Miracle On Ice Part 2...

Hi Folks,

I love my music, yes. But any of you have come to know me, I love my hockey too. I'm starting to get chills and goosebumps at the thought of the young spunky US hockey team at the top of the world in pucks. 30 years after the greatest sports moment I am so jealous to have not been able to absorb, I will discuss some underground tracks I love from the year 1980. In 1980 Punk bands were starting to turn from garage noise, to a more artistic and less abrasive product. The biggest example of this is the indulgent 3 LP length of The Clash - Sandinista. Sandinista has it all. Pure Punk track "Police on My Back", a cover of Eddy Grant's first band the Equals, is quite possibly one of their finest songs. The Clashes travels to Jamaica had left a profound impression as they use many elements of Dub Reggae sound pioneered by Lee Scratch Perry and Mikey Dread. Dread would produce the Dubby track "Bankrobber" Dance music finds it's way onto this album in the form of "Lightning Strikes", and the practically hip-hip of "The Magnificent 7". Songs "Broadway", "Charlie Don't Surf", and "Washington Bullets" show the subtle side of the highly adaptable Clash. Sandinista is an album that typifies what 1980 was about for underground music.

Punk becoming art rock is also displayed by one of my favorite recent finds, Magazine. Howard Devoto, quit The Buzzcocks for he wanted more art in his punk. 1980 Blessed us with magazine's "Correct Use of Soap" a great album to with it's great title. The songs "Because You're Frightened", "Model Worker", and "Philadelphia, along with "Songs From Under the Floorboards" are some of the greatest blending of great lead and bass guitar licks along with the always controversial Synthesizer. If you cringe at Synth and needs the more organic instruments, Magazine may not be for you. I suggest trying them.

The Only Ones released a breathtaking blend of Punk and Power Pop in "Baby's Got a Gun". This album is not the critical darling to most that their first two were, but I think it's their most focused and fun full album effort. The Grandiose Tympanic sound of "The Happy Pilgrim" gets the album started wonderfully. "Deadly Nightshade" has an incredible Bass line that any aspiring Bassist would love to analyze. "Oh Lucinda (Love Become a Habit)" is a strong song, that wraps up with a tease of Guitar lick that is so crunchy, you'll need to let it sit in the milk a minute. Tracks, "Strange Mouth", "My Way Out of Here" and the pretty duo, with Pauline Murray of Penetration, named "Fools" is an old country track pulled off by theses punks.

Other great offerings from 1980's Underground

Great albums not likely on your radar

"Underwater Moonlight" from the Soft Boys
"Where Have all the Nice Girls Gone" by Any Trouble is a band derived from Elvis Costello's sound.
"Dirty Looks" by Dirty Looks. Had two awesome tracks with "You're Too Old" and "Automatic Pilot"
"I just Can't Stop It" by The English Beat is one of the finest Ska albums of all time.
"Crashes" by The Records is a Power Pop delight with songs "Same Mistakes" and "Rumor Sets the Woods Alight"
"Black Sea" by XTC is a high water mark for a great band. "Generals and Majors", and "Respectable Street" are splendid.
"Hypnotised" by The Undertones, with a track by the same name, and "Tearproof" are among the Northern Ireland band's finest
"Pretenders" by the Pretenders. Hardly underground but amazing album just the same. "Mystery Achievement" is awesome
"Los Angeles" by X is a rockabilly punk album led by a enigmatic Exene Cervenka. Queue up "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline"
"Crazy Rhythms" by the Feelies is a New Jersey product that helped pioneer Jangle Pop. Track "Crazy Rhythms" is the apex.
" A Different Kind of Tension" by the Buzzcocks

Great Albums by some Classic Artists

"Women and Children First" by Van Halen Romeo's Delight folks, say no more.
"Joe's Garage" by Frank Zappa
"The Game" by Queen
"Making Movies" by Dire Straits
"Duke" by Genesis
"Ace of Spades" by Motorhead
"Back in Black" by AC/DC
"Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" by Warren Zevon
"Blizzard of Ozz" by Ozzy Osbourne Ozzy at his finest and with Randy Rhoades
"British Steel" by Judas Priest
"Cristopher Cross" by the same fella with a Yacht Rock masterpiece
"Gaucho" by Steely Dan
"Glass Houses" by Billy Joel
"Uprising" by Bob Marley

Great hidden tracks of 1980

"There There My Dear" by Dexy's Midnight Runners. This song puts Come on Eileen to shame in my mind.
"When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman" by Dr Hook is a classic example of Yacht Rock
"Shining Star" by The Manhattans is another Yacht Rocker. Sooo pretty.
"Blue Boy" by Orange Juice. This UK New Wave band was the starting point for Edwyn Collins
"Academy Fight Song" by Mission of Burma is a Boston punk must have.
"Teacher Teacher" by Rockpile is another classically written Nick Lowe song.
"Final Day" by Young Marble Giants is an example of Punk Minimalism.
"Am I Supposed to Lie" is Tommy Tutone's song that shows they were not a crappy band despite being a one hit wonder.
"Boys in The Gang" by 999 is a punk song that has plenty of pop accessibility to it.
"Sleepwalk" by Ultravox
"Over You" by Roxy Music
"Endless Night" by Graham Parker. Backed up by the Boss? Now that takes a respected pub rocker. Graham Parker my favorite.

That's is for now.

Best part is now that you guys get to tell me who I forgot. Please do.

Check out new tracks this week by Frightened Rabbit, and Sambassadeur. I will tell you which ones next time.

Snowed in....

Hey folks. Been a while, I know, but a lot of Daddying and shoveling 64 inches of snow means little time for something as mindless as this. Oh well, that doesn't mean we were without great music. In fact I found a very strong album I'd like to pontificate about today. Last week a Trio from Brooklyn named Yeasayer knocked my socks off with a Post New Wave delight.

Yeasayer- Odd Blood

Yeasayer does not sound like your typical New York Indie Rock. They are Indie, but have a very a lot of non western influence that unveils itself on most certainly their first album All Hour Cymbals. Again they wear these many olympic colors, but throw in a high Pop quotient that has garnered the attention of even my Wife, Diane. The first song, The Children is about the least accessible song on the album as it feels like the boys spent a night huffing scotchguard with Ween as the vocal effect is a tad overwhelming. Good to get this track out of the way.

Song 2 Ambling Alp is the super poppy number they posted free on Amazon last week. It has oodles of texture and an undeniably catchy rhythm. "You must stick up for yourself son" lead singer Chris Keating yelps in the homage to Joe Louis. This may be too synthetic and too overproduced for some. I think it's catchy as fuck. Diane seems to dig too. Keating can pull off some nice falsetto's here.

Track 3 is so great. A song called "Madder Red" feels like Big Country, Baltimora, Dream Academy, was putting out new stuff. Very Tribal, synthy, and haunting. A beautiful and lush vocal befalls you before too long. Interpol, and other contemporaries will be kicking themselves for not writing something so cool. I love this song, folks. If you cannot dig this song at all, you have no chance of getting any part of this album. Move on.

Track 4 a song called "I Remember" may have been from the soundtrack of "Better off Dead" or some other 80's flick with training montages. The vocal here is quite pretty and expanse. I'm curious if he can sing live half as well. He sounds as if he's the the chops of current vocal heavyweights, like the leads from Maroon 5 and Train. Neither of which are my favorites, but those dudes can sing. Chris Keating of Yeasayer sounds as if he can belt it out with the best of them.

Track 5 is the poppiest song of them all as "O.N.E." is pretty much a dance number. Fans of Hot Chip, and MGMT will probably already know about this album, but would certainly enjoy it. This song bobs and weaves into a really cool place when the all the right vocal accouterments are placed in the final 2 minutes of this fine song. I think even Michael Jackson and Prince fans are pleased with this song.

Track 6, Love Me Girl, is another effort that reminds of Paul van Dyk or some crazy Euro house music. This song then takes on Tribal qualities that have been exhibited by Adrian Belew and Brian Eno before. It has a killer synth laden hook that is not that far off from the art rock sound of bands like Roxy Music and Duran Duran. Okay, is this too much pop for you? Not me. We Flogi are all groovin'. I'm super amped when I find an album that Diane digs.

Track 7 called "Rome" is a cool number that has a vocal feel of Rusted Root, but the beat and cadence of Fatboy Slim. I would kind of think that has very little chance of being cool upon reading that, but here, this mix sounds pretty rad.

The album really starts to tail off a bit here at the end, but since the whole album clocks in a less than 40 mins, you can have the patience for some numbers that fall short simply because so many of the other songs are just so damn catchy.

If you like a world beat and are not afraid of synth pop please dive into this album or at least preview for free some songs at www.lala.com. See what you think.

I think this album is 5 out of 6 Stars.

Best songs Madder Red, Ambling Alp, O.N.E., Love Me Girl.


Now for some old stuff and another introduction into Randy's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is a place where bands that I know will never be on the radar of the lame Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tonight I talk about a band who has thrust themselves into my personal top ten shooting past the likes of the Beach Boys, Todd Rundgren and right in the Neighborhood of Queen and The Clash, who are basically 1 and 2 in my mind. So yeah I lean british. The band is called "The Only Ones" Led by the brilliantly troubled Peter Perrett. Peter Perrett Is your stereotypical drugged out rocker, that delivers like a more lucid and excited Lou Reed. Don't be scared off. The bands brilliant cohesion of straight forward blues laden hooks lay a shimmery cloak over any vocal short comings of the fairly laconic Perrett.

Check out this song. "Another Girl Another Planet" This songs is so freaking rock and roll. The Lead guitar of John Perry in the introduction and solo portion of this song are licks that any aspiring guitar player should know about.

The two strongest albums of this short lived band were "Even Serpents Shine" and "Baby's Got a Gun"

Songs like the brilliant "Out There in the Night" and "Miles From Nowhere" are 2 more amazing guitar classics that will not get their due.

Just check these guys out. Trust me. Diane and Emily are back home so a daddying I a go.

Take care.

Please let me know what Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snubs bother you.

Ones that bother me right now.

Rush
Cheap Trick
Roxy Music

That is all. listen to lost of music folks.

I Wanna Destroy You.... Grammys

Boy oh boy. How terrible does the music scene look each year once the Grammy's come along? This is what you are supposed to believe is strong in music. What a travisshamockery. The categories get filled with the lamest excuse for mail it in rock an roll. Metallica gets a nomination for it's work on The Unforgiven 3? Wow. Green Day is so insanely non essential yet get's blown each year at this thing for whatever rubbish they've forced out. The winners were correct for the most part this year. Happy the Kings of Leon have made the ripple they have, 'cause that's a great album. Lady Gaga is relevant and fairly interesting despite her unfortunate looks. What sucked again about the Grammy's is that the bar is sooo low, and the competition is really poor. I'll leave my frustrated view of the Grammy's at that, and just say it was a night that is just not aimed to appease this music fan.

Some new material that is worth checking out... With caution. Slim pickin's over last couple weeks.

Well, the two albums I have as most anticipated, are pretty much duds.

Magnetic Fields has a nice track on it I picked up called "You Must Be Out of Your Mind", but the album has not the strength I was looking for as it has none of the delightful dissonance that fueled the previous album.

Midlake's album which came out Tuesday was one I also looked forward to, that has been a swing and a miss. Very low key and some nice songs, but nothing as memorable as their song "roscoe"

A song I ran across last week is the Jangly and off kilter track by a band called Good Shoes. The song "The Way My Heart Beats" has a very frenetic start and pace much like the Arctic Monkeys, but has a bit of a more artistic and satisfying chorus than the Monkey's could pull off. This song is 4 out of 6. Only 2 on the accessible scale though, so stay away if you are wimpy.

The best album out right now from the last two weeks if from a band called "Beach House" The artistic and subtle, duo from Baltimore? has a pretty album led by the tracks "Norway" and "Zebra"

A couple other things I have absorbed heavily this week are tracks by "Broken Bells", which is lead singer James Mercer of The Shins with DJ Danger Mouse, who is one half of Gnarls Barkley. The song "The High Road" has a really cool blend of Mercer's singing beauty mixed in with an awesome nostalgic keyboard underlayment by the eclectic DJ Danger Mouse. Great track and I bet it will be a great album. 5 of 6 score on this track. Many folks will be okay with this sound.

One other song that has big time rotation this week for me is actually from late 2009. A band called "Avi Buffalo" has knocked my socks off with a rather twangy number called "What's it in For?" This is brilliantly executed Country Alternative Rock. Sirius XMU has this song playing quite a bit, and I recommend taking it in. If you don't dig Indie Folk or Alt Country, not for you though. I think 5 out of 6.



Randy's Album Hall of Fame inductee

The Soft Boys- Underwater Moonlight

When things get lame on the new tunes front I will introduce my audience of 3 people to an album that I feel cannot be ignored. Tonight, we have the finest of underground Jangle Pop by a quirky fella by the name of Robyn Hitchcock. He blazes a trail with the captivating angst of the first track "I Wanna Destroy You" This anti war song has really come full circle into a time and place that works for it's message to be heard clear. Strong and bizarre tracks abound here will slink and slither into one another. "Insanely Jealous" is another cool example of the disjointed yet tunable sound that is the brilliant Hitchcock. This track is then followed up with one of those tracks I must put on an island getaway mix. The song "Tonight" displays an uncanny Crescendo of alt rock greatness. The "Queen of Eyes" is a juicy number as well. This then is followed by the delightful track this fine album was named for. "Underwater Moonlight" weaves and bobs all over for a Jangle Pop classic. This album has brought it's best at this point and slows down a bit on the memorable tunes, but uncovers a couple more tracks that test the boundaries and senses of our captivated music adeventurers.

To me, this is RAHOF and is 6 of 6 stars. It is a 3 of 5 on the accessible scale so it could be borderline TBFB for some.

Please explore this album if you are daring, and let me know what you think of this bizarre fella names Hitchcock.

That is all for tonight.

Randy