To Whom It May Interest, ”If you don’t stand up for somethin,’ you’ll fall for anything.” In 1994, Public Enemy ’s Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age left a rather large smear on an otherwise spotless catalog of recorded output that was rife with critical acclaim. By and large, the album was ignored as the hip-hop-buying public were too willing to sip on gin n’ juice, their heads still reeling from the effects of Dre and Snoop ’s G-Funk sound blast. PE’s fifth studio record didn’t lack the funk to match the West Coast flavor, nor did it lack the punch that Death Row Records seemed to boast. What it did lack was the “G” factor. PE, being an overtly political powerhouse, were speaking to a generation that was tired of politics. A Democrat was in office, Desert Storm was long gone, grunge was dead and hip-hop was largely based on the rhythms of George Clinton and violence on the streets of South Central. Consequently, Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age slipped through the cracks, the unfortunate ...

The Dresden Dolls Yes, Virginia… Roadrunner Records Released 4.18.06 Rating: 2.75 out of 4 When I’d first heard the notes that spoke through Amanda Palmer’s delicate, but angry, fingers, I admit I was a bit smitten. You could just tell, listening to the reverberating keys, that she was striking them down with remarkable gusto, commanding them to do her will, forcing them to feel her pain. Well…I don’t know, is it her pain? Probably not but if she’s writing for the pained demographic then, like all good actors, she must put herself there, like a CNN cameraman in the trenches. It was an attractive pain though. And it was very well written. I knew after first hearing the self-titled debut of The Dresden Dolls that Amanda Palmer would assume the roll of Goth-Mommy. Around the globe hundreds, maybe thousands, of misunderstood suburban female youths listened to “Girl Anachronism” and “Coin-Operated Boy” and found themselves in the arms, and at the breast, of the one woman who finall...

To Whom It May Interest, I’ve been simultaneously reading two books at once for the past month or so. One is a biography about Elvis Presley and his rise to superstardom. The other is “Mainlines, Blood Feasts & Bad Taste” by Philip Seymour Hoffman…er, I mean Lester Bangs. A couple weeks ago, I was paging through Bangs’ compiled ferocity and observation and found a review of Wire’s second opus, Chairs Missing . Direct quote from the man himself: “Wire. Think about that word and what it has meant in your life, perhaps even the lives of your ancestors. Then think just how hot you’d be hoppin’ to get a chance to hear a group whose sound might live up to such euphonious appellation! Wire. The Sound of the ‘70s. Flat. Dead. Dull. Thud. Mud. Plod. Sod. But mebbe with a whiplash on the counterstrike.” Now, having myself only recently opened the door to the wonderful world of Wire’s initial trio of recorded bliss, my reaction to the review was chockfull of “you don’t know what you’re ta...

Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere Downtown Released May 9, 2006 Rating: 3.75 out of 4 Dan the Automator has made a career out of keeping his mind open. Despite being mostly accredited as a hip-hop producer, he’s managed to branch out, creating for himself a path into alternative genres. Working with an array of singers and rhymesayers for his and Prince Paul’s Handsome Boy Modeling School , the first Gorillaz album, and then with Mike Patton for the seductive Lovage and upcoming Peeping Tom , he’s benefited from exploring other avenues. Another such producer that seems to be making the same waves is Danger Mouse, eccentric beat-maestro that came onto the scene after creating the controversial “Grey Album”, a mix incorporating the music of the Beatles’“White Album” with rhymes from Jay-Z’s “Black Album”. Though the record was more or less banned by EMI due to copyright issues, it made enough headlines and impressed enough of those who actually heard it to gain Danger Mouse some street ...

Eagles of Death Metal Death By Sexy… Reckords Records/Downtown Released 4.11.06 Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Fans are by and large observant. Every subtle nuance, every obvious cliché, every genre-defining detail is absorbed through those geeky and acute sensory intakes, and available for reference whenever they need be withdrawn from the fanboy library. Granted there are fans out there that lack so much imagination that a regurgitated copy of the object of their affections is the best they can do. But, other fans know how to expand. The realization that it’s been seen or done is depressing, but not hopeless. There are ways to improve. If there weren’t, what would be the point? Knowing that Jesse “The Devil” Hughes was at one point a journalist means that observation is his bread and butter. It’s really no surprise then that he made a rock record and knew exactly what he was doing. From start to finish, “Death By Sexy…” is a straight-up good time. Hughes and Queens of the Stone Age’s ...

Lockjaw... A mission statement of sorts is slowly trying to find its way into this journal and is being overtaken by an extreme case of writer's block. Or, in my case, lockjaw. Suffering from the type of erratic and sometimes over-caffeinated sort of speech that I usually deal with verbally, the written word serves as my clearest form of communication. Unfortunately, after going through the trouble of putting this thing together, I'm unable to find the right words. So, I'll just try and address what the purpose here is: I love music. Being someone that never had the gift, or patience, to play an instrument, but still having had an addiction nonetheless, I started writing about records when the mood suited me. Having torn through countless cellophane wrappers, and opened many record sleeves, cassette cases and jewel cases; having either heard the unmistakable sounds of brilliance, or the tragically unfortunate kerplunk of yet another wasted dollar or two, sometimes I...