The Mars Volta Amputechture Universal Records Released 9.12.06 Rating: 2.5 out of 4 Progressive rock is always a risky genre to work with. Naturally, you have to have talent and an unfailing understanding of how to “compose” rock music. In the 70s there were a lot of performers who committed themselves to the painstaking task of making guitar/bass/drums sound refined, suitable for the for the not-so common music aficionado with a passion for Bach , Miles AND Hendrix . A tall order some might say, but a listenership emerged nonetheless, somehow adding miles of wildly perceived time signatures to the chemically addled heads of ex-hippies everywhere. The wild nuances of composers like Frank Zappa , the jazz influence of John McLaughlin & The Mahavishnu Orchestra , King Crimson ’s affinity for mathematically pristine musicianship, Miles Davis’ reviled and misunderstood explorations into adding a dash of James Brown to his trumpet: Rock was growing by leaps and bounds into more t...

TV On The Radio Return to Cookie Mountain Interscope Released 9.12.06 Rating: 4 out of 4 Media is one thread of humanity that we all share. As much as we may love or hate television, we’ve all seen the same shows, watched the same news program, caught the same commercials. We all buy advertised goods, believe paranoia-inducing news spots on the potential dangers of cell phone radiation, and somehow get involved in celebrity break-ups. Television’s glowing realities are viral, nesting into brain cells and creating legions of channel surfers that always, ALWAYS, have something to discuss the next day over stationary water coolers and coffee makers. The same can be said for radio, whose monotonous and unimaginative playlists only accent the DJ’s morning banter which, a lot of times, is about what they saw on TV. Not to say that television and radio rarely inform, but their rafts of often mind-numbing programming are sought and uploaded with gusto, overtaking a large percentage of the...

To Whom It May Interest, On tap are reviews for the latest from TV On The Radio , Thom Yorke and The Mars Volta . I'm also playing a little catch-up on Johnny Cash , Helmet and a couple others. Well, a lot of others. The list has expanded immensely and this year has been surprisingly good for music. I'll be back at the keyboard in a little while with headphones on and the volume turned up. Thanks for your patience. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Today I received a comment regarding the site and whether or not I'll be posting again soon. It's been an insane month for me as I'm getting married this week, so I haven't had much time to write. But, I have a list of records that I'm looking forward to writing about so, to anyone that enjoys the site, fear not. The site isn't abandoned. I really enjoy writing about music and I'm very happy that people are reading it. I'll be back in action soon. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno Starless and Bible Black Sabbath Alien8 Recordings Released 2.7.06 Rating: 2.75 out of 4 Seriously, I picked this up because I thought the album title was cool, but I had no idea what I was in for. Kawabata Makoto , leader of the Japanese psychedelic act known as Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno , could quite possibly be music’s answer to David Koresh . Acid Mothers Temple is more of a cult than a band, with off-shoots galore and a slew of records that I’ve yet to even try and track down. Cosmic Inferno is the newest manifestation from the core of Acid Mothers Temple and Starless and Bible Black Sabbath is one of their newest offerings. Obvious in their allegiance to Sabbath and wildly plugged into the nuances of the mighty DRONE, Acid Mothers Temple delightfully throw you head first into a vacuum that you may never find your way out of. This album, whose contents only provide two tracks, is excessively drawn out and exc...

r The Roots Game Theory Def Jam Released 8.26.06 Rating: 3.75 out of 4 This has been a strange millennium. The average Post-9/11 American is a mass of fucked up nerves, barely settling for its Paxil coma while its tied tightly around its need for immediate safety, satisfaction, and Starbucks; its one ear plugged into Clear Channel airwaves, fast food entertainment and news while a cell phone yaps away in its other indifferent ear, its face full of reality TV as it uncontrollably twitches with every flying plane heard zooming overhead or sheds a tear with every mention of the word “levee.” It’s been five years since the era-defining tragedy-turned-political strategy occurred, a full year since Hurricane Katrina exposed economic hardships at home and our lack of disaster preparedness, and we’re no more safe or certain about anything except that we’re very uncertain. As The Roots so succinctly put it: ”It don’t feel right .” Uncertain times create mood. I can only imagine that that m...

Sonic Youth Rather Ripped Geffen Released 6.13.06 Sonic Nurse Geffen Released 6.8.04 Murray Street Geffen Released 6.25.02 Rating: 3.75 out of 4 A month or two ago, I picked up a copy of Sonic Youth ’s Rather Ripped during my lunch break. Intrigued by the DIY, Crass-based cover, not to mention the weird title, I wondered if this album was some sort of return to the sonic seeds that had long since germinated into their twenty-five year young career. Back when “Youth” had some truth to it. But, it wound up being the third in a series of SY albums that basically states, “Yes, friends...our best years may be behind us, but we still have a lot to offer.” Think of this series as a postscript, possibly an addendum, to an otherwise solid and ballsy avant-legacy that is now content in making music for music’s sake. It’s like they’ve found their inner- McCartney . Rather Ripped , 2002’s Murray Street and 2004’s Sonic Nurse , have worked to further Sonic Youth from the experimental noise j...