ROB’s CD Review
A while back a buddy of mine, Rob, sent me a cd complilation of his current favorites. Rob is that guy who always knows the best music before you do. All these CDs are AWESOME. Although I promised to review them all, I recently decided that I will no longer do serious reviews of any media. All future reviews by ED will be presented in full Joke-MONKEY flavor. That stated, I asked Rob to review all the CDs himself, and he obliged. So, now it is my utmost honor to present you:
ROB THE MUSIC SWAMI’S “CDs YOU REALLY OUGHT TO OWN”
J. Mascis: Martin And Me- Acoustic album from Dinosaur Jr. front man J. Mascis. J plays favs from dinosaur albums plus a few new ones. An amazing album from one of the best songwriters of our generation. It is nice to see how well his songs sound when his legendary distortion is taken away.
Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea- Most people have never heard of this band. Too bad for those people. Never have horns fit into this stile of music so well. Hard to imagine this album without them. No other band sounds like these guys. The Fool - Holland, 1945 - Communist Daughter, fit together as well as any three songs on any album from any time. BOLD STATEMENT, I think not!!! Magnet Magazine said this was the best album to come out in the last decade!!! Quite impressive from a band that is all but unknown.
Queens Of The Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf- Go out right now and buy every album this band has put out. What else is there to say. This music has to be heard. Finally a band making music just to make music. There not trying to get rich, (fill in name of current pop band) there not in it for cred. (fill in name of current punk band). There just making amazing albums and playing amazing live shows because the love playing music.
Sigur Ros: ( )- WOW, WOW, WOW, almost unbelievable. If I hadn’t seen it myself I would have a hard time believing four guys could make music like this.
Steven Malkmus: Steven Malkmus- You like Pavement? Of course you do. Steven Malkmus is Pavement. Really, he wrote and sang most everything in that band. Now he is a little older and a little more, how do you say it, focused. If you weren’t into the more experimental side of Pavement this album is for you. If it had Pavement written across the front of it, everyone would think they put out a new album. I think it great.
Sunny Day Real Estate: Live- This band changed the sound of music today. Emo (read emotional) rock, hardcore Emo, whatever you want to call it just didn’t exist before this band. And with a voice like that, my god, who sounds like that. You really get the full effect on the song Pillars, the first song on their live album. This is the band that Dave Grohl got when he started Foo Fighters, well some of them anyway. Dave knew what he was doing.
The Shins: Oh, Inverted World; Chutes To Narrow- Representin’ New Mexico, HELL YEAH!!!! If you don’t like this band, you have serious issues. Just great music. Songs put together so well, a voice that’s the sonic equivalent of lead crystal (sounds like a choir boy that got derailed and just never went back), all come together to make two amazing albums.
The White Stripes: Elephant- This is what an album should be (except for that last song, what the hell is that all about?) Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine is what this band is all about. They’re not changing the world, just a little bit of your life. Put in the album, sit back and listen. When it’s over you’ll feel a little better about the world, maybe even yourself, and that’s no small feat. (Maybe stay away from that last song, it’s just disturbing.)
Sincerely,
Rob the Music Swami
January 26th, 2004 at 6:32 pm
I recently introduced my mother to Neutral Milk Hotel. She liked it, although she had some problems with the weird orchestral stuff.