioned above strike your fancy, this disc might be something you would enjoy as well.
2079055
Los Angeles' Warpaint trade in self-consciously slow and moody Cocteau Twins-isms by way of Radiohead. This kind of thing is decidedly far from my cup of tea, po-faced and humorless, and substituting sleek and breathy angst for excitement and emotional connection. I realize that the reverb-drenched pyramids of musically simple drones are kinda the point of this type of thing, but more often than not it just makes me think the guitar-playing half of the band, Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, are afraid of their instruments. This leaves bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg to occupy the center of the stage musically, and her round, unhurried playing is the kind of thing that gets called "dubby," but once again, draws on a tradition that I'm mostly uninformed about or hostile toward. The drummer, Stella Mozgawa, rides the cymbals mercilessly throughout, and her kit is oddly mixed so that the hi-hat hisses and snare clicks are louder than the actual drum hits.

The record opens with a trio of uptempo-for-them tracks that will probably sound good as sexy background music at boutique shopping outlets--I'm thinking Diesel is a particularly good fit--but aren't distinctive enough to be considered successful singles. My favorite track is the change of pace "Disco//Very," where they trade the reverbed cooing for a slightly flat, bratty vocal timbre reminiscent of Kala-era MIA. It's also by far the most uncluttered arrangement, and the rhythm, which I'm guessing owes something to LCD Soundsystem, actually generates some heat.

This record's producer, the ridiculously-monikered Flood, is the guy responsible for The Smashing Pumpkins post-"Siamese Dream" recordings, as well as work for people like New Order, U2, and PJ Harvey. The widescreen productions he's managed in the past always struck me as some of the best-considered and most interesting recordings corporate rock has had to offer, but his work on Warpaint falls flat, mostly, I suspect, because the band gave him few strong melodies to invest with his glossy sense of drama. It isn't until the second to last track, "Drive" that a melodically interesting chorus blossoms. This is another midtempo ballad, sure, but the melody sticks, and Flood sets it off against a great backing vocal part. This sounds like the type of radio-ready thing I was expecting from the rest of the record, but it comes too little too late for someone not predisposed to liking this sort of thing.
--Nicholas S. McGaw
4565935
Short-Term Memories is the first of three main albums by The Salteens - a band whose music gets better with each album. As this is their first album, it's a little flawed, but mostly inoffensive, good, upbeat, and catchy fun. Without using a ton of musical terms I don't know, I can pretty much sum up my issue with this album: there are a few filler songs. The lyrics aren't terrible, but they're nothing you'll ever find singing in the shower. This album is also pretty short, clocking in at around 20 minutes.

This all said, when Short-Term Memories shines, it shines pretty bright. The opening track, Kelly Nicoll, sets the band's quirky tone just right and is packed with enough energy to be worth listening to more than a couple of times. Culture, Nice Day, Guy Dog, and Showstopper are also pretty fun tracks. However, my favorite track on this album, Emptyhead, is the main reason I keep on revisiting this album. A few of the lines are hard to hear and the set of lyrics here isn't phenomenal, but there's something so upbeat and powerful about this song that it's strange nature is able to make it memorable to me alone.

In other words, Short-Term Memories isn't a great album. It's good and has some really fun tracks, but I can't say I'd ever want to listen to it in its entirety more than a handful of times. That said, Emptyhead is probably one of The Salteens' best tracks and I can't praise it enough.
1599613
This  isn't the line-up that the band made it with the first time, but that's OK. I can't get over certain reviewers pinning their distaste with this line-up on Buckingham and Nicks. Didn't Mr. and Mrs. McVie and Mick Fleetwood hire them? This band, no matter who is in it's ranks, has a certain image that's unique to THEM. A bizarre fact, Dave Walker, who was Mac's vocalist for a short time, also had a brief stint with Black Sabbath. Odd, huh?
Back to "Rumours." I don't know how a bunch of people, who at the time, couldn't stand the sight of each other, could make such a fine piece of music as this. Another reviewer, one I've personally taken pot-shots at in the past, gave this a five-star review, and I had to try to figure where I was mistaken. But no, It's that good. The tight vocal harmonies, the solid rhythm section, the layered keyboard and guitar parts, all blend into a "pop" record that just about everybody liked, bad reviews notwithstanding.
Listen to the lyrics, and you can hear the pain in these people's lives, but it's a good listen, anyway.
And, as an addendum, I simply adore Christine McVie. Such a great songwriter; imagine a Fleetwood Mac with her AND Peter Green, at the same time? So different, but so good; that would've been something.
3232155
This band sounds like some band that would play in a venue called "Underground" that I used to venture to at the age of 16; their music is pretty unrefined and the production is not very sophisticated. However the silly yet earnest lyrics (which I NEVER care about usually) are hilarious, and the attitude in which it's sung is like from some nutty British farse. Like "Modern Art makes me want to Rock out"! "Formed a band, We formed a band. Look at us, we formed a band!" The whole effect has totally charmed me, although I can't say all my friends are about as enthusiastic about my discovery of Art Brut.

I think perhaps I could compare them to Violet Femmes.
489129
The Cramps first two albums solidify them as my all-time favorite band. I definitely prefer their more horror and nearly surreal earlier work to the later double entendre laden stuff (even though their lesser work easily trumps 99% of any other rockabilly or garage band nowadays). "A Date With Elvis" is when they largely abandoned the horror and comic book motif of the early albums and headed in the new direction. However, its still a very good album. The humor is more often than not sidesplitting funny, and the riffing is some of the best work the band ever did. There really isn't a bad track on the album, and the best ("How Far Can Too Far Go", "What's Inside a Girl", and "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog") are instantly memorable. The production is good also, a much sleeker sound than the earlier records that somehow only enhances the sleaze. This definitely isn't the best album The Cramps released or the ideal starting place, but its still an excellent slice of psychobilly.
3158051
Great music. The sound is kind of Pixies-like, to my ears; and the lyrics are very funny, although they're often not quite as blatantly jokey as, say, Tenacious D's or The Lonely Island's lyrics. My favorite songs are "Lisa," "Blood," "The President's Beer," and "And to Sing." I do like how much genuinely good music there is nowadays with comedy in it. And this album is also one of the many excellent pieces of entertainment by which to remember Harris Wittels, who left us far too soon. Kind of a hilarious bummer that the album art has the word "die" in big letters across his chest.
229166
Gangway is one of those many groups mostly known as a "one hit wonder" (1986's "My Girl and Me") but to a small but loyal fanbase have proven to be a far more talented and prolific group than that status would indicate. Their first album "The Twist" was a mostly failed attempt at Smiths-style alt-rock, but by "Sitting in the Park" they had forged their own pop sound with unique and clever musical arrangements that were almost theatrical in style, and always with seemingly bizarre lyrics. Happy Ever After continues in this vein, updating their sound for the 90s and given that, I was struck by how much of the album could pass for an album released today (2013). The cheerful "Mountain Song" could be in an I-Phone commercial, and "Didn't Make You Laugh" and "Once in Awhile" demonstrate their great ability at creating catchy but unique songwriting. Highly recommended.
935190
Good guitars and an amphetamine-laced rhythm section back some of the most howlingly bad, unintentionally funny hippie-era rock lyrics ever recorded. A formidable band on the English Mod scene, the Attack lacked only one thing: good songs. The posturing and puffery of their lead singer is so deliciously laughable, as he attempts to project the same sort of profundity as numerous other bands, but without a whit of the subtlety required. It's pretty funny. Good to drop into a '60s mix, or just to chuckle over in the privacy of your own home. Fits in nicely with other, better bands such as the Faces, Who, Creation, Fleur De Lys, et. al. (Axton)
204795
I was a moderately big Wilco fan when I started this book; I am now a moderately larger Wilco fan, though this goes through some swampy, personal territory that might push other fans away, or at least turn them off to the guys who make up the band.

It begins with a brief history of Jeff's childhood, then quickly moves onto his first major music pursuit, being a bass-player in Uncle Tupelo. Nearly half the book is about the progression and rise to fame of this punk-grown alternative-country band that unknowingly sprouted an entire generation of followers and imitators. They truly created a completely new sound, having been `raised' on punk rock, but playing what was basically grungy-country, and rounding up a significant fan base in their town (Belleville, IL) and the surrounding larger cities with their energetic, drunken, noise-fest performances.

It then moves on to Jeff Tweedy's growing tension and eventual falling out with Jay Farrar, Uncle Tupelo's lead man. After being kicked out of Uncle Tupelo with no warning, being told second hand by his manager that Jay wanted him out, Tweedy started Wilco only weeks later with a few musicians he had worked with previously.

The book then moves systematically through each album, how and where it was recorded, some of the quirky methods and ideas that went into each one, the ever-changing lineup of players in Wilco, Reprise/Warner Bros. Records cutting them from the roster, and Jeff Tweedy's thoughts and emotional battles through all of this. It concludes right after 2004's A Ghost is Born is finished being recorded.

Greg Kot is a very good writer, especially for this genre and even this band. He is an award-winning music critic for the Chicago Tribune, and at first the book's name-dropping, references and comparisons get a little tiresome, like he's trying to make a really killer, audaciously-worded review into a 240 page book. But then... you kinda start to realize that he's exactly right! His references are smart, accurate, and sometimes obscure, and his ability to put musical moments and sounds into words are impressive. He also well paints the conversations and confrontations between band members throughout (and there's a lot of them).

Ultimately, for some people, if you like something, it is just best to not find out about what goes on behind-the-scenes. This is somewhat the case for this book, I guess just because Jeff Tweedy is such an anti-hero of a person, and even as much as he may not want to be, he is kind of a tortured artist. The book often mentions his depression, migraines, intense anxiety-attacks, and overall self-destructive personality. He even comes across as kind of a douchebag sometimes!! But you can't help but love him, his passion, creativity and unwillingness to comprise his art. If you love Wilco enough to know intimate and intricate details about them as people and musicians, then this is indeed the book for you.
2751648
Yea(h) is a thinking person's punk album which proves that just because you grow up, you don't stop questioning society or give up on music. It's full of early punk DIY ethos and rails against the "business not a band" mentality that has dumbed down so much music. I've heard them compared to both Flogging Molly (I think for the celtic influences and political awareness) and also to Rancid for the humorous tone in many of their tracks. The three cover tracks on the album provide good evolutionary context for Covington's witty lyrics on the originals. Anyone who's lived through the last three years will have a wry chuckle for "Unemployed
Again/I Hate my Dog" -- a fun, rocking tune, despite the subject matter. I think that sums up Yeah(H)'s parenthetical universe -- life is hard, might as well go out laughing and headbanging.
2337662
What do you get when you cross The Beatles with The Beach Boys, and pepper them with influences from various rock acts throughout the three-and-a-half decades since?  You get British pop/rock band McFly.  While it's true that comparisons to those two landmark sixties groups have been doled out liberally over the years, very few groups have come this close to sounding like their direct musical descendants.  This quartet of Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones (both on lead vocals and guitars), Dougie Poynter (bass) and Harry Judd (drums) seem to possess an uncanny natural gift for the vocal harmony, the instrumental melody, and the skilled tunesmithery that won The (Original) Fab Four such a massive and ardent fan base.

The album kicks off with "I Wanna Hold You", a rollicking power-pop love song with a string section (and SCORCHING guitar solo!) thrown in for good measure.  Next up is "I've Got You", which sandwiches a crunchy-guitar chorus between subdued verses, and perhaps owes itself more to bands like Blink-182 than The Beatles.  Then the album shifts into a lower gear with a pair of buoyant mid-tempo ballads, "Obviously" and "Ultraviolet", which more readily show their impressive song-crafting skills.  The good songs don't stop there;  the enchanting slow ballad "All About You" and the infectiously clever sing-along "That Girl" (the latter of which brings to mind Huey Lewis and the News) are two of my favorites, followed by the melancholy "Unsaid Things" and the irresistibly optimistic "I'll Be OK".  Trading off on lead vocal duties, Fletcher's airy, slightly nasal timbre (reminiscent of Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong) provides a perfect contrast to Jones' huskier, more rugged voice.

This disc is actually a blend of the group's first two UK albums, with about 35% of the songs coming from their debut "Room On The 3rd Floor" and 60% from their second album "Wonderland", with one brand new song (the title track) included.  While the two UK albums each have their own feel -- "3rd Floor" symbolizing the group's carefree adolescence, while "Wonderland" represents a more focused step toward adulthood -- and are both worth buying on their own merits, here they blend together quite nicely, offering arguably the most appealing songs from each import release, with only one of the "3rd Floor" tracks ("Five Colours In Her Hair") receiving a thorough sonic makeover, replacing the Monkees-like playfulness of the original version with a more raucous thrash.  Chances are you'll never be compelled at any point in this album to hit the "next track" button, and the disc will be over long before you want it to be.

Don't dismiss McFly as a "boyband" just because they're good-looking young guys who play generally light music (and have landed a cushy tie-in promotion through a popular teen movie).  The writing and instrumentation -- and above all, the innate talent -- are all their own.  Give these guys the chance they deserve; you just might re-discover why "pop" music is so much fun.
2256635
I had never heard of Ween until this summer when a couple friends started listening to them. It's a unique band. They aren't afraid to be goofy or experiment with different sounds and styles of music. If you only listen to a couple of their weirder songs, you might think they're just talentless hacks messing around, but they really do have genuine songwriting and musical talent. I'm not sure what exactly constitutes "traditional" Ween, but Chocolate and Cheese is probably pretty close. Dean, Gene and friends use guitars, a drum machine, and various other instruments to create a bunch of catchy, enjoyable tunes. A lot of the songs have a 70's vibe, and it's the kind of album you can really chill out too. I imagine it's the kind of thing I'd enjoy more if I got high.

"Take Me Away" opens with some nice little pop-rock as Gene sings in a fake voice, thanking his fake audience. "Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)" has more vocal manipulation and distorted guitar. "A Tear For Eddie" is a very nice instrumental, basically being a really good five minute guitar solo. "Roses Are Free" is a bit of a psychedelic song with some female backup vocals. "Drifter In the Dark" is a perfect encapsulation of that slow, older western song you sometimes hear in Coen Brothers movies, and is maybe, along with "Buenas Tardes Amigo", a forerunner to Ween's country album. The later is funny if you listen to it, and has a pretty great guitar riff near the end. "Voodoo Lady" is another entertaining genre piece and a fun single. I'm not as big of a fan of seemingly pointless, musically uninteresting songs like "Candi", even if they provide the album's namesake. "The HIV Song" is in the same mold, although a bit easier to listen to. There are a few clunkers, but most of the tracks work well together to create an entertaining album.
326617
This album is a bit of an exposed nerve to me, because it was one of the first albums I ever bought.  As time has gone on, I've decided that its' predecessor, "Face The Music", is a better and more relevant album today; but that doesn't mean this album doesn't have a lot to offer a budding ELO fan.

The opening track, "Tightrope" is one of the best ELO has produced, starting with a heavy dose of synthesizers, followed by an orchestral prelude to the main tune, and then drifting into a catchy, cool song.  In many ways, this song is a giant autobiography, showcasing the full range of their skills as a band.  The next two songs are clever and charming pop songs, with the top 10 hit "Telephone Line" and the hilarious "Rockaria!", the story of a rocker trying to convert an opera singer to the glories of rock and roll.

The rest of the disc is so-so.  While I love "Do Ya", it's actually an old Move song, and the original (arguably) is better. "So Fine" is a wonderfully produced rock song, but "Livin' Thing" is kind of bland and is a pretty good indicator of the future direction of the band.

The first three songs are worth the price of the disc and more; but there is such a dropoff after these three tunes that the end result is a bit frustrating.  Still...if you want to know ELO well, you simply must have "Tightrope" and "Rockaria!", because these songs are this great band doing their very best work.
2278416
Wire's *Pink Flag* is one of the truly fascinating items of "DIY" culture; as one of those bands who began as 'punk' yet were able to continually grow and absorb changes in musical culture and other aspects of the *Zeitgeist* Wire's rep perhaps shouldn't be so closely tied to this debut album yet it is, and rightly so, a talisman for people who were just waiting for something interesting and intelligent to hit the radio. Like the Minutemen (one of countless bands who could hardly have flourished or even existed without Wire's contribution), they who 'lived up to their name', Wire were originally masters of the ultrashort song; hardly any of the tracks on this record are longer than two minutes, and when they are you hardly notice the difference between them and 45-second items.

They were not quite as young, loud, or snotty as bands like the Pistols and the Clash who outsold them, but here Wire contributed several 'standards' to the punk canon: R.E.M.'s cover of "Strange" is perhaps the best known remake, but these songs were so 'loved' among punkers that in the 80s a band, Ex Lion Tamers, formed to play *Pink Flag* note-for-note (they would open for Wire, then having remade themselves as a quasi-electronic act). If you lived through any of the time when "indie" was not a comedian's punchline about affluent Brooklynites, perhaps even dreading the arrival of another band with another name like "Guided by Voices", listening to this may be somewhat therapeutic -- a bestowing of certain order to seeming 'nonsense', religion among the savages, as it were.

Though there is much more to explore in the 'post-punk' underbrush this is an excellent place to start with "militant dysphoria". It's got a good beat but you won't dance to it.