The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

I swear that each year I have less and less time to spend listening to new music.  It seems like a losing battle anymore to keep up with all the new albums coming out, but I have to keep trying.  So rather than pontificate on the albums of the past year – as I’ve been known to do – I’m going for brevity in an attempt to get more done.  And I’m adding one new feature to this year’s year-end music wrapup (and future releases as well), by introducing a grading system.  Here’s the rundown:

• Dig It – You can safely part with your hard-earned money for this and not feel like a sucker.
• Download It – Still worth a listen, but you’ll probably want to just download it and cherry-pick the best tracks.
• Ditch It – If you can find something of lasting value, you’re a better person than I.

Got it?  Good!  Let’s begin…

Read on Daddy-O…

Before I unleash my awe-inspiring year-end album wrapup, I thought I’d share with you a mixtape featuring ten of my favorite songs from 2009.  The only restriction I’m placing on myself here is that I won’t be double-dipping from any artists, although some could have easily taken up half this list.  And away we go!

Read on Daddy-O…

Man, I take a short break from updating the site and, just like that, I’m buried under a pile of new music releases.  Not to mention, of course, the Beatles remasters.  So with no big preamble, let’s get right into it…

Ace Frehley – Anomaly (Brooklyn Born Records)

Peter Criss couldn’t do it, Paul Stanley almost did it, and who the hell knows what Gene Simmons was trying to do.  I’m speaking, of course, about original Kiss members putting out a solo album this decade that even approached their best work from previous decades.  So how does the Spaceman fare on his first release since George Bush Sr. was president?  Pretty decently, by and large.  Sure the album art is…well, it sucks.  It’s just bad.  But who even notices such things anymore?

The music’s the thing, and Ace acquits himself rather nicely over the course of a dozen tracks.  “Foxy & Free” kicks things off, and it’s as intense a slab of hard rock as you’re likely to hear this year.  Frehley intimated in interviews promoting Anomaly that he purposely was trying for the vibe of his outstanding 1978 solo record.  I can hear that in places, but mostly this album is another serving of the tuneful, meat and potatoes hard rock Frehley churned out in the ’80s with Frehley’s Comet.  That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but what surprised me was how Ace managed to stretch his formula out a bit – witness the Middle Eastern (OK, Led Zep Middle Eastern) flavor of “Genghis Khan”, the starkly confessional and heartfelt lyrics on “A Little Below the Angels”, and the laid back philosophizing and relaxed arrangement of “It’s a Great Life.”

Ace is indeed back, and I told you so.

Muse – The Resistance (Warner Bros.)

Depeche Muse anyone?  Now look, I’m all about bands trying out new sounds and taking their music in new directions.  The problem with this album is that for the most part Matthew Bellamy and friends don’t sound like they’re sure what direction they want to go, and as a result it has twice the indulgence of Black Holes and Revelations with half the impact.  Kicking the album off with “Uprising”, an electronica Gary Glitter anthem for the 21st century, was a bold move and I can dig it even with Bellamy’s cockamamie populist conspiracy lyrics weighing it down.

Read on Daddy-O…

As sure as I’m sitting here, I never thought I’d see the day that I would write about a new Kiss album that isn’t a total rehash of old songs.  But it’s real and it’s coming – the unfortunately titled Sonic Boom is only a month and a half away.  Not only that, the band has released its first new single – “Modern Day Delilah” – since 1999.  There’s nothing official on YouTube yet (and I won’t bother linking to an unofficial version since it’d probably be gone in minutes), but interested parties can hear the song in its entirety on Kissonline.com (a word of warning – the stream is very loud and there is no volume control).

I have to say, while this is not groundbreaking music by any stretch, it’s a lot better than I expected from a group that for the most part hasn’t been musically relevant since I was a teenager.  Paul Stanley’s voice is showing signs of wear, but he’s still giving it his all.  Eric Singer’s drumming is solid and locked into a good groove, while Tommy Thayer turns in a respectable (if a little derivative) guitar solo.

The musical rebirth of Kiss?  Probably not.  But based on this one tune I at least hope the nasty aftertaste of Psycho Circus will be washed away at long last.

I’m going to steal something that Jess ran on his blog many times – name that tune.  It’s simple: I post a lyric from the next random batch of songs that shows up on my iPod, and you try to guess the song and artist.  If you guess correctly and have a website, you get a free link (otherwise, just your name).  You just can’t buy that kind of publicity.  If this goes well I’ll do it again.  Of course if no one guesses anything I’ll just shitcan the whole idea.  Let’s play!  (and no cheating by looking them up!)

1. “She can move you and improve you with her love and her devotion.  And she’ll thrill you and she’ll chill you, but you’re headed for commotion.” – KISS, ???
2. “Tied to a chair, and the bomb is ticking.  This situation was not of your picking.”
3. “I hang my head and I advertise a soul for sale or rent.  I have no heart, I’m cold inside.  I have no real intent.”
4. “The sheets are gray, left since the day she went away, I lost all power.  The dust is thick, the dog is sick, the kids have picked most of the flowers.”
5. “You ask me why I’m weary, why I can’t speak to you.  You blame me for my silence, say it’s time I changed and grew.”
6. “Your groove I do deeply dig.  No walls, only the bridge.  My supper dish, my succotash wish.” – Deee-Lite, “Groove Is in the Heart” (Thom)
7. “Troubled times, caught between confusion and pain, pain, pain.  Distant eyes, promises we made were in vain, in vain, in vain.” – Journey, “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” (mizerychik)
8. “Angels never know it’s time to close the book and gracefully decline.”
9. “Gonna make you, make you, make you notice.” – The Pretenders, “Brass in Pocket” (Thom)
10. “I been bad, I been good.  Dallas, Texas.  Hollywood. I ain’t askin’ for much.” – ZZ Top, “Tush” (xtrev)

Since time immemorial, mankind has approached the future with a mixture of wonder and fear.  From primitive days to Biblical times, and even in our modern, sophisticated age we have imagined ourselves either ascending to the pinnacle of enlightenment and peace or descending into a living hell on earth.

Somewhere in between those two extremes lie the visions of the future shown in music videos.  These glimpses into our possible futures show us what most likely lies in store for us – a world that is bleak and hopeless, but still has a pretty kickass soundtrack.

Kiss – “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”

The scenario: This is pretty much your stock “post-apocalyptic rock world” video as you’ll soon see.  Dirty streets, lots of fire, and desperate women in tattered clothes are all in abundance here.  Kiss (freshly unmasked at this point in their careers) looks a bit out of place in this setting, what with their spandex and frilled leather jackets, but they somehow land a gig as the bar band in a place that appears to have neither a bar nor very much liquor.  Actually it looks more like an abandoned warehouse.

Read on Daddy-O…

From Idolator via the AV Club comes a pretty cool music meme – compile a list of your favorite albums, with one for each year you’ve been alive. Sounds easy enough, but some years are positively stacked with music I love.  Forcing me to choose among my musical children is just so…cruel.

For me the most bountiful years were 1975-1978, 1980, 1982-1984, 1990, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2006, and 2007.

1975 – Kiss, Alive!
1976 – Led Zeppelin, Presence
1977 – Rush, A Farewell to Kings
1978 – Ace Frehley/Kiss, Ace Frehley
1979 – Pink Floyd, The Wall
1980 – Genesis, Duke
1981 – Rush, Moving Pictures
1982 – Rush, Signals
1983 – Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind
1984 – Iron Maiden, Powerslave
1985 – Kiss, Asylum
1986 – Queensrÿche, Rage for Order
1987 – Anthrax, Among the Living
1988 – Queensrÿche, Operation: Mindcrime
1989 – King’s X, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
1990 – Queensrÿche, Empire
1991 – Queen, Innuendo
1992 – King’s X, King’s X
1993 – Robert Plant, Fate of Nations
1994 – Queensrÿche, Promised Land
1995 – Faith No More, King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime
1996 – King’s X, Ear Candy
1997 – Hank Jones, Favors
1998 – Pearl Jam, Yield
1999 – Ben Folds Five, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
2000 – Doves, Lost Souls
2001 – Spoon, Girls Can Tell
2002 – Koop, Waltz for Koop
2003 – Muse, Absolution
2004 – Mastodon, Leviathan
2005 – The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity?
2006 – Muse, Black Holes and Revelations
2007 – Field Music, Tones of Town
2008 (so far) – School of Language, Sea from Shore

As I would’ve predicted, there’s some pretty clear trends at play here.  Most of the bands I grew up loving (Kiss, Iron Maiden, Rush, etc.) were at the peak of their powers during my youth, thus their early list dominance.  That also explains why hard rock and metal are heavily represented on this list until the mid 1990s, when they either dropped off my radar entirely or were just not releasing stuff I was all that interested in.  In fact, metal pretty much disappears for good until 2004, when the awesome Leviathan was released.

The other item of note is that I was listening to most of the albums at the front of the list when they came out.  Starting around the mid-’90s, my musical horizons began to expand and I started going back and filling in holes. Were this list to go back a few decades there’d be a ton of Beatles and jazz on it.