Easy Star All-Stars - Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band

YOURZ

They're clever fellas, those Easy Star All-Star boys.  First they tackled one of the pillars of psychedelia with Dub Side Of The Moon, a very faithful retelling in the reggae, dub and ska vernacular of the Pink Floyd classic.  They followed this up with a retelling of Radiohead's Okay Computer called Radiodread.

But it is this reverent reinterpretation of what is arguably The Beatles greatest album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, that is my favourite.  As Mine says, there is so much built-in recognition of the tracks, particularly as the All-Stars work hard to recreate the wonderful layers of sound and vocals.  It is faithful and infinitely likeable.  In fact, I think even a hardened Beatles fan couldn't help but enjoy this.

When I first heard this, I couldn't believe how easily some of the tracks fit the style.  For The Benefit Of Mr Kite perfectly suited the dub retelling while A Day In The Life sounded as powerful as the original ever was, with a killer horn section.

They could be viewed as a novelty act, simply using reggae.  But the reality of each of their releases so far points at something far more reverent, musically adept and attuned.  Can't wait to hear what they do next.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

Well I'm really glad  the pointy stick landed on this album and not the others - as my complete lack of Radiohead appreciation is well known, and I prefer this album to Dark Side of the Moon anyway.

I know all the words to all the songs - it's like they're embedded in my DNA or something - and the All-Stars don't do anything too horrific to the tunes.  There's a great deal of respect for the tunes, which still stand and shine on their own.  I really liked the fact that they got a female vocalist to do She's Leaving Home (my favourite track on the album) because it really fits well with the feeling of the song.

Other cheeky changes include calling the cellophane flowers in Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds "red, gold and green" (Rasta colours) rather than "yellow and green," and asking Lovely Rita to "smoke some tea with me."    Not one for the Beatles purists, but a fresh way to hear tunes that are essential in the soundtrack to my life.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/easystarallstars

In our collection, we also have: Dub Side Of The Moon and Radiodread

The Eagles - Hotel California

MINE

It's not even a guilty pleasure.  When I pushed this CD into the car player this morning and heard the opening notes of Hotel California, the only feeling that came over me was delight.  I'm sorry if that marks me as an MOR fuddy-duddy, but this album was such a large part of my teenage years I just adore it.

I think about sitting in the back room at Karen's house where we were all allowed to smoke, arguing noisily about whatever was important to us that day.  It takes me back to Durras, where we made up that really rude version of the title track.  It takes me back to school and home and hanging out with that group of friends who I'm looking forward to seeing in November at our 30-year high school reunion (and doesn't that make me feel old?)

But hopefully it'll also take me forward.  I want this album to be part of all the ages of my life.  And I love how The Last Resort  is still more than seven minutes long but it still holds my attention right to the end.  I've never liked Pretty Maids.but I listened to  Life In the Fast Lane twice. Up really, really loud.  And I might just play it again on the way home.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

I wish I had some kind of wonderful story to tell about The Eagles.  But I don't.  I used to play Peaceful Easy Feeling and Lying Eyes years ago, neither of which are on this album.  As a teenager, I remember hearing them a lot, but would never have admitted liking them.  If anything, it was the opposite.  My friends and I used to put shit on them.  The Eagles represented establishment Top 40 corporate rock, the very thing that would soon bring about one of most profound schisms in contemporary music, better known to you and me as Punk.

So, if anything, I really have to be grateful to The Eagles for helping bring this about because, seriously, it makes me sick to think where modern music might have ended up if Punk hadn't shaken the foundations.  And honesty, apart from the Hotel California (the song), Life In The Fast Lane and Victim Of Love, this album makes me barf a little.

Joe Walsh, however, was nothing but a punk dressed up as a Mid-Western rocker.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN but only out of respect, okay...

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

Butterfingers - Breakfast At Fatboy's

YOURZ

Simply put, Butterfingers are Australia's answer to The Beastie Boys meets The Bloodhound Gang.  They are irreverent, funny, crass and clever.  And while some of the humour is defiantly below the belt, it is performed in such a way that you can't help but smile.  And the very colloquial references endear this band to me even more.

I laughed out loud when I first heard Everytime and hoped the band wouldn't prove to be a one-hit wonder or, even worse, a novelty act of some sort.  With the release of Breakfast At Fatboys, they proved neither was the case.  Nor were they a one trick pony, as this début proved, crossing into punk, big beat, dub and straight up indie rock.  And always delivered with lyrics that stick in your head, the sort you catch yourself singing in the most inappropriate of places.

Produced by Australia's Magoo, who has produced some of Australia's best bands over the years, ...Fatboys was followed up by The Deeper You Dig, which included the wonderful Figjam (Fuck I'm Good, Just Ask Me).  Equally as much fun, this album proved to be even more popular than their first, landing them an APRA Award for most played urban song.  An indefinite hiatus has followed but I don't think this is the last we'll be hearing of Butterfingers.  And a good thing too. 

VERDICT: TURN IT UP Yo Mama's on the top of my things to do list...

MINE

These guys are in that (for me) hip-hop nirvana of rock and pop and rap all thrown together and blended up with the cheekiest lyrics you can imagine.  One of my prized posessions is a Butterfingers t-shirt that proved too small for my husband's recently-enlarged figure (due to pumping iron, not eating doughnuts).  It's a Yo' Mama picture and has occasionally elicited queries from interested bystanders.  Kind of difficult to explain in polite company.

And while I do love that song and I Love Work (it's sarcastic!) it's Everytime that really floats my boat.  I'd call it the ultimate loser song - everytime this guy does something, something bad happens to him.  I've only seen them once, supporting Grinspoon, but they were amazing.  While they do have the sort of lyrics and sound that appeals to a bunch of teenagers (yes, they include fart references) I'm not so much of an old codger that I'd fail to appreciate their humour.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (a chicken's not a vegetable!)

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/butterfingersmusic

In our collection, we also have: The Deeper You Dig

The Beatles - Revolver

MINE

For my 18th birthday, my father more than doubled the size of my (vinyl) record collection by buying me The Beatles box set.  Because of that I've held back on buying any of these albums on CD, but recently YourZ and I were in a music shop, and found we just had to.  It's one of the things about this blog - it makes us more aware of the music we buy, and forces us to buy stuff that's really, really good. 

Now I know it's difficult to name a favourite Beatles album, but this one is right up there. I adore Love You To's tabla and mock-sitar sounds, but For No One  is my standout track.  Sad and wistful but paying tribute to a great relationship that doesn't last.

And of course while the eight-year-old me is horrified, I really don't like Yellow Submarine any more.  Sorry, Ringo.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Is there anyone out there who doesn't like The Beatles?  I mean, aside from the fact they always came across as lovable young rogues and that they also changed the face of modern music, they wrote an extraordinary amount of songs that have become pop standards.  Of course, there are probably some Stones fans out there crying foul, but from an historical perspective, The Beatles are always going to outshine any of the other bands from the 60s.

The first piece of music I can recall hearing and recognising is a Beatles song - Michelle.  I remember sitting on the kitchen floor, playing with toy cars and watching my mother, who was standing at the sink, swaying and humming along to the song as it played on the little leather-covered radio sitting on the window sill.  I must have been all of 4 or 5 years of age, maybe even a little younger.  Yes, that long ago.  And while this song is on Revolver's predecessor, Rubber Soul, this album has one of the first songs I learnt to play on a guitar - Eleanor Rigby.  (As a point of interest, I also learnt House Of The Rising Sun, Down On The Corner and Paint It Black - a well-rounded little set).

I read recently that the music you hear as a preteen (like a lot of other influences) is the music that most informs the rest of your life.  This is probably why I love pop music so much, despite my tough stickers and penchant for loud rock.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

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

In our collection, we also have Rubber Soul

Apollo 440 - Gettin' High On Your Own Supply

YOURZ

This is another of those discs I listened to many, many times when it first came out but haven't really bothered playing for the last few years.  For the sake of maybe repeating myself (which I do often anyway), this is not because it's tasteless or dated (well, maybe a little dated but not in a bad way) but because there's been so much more music come into my life, it got left behind.  However, I've been rather pissed to hear Stop The Rock sampled and turned into some crap dance track I hear all the time at the gym. 

Segue: why do franchise gyms play the crappest music in the world?  Our local has a 'station' that plays the same rubbish dance music over and over, with very occasional forays into FM classics.  I occasionally try and give my poor ears a rest and not use my MP3 player but the music they play honestly makes me wanna pack up and get the hell outta there.

I remember hearing of Apollo 440 via their track 'Aint Talking 'Bout Dub', from their second album, which sampled the Van Halen track 'Aint Talkin' 'Bout Love'.  Being a big Van Halen fan when I was a wee lad, I was rather taken by 440's clever use of this song.  My girlfriend of the time (hi Maz!) really liked the band, consequently I heard that album quite a bit.  Gettin' High On Your Own Supply was the followup.  As I mentioned, I heard it a lot too. 

It's packed full of hits and is one of those records you can put on at a party and forget about until it's finished.  It has a little bit of something for everyone (except maybe for you metal-heads - I know how hard you are to please) for most of us, it's a real crowd-pleaser.  While I was listening to it at work, I was actually smiling and nodding along.  And their take on the Lost In Space theme is probably the best reinvention since Doctorin' The Tardis (who remembers that one?)

VERDICT: TURN IT UP, Will Robinson...

MINE

Again and again I write - I just don't listen to this enough.  But how can I?  There's so much great music we own and I can't listen to all of it all the time.  I mean, I spend eight hours every Monday to Friday in a job where I'm just not allowed to listen to large chunks of music - although I do sneak in the odd tune via YouTube or by previewing tracks on Amazon to remind me which ones I like and which are making me gag.

Anyway, I saw Apollo 440 some years ago at one of Sydney's best music venues - The Metro, for those of you considering a visit to our sunny shores.  To say they rocked would be an understatement.  They have TWO DRUMMERS.  This was one of those rare gigs where the front row - where I was - was there to DANCE, not to stand and stare, and I recall asking one girl who hadn't gotten the memo about this (she was standing and staring in the middle of a group of writhing lunatics) if she'd mind either dancing or stepping back.  (I actually said "Get moving or get out of here, will you?" which surprised me because I'm not usually that assertive when someone's larger than me, and most people are.)  (YourZ sez: yeah, so you say, you big bully!)

This band do the music I love the most - when guitars and drums and real live rock combine with electronica and dance to create the sort of Hi-NRG stuff that just don't quit.  So get moving or get out of here, why don't you?

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.apollo440.com/

Washington - I Believe You Liar

MINE

Another artist introduced to our house via the music quiz show Spicks and Specks, where Megan Washington's first appearance apparently caused her iTunes rating to go into hyperspace.  It certainly caused her EPs to make an appearance in our house, and her album was barely released before we snapped it up.

But I didn't listen to it - because I didn't have time.  What a crap reason that is.  Anyway, I was really looking forward to this review, and I wasn't disappointed.  But I was surprised, as track 4 - Underground - caused me to weep violently.  Good thing I was alone in the car, and on a relatively uncluttered stretch of road I'm very familiar with.  Essentially instructions to her family about what to do in the event of her early demise, it's simple and poetic and really deeply moving.

The rest of the album may prompt comparisons with Florence + The Machine.  Megan has a similar, breathtakingly pure, soaring vocal range, and chooses to highlight that with layers of gorgeous arrangements in many of the songs.  But I think comparing her to Florence would be a shame, because she's her own person.  And writes songs that can make me cry.  Way to go, Washington.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP get your hankie out

YOURZ

Megan Washington is one seriously talented young woman.  But more than this, she comes across as a really nice person and one who takes what she does seriously but doesn't behave like some prima donna.  Her first appearance on Spicks & Specks, as Mine mentions above, saw her perform by singing songs from an unrelated piece of text.  Quite simply, she blew everyone away.  Her second appearance only reiterated this.

We rushed out and got a couple of her EPs.  These are great but only really hinted at the depth of her talent.  Then along came I Believe You Liar, her debut album.  I haven't listened to it near enough yet to pick favourite tracks but suffice to say this is a stunning debut from a talent I expect to hear for years to come.

It would be easy to make comparisons to Florence, Lily Allen or whoever, but the fact is Megan is her own person.  But what is more pleasing than anything else is that real, honest, talented people are still getting the attention they deserve.  You just have to take your time to find them.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/meganwashington

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

YOURZ

One part Led Zeppelin, one part Foo Fighters and one part Queens Of The Stoneage...  Fuck me, what is there not to like about this band?

This band is the epitome of a super-group: massive riffs, a huge rhythm section and the sort of kick-arse, take-no-prisoners attitude that would cause any pretty-boy bands calling themselves rock to crap their pants so hard, they'd shit their tongues.  (If you're eating while reading this, I apologise for causing you any discomfort).

I'm a big fan of Josh Homme and Dave Grohl and their various music projects.  But I have to say, my favourite member of TCV is, without a doubt, the amazing Mr John Paul Jones.  Not only does he rock harder and better than most guys at least half his age, he makes it seem so effortless.  Not only this, but he is amazingly well-preserved for a man in his 60s.  We can all only hope to be the same when we're his age.

I'm not going to go on about the tracks or the sound or any of the usual reviewer-y type stuff.  I was bitterly disappointed to miss out seeing them here earlier this year and won't let that happen again.  By all accounts, their live show was a flawless example of what a rock show should be.  And the rumours of their followup album are so rife in the blogosphere, it has to be true. 

So, it looks as thought I'm going to end this year as I did last year, eagarly awaiting the release of a Them Crooked Vultures album.  I can hardly wait!

VERDICT: TURN IT UP and check out Dave Grohl's Fresh Pots on YouTube - you'll laugh until you cry!

MINE

Sometimes I wonder if there's ever going to be an end to bands that wanna be Led Zeppelin.  And to give them their due, Them Crooked Vultures do it better than most.  Recruiting an original member helps with the Zep cred.

So here I am, wondering why I can really like it when Wolfmother does it, and I'm just a bit - meh - when it's TCV.  It's partially because this band produces what I call the "clever" part of that kind of rock. You know, with the swinging key/tempo changes, the heavy-on-the-syncopation riffs - it's all designed to show off just how interesting they can make the songs.

And really, while I'm a fan of layering and lush arrangements, when it comes to beats I like mine simple.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

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