Rocket From The Crypt - Circa Now!

YOURZ

There was a time when this album was never far away from my player.  In fact, around the same time as Sugar's Copper Blue was being played, so was Circa Now!  These bands were the antithesis of grunge and certainly showed at the time that me there were more interesting places, musically speaking, than just Seattle.   

The band were introduced to me by a good friend Dave (g'day Dave - a different Dave to the previously mentioned one - we know a lot of 'em).  This San Diego 6 piece punk outfit included prominent use of saxaphone and lotsa cool song titles and were known for being a helluva live band.  Fans were also known to be rabid and often sported the RFTC logo of a rocket blasting out of crypt as a tattoo.  There was a rumor going around at the time that if you had one of these on you, it guaranteed you instant free entry into any of their gigs.  Unfortunately, the band called in a day in 2005 after 15 years.

It has been a long time between listens for this CD and the memories it brought back are terrific.  Circa Now! might not have aged quite as well as Copper Blue but it still feckin' rocks like a mofo, as best exemplified by tracks like Short Lip Fuser, Ditch Digger and Killy Kill.    They sound every bit as cool as they did, sigh, nearly 20 years ago. 

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

Oh, how can he even compare this to Sugar?  Bog-standard rock with largely unintelligible lyrics (thank goodness for that, though, with one refrain being "Where's my dinner?") I totally do not get how this can be described as anything but ordinary.  Especially as I heard tomorrow's review album (you'll have to come back for that one) straight afterwards.

Here's what I don't like about RFTC: it sounds muddy.  Again with the "lo-fi" meaning, basically, "we didn't really know much about mixing sound so we got my cousin Eddie to do it" - or at least that's what it sounds like.  And if I'd heard it 20 years ago my reaction would have been the same as it was today.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.rftc.com/



For further information go to: http://www.rftc.com/

Outkast - Stankonia

MINE

A while back I loved this album.  Now, I find there are good bits in it, but it's not all great.  I absolutely adore Ms Jackson and So Fresh, So Clean, but the rest is a bit - meh - to me now.  Of course, Stankonia got a bit overshadowed by the raging success of Speakerboxx/The Love Below, and there was a time in late 2003 when I thought if I heard Hey Ya! one more time I would have to throttle someone.

I'm grateful to YourZ for introducing me to Outkast, but seriously they're not a patch on N.E.R.D. (which he also introduced me to) who I would place as their most influential contemporaries.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

Ubiquitous is one of my favourite words.  Irrelevant is another.  But what do these words have in common, aside from me liking them as I do?  Both these words apply equally to Outkast, who, at one time, were ubiquitous but lately have proven to be, well, mostly irrelevant.  Okay, maybe irrelevant is a bit harsh but my point is they were everywhere a few years ago and now they've mostly disappeared from view (unlike Will.I.Am, who continues to pop up, like an ugly photo-bomber, annoying and badly dressed to boot).

But listening back to Stankonia, I understand why it was so popular and why it won the awards and accolades it did.  The songs (yes, these are songs, not strung together raps with hooks) are infectious, despite the predilection of the genre to write about 'gunz, ganstas and hoez' and the usual inane 'interludes'.

But the pure infectiousness of tracks such as B.O.B., So Fresh So Clean and Humble Mumble (featuring the wonderful Erykah Badu) make it easy to forgive and forget the more pedestrian tracks.  In fact, it is hard to believe this album is ten years old now as it still sounds fresh and sharp.  Makes me wonder why the hell we have to put up with a lot of the shit passed off today.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP, then turn it down, then turn it up again and repeat as necessary

Free CDs - May Throwouts

Free to a good home this month:

A Gun Called Tension - A Gun Called Tension
P-Money - Magic City

Still going begging from previous months:
Pink Floyd - Echoes
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Gyroscope - Breed Obsession
Audioslave - Audioslave
George Michael - Ladies & Gentlemen The Best Of George Michael
Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep, Run Come Save Me and Slime and Reason
Queen - Greatest Hits II, Greatest Hits III, Made in Heaven (we're keeping the others)
Come - Near Life Experience, Eleven : Eleven and Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Ben Harper - The Will To Live and Diamonds On the Inside
Sugar Ray - Floored

These CD are available free to anyone who wants them. We even pay for postage - so if you'd like to see an Australian stamp just e-mail us at yourzenmine at gmail dot com.

May - Wrapup

YOURZ

Its been a bit of a funny month for me.  This is mostly due to the weather - I get annoyed around the change of seasons, particularly going from summer into winter.  I'm really a tropics person and losing the ability to wear tee shirts and no shoes makes me cranky.  But not too cranky.  Mine knows this about me and (thankfully) employs effective counter-measures to keep me in line (lots of love and comfort food).

We saw Ironman 2 this month and, despite Aussie critics giving it average ratings, thought it was fucking awesome.  I've been loving the superhero movies (with the exception of the last Spiderman - what a piece of crap that was; and Ghost Rider - the less said about that, the better).  I can't wait to see what Marvel movies does with the New Avengers and Captain America.  I'd also like to see what DC does with JLA but I know its on hold (at least according to various 'insider' sources).  Hopefully, Green Lantern will be on the big screens soon, though.  What I'd really like to see on the big screen is Transmetropolitan or Planetary or one of those 'outsider' series.  But that ain't gonna happen. 

Anyway, back to the music.  This month, we had much discussion (well, a little bit, anyway) about who we were going to give a CD to and decided on our friend Jeff, from Imagine Echoes, who has left us some great comments and been an excellent supporter of our efforts almost from the start.  So Jeff, if you're reading this, email us your address as we'd like to send you some padded baggy goodness.

I'd like to mention again the 'Free To A Good Home' list.  If you know someone who would like anything on this list, tell them to let us know.  To reiterate, this is a completely commitment-free offer to anyone interested enough to send us an email with their details.

Hope all our northern hemisphere friends are enjoying the warmer weather.  While you are, if you could occasionally think of us on the other side of the world, huddled around our heaters, it would at least warm our hearts.

MINE

So this month has allowed me to indulge my love of... numbers.  After getting this blog underway and determining we were really going to make a go of it, I succumbed to my inner need for control, analysis, and numbers, and installed a tracking program to see who was reading us, if anyone.  And I've been pleasantly surprised at the results.  There are a bunch of you, we're getting more every week, and while most of you come from English-speaking countries (the USA, UK and Australia are top-three) - there are also readers in Germany, Brazil and France.  So, Guten Tag, Ola and Bonjour to you.

For those of you who are interested, we're using Google Analytics to marshal the stats.  And for a free service, I've been gobsmacked by how good it is and how easy it is to use.  I'm always a tad cynical of the "free" tag on software, because often the free part is as good as - well just about anything you get for free.

I've also this month really enjoyed being able to load six CDs into my car's stereo system at one time.  Makes the job easier.  And the ride easier, too.  Auf Weidersehen,  Adeus and Au Revoir to you all.

New Orleans Funk Volumes 1 & 2

YOURZ

New Orleans has an extremely rich musical history, being home to some of the greatest jazz, blues, soul and funk musicians ever known.  These collections, both from the Soul Jazz label, are reverently-sourced and contain some of the greatest funk tracks ever recorded.

The first volume concentrates on bringing the listener a aural history of the genre and includes some very hard-to-find recordings (particularly now considering a lot of the archives for these recordings were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina).  The second volume continues the exposition with a similarly tasty playlist.  The only criticism I have (and this is very minor) is the tracks aren't in chronological order.  Yeah, I did say minor.

There are so many good tracks on both, it is virtually impossible for me to single out any one.  But if there is any track that defines this collection for me, it has to be Aaron Neville's Hercules.  It is sublime, superbly voiced, sexy and extremely funky and epitomises what it is all about.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP and g g g g get on down

MINE

Featuring names I know, like Allen Toussaint, Dr John, Lee Dorsey and Aaron Neville - and a whole bunch of people I'd never heard of before this - these two CDs plus some more Soul Jazz collections are party central music.   All our funk collections come courtesy of YourZ except one, which is kind of weird when you consider I am the Funky Queen in the house (in the house, I say).  (YourZ sez: so you say)

Truly I could listen to funk compliations for most of the rest of my life without getting too bored.  They're full of wildly groovy tunes, they're mostly highly danceable, the singers are great, what's not to love?  And that would be my only comment - proceed directly to the verdict - if not for one funk-related story I have to relate.

So a long time ago I purchased one of the In Yo' Face! compilations - Volume Three, to be exact.  My boyfriend of the time (Hi Kevin!) was just a trifle dismissive of the purchase, especially of the opening track, Jungle Boogie by Kool and the Gang.  Fast-forward a few months to the first time we saw Pulp Fiction - and guess what song is the first one you hear on the soundtrack?  I confess, I allowed myself a brief inner moment of glee.

But anyway, if you don't have any funk compilations in your collection, why not?  Top class music, all the way.  Just ask Quentin Tarantino.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/

Monkey - Journey To The West

MINE

Yes, it's Damon, but it's also opera.  Chinese opera, at that.  And opera's one of those musical genres that I just don't get.  Not that I can't be swayed by some of the truly great arias, and I also have a small soft spot for the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, but generally being sung to unintelligibly in a foreign language for hours - well, I'd rather do algebra.  No Aida or Don Giovanni for me, thanks.

Not that this isn't well done (it is) and the music is generally quite listenable.  In short bursts.  And skipping over those high-pitched squawky songs that the Chinese seem to love but give me a headache.

It's nice to see he can do it, and I promise I'd tell him it was a work of great musical expertise and passion if I should ever see him (but really I'd be much more likely to be stammering out short phrases based on his staggering output in other genres and trying to rip his clothes off).  But really, I think this CD's only for the completists - if you love Damon that much (so no prizes for guessing who bought it) - or if you're turned on by Chinese opera.  Not for me though.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

As Mine says, this is an opera.  It is actually described as a circus opera, although, as far as I can tell, there are no clowns or trapeze artists.  If there ain't either, then it's not a circus as far as I'm concerned.  The second noteworthy point she mentioned was this is the work of Damon Albarn.  Now, anyone who knows me knows my love of all things Damon (although I'm not as inclined to the clothes-destroying histrionics of Mine, thankfully).  And as she astutely points out, it's in our collection because I'm a bit of a completist when it comes to my favourites.

Did I happen to mention this is an opera?  An ostensibly Chinese opera, based on a 16th century Chinese classic and the same story used as a basis for Monkey, the OTT 70s television series.  Like Mine, I am not an opera fan, not in the slightest.  In fact, I'm proud to say this is the only opera in our collection and this is only due to Albarn's involvement.

There are some great moments of joyous noisy mashing of East and West, such as I Love Buddha,  Heavenly Peach Banquet and Monkey Bee but a lot of the album is ambient and doesn't have much relevance to the listener, particularly those completely unfamiliar with the Monkey story.  Yeah, definitely for the completist.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

For more information: http://www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com/

Mammal - The Majority

YOURZ

I don't quite know what to say about this band.  They came out of nowhere, grabbed a lot of attention from rock-minded fans in Australia, released a couple of live EPs and The Majority then promptly fell apart.  In the three years they were together, they played some enviable gigs and supports, including a turn on the Big Day Out stages right around Australia in 2009.  It kinda makes me wonder where they fucked up.

The Mammal rock formula is, well, formulaic but this isn't necessarily meant as an insult.  However, if you're a RATM fan, you might not necessarily approve, because there certainly are some similarities.  The music is tight, driving and suitably groove-based while lead vocalist Ezekiel Ox's vocals, particularly on the harder tracks, are very reminiscent of Zack de la Rocha although to his credit, Ox can and does sing too.

The Majority isn't bad, its just boring as batshit.  And while Mammal won an award for best live band at the Music Oz awards, it certainly wasn't enough to save the band from imploding before it really achieved anything.  Cruelly, perhaps, this really is no great loss, particularly if it means more dedicated, grounded and together bands now get a shot.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

MINE

Pedestrian.  (YourZ sez: you were able to say in a single word what I couldn't manage in three paragraphs, damn it all)

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://mammaltheband.com/