SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Tape Head (1998).
Tape Head follows the relatively gentle and harmonious Ear Candy with a serious blast of groov-y heavy metal. The album is solidly consistent and very smooth. Despite the heaviness of many of the tracks, it doesn’t have a lot of the angular/unusual chords of their earlier records. It also doesn’t juxtapose them with magnificent harmonies. Rather, we get a lot of group vocals making for a very full sound.
Again, there’s not really a bad song in the bunch, and after a couple listens, you’ll get the melodies stuck in your head. “Groove Machine” starts off the record with a heavy riff. It’s one of the darkest songs on the disc. “Over and Over” is one of the most bass heavy ballads that Kings X have done. It’s not a heavy song, per se, but typically, like “Goldilox” or “Mississippi Moon,” the ballad is mostly acoustic guitars. This one however uses the bass as the prime mover of the song. It’s still a ballad though, and quite a pretty one.
“Ono” is probably the quintessential song to describe Tape Head, though. Not that it’s the best song, but it’s like the album in a nutshell: Riff heavy verses, beautiful choruses (heavy but smooth, not aggressive sounding) and then a wild guitar solo. “Ocean” is a great addition to the Ty-sung canon that has been building since Faith Hope Love. “Little Bit of Soul” is one of their catchiest, smoothest numbers of this period; it’s followed by “Hate You” which is not as heavy as you might expect. “Mr Evil” is the most early- King’s X-sounding of the bunch, where the guitar lines take precedence and the harmonies all come back.
It’s a great, solid disc and a nice companion to Ear Candy.
[READ: September 25, 2008]: The Sirens of Titan
Continuing my series of Kurt Vonnegut books, I progress to The Sirens of Titan. And, while I applaud Vantage Books for the line of all of the Vonnegut titles having that big V on the cover, check out those early releases! So cool.
Anyhow, I had never even heard of this book, so I held very low expectations for it. I was astonished at not only how funny it was but just how much I enjoyed it.
Much of this book seems to be, if not a launching point, at least a basis for many of Vonnegut’s most famous pieces. Tralfamadore, made famous in Slaughterhouse Five, is introduced here. As is Vonnegut’s love of time travel and even space travel. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: MIKE FORD: Satellite Hotstove (2007).
SOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987).
My friend Al, who introduced me to Marillion, also introduced me to Hüsker Dü (go figure). And he did so with this album. I think for big time Hüsker fans, this is something of a sellout, but for me, it is such a great poppy punk record. And it is clearly a lead-in to Bob Mould’s far more commercial solo stuff. I guess what is amazing to me is how it’s a pretty noisy album, and yet it was considered a sellout. By today’s standards, sure, it’s pretty commercial, but back in 1987, it was still cutting edge.
SOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS-American Girl Posse (2007).
I had been pretty down on Tori records since Scarlett’s Walk, which I felt was kind of blah. The Beekeeper followed and it didn’t do that much for me either. So, I was basically not that excited when this latest record came out. I probably would have gotten it eventually, but then my wife bought it for me for my birthday. Thank you!
SOUNDTRACK: MATTHEW SWEET-Inside (1986) & Earth (1989).
Inside is so so keyboard heavy, it could be ANY synth band from the 80s. And, the keyboards are so loud in the mix that Sweet’s voice, which is not very powerful to begin with is almost totally lost. Sweet’s voice is not even that powerful on his 90s records. He has a very delightful, but very soft, voice. So, you can barely tell much about the songs, because it seems that every one has synth horns or whatnot masking what’s really happening.
Earth falls in line of what you think the Matthew Sweet sound is. It’s still pretty heavy on the synth, but you can see the song structures that Sweet perfected in the 90s. There’s nothing really striking on Earth, but it’s a good bridge to his 90s albums.
SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Parachute (1995) & Goldfly (1997).
Parachute: A really great debut, that, in retrospect, sounds almost nothing like the Guster we know and love. This sounds a bit more like the Indigo Boys. Solid harmonies over a very acoustic sounding record. Over the years, Guster have written fantastic melodies and lyrics. And this album is no exception. It’s really the production that sounds so unusual here. Very sparse and almost cool, as opposed to the warmth that they bring to their later albums. The songs are top notch, though.
Goldfly: “Airport Song” is such a fantastic single, and such a great precursor of what’s to come from Guster, that it tends to overshadow the rest of the album. Goldfly starts Guster down the road of what we’ve come to 
I Just Read About That... 