Ruzzells Rambles

I'm not dead

2019-09-14T22:54:00.001-06:00

Mostly.

1001 Albums: 0521 - 0530 - Plateau

2011-09-21T12:28:00.000-06:00

Time for another blog that only I am interested in! Phew! Been a bit of a long week and I'm still dragging my way out of it. Not the best frame of mind for a blog, but what the hell, these stupid things don't write themselves. So this one might be extra unpleasant and not funny, as opposed to the regular not funny and unpleasant you will find here.

0521 The Blue Nile – A Walk Across the Rooftops - A rather unimpressive pop outing. No idea why it’s on here. I don’t remember ever hearing about the band or this album and I’m going to forget about them now.

0522 Hanoi Rocks – Back to Mystery City - Somewhere in the world lives the members of Hanoi Rocks, and they are super pissed off. This is a pretty decent part rock/metal type album that will be the bases of Poison. Poison owes this band a lot, they totally cribbed their girly looks and music style and became super popular with it. Which I never understood since I’ve always hated Poison. I didn’t love this record either, but I didn’t mind it. Which is more then I can say for Poison, Brett Michaels, C.C. Devile and everything and everyone associated with the band.

0523 Cyndi Lauper – She’s So Unusual - I imagine that people kind of snicker about this one and Cyndi since when you think “The 80’s” this is exactly what pops into your head. Lauper hit huge with this album, the track “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” was insanely popular with the video for it, “Time After Time” and “She Bop” playing practically non-stop. Hell, those videos are considered classics now, and hold up just fine. It was so popular she was able to form "The Rock n' Wrestling Connection" which finally united rock music and wrestling into one entity of awesome and kick off Wrestlemania.Aside from all that, the album too, is really dead solid and worthy of such legend. There’s not a bad track on it. The opener “Money Changes Everything” is as good as any of the big hits, and "All Through The Night" is lovely too. Heck, she even does a cute Betty Boop tribute. Really good stuff. So I'm going to hang rubber bands off my face in tribute and memory to all things Rock n' Wrestling.

0524 Paul Simon – Hearts & Bones - The first track was called “Allergies” and it put me off the album. Which isn’t fair since it’s not that bad. It hints at something better, namely his next one “Graceland” that I’m sure will be on this list. So yeah, that’s all I got on this one. It wasn’t remarkable, though the last song “The Late Great Johnny Ace” is partially about John Lennon, so Beatle fans might want to track it down.

0525 Echo & the Bunnymen – Porcupine - More of the same from Echo and his Bunnymen. Not a bad album, just a rather long one.

0526 ZZ Top – Eliminator - This was the second album I bought out of my own money. After this, my purchases get hazey, so don’t worry, I wont be stating "This was the __ album I purchased with my own money" on any more reviews. ZZ Top took complete advantage of music videos to re-invent themselves from a gutsy Texas blues trio to a polished synth based pop-rock outfit. It manages to totally work. Their cheeky sense of humour works in the songs. “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man” remain video classics, and the songs hold up too. My fave track though is “T.V. Dinner.” It didn’t get a wacky video though.

0527 Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - We’re really hitting the MTV/Much Music era on this list! Yup, the Eurythmics hit it huge with the Fetish-y (for the time) video title track. The rest of the album though was not that great. It doesn’t sound cohesive, and Sweet Dreams stands out so much that the rest feels like filler.

0528 U2 – War - The massively popular band makes their list debut with this one. It’s easy to snicker at U2 these days, that’s the price you pay for getting super rich and super famous and having "The Irish Blowhard" Bono as your leader. People ready to write them off as shit based on their last decade or so of work should really check this out. It has the hit that made them superstars (totally guessing) “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and the not as popular “New Years Day” on it, which are both great songs. The rest of the album holds up. Yup, they're young, earnest and there’s a bit a naivete at play here, but they also fully believe in what they are doing. That music can really change the world. So hats off to Bono, The Edge and the other two guys with boring normal names, well done on this!

0529 The Police – Synchronicity - I believe this is the last album by The Police. Which means that if Sting ever appears on this list again, it will be as a shitty solo artist. Thankfully this album is as good as the other Police albums. It has mega hit “Every Breath You Take” on it, but my fave is “Mother”. That song is crazy! As a side note, Sting does a better version of “Murder By Numbers” on Frank Zappa's “Broadway The Hard Way” album. Actually, “Broadway The Hard Way” is way better then this, so go listen to it instead.

0530 Meat Puppets – II - A band I remember hearing about but never really listened to. Then Nirvana covered “Lake Of Fire” and everyone continued to not listen to them. Anyways, this album was great. Super great. As in I listened to it 3 times. Not a bad song on it, and it plays great as a cohesive whole. Loved it. GREAT!

So there it is. I know. This blog needs to improve. I'm open to any suggestions. Maybe I need happy pills.I'm feeling a little desperate since this blog got stolen by some bot on another site and generated zero views. That's a good sign you're doing something worthwhile huh? Write a blog no one reads? I'm too far in to quit though. Fuck! FUCK FUCK FUCK! Why isn't anything satisfactory anymore?

1001 Albums: 0511 - 520 - I AM NOT A NUMBER!

2011-09-12T15:49:00.000-06:00

Hey it's time for another chunk of music reviews based around the 1001 Albums! Yup. Here it is dicks and deedees!

0511 Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska - This would be my favourite Bruce Springsteen album if I liked Bruce enough to have a favourite album of his. It’s a solo album of demos meant to be re-recorded, and because it’s so no bullshit there’s an honesty to these tracks that is lacking to me in most of his work. This one sounds timeless, and would fit just fine with a Woody Guthrie album. Which is fine my me.

0512 The Associates – Sulk - Not a bad pop type album in The Cure vein. Other then not being as good as The Cure and not leaving much of an impression.

0513 Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast - A personal favourite of mine, but I didn’t hear it until around 1986 since my mum wouldn’t let me listen to it. Ah for the days when music was dangerous! Anyways, this is superb. Bruce Dickinson makes his debut with the band on this one, and the songs transcend metal to the point of being operatic. It’s amazing in every way. The band is completely assured with the material and it makes even the cornier bits work. Not a bad song to found, and add in a sound clip from “The Prisoner” and you just can’t go wrong with this.

0514 Duran Duran – Rio - Duran Duran is one of those bands that thrived in the 80’s and then kind of vanished. In Canada anyways. A friend pointed Simon Le Bon out to me in Heathrow and I didn’t recognize him narf narf. Anyways, this is about as good of a 80’s pop album as you will get. A bunch of non-challenging but pleasing songs. That said, Duran Duran are actually better with music videos. I think that’s why they were so popular, music vids with high production values and lots of pretty girls makes this music much more interesting.

0515 Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes (1st Album) - This album features the song “Blister In The Sun” a song so good that it's impossible to hate. It also features that song that Ethan Hawk sings at Winona Rider in a cunty way in “Reality Bites”. So that’s two pretty great songs, and the rest is great too. They manage to capture angst in a way that’s honest and not annoying. I remember the band from Junior High and not thinking them great, but really enjoyed this now. It’s a gooder.

0516 Malcolm McLaren – Duck Rock - I was ready to flat out hate this. McLaren was the mastermind behind the my beloved Sex Pistols, and apparently totally fucked the band over. Anyways, this is pretty much the perfect club album. Buffalo Girls was the charting single on this, and it’s a great song. The whole album was pretty great. The asshole knew how to make a buck by giving the people what they wanted and this one is no different. Great 80’s dance music that while sounding of the time, still packs a funball shot in the arm. I hate to say it, but I like this and Malcolms music contributions to the world so far. I still think he's a prick though.

0517 Def Leppard – Pyromania - I was never much of a Def Leppard fan. The mega hit album “Hysteria” was just way too over produced for my rock sensibilities. This is the album proceeding that one, and it’s pretty solid. Yeah, the production is there, but the songs are solid enough to make it work.

0518 REM – Murmur - The Georgia boys (no one has ever called them that, they’re probably not from Georgia) make their debut! This was really good. "Radio Free Europe" is a great song. It struck me listening to this, that this genre of music is dead. This used to be called “Alternative” or “College Rock”. Now REM are legendary artists, and this is simply rock music. It used to be so much easier being a music fan with clear, simple generalized genres. Now with Indie Pop, Classical Pop, Indie Folk, Prog Metal... I don’t know what the hell anyone is talking about. Fuck I’m old.

0519 The The – Soul Mining - I seem to think there was something important about this band, but I’ve forgotten it. Let me check Wiki... nope, nothing important here. Wiki tells me this is their “synth-noir” debut. What the fuck does that mean? This was noisy, and kind of forgettable. Moving on...

0520 Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombones - MORE TOM WAITS HOORAY! I’m not being sarcastic either. This was really good. I hadn’t heard it before. A bunch of great songs and “Franks Wild Years” is the only song you ever have to listen too in your entire life. This was so good that I’ve been on a Waits binge listening to him non-stop all week. Bless his gravelly voiced heart!

Some good stuff here. I listened to that Tom Waits one 3 times I did yes I did! So it wins! I guess I'm picking winning albums again? Who knows, this project is a fucking mess...

1001 Albums: 0501 - 510 - A Milestone Is Reached

2011-09-06T13:49:00.000-06:00

You did read that right, another milestone has been reached on this project! And for me, it's more important then being over half done the list. It's at this point that we reach the era of modern music where I became "aware" of music around me. This pack features the first album that I spent my own allowance money on. It's late 1982, music videos are all the rage though us poor souls in Canada wont get MTV for years, and Much Music is a couple years away. We still got to see videos though, a half hour a day on Video Hits and Rock Around The Clock. I loved them. I STILL love them! Nothing beats a great video, even though they seem harder to view now then they did since the music channels don't air them.

I'm getting off topic. Music videos had an effect on me, and I started to enjoy music and seeking it out. So from this point on, I'm going to be seeing this list through even darker rose coloured glasses. I'm also interested to see if the music I loved still holds up- if it makes the list at all, and if the stuff I poo pooed I still loath or now like. It's going to be super interesting! For me.

You all will just have to deal with the shit recaps.

0501 Dexys Midnight Runners – Too Rye Ay - The previously mentioned Dexys make their appearance, and it includes mega-hit “Come On Eileen”. So there you go, your life is set with this record if you like that song. The rest of the album is kind of annoying and not that great.

0502 Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84) - Simple Minds were huge in the eighties and I was never a fan. This one doesn’t include their big hit “Don’t You Forget About Me". So you can skip it I think. It was not impressionable.

0503 Madness – The Rise & Fall - Everyone loves Madness. Specifically, everyone loves the song “Our House” by Madness. It’s on here so we’re all lucky! The whole album is pretty decent, but that song is certainly the high light.

0504 Donald Fagen – The Nightfly - This is the first solo album by one of the guys in Steely Dan, as well as being an early record fully recorded digitally. Neat eh? I fucking hated it. It’s so over produced and slick, not to mention meandering and slow, it drove me crazy listening to it. It completely lacks any sense of life or soul. Fuck this guy and his shitty album, I haven’t liked a single thing he’s done.

0505 Haircut One Hundred – Pelican West - This is an 80’s sounding album from the 80’s by an 80’s band with a cute 80’s band name. Ummm....

0506 Kate Bush – The Dreaming - My MP3s of this one is miss-tagged as “Kates Bush”. Bwaaa ha ha! It cracks me up! Anyways, this was pretty good. I don't know what to call it as far as genre, art pop? It’s the type of music that I’m surprised I like since Kate has amazing vocal range and seems to want to hit every note possible in every single song, sometimes in the same line. It shouldn’t work, but it does, so let’s not questions it further and just say it’s good.

0507 Orange Juice – Rip it Up - Nothing really rips on this despite being kind of punky. It’s another forgotten album that the authors of this thing seem to think should be mentioned since they are clever.

0508 Michael Jackson – Thriller - This is arguably the most popular, best selling album of all time. I know I bought it. This was the first album I spent my money on. Bought it at Woolcos for $8 on vinyl. Anyways, it is surprisingly good to a point. That point is that the songs “Thriller”, Beat It” and “Billie Jean” all show up back to back, and it’s pretty great. You get a Vincent Price poem, a Eddie Van Halen solo and a creepy song about a baby daddy. The rest of the album is weak compared to it. Particularly the painfully bad duet with Paul McCartney “The Girl Is Mine”. It’s a horrible gutless ballad with a hilariously bad spoken word part that features the 1000 year old Paul politely arguing with boy-fucker Michael about who gets a girl. Oh, 80’s, you were so innocent!

0509 The Birthday Party – Junkyard - This is a noisy rock album that really stuck with me. Reminded me of the Butthole Surfers and old Flaming Lips. Noisy, messy, but holds your ear-holes.

0510 Venom – Black Metal - This is hilarious in it’s desire to be scary and satanic. It also totally rocks. Death Metal, Speed Metal, thrash... you all start here. It’s surprisingly good with solid playing to keep you interested despite the funny lyrics.

Well it's pretty apparent that I'm not falling madly in love with all the music on the list from now on. Man, that Steely Dan guy, he should be hanged for crimes against humanity. What an asshole!

Agree or disagree? That's what the comments are for! Please share with your music loving friends! I need the love!

1001 Albums: 0491 - 500 - Yes 500 Down!

2011-08-30T14:58:00.001-06:00

I shaved my head. Right down to the skin. I'm not an outdoors guy, but I now have a ridiculous head tan line thing going that makes it look like my face was grafted onto my head. Lesson learned!

But that's not what this is about! This is about music, the 1001 Albums you should listen to before you die. I'm not dead yet, and I'm now basically half way through it. How has it been? Read the past posts lazy bones! Actually it's been surprisingly good. I've largely been ambivalent to most of the music, wonderfully surprised by many, and amazingly only flat out hated a few. That's not bad!

Here's the albums fleshing out the top 500. If this was the Rolling Stone Magazine list, I'd be done. As it is, I probably got at least another year of doing this.

Shit.

0491 Bauhaus – Mask - I was looking forward to this one since I think these are the guys who did that song Bela Lugosi's Dead. That songs not all that great, and it isn’t on this album. A song titled “X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes” is on this album, but it’s not that great either. It’s named after one of my favourite movies, and that movie is great. So basically, skip this album and get that X: The Man With X-Ray Eye movie since it’s awesome.

0492 Bobby Womack – The Poet - A pretty lame soul album. I fear that the 80’s is the decade where soul music goes into the shitter.

0493 Tom Tom Club – Tom Tom Club (1st Album) - The name of this band kind of sinks it since it's silly, but it’s surprisingly good! A peppy pop album with a taste of rap.

0494 Rush – Moving Pictures - Being Canadian means that I love Rush even though I’ve never bought one of their albums. It’s just the way it is. This one is great. They tone down the prog rock stuff and replace it with a near perfect album. The opening song Tom Sawyer is on the best opening songs on a record, period. PERIOD! Man, I love that song! It gives me chills and the rest of the album is just as good.

0495 ABBA – The Visitors - I’ve already mentioned that I was never much of an Abba fan, and that hasn’t really changed. I did enjoy this one though. It’s their final album, and there’s a seriousness to it that is much more appealing to me then their other albums.

0496 ABC – Lexicon of Love - A poppy album that again surprised me that I actually liked it. I typically don’t care for this type of stuff, but this was really well done with some pretty good songs.

0497 Prince – 1999 - Prince makes his debut with a dead solid album that featuring the title track and "Little Red Corvette" that will become big video hits when “Purple Rain” comes out. At least that’s when I first remember hearing about them. Prince simply didn’t exist until that point for me. Anyways, the rest of the album is just as good. Well done Prince!

0498 Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message - Raps big coming out party, The Message is a legendary song. The album though... meh. It’s mostly lame R&B, full on R&B as opposed to rap in The Message vein. That’s how it goes with the ground-breakers I guess.

0499 Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom - Elvis puts out a flat out mature album that’s full of pop perfection. I liked it though I found it not exceptionally memorable.

0500 The Cure – Pornography - The landmark 500th spot is filled by landmark goths The Cure with their landmark album Pornography! It was good, better then the previous one, and still not all that gothy and sad. That’s how it is with The Cure.

There it is. Sadly not a mind blowing group. The Rush album was awesome, but I had heard it before. I actually own it for Rock Band. The surprisingly good pop albums where alright but not entering into my regular rotation. Harumph. Oh well, let's see how the next 500 plus 1 go!

Do You Have A Spare Toilet?

2011-08-17T13:27:00.000-06:00

Scavenger Hunt (1979)

Ah the scavenger hunt movie. Is there anything better then packing in a bunch of celebrities into a comedy and have them race about trying to win a prize or get some treasure? The answer is “yes” as pretty near all these movies aren’t very good. From the It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World to Rat Race, Hollywood is always putting out a film like this. In the late 70’s, early eighties, there were a bunch of these, culminating in the fan fave The Cannonball Run (directed by Hal Needham, who you will remember from The Villain).

It is in this genre that we find the movie of today, Scavenger Hunt. The basic plot is a game manufacturer played by the great Vincent Price kicks off and states in his will that the winner of a scavenger hunt will win his inheritance. The rest of the movie is the madcap, wacky scavenger hunt as the mostly b-list/non-celebs run about trying to win. It has a nice message in the end and it’s all very boring. All the actors are doing their best with the material, and some like Scatman Crothers and Roddy McDowell are genuinely likeable. Others like Richard Mulligan and his Marx Brothers type impression just grate on you. The script eventually sinks it. It kind of wants to be an edgy Animal House type of comedy but within a PG rating so it never works. It’s too broad, too annoying and in the end, too cheap and a waste of time. Maybe with bigger names it would work as a curiosity. As it is, it just doesn't work.

Arnold has a very small roll, especially coming from the 3rd billing he had in the previous The Villain. He plays the owner of a gym who basically tortures and beats the shit out of Tony Randall who is there for a medicine ball for the hunt. It’s a small scene, but one of the better comedic bits in the film. Arnold does just fine with his first stab of broad comedy, looking very comfortable as the over-eager muscle guy. You kind of wish he had more to do. Sadly he doesn’t. Fortunately for us Arnie will have many attempts at family friendly comedies, but that is in the future, let us wait for those to come!

So basically this is another film to skip in the Arnold filmography, though it’s not really a proper Arnold movie of course, but a shit ensemble movie.

1001 Albums: 0481 - 0490 - No Sleepin'!

2011-08-12T21:18:00.000-06:00

Been busy busy busy, but the project never sleeps! Here's an update! We are about to crush the top 500 albums. Be brave dear friends! We can do this! YES!

0481 The Go-Gos – Beauty & the Beat - It’s really hard not to love the Go-Gos. None of what they do is great, but it’s just so god damned much fun! And Belinda Carlisle is a total crush object, never mind Jane Wiedin. So yeah, this is a like, BUT MOSTLY FOR THE MUSIC! I am not a pig, thank you very much!

0482 Motörhead – No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith - Jesus Christ, this was better then “Ace Of Spades”! Absolutely no complaints, this live offering might be the their best album.

0483 Soft Cell – Non Stop Erotic Cabaret - Probably best known for “Tainted Love”, because it’s one of the greatest songs to come out of the 80’s. While no other song on this album, or possible written since, is as irresistible as that song, the whole album is just as good and interesting. The songs are quite clever. This was good.

0484 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Architecture & Morality - With all good synth-pop like Soft Cell, you must also take the bad, which is what I thought of this one. Just didn’t do a thing for me with it’s dreamy synths and kind of annoying sounds. Blech.

0485 Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - I had high hopes for this one, and of course was disappointed. The idea of Byrne’s Talking Heads type cracked pop mixed with Eno’s own clever sounds is really intriguing. The result though was no pop and more of a sound collage type of bleepy music. It was boring.

0486 Black Flag – Damaged - This is the album that put Henry Rollins on the map. that might be a great thing or a terrible thing depending on your thoughts on Mr. Rollins. I’m a bit of a fan, but just a bit. This album though, is a bit mixed. There’s some great moments mixed with really juvenile moments. Which makes sense considering the age of this.

0487 X – Wild Gift - These guys are more legendary then I think they deserve to be. Not that I didn’t like this, I did, it just doesn’t seem as amazing as other things on this list. I’m being unfair.

0488 Psychedelic Furs – Talk, Talk, Talk - It should be apparent that I carry a lot of prejudice to my listening habit. I brought it to this one, figuring it would be awful. It was actually really good. More rock based then I thought it would be, and it has that “Pretty In Pink” song it’s the only Furs album you’ll ever need to own.

0489 Human League – Dare - Of course the Human League are brilliant because they invented music.

0490 Gun Club – Fire of Love - As of this writing, I don’t remember a thing about this.

Coming soon- The 500th Album Wham-Bam! It probably wont be as exciting as that last sentence. See you then!

Who's The Real Villain Here?

2011-08-07T12:22:00.000-06:00

The Villain (1979)

In late 1977 a car movie debuted as a massive hit and boosted the careers of the stars Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields into the stratosphere while kick starting the CB radio/Trucker craze. That film was directed by Hal Needham, and it was called Smokey & The Bandit. It’s a pretty great car crash comedy, one of the best you’ll see. Needham, an ex-stuntman followed it up with a surprisingly good stuntman film called Hooper and clearly based on the success of these two movies Needham was given the keys to Hollywood to make any film he wanted. That next film was The Villain.

Ever wonder what a live action version of a Road Runner cartoon would be like? Well wonder no more, it would be pretty terrible, and this movie proves it. The amazing, legendary Kirk Douglas stars in the title roll of Cactus Jack ie- The Villain, a surrogate While E Coyote that is after the money that Anne Margaret it carrying. All the gags that you’ve seen in Loony Tunes Cartoons find there way into this in an incredibly terrible and painful to watch way. It just does not work at all. There’s not enough scenery for Douglas to chew, and Anne Margaret does her best to liven things up with her flirty sex appeal. It doesn’t really work either. Nothing works! Not even the stunts are worthwhile in this western spoof. It’s truly terrible! Why would they try to make this film?

Arnold Schwarzenegger fairs just as well as everyone else in his roll of Handsome Stranger. Yes, that is his characters name. He plays a naive, “Dudley Do-Right” type roll that is out to protect Anne Margaret and not realizing her advances. He does just fine in a roll that requires nothing from him in the acting department.

There’s nothing left to say. This isn’t a proper Arnie movie, it’s a terrible western spoof comedy that no one can redeem. It’s mostly sad, Douglas especially deserves better.

1001 Albums: 0471 - 0480 - A Clockwork Eighties

2011-07-25T16:32:00.000-06:00

I know friends, I continue to be horribly late with these blogs. The project still continues though! Let's look at the next block of ten.

0471 The Jam – Sound Affects - This is the second album by The Jam on the list, and I didn’t like it. This must be why I was expecting not to like that first album.

0472 Tom Waits – Heartattack & Vine - I’m guessing this one is on here because Tom starts getting weird and sounding like “Tom Waits” instead of the old piano bar sounding Tom Waits. Weird blues is to found in this album, and it’s pretty great.

0473 UB40 – Signing Off - I only knew UB40 for that song “Red Red Wine” that was such a hit. After listening to this, I didn’t need to know anymore. White man reggae that just doesn’t work for me.

0474 The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro - The name of the band was way better then the music it made. Pretty forgettable British punk/new wave whatever.

0475 The Specials – More Specials - And more good music! This one is more polished and goofier then the first album. Still on par though, really good stuff. I like these checkerboard guys!

0476 Steve Winwood – Arc of a Diver - My hate for Steve Windwood continues as he leaves Traffic behind (pun!) and goes solo with this horrid synth-lite album. Hell can reserve a specil place for Mr. Windwood.

0477 The Pretenders – The Pretenders (1st Album) - A band known for one song, “Brass In My Pocket”, and that song is on here! I bet they go on to do other good songs, but we shall never know since just that one song matters. Which is a shame since the whole album was pretty great, even with “Brass” being the stand out. A really solid rock offering that managed to sound current without sounding too new wave or any of that type of stuff.

0478 Einstürzende Neubauten – Kollaps - More noisy Krautrock that did nothing for me. Sigh.

0479 Siouxsie & the Banshees – Juju - I was not in love with the first Siouxsie album. I did not love this one either, but I did like it a lot more. No horrid cover songs, it’s more polished production wise and more assured in how it wants to sound. Made for a great step up.

0480 Heaven 17 – Penthouse & Pavement - This started out sounding a bit DEVO and I got all sorts of excited. Song two was decidedly not like DEVO, and I kinda lost interest from that point on. It’s a shame really. The band got it’s name from my favourite Stanley Kubrick film, it should of been better then this!

Not the most inspired blog I've ever written. Then again, none of the music in this block really inspired me in any way. The best of the lot was the Tom Waits, and I'm sure I've listened to it before. Blargh! Hopefully the next blog will be more fun.

1001 Albums: 0454 - 0470 - Oh my GAAWWWWD! It's The 80's!

2011-07-13T20:32:00.000-06:00

Ho ho! I bet you all thought I forgot about this project, what with vacation time and all that. Nope! It's still going on! I'm just dead lazy in updating it with a side of being very busy the past week or so. Also, Listening to the music is more fun/interesting then writing about it. I don't know, I've been quiet lately. Anyway, here is massive catch up. The 80's are proving to be wildly interesting compared to the 70's. It is early days though, so let's hope it continues eh? Enjoy!

0454 Adam & the Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier - It’s the perfect start to the ‘80s! Does any other band scream out the decade like Adam and the Ants? There probably is. This is not a real question! Anyways, this was surprisingly rocking and not a synth fest like I thought it would be. I shall be forced to admit this was good!

0455 Dexys Midnight Runners – Searching for the Young Soul Rebels - When I hear the name of this band, I think “Pass the Dutchie”. I am probably wrong in thinking that this band sang that song. As it is, that song is not on here and I was disappointed in the irrational way I tend to be with this list. This album is kind of a mess with some spoken word skit type stuff around the music. I just didn’t care for it OK? Maybe they will come back to pass some dutchie around and I will forgive them! Let’s be positive!

0456 AC/DC – Back in Black - I am a fan of the dead lead singer who’s name is escaping me at the moment and I can’t google since I’m pretending I’m typing this on my old Vic 20 this block of reviews so as to force an 80's vibe on myself and it didn’t have a network. Or the internet which wasn't invented yet. Anyways, I’m not supposed to like this one since it’s got the new singer Brian whatsisname. But to hell with expectations... this was really good! As good, if not maybe a little better then the old dead guy singers stuff. John Bonham? Was that his name or the dead Led Zeppelin drummer? Man, the Vic 20 days kind of sucked, we were all so helpless. Only having Gorf and Omega Race to play! Right, this was good and this is way more then should be writen about AC/DC! Moving on!

0457 The Cramps – Songs the Lord Taught Us - PISS UP A ROPE BUT DO I LOVE THIS BAND! Love them! And this album, and everything they’ve ever done or attached their name to. I would orally please every single one of them in gratitude, even Lux who’s currently deceased. I say currently because let’s face it, if anyone is going to come back to life, it’s Lux Interior of The Cramps. So click on the link and buy this if you don't currently own it. DO IT RIGHT NOW BEFORE THE MP3s SELL OUT! How will you face your children if you don’t? Do you enjoy living in shame?

0458 Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - This might be the most kick-ass rock pack yet! I LOVE THE DEAD KENNEDYS TOO! Not enough to orally please them, but I would lick their tummies if they desired me to. This is a great debut of the hardcore band before they got really hardcore. So there’s almost a classic rockabilly thing going on. Almost because there totally isn’t a rockabilly thing going on. I might not know what I’m talking about because I am so excited that two of my favourite bands made it to the list, and in a double header! Since you’re buying that Cramps album, you should buy this too.

0459 Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel (III) - God damn it! It was going so good and now Peter Gabriel waltzed over here and kind of mucked it all up. Asshole! This album wasn’t as good as that debut one I liked so much. It wasn’t terrible either. Pete’s (he doesn’t mind if I call him Pete) is moving into the world beat sound that will bore the shit out of everyone in the next few years after all those food for Africa songs come out. It’s early days though, so it’s mostly subtle and works. I should probably listen to this again since it’s a pretty sharp turn from the methed up one-two punch of The Cramps and Dead Kennedys. I’ll come back to this later...

0460 The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight - It was a little friendly like punky, but kind of underwhelming. Soft boys is right I guess?

0461 The Cure – Seventeen Seconds - Legendary Goth Rockers The Cure make their sad debut on the list with their second album. It’s actually not all that sad, I’m just being a jerk. I don't think I had heard any of the songs off it. It was good.

0462 Echo & the Bunnymen – Crocodiles - This band has a horrible name that makes me think “Minstrel Show”. The music is significantly better, but not so great that you should run out and get this.

0463 Motörhead – Ace of Spades - Motörhead are awesome, Lemmy is fantastic and this album rocks. I don’t know what more to say. Buy it.

0464 Killing Joke – Killing Joke (1st Album) - Pretty solid punk offering. the overtly political songs manage not to come off as corny.

0465 Judas Priest – British Steel - Oh Judas Priest! You are so awesome, yet hard to take seriously. This is pretty great British metal. I might be biased since as of this writing I plan to see them in a few months.

0466 Circle Jerks – Group Sex - I really liked this one. A solid punk album that was pretty sarcastic. If I’m remembering it right.

0467 Talking Heads – Remain in Light - After the minor let down of the last album, this one was a step forward. It has that song where in the video (the greatest video ever made) David Byrne demonstrates the only acceptable way to dance at night clubs. So that’s pretty great. The rest of the album was good too, with a good mix of peppy songs and slower ballad/dirge type stuff.

0468 Joy Division – Closer - Another Joy Division album that didn’t do much for me. This one was noisier then the previous one, and I liked it more. Not enough to have it stick around with me though.

0469 Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden (1st Album) - This was the first Iron Maiden album I ever bought, and I remember not liking it. It has their original lead singer on it, not Bruce Dickenson, and Bruce was the man at the time I bought it. Revisiting it though, it’s actually really good. The songs aren’t as epic as they will become, but there’s still some gems, and “Running Free” is flat out great.

0470 The Undertones – Hypnotised - I loved this album, manly because it reminded me of a favorite song of mine from a porn movie soundtrack (Electrify Me by The Plugz, found in “New Wave Hookers”, an exceptionally good porno from the 80’s, but that’s another story...) Anyways, The Undertones don’t actually sound much like The Plugz, but they are good. Simple type songs that are super catchy. I really liked this one. That’s two very likeable Undertones albums on this list! And hooray that they did more then just the debut, since this one was better! This is why it’s good to not always wiki everything since you get nice surprises!

There it is, thanks for reading my ones of readers! I'm going to try to get my blog going more regular with the rest of life. Don't hold me to it though...

The Broken Record

2011-06-27T21:58:00.000-06:00

So I just wrote a fan email. Yup. That's were I am in my life, a year or so after my last "Broken Record" update. It's sad times folks, sad, sad times. Usually there is a 1001 Albums or Arnold post happening around now. I'm completely behind on writing them. I just finished up a week of holidays, and most of the holiday was spent doing things other then being on a computer. I'm on a computer all day at work, it's a break to do other things. Usually "other things" would be terribly exciting, but I basically lie around eating and watching TV, playing vid games, sleeping in, sleeping for no reason, and going on mini-ventures mostly on my own. It's weird, since passing the age of 35, I'm more and more content to be on my own, and do things by myself. It's really depressing to think about so I try not too. You'd think going to things like comedy shows would be a great place to meet people, but not for me. I just bolt the hell out of there as soon as it's over. Hell, I had some pub time prior to a show Thursday night. I was sitting at the bar, enjoying a pint. I girl sat a few seats down and gave me a very warm smile. My reaction? "Uuuggggh". I actually verbalized it! What the fuck? So yeah, I'm so far into my head it's ridiculous. So here are my current "personal" updates, as per my last blog.

EXERCISE: That 100 push-up challenge mentioned in the last broken record? I did it for 2 days and promptly dropped it for Rock Band. It was ridiculous. I have as of May started a new workout that is a tight 20 minutes and features the kettle bells. I call it my "Hopeless Workout" since it's 4 yoga things and a kettle bell swing. It does work though. It would work fantastic if I restricted my eating more and made it a point to do the work out regularly instead of "whenever", but it works none the less. At least it did until birthday week with 3 cakes to be eaten...

VIDEO GAMES: Rock Band 3 came out and it's a bit of a fizzle. I still play regularly. L.A. Noire however is causing me to lose sleep! It's the PERFECT game for me- a game about a tough ass L.A. detective solving cases. I'm crazy hooked on it, to the point were I'm already looking forward to replaying it. A really great game, it gets a recommend.

HATING THE CURRENT GENERATION AND CULTURE: I've officially reached that age, I hate the current high school generation and our current culture. I don't mind how they dress or the music. I hate their entitlement. It seems that culturally things have completely shifted to a point where everyone sees themselves as victims and special, and therefor they are entitled to be assholes for no reason. The amount of people I see on a daily bases being rude and snarky for absolutely no reason, it's sickening. It's not helping me get out of my head and be a gregarious person, that's for sure. I also recognize myself falling into this trap, and it kills me. I'm working every day to not do this, but it's really fucking hard when you're confronted by it.

I don't know, that's about it. I'm looking for suggestions on beginners cook books. I want to teach myself how to cook properly. I'm thinking of attempting a meal a day. If you lived under my current conditions, you would realize what a huge pain in the ass this is going to be. Anyways, if anyone has a favourite book they'd care to recommend that is pretty idiot proof for idiots to use, I'd appreciate it. The cooking isle of the bookstore I went through was daunting.

1001 Albums: 0441 - 0453: It's The End Of The Seventies!

2011-06-15T16:38:00.000-06:00

As the title says, it's another decade put to rest! How exciting! As a result you get three extra reviews this post! Aren't you lucky? Ruzzells Rambles, the blog that keeps on giving! Yup, purely an altruistic motion on my part, and nothing to do with falling horribly behind. Anyways, this is a bit of a long one, so let's get to the list!

0441 Marianne Faithfull – Broken English - More famous for being Mick Jagger's ex-girlfriend then anything else, Mariaane croaks out an album! Literally croaks out. She sounds like she smokes 5 packs of glass shaving cigarettes a day. I didn’t care for this. It’s silly. It has a terrible cover version of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” and the final profanity filled “Why’d You Do It” is hilariously awful. I’m also guessing the final song is the reason this album is on this list. It was probably considered a very bold move to have an established singer sing such lines as “Every time I see your dick I see her cunt in my bed”, but really, it’s so over the top it’s silly. This is a pass!

0442 The Slits – Cut - This band has a super cool name. They were an all girl punk band which is also super cool. Thankfully the music lives up to the presentation. Kind of a harder edge New Wave thing going on, I really enjoyed it. A nice comeback after that warbling Marianne Faithfull album.

0443 Elvis Costello – Armed Forces - Wow, Elvis sure cranked out the albums didn’t he? This one wasn’t as good as the previous ones, and some of the songs actually sounded the same. Perhaps three albums in as many years was just too much. Anyways, it does have a cleaner and more polished sound, you can tell Elvis is growing as an artist. Which is a good thing, but I just don’t find it as interesting as the previous ones.

0444 Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps - I think this was the first Neil Young album I bought, on cassette. So I’m very biased about my love for this one. The first side (or half a CD, you kids are missing out not having sides of albums to listen too these days...) is mostly acoustic, and amazing. “Pocahontas” is a great song. Side two is electric and recorded live but with over dubs. There’s not a bad song on here, with tracks like “Welfare Mothers” and “Hey Hey My My” still getting performed regularly in concert. Like I said I love it. That said, I love “Live Rust” even more. It’s the concert that the live tracks was taken from, in full, featuring killer acoustic and electric sets full of songs from Young’s entire career. And if you like that, the DVD of the concert is pretty great too, it has Jawa’s!

0445 Gang of Four – Entertainment! - I’ve said it before, but I still always think I’m going to get a reggae album based on the name “Gang Of Four”. And I’m always surprised to find a solid punk offering instead!

0446 Cheap Trick – At Budokan - An album so popular that the band continues to ride on it’s success to this day! I’ve never been all that impressed with it, but this latest spin I found to be kind of fun. It’s a dopey, fun little record to listen to I guess. Nothing wrong with that!

0447 Fleetwood Mac – Tusk - This one lost me. All the tracks are really slow and moody and dull and boring and it goes on and on and on until it ends and you can move on with your life.

0448 Pink Floyd – The Wall - I have a bit of a love/hate thing going with this. I discovered it as a teenager, both the album and the movie, and it was my introduction to Pink Floyd. I was absolutely obsessed with it for an entire summer. I couldn’t tell you how many times I listened to it or watched the film. In hind sight, it was probably not the best way for an anti-social teenager to spend his time. Anyways, as grunge came around, I moved on with fond memories of how awesome it was. The last time I listened to it a few years ago and I thought it kind of silly, and Pink Floyd on the whole pretty silly really, only liking the old sixties stuff that is genuinely silly and brilliant with Syd Barret. Anyways, this latest listen too reaffirmed my love for this. Taken as a whole, and it really only should be taken as a whole despite some great songs on their own right, it’s as brilliant as it’s hyped to be. A surprisingly frank look at loneliness through popularity, it could only have been created by famous rock stars with huge egos. It SHOULD be awful, but that it’s both not awful and assessable enough that not famous rock stars can identify with the loneliness, it’s great. And a recommend.

0449 Public Image Ltd – Metal Box - This one is great because of the package, which was a film can. The music contained is better then the debut, but still not all that great. I prefer the Sex Pistols.

0450 Michael Jackson – Off the Wall - This isn’t a bad disco-ish R&B album. It’s also nothing all that special, I prefer Jackson in the old Jackson 5 Motown stuff. I wonder how he gets his socks so white?

0451 The Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette - Another cool band name, and a cool album title! The music was pretty good. Solid punk stuff with a hint of the hardcore that will come around in the 80’s. Not a life changer, but also not a disappointment.

0452 Gary Numan – Pleasure Principle - Gary Numan is awesome for one thing, and one thing only, and that is the song “Cars”. It’s a great song, and it’s on this album. I was surprised to find the rest of the album was pretty good too. The song “Films” is awesome and the whole thing sounds like what I kind of wish Kraftwerk sounded like after those first couple albums on the list.

0453 The Specials – Specials (1st Album) - Ska enters the list! Welcome Ska! I don’t know much about you outside of Evan Dorkins comics about the New York Ska scene. I did like this though, it was punky but ska and sounded like what No Doubt wished they sounded like. A dead solid album to wrap up the 70’s!

And that's that. I have mixed feelings about this decade. There were some great albums, but none of them were really surprises. Where was the first rock album I ever owned, the brilliant* "Rock n' Roll Love Letter" by The Bay City Rollers (given to me by my dad from a non-returnable over stock in their record department at "Happy Sound")? Pretty big fail there, 1001 Album list! If someone asked me what stood out in the 70's part of this list, I wouldn't have an answer. I discovered new things in the 50's and 60's, mainly that I'm 100 years old and I like old time-y country and western music. I had no such discoveries here. This could be a sign of trouble ahead, I'm certainly more aware of 70's music, so maybe that's why there are no surprises? Entering the 80's means I'm entering the period where I actually became a music consumer. I used to read Rolling Stone and everything, I must of had my finger on the pulse of the music scene! Hopefully I'm an egomaniac and completely ignorant so I will have nice surprises in the future!

Yes, let us be positive and look forward to the 80's with wide eyes and excitement! It's the decade of Rubic's Cube and Nintendo, it has to be great!

*I haven't listened to this since I was about 6 years old, but I trust it holds up enough to be accurately described as "Brilliant".

Pumpin' Iron For the Man!

2011-06-13T13:30:00.000-06:00

It's that time folks, time for another film from the movie master, Arnold Schwarzenegger! You would think I would be better at spelling his last name by now, but you would be wrong. In your FACE high school education! Right, let's get too it, times a wastin'!

Pumping Iron (1977)

Arnold gets the starring roll in his next film, a documentary following some body builders competing in the 1975 Mr. Olympia body building competition. I’m not sure if “starring” is the right word, he is on the poster though. I think this means that this was filmed before Arnold's break out roll in Stay Hungry which came out in 1976. Christ, who knew this was going to be so complicated? It’s like, math or something! Anyways, while this is about the competition, Arnold steals the show with his charisma. Most of the film is set around a rivalry between Arnold and future Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno, with Arnold constantly ribbing and eventually driving Lou out of his mind. Lou never “Hulks Out” though, which really would of made the final third of this film interesting. I probably should of spoiler-ed that bit.

There’s not really much to say about this, since it is a documentary. It’s not like you can really criticize or examine performances. I did get two things out of this film though.

1: Body building has really changed. I admittedly know nothing about the sport. I do know that I find body builders freakish and gross. They are just too big, like bizarre versions of people. Or like someone stuck an air tube up their ass and inflated them to barely bursting proportions. This must be a modern thing since in this film, no one is really gross. Lou is on the cusp of being freakish, and actually looks much larger then Arnold. Arnold though, while certainly not small, does however look “naturally” muscular. Everything looks perfectly in proportion on his frame. It’s quite impressive.

2: Anyone who’s seen this movie should not of been the least bit surprised of Arnold’s recent scandals. He frankly admits to being a not all that fussy pussy hound. This type of candid Arnold seems to be long gone. I don’t think you’re going to see much of the Arnold lounging around on a couch with a doobie reminiscing about how awesome he is these days.

And that’s what makes this film kind of sad. I like 1970’s “I take no bullshit” Arnold Schwarzenegger! It’s a shame that’s lost. That’s about all I got on this. If you like body building or documentaries, you will probably like this. If you like Arnold, you will surely like this since this is probably about as close as your going to get to seeing Arnold more like he actually is.

3.5 out of 5 Arnies

So far Arnold's career is going up, up... and maybe away? Next up is Scavenger Hunt. Nope, I never heard of it either. Let's hold thumbs that Arnold does good!

* Just to clear up any confusion, despite what the poster says, there is no blood or guts in this movie.

Stay HAAAAAAANGRY!

2011-06-07T14:52:00.000-06:00

Welcome film fans, to the latest installment of the Arnold Schwarzenneger film project! It is still happening, it will not be stopped! It probably wont be complete either, I'm sure I'm missing movies. I have NOT missed one yet though! So let's take a look at the mighty Arnold's next film after not doing anything in The Long Goodbye.

Stay Hungry (1976)

Now we get a proper Arnold movie! Not only is he the co-star, he stars opposite “The Dude” himself, handsome young Jeff Bridges! Not only does he star opposite The Dude, but he’s trained by Robert “Freddy Kruger” Englund! That’s right, it’s The Terminator, The Dude and Freddy all in a movie together! Clearly this is potentially the greatest movie of all time! It could of been if it was made in the year 2000, but it was not. So what is it?

It’s the story of a recently orphaned rich young fellow played by Bridges who’s looking to buy out The Olympia gym to complete a business deal. Then he gets hooked on body building and the receptionist. Arnold basically plays himself, a patron of the gym who’s training for the Mr. Universe title. Arnold does not play himself in that he is a crazy likeable sweet heart instead of a crazy likeable egomaniac. His character is charming, humble, sweet and basically the guy you want to be buddies with. He even plays the fiddle at a country dance! A roll very far removed from the wise cracking tough guys he will end up playing. Arnold is so good, he won Best Acting Debut at the Golden Globes for this performance. Hard to believe isn’t it? Mono-sylabic AHHHHNOLD getting a best acting award! Oh what could of been- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet! And on his third film, not his debut Hercules In New York! They must of fell in love with his voice since this was the debut of it on screen. He was dubbed in Hercules and didn’t speak in Long Goodbye. Remember? Have you not been keeping up with these? Go read those reviews already!

The movie itself is pretty great with only one miss-step. It’s directed by Bob Rafelson, who’s not very active now a days, but was responsible for the amazing character study Five Easy Pieces that solidified Jack Nicholson as a major actor after Jack’s coming out in Easy Rider (which Rafelson produced). Not only that, but Rafelson was co-creator of The Monkees, and the director of their criminally unappreciated movie Head. The man should surely be Sainted for bringing the world the gift of The Monkees. Why is the Catholic Church so unfair? Anyways, this film is more in the Five Easy Pieces vein then Head, and is pretty damned fine. None of the characters behave in the way you would think based on stereotypes. It has a comedic element that stays naturally subdued until it sadly goes out of line with a slapstick sequence of body builders running loose in Birmingham (Alabama) to goofy music. It’s a big miss-step, especially considering the cause (I wont ruin it since it's an important plot point that's really miss-handled in this sequence), but not enough to ruin the movie. So this one gets a hardy recommend. I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before, what with the cast and all. This is a great find!

Oh, the film also has Sally Field in it. She plays the receptionist. I’ve never liked her, she’s the type of person where just the look of their face annoys you. For me anyways. She was good in this too. That’s how good this film is!

4 out of Five Arnies.

There it is, a dead solid comedy/drama featuring Arnold that was born out of the new Hollywood ashes that was BBS. What's BBS? Why not buy the boxset and find out. It get's 5 out of 5 by me, even though Arnold Schwarzenneger isn't in it.

Next up will be Arnold's big star turn, the documentary Pumping Iron! Hold thumbs!

1001 Albums: 0431 - 0440: The Wheat Is Growing Thin!

2011-06-02T11:30:00.000-06:00

The seventies continue to roll on by, we're up too about 1979 I think. This pack was better then the last one, with one of my all time favourites to be found, and some nice, if not completely memorable surprises. That's all I got. These posts are getting hard to write!

0431 The B-52s – The B-52s (1st Album) - Ah yes! The B-52s make their glorious appearance on the list with this, their debut record. Fans of “Love Shack” may be surprised at the low-fi, almost surf sounds on this one, but it’s entirely charming. “Rock Lobster” will prove to be their first “hit”, but the whole thing is well worth a listen or 50.

0432 Holger Czukay – Movies - This is an album I did not like, but I did think it clever. So it’s weird like that. It’s basically jazzy mood music, but with cut ups and sampling from I’m guessing movies as well as other things. So it’s kind of neat, and I’m sure progressive for 1979. I just would rather listen to something else. I kept thinking "This guy probably came up with that Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers” stuff, which in my case is never a good thing.*

0433 The Police – Reggatta de Blanc - Another solid Police album! I think I already mentioned how much I dislike Sting as a solo artist, but man, this band was good back in the day! This one is a step up in production from the previous album, but still keeps a touch of the raw sound that is so sorely lacking in Stings solo work. “Message In A Bottle” is the opener and I think a hit for the band, but the whole thing works as an album.

0434 The Fall – Live at the Witch Trials - On this debut album, The Fall failed to impress me much. I guess it was a decent punk debut, but nothing really stood out. The best thing about it is the cool title I’m afraid.

0435 Talking Heads – Fear of Music - Talking Heads third album- are we going to get their whole catalog? Anyways, it was good, but not as impressive as their first two. It was more polished and better produced, by Eno no less, but nothing grabbed me like the first two. So it’s a bit of a pass.

0436 Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures - Of course Joy Division would make this list! I saw the movie “Control” so I know all about this tragic band. They were all really sad, and wrote sad songs. Then the lead singer killed himself. Ah Joy Division! I’m not a big fan. I’ve given their music more chances then I should and I just find myself not getting into it. The albums not bad for a debut. That’s about all I can say, I’m sure there are fanatics out there that can praise it for me.

0437 Chic – Risqué - Another disco sounding R&B album. If you like that type of music you should like this. The only memorable thing about this one for me is one of the songs on it was sampled on a song on my beloved “Electric Breakdance” tape that I had when I was in grade 4 or 5. That tape came with a poster that showed you how to do sweet moves like the wavy arms thing and The Worm. Man, I loved that tape! This album wasn’t as good. That tape better appear on this list!

0438 The Undertones – The Undertones (1st Album) - A rather enjoyable punk offering that leans a bit to the pop side. I never heard of them, it’s a shame they didn’t do more. Or maybe they did. I should probably wikipedia some of these.

0439 The Clash – London Calling - What is there to say about Rolling Stone Magazines number 8 album of all time that hasn’t been said before? The answer is NOTHING! I’ve loved this one since i first heard it, and I loved it yesterday when I listened to it again. And I loved it when I played it in Rock Band 3 since you can buy it there too! So yeah, not really a bad song on it, even though they stretch into other genres more then you think they should. As a two LP set (in it’s original incarnation) none of the songs feel like filler. The music contained sounds both spontaneous and tight. It gets a full recommend!

0440 Japan – Quiet Life - I fell asleep and woke up in 1983! Not really, but this album sure sounds like it’s from 1983, which is probably why it’s on this list. It’s pretty ground breaking since nothing on this list hinted at it. Anyways, this album would fit perfectly in a shirts off cuddle with Duran Duran and Flock Of Seagulls. Not a bad album, the production was a bit off so the vocals didn’t sound quite sweet enough. This album also has a pretty bad cover of The Velvet Undergrounds "All Tomorrows Parties". It proves that no one should try covering The Velvet Underground. Still, worth a check out if you’re into this type of music.

There it is! Next post will see us hitting 450 titles, and the dawn of the Eighties! Isn't that exciting? Even a little bit? Kind of? I mean, it's not like winning a lottery, but still, as far as listening to music based on lists it's not bad... oh go chase yourself then!

*Curiosity got the best of me, so I wiki'd this one. This guy was one of the originators of that band "Can" that had me so miffed on earlier posts. There's apparently a secret history of Rock in which Can is the greatest band in the world. Who knew? I still have to watch that documentary on the band that I found.

The Long Goodbye!

2011-05-29T12:03:00.000-06:00

Ho ho! I bet you all forgot I was doing an Arnold Schwarzenegger run down! Or you hoped I forgot about it, it's a rather stupid project. Too bad, it has not been abandoned and here's the latest instalment! This would of been posted earlier in the week, but I forgot to email the artwork to my work computer. I never claimed to be a computer programmer! GET A GRIP PEOPLE! So here it is, with a weird poster that looks like it's from Mad Magazine, it's...

The Long Good-Bye (1973)

First off, this isn’t actually an Arnold movie. He is in it, and it does appear on his IMDB page, but he’s barely in it. He gets about 30 seconds of screen time and doesn’t do anything other then look threatening and take his shirt off. Arnie plays a heavy and is basically back drop material. So as far as Arnie goes, this is:

out of 5 Arnies.

So while a bust as far as Arnold goes, this is actually a pretty great movie. Robert Altman takes a classic Phillip Marlow detective story and kind of turns it on it’s head. The plot is twisty and turn-y, I’ll refrain form recapping it so as not to ruin any surprises since this is worth a watch, other then to say that like all great movies it's kicked off by a hungry cat*. The style of the film is pretty great. Marlow as played by Elliot Gould (probably better known as Ross’s dad on “Friends” then anything else) seems to be right out of the fifties, including his car. Everyone and everything else seems to be set in the seventies when the film was made. It sounds like a potential disaster, but it really works. All the Altman quirks are to be found, great performances (especially by the great Sterling Hayden who was supposedly drunk and stoned the whole time so his scenes were improvised) and overlapping dialog. So as a proper movie, this one gets a solid 4/5.

There it is! Arnolds second film isn't really an Arnold film but a neo-noir by an art house favourite director. Altman has always been a bit hit and miss with me. I don't think I've loved any of his films. Not even Short Cuts that features a nearly constantly naked crush object by the name of Julianne Moore. Grrrrowl! I do like that Julianne Moore! Maybe I should of done a Julianne Moore project, with tons of screen caps... maybe that should of been a private thought.

Next up is STAY HUNGRY. STAAAAAY HAAAAANGRY!! It's a proper Arnold film I think (he's on the DVD Cover) and he co-stars with The Dude. Should be good!

*Anyone who can think of another movie that's kicked off by a starving cat gets a prize!**

** Not really.***

*** Asterisk notes are fun!

1001 Albums: 0421 - 0430: The Late Seventies Are Kind of Dull

2011-05-25T15:54:00.001-06:00

Or maybe I'm just running out of things to say? 430 reviews is quite a bit of writing about one topic after all, even if some of the reviews are only a sentence. Anyways, this blog was pretty good with Willie Nelson and X-ray Spex putting in solid offerings. Nothing really jumped right out and grabbed me by the throat though. I'm getting worried that there will be less surprises now that we're creeping closer to where my awareness of music begins. I'm not half way through, this list failing to entertain is not an option!

Here's the run down, sorry it's not more exciting folks.

0421 Marvin Gaye – Here, My Dear - After previously trying to solve the problems in the ghetto and making sweet love to our ear holes, Marvin gets slapped in the face with a divorce. Here’s the album all about it! Blowing all his cash on a coke habit, Marvin signed half his royalties from this album over to the ex wife to pay the alimony he was behind on. The result is a not very good record, oddly enough. I think this album is on this list for the story behind it as opposed to the sounds it contains. Which is bullshit.

0422 Willie Nelson – Stardust - Willie tackles jazz standards with an ease that is incredibly pleasant to the ears. It also hides just how extraordinary the arrangements and playing are on this album. Willie himself has the perfect voice for this style of music as well, so this gets a recommend!

0423 Chic – C’est Chic - It’s a disco album, and a pretty good one in that it doesn’t drive you nuts while you listen to it. Ultimately though it’s rather forgettable.

0424 X-ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents - Sadly lead singer Poly Styrene has recently passed away. Sadly too, I managed to somehow miss listening to X-ray Spex. This was a great debut, Poly is in great voice, and the band is really in fine form. I always get a bit of a surprise to find good playing on a punk album since I typically expect poor playing but lots of energy. So it’s great to find both great playing and energy, like there is on here! Recommend.

0425 Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports - The title of this one made me moan in anguish, and the running times of the 4 track on here caused my head to lower in disappointment. It was in this state that I became pleasantly surprised, this was actually really good. It managed to be “Ambient” in that it sounded like back ground music, but it also kept me interested without driving me crazy. Good stuff!

0426 Siouxsie & the Banshees – The Scream - Sadly, X-ray Spex is a tough act to follow and Siouxsie and the horrible way she spells her name isn’t up to the task. The most interesting song on here is a cover of “Helter Skelter” by the Beatles, but it’s interesting for all the wrong reasons.

0427 AC/DC – Highway to Hell - Aww AC/DC, good old reliable AC/DC. I’ve never been much of a fan, but I do like this old stuff with Bon Scott. Such a great voice. Anyways, this is pretty solid and it’s nice to see that AC/DC never strayed from writing retarded songs about fucking.

0428 Sister Sledge – We Are Family - And it’s more disco! It must be 1979 or something. Anyways, I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s disco, you can dance to it. That’s it.

0429 Crusaders – Street Life - The title track to this I know I heard in a movie. The rest of it though was kind of soul jazz and rather dull! Shame on you Crusaders, there should of been more to this!

0430 Germs – GI - Right, now we get into the type of punk you would expect. And I didn’t like it. The singer was growl-y and annoying, the songs didn’t make much sense. The playing wasn’t all that great and it thankfully ended before I got annoyed. So that’s the best thing I can say about this. Maybe they should of put a "The" in front of their name.

Ho ho! I forgot all about AC/DC! I'm not sure how I feel about the band. I like them enough when they come on the radio, but I don;t get how insanely popular they are. Do you? Let me know in the comments!

Hercules In New York!

2011-05-21T16:40:00.002-06:00

Arnold Schwarzenegger. The name is big in the news right now. No, not for being the governor of California, or for his years in movies. Nope, his name is big right now for having a secret love child kept hidden for the past 10 years. Is anyone actually surprised by this? I'm pretty sure that aside from being famous, everyone thought of Arnold as a raging asshole. I know I did, and I was a fan!

Right, the point of this blog isn't to discuss the man, his infidelities or his raging asshole personality. It's to discuss his work. I have fallen out of grace with Arnold, he made too many kids films and lost me. That said, I was a HUGE Schwarzenegger fan growing up. I discovered him via a super channel viewing of "Conan The Barbarian" around 1983 and was hooked. Everyone I knew was. If you were a boy in North America in the 80's you were an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan, and you loved his movies. LOVED THEM. Or you were beaten up for not liking him. The 80's was the era of bullies people, and sissies who didn't like Arnold got beat down at recess. It's a tough world, be thankful we are more enlightened now.

Since it's been years since I remember sincerely liking an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, and since the man is talking about a come back provided he isn't killed for spawning a secret army of Arnolds, I've decided to re-watch all of his films. All the ones I can get my hands on anyways, and probably in mostly chronological order. I anticipate this taking awhile since frankly, this could become a bit of a tough slog and there's thousands of other things I'd like to be doing. For the sake of my ego, I'm going to keep track of the films here. So here's the first review!

HERCULES IN NEW YORK (1969)

Look at that poster! how could anyone resist this movie? Resist it they did, in droves...

Hercules is bored of Mount Olympus, so he goes to New York to have a vacation. In New York he fights numerous guys on the Bowery, befriends a nerd named Pretz (short for “Pretzel”, he’s a pretzel salesman at the docks), and wrestles a bear in central park! The lesson to be learned is something about humility, and it’s supposed to be a comedy. I think.

What is there to say about Arnold’s film debut? It’s terrible. Not as terrible as it used to be, originally Arnold’s voice was dubbed since his thick accent made the already poor dialog all that much harder understand. Now, thanks to DVD, you can watch it with Arnold’s original dialog all in tack. It’s not much of an improvement, but it helps. The main problem with this film is that it’s super cheap and a comedy. This is 1969, it should be a sexploitation. Comedies are really hard to make. Hell, Hollywood rarely get them right, there’s little chance for someone with a shoe string budget and a unknown body builder to make a good film. So this one really misses the mark. If it went the sexploitation rout it might of been interesting. It's not like Arnold was a prude, he used to pose for gay magazines* for Christs sake! A gay sexploitation angle could of really helped this! Arnold is young and handsome- and billed as "Arnold Strong" since his last name is hard to spell and makes your spell check go crazy, but displays none of the screen presence that will make him the biggest movie star in the world. It’s must of been through force of will that he was able to get future rolls in the movies since this was hardly a calling card. Co-star Arnold Stang who plays the roll of “Pretz” doesn’t fair any better and you would never know that he had years of TV and film credits prior to this. He too will continue on in films, mostly doing voice work until passing away in 2009. No one else worth mentioning, this movie is unexceptional. It also feels about 5 hours long.

out of 5 Arnolds

So there it is, Arnold will move on from this film- a film he regrets doing, and become the biggest movie star in the world. From humble beginnings rises greatness!

*That link is NSFW by the way...

1001 Albums: 0411 - 0420: We Are NOT Men

2011-05-19T10:25:00.000-06:00

Howdy doodles reader friends! It's that time, another recap of music you will probably never listen too, but oddly enjoy reading about! I presume you enjoy reading about this music, you have clicked on the blog after all! Some of you crazies even subscribe! WOW! Here's the list, it was decent enough, with one of my favourite bands making a debut. Hurrah for favourites!

0411 Throbbing Gristle – DOA: Third & Final Report - The first track on this sounded like the old VIC-20 data tapes used to if you played them on a cassette deck. Which means it sounded pretty terrible. Then it got worse. This one is a no go. It’s called “Throbbing Gristle”, it should of been better then this!

0412 Thin Lizzy – Live & Dangerous - “Live & Obnoxious” more like it. Ha ha! I made a pun! Hollywood, I’m available for any script punch ups you need! This band recorded “The Boys Are Back In Town”, and it’s on here. If you like that song, you’ll like this in all it’s guitar soloing, drum soloing glory. Oh, and Huey Lewis on harmonica! (Might not be THE Huey Lewis, but if it is*, it’s the only stand out thing on here.)

0413 Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings & Food - I didn’t really notice these songs being specifically about buildings and food. There was no “vegetables” type song or “This Ol’ House”. It was really good though! I have to say, these old Talking Heads are pretty solid!

0414 Buzzcocks – Another Music in a Different Kitchen - Prior to being a BBC panel show, the Buzzcocks were a band. A great punk band as it turns out! I liked this one. It wasn’t as over the top political as the Clash, or as unreasonably pissy as the Pistols. It was right in the middle and great.

0415 Van Halen – Van Halen - 80’s metal starts right here! I’ve loved this album since first hearing it sometime in the 80s around when “1984” came out. David Lee Roth is in amazing form singing songs that make no sense at all. Add in a crack band and one of the all time great guitar players, and this album is a party! (I think by my ending this review like that, I’m officially ready to be published in a music magazine or “Entertainment Weekly”)

0416 Willie Colón & Rubén Blades – Siembra - This was Latin samba type music. That’s all I got, I’m not a big enough fan of this to not be kind of bored by it, or know if it’s exceptional. If you want to samba dance and drink rum&cokes this is for you I guess? (I don't even know what a samba is, if I’m being honest...)

0417 The Cars – The Cars - Weirdo Ric Okasic and his weirdo band The Cars make a stunning debut! I always liked The Cars, and that video for “You Might Think”. The music is great on here, “Moving In Stereo” is permanently etched in every mans mind if they were a teenager when they saw “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”. The rest of the album is just as good. As that song, not just the memory of topless Phoboe Cates. It’s also great fun to play on Rock Band**!

0418 Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo - I love pretty much everything there is to love about Devo. From the music to the concept. This is a great album. It’s been awhile since I’ve spun it, so it was interesting to be reminded just how guitar based they were at the start. Anyways, this is highly recommended.

0419 Dire Straits – Dire Straits - I would of thought Dire Straits on this list would of been all about that “Money For Nothing” album, whatever it was called. Ends up they began way back here. It sounds pretty much the same. Easy going music played splendidly, but not super interesting to me.

0420 The Saints – Eternally Yours - Another punk band I don’t think I ever heard of. It was good and rather solid. Not as impressionable as other punk bands have been from this era though.

So I'm giving Devo the no-prize on this one since they are just great. Sure, they peter out a bit after 1984 or so, but their new album Fresh from last year was a great return.

I am now going to do something different and highlight another blog. You should check out My Beautiful Disaster. On top of being a fun and interesting blog, just look at how god damned pretty it is! How does she do it? I can't figure it out! I plan to meet up with her for sushi one day so I can trick her into an alley, split her head open, and learn the secrets to creating a pretty blog like that! That's how you learn things, you take peoples heads and absorb their knowledge and power. I learned it in Highlander. I mean, look at the tabs based on the labels on that blog! God damn it! It's too damned clever!

That's it, it's long weekend time after one more sleep! Hooray! I'm hoping the Christian rapture comes true. Not because I'm Christian, I'm not. I read the Left Behind series of books on the rapture, and post rapture is a FUCKING PARTY! It's off the hook people! And if stuff gets too hot, you can just accept Jesus in to your life and you're all set for Heaven! A total "Get Out Of Jail Free" card! Awesome sauce!

*I read the wiki, it is!

** Available as a down loadable album in Rock Band, but sadly, not with keyboards!

1001 Albums: 0401 - 0410: I Don't Have A Clever Title

2011-05-10T15:15:00.000-06:00

Another ten are done blah blah blah. It was kind of unexceptional despite some nice surprises. So lets have a gander and I'll point out the faves in the recap!

0401 Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model - Not to be outdone by Pere Ubu, Elvis Costello decides to crank out a quick second album too! This one though, is much better then Pere Ubu's terrible one. In fact, it's better then his own first album. The songs are a bit more raw, but really work to make this a tight one. Good stuff!

0402 The Jam – All Mod Cons - I was fully intending to all out hate this and I didn't. For reasons unknown, I've had a long standing irrational dislike for The Jam. Having listened to this, they're not all that bad. I didn't recognize any of it, so hopefully if they show up again, it wont be with that unknown song I heard and hated. If it was even the Jam....

0403 Joe Ely – Honky Tonk Masquerade - I've heard of Joe Ely, but I never actually listened to him. At least I didn't recognize any of this. It's not bad, but the country on this is starting to lean to that horrible over produced 80's country that I don't like. It's right on the line so I could still tolerate the sound of this. The songwriting though, is pretty great.

0404 The Adverts – Crossing the Red Sea with the…This one started with some solid punk with a song called "One Chord Wonders". Now there was actually more then one chord played in that song, so this band is a bunch of liars. It's OK though since they are actually pretty damned solid. Basic no frills punk from a band better then they claim to be.

0405 Big Star – Third (aka Sister Lovers) - This one was really good. A much more laid back affair then their previous one on this list. It also sounded more live and raw with a stark sound. It totally fit for an overall mood. There's a couple of covers on here, including a Velvet Underground one which also fit the mood since this reminded me of their 3rd album. Anyways, yeah, this is good, I might actually listen to this again!

0406 The Residents – Duck Stab/Buster & Glen - All through this list I've been bitching about improv sounding music and electronic noise. I am now going to contradict all of that by saying that I really liked this album. I am human, and I am capable of growing in tastes! This is electronic-y and kind of noisy, but it seemed to also have a point and there was absolutely a sense of melody and ideas to the songs. So there you go, The Residents are pretty great on this record!

0407 Public Image Ltd – Public Image - Uh oh. The Sex Pistols have fizzled out, and Johnny Rotten is now John Lydon and leading a new wave band. This was pretty terrible, aside from the title song. Around that title song you have pompous social commentary and it all sounds like shit.

0408 Magazine – Real Life - This one was really forgettable. As in I listened to it a couple days ago and I don't remember a thing about it.

0409 Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town - Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I actually really liked this Springsteen album! I think you can get kicked out of Canada for that. The songs sounded more honest then Bruce typically does, and it was much more interesting then the "Born In The USA" stuff.

0410 Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove - At first I was disappointed with this since it was more of a guitar heavy, rock type vibe then a shake your booty funk vibe. It really won me over though, the guitar playing on this is superb. I think Eddie Hazel is the man responsible for the amazing playing, and it really is worth checking out.

So there it is! A rather eclectic collection of music. Highlights were Funkadelic, Big Star and The Residents. The Residents were a true and proper surprise for me too, I hope they show up again in the future.

Until then, I don't know just do something!

1001 Albums: 0391 - 0400: 400 Albums Heard! Hooray For Me!

2011-05-02T11:03:00.000-06:00

What a great day! Mere hours after Osamam Bin Laden is declared dead, I have listened to the four hundredth album of the 1001 Albums! Too bad it wasn't a better album. They should of cheated and flipped out 400 with 401. Anyways, it is truley a great day to celebrate since I now have 601 albums to go with this project! Hooray!

0391 Elvis Costello – My Aim is True - Real solid debut by Costello. I always ignored him since compared to punk bands at the time that I liked, he wasn't even a part of. Now that I'm old, I really like the honesty and smarts in the songs. And it rocks. And it has the song that John Cusack plays on the ghetto blaster in "Say Anything". So this one is good!

0392 Iggy Pop – Lust for Life - Iggy manages an even stupider album cover on this one. Thanks to "Trainspotting" the title track will be a big hit in the 90's. The whole album is solid though, and a step up sonically from the morose "The Idiot". So another one is good!

0393 Ian Dury – New Boots & Panties!! - Based on the title you already know this album has a cheeky sense of humour. It's also super annoying. I don't know why, but it is. I guess it's just the sound and the thick "I'm a British football fan brum brum!" accent Ian sings in. So this is a no good!

0394 Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the… - People tend not to like this one anymore and hate the band for continuing on into there sixties, but I still love it (and the band). I've loved it since first hearing it in Grade 7 where it closed the door on my 80's metal love of all things Twisted Sister. I still love Twisted Sister, don't get me wrong, but now there was room in my heart for more then one type of music. It was like I grew as a person or something! Anyways, this is good. It's not as piss poor musically as people let on, and John Lydon was born for this type of music. Not only all that, but bands today still come out sounding like they want to be the Sex Pistols (they fail, stupid kids these days!). So it's a good one!

0395 Pere Ubu – Modern Dance - All these years since hearing the name of this band, I thought them reggae. Huh! They are punk, and it started off ok but then it turned into noisy shit. So no good!

0396 Kraftwerk – Man Machine - Ugh Kraftwork, I already said I was done with you! Autobahn was good, but this is not good! It's just boring. BORING!

0397 Blondie – Parallel Lines - I recently saw Blondie in concert, so it was interesting to hear their biggest record and realize she was never a great singer. Not that this is a bad album, it's pretty awesome really! Great songs that play around with genre while still sounding like a whole. This is a good one!

0398 Elis Regina – Vento de Maio - This was in another language so I didn't like it. I already explained my reasons, so no accusations of bigotry please and thank you! It's Latin tinged, sounds really old fashioned despite having a bit of a disco feel on some tracks. So yeah, it's a skip.

0399 Pere Ubu – Dub Housing - Pere Ubu continues to not be a reggae band, and this one was noisier then the last one FOUR ALBUMS AGO! Seriously 1001 Albums, I know that in the future you're skipping two of my favorite bands, yet you have two shiter pieces from one band in a 10 pack? Come on!

0400 Only Ones – Only Ones (1st Album) - Here it is,the landmark 40oth album on the 1001 Albums list! It was better then Pere Ubu. It was also pleasant rock with a new wave kind of feel. It didn't leave much of an impression so it's neither good or bad.

There it is, four hundred down! Phew! No real stand outs since my favourites on the list are old favourites by Iggy and The Sex Pistols... man, Iggy and the Sex Pistols would be pretty great! Some one make this happen! NOW! They're nearly dead and we're celebrating!

1001 Albums: 0380 - 0390 - Fixed!

2011-04-28T15:57:00.000-06:00

That's right my tens of readers and ones of subscribers, I fixed the numbering on my blog! I also added the album art links so you can click your little fingers about, listening to music samples! FEEL THE LOVE! FEEL IT! Mrs F. Wall was kind enough to figure out where I screwed up, so she gets the prize! It shall be sent out as soon as I get a decent box! What's that? You didn't know there was a prize offered? Listen, I never said I was a great writer, sometimes I might forget to post all the information fully necessary to enjoy this mess. I'm not getting paid to suffer through this you know? Why do you think this blog looks like a 1995 geocities page eh?

Right, on to the music! This is a 1001 Album blog today after all, not a "Broken Record" or a "Lets discuss how crap Russ is with the whole blogging thing" blog. This pack of music was better then bad in that it was good. Re-reading the list, it wasn't super great, but there were some strong albums in here to balance out Suicide. So let's round 'em up!

0380 Wire – Pink Flag - This is actually a great punk album. It's not obnoxious like most punk, but it is cheeky and clever without being annoying. If you look at the wiki page, there is apparently a lot of stuff going on in this and it's refereed to as a 21 song punk suite. I have no idea what any of that means. I simply liked it for what it is- a great punk album.

0381 John Martyn – One World - Starts off as pedestrian folk, then gets peppy and jazzy and still not all that interesting. Yup, even the reggae sounding song failed to please this listener.

0382 Talking Heads – 77 - This one pleased me. I've always be partial to Byrne's weirdo whinny voice, and it fits perfectly with these early tracks. The songs sound mostly peppy new wave instead of punk, but also sinister at the same time. "Psycho Killer" is probably the best known track, but the whole album works. A great debut!

0383 Fleetwood Mac – Rumours - The album that Fleetwood Mac is best known for is pretty damned good. It's another one of those albums that I like, but never think of playing. Anyways, nothing bad to say about this one other then the chick who isn't Stevie Nicks is kind of terrible on the songs she fronts. Sadly, this album does not include the songs "Landslide" or "Rhiannon" so it's not the only Fleetwood Mac record you would need to own.

0384 David Bowie – ‘Heroes’ - After "Low" this one had to win me back. It didn't. Oh it starts out good, and the song "Heroes" is arguably one of Bowies very best songs. There too much of the annoying "Low" style instrumentals that rear their head to annoy me and diminish my liking this. So not a total loss, but it's not great either.

0385 Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue - The Beach Boys drummer steps out from behind the kit to grab the limelight with this solo outing. It's not terrible, in fact it's better then any thing the Beach Boys were doing at the time. Granted, silence was more inspired then the Beach Boys by the late seventies, perhaps I'm not saying much. Anyways, Wilsons voice is pretty much shot by this point due to coke and booze, and that roughness adds to the songs in a way the overly sweet Beach Boys sounds couldn't. In the end, it still adds up to a rather dull album. The bottom line is, The Beach Boys and the band members peaked at about 1968, and everything past that pales in comparison.

0386 Suicide – Suicide (1st Album) - The first time I listened to this was for the "Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums" project I did. I hated it then. Revisiting it, I still don't like it, but I don't all out hate it. I don't have any urge to revisit it soon, and I still think most of it is laughably awful. I do however appreciate the innovation of drum machines and keyboard loops more then I did the first time. So I get and understand it's influence, I just don't want to listen to it.

0387 Iggy Pop – The Idiot - After seeing the success that Dennis Wilson had by ditching the Beach Boys, Iggy steps away from the Stooges for this solo pop effort. Sporting cover art to accurately reflect the title, and heavily influenced by Bowie, it's actually not that bad, even seen through my Stooge coloured glasses. The Stooges are one of my all time favourites you see. Anyways, it's a solid album. Iggy debuts a strong baritone vocal style that fits the rather down beat songs. "China Girl" will prove to be a modest hit, and Bowie will cover it later on I think? I might have that backwards.

0388 Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel - Not to be outdone by those ego maniacs Dennis Wilson and Iggy Pop, Peter Gabriel ditches Genesis and also strikes out on his own! Longtime readers (bless their hearts) might recall me being pleasantly surprised by old Genesis, so you shouldn't be surprised that I liked this too since it's already been established that I find Peter Gabriel enjoyable. The album is rich in different song styles, from straight ahead rock to Randy Newman style music hall. It all works and made me pleased.

0389 Television – Marquee Moon - No one leaves any bands on this one! Instead, a band that was part of some punk movement (I think New York? I could probably wiki this...) recorded this for the sake of spreading their music instead of competing with Dennis Wilson. It's a solid album. Not all that punk sounding compared to the Clash or the Sex Pistols, but definitely raw compared to Peter Gabriel and Dennis Wilson. It's a win I guess?

0390 Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell - I think everyone on the planet has probably heard "Paradise By the Dashboard Light", and if you haven't then you lose points. The whole album sounds like this song, and that's fine by me. It's all basically a big goof, but Meat Loaf sings these songs so beautifully and heartfelt, that it really is great and deserves the classic status it has.

So there it is, Wire, Meat Loaf, Talking Heads, they all showed up and made this a good pack! Old favorites David Bowie and Iggy didn't let us down, and Dennis Wilson didn't destroy the music industry by leaving The Beach Boys. That all adds up to a pretty decent pack if I don't say so myself!

1001 Albums: 0370 - 0379: My Nightmare Came True

2011-04-18T13:26:00.001-06:00

I knew I would screw this up, and I did. Now none of my ones of readers will realize this, but I seem to be off by a number. I think. Based on how I have these numbered in my MP3 player, and how they are listed here, I'm off by one. I'm guessing I doubled up a number somewhere on this blog, but I'll be damned where that happened. Damn it all! Anyways, I know for a fact that I haven't missed an album, so I'm still hitting this fine, and I'm going to continue on like nothing is wrong. The last post in this blog might end up being 1002, or 1000. It's just the way it's going to roll. We have to hold each others hands, and comfort each other in the knowledge that despite appearances, I am not perfect. The world is not perfect and mistakes will happen. Now lets hang our head in mutual shame and see what is in this ten pack.

0370 Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express - Krautrockers Kraftwerk are back again! Apparently it's OK to call German bands "Krautrock" since it's on Wikipedia. So I don't want to hear any complaints or accusations that I'm racist. Anyways, this one was not that good. I think the novelty that was "Autobahn" wore off, because the singing parts on this was annoying, and the bloopy beeps bits were also annoying. None of it was charming. So this one is a pass. NOTE- The album art is wrong, blame Kraftwork, they keep changing stuff.

0371 Billy Joel – The Stranger - Billy Joel has been the punchline to many a joke that I have made. And never in a positive way. Which is really unfair of me, because it ends up that this is really good. It's rather sophisticated and over produced, but I liked it. That's about it.

0372 Bob Marley & the Wailers – Exodus - Alright, Bob Marley has officially over stayed his welcome on this list. All these albums sound the same. All the songs practically sound the same. The message- ALL THE SAME! No more Bob Marley please!

0373 Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue - This is Jeff Lynn's band. You may not know who that is, but he's responsible for producing a ton of hit records (which equals one of each) by George Harrison and Tom Petty in the 80's. So it's neat to hear him making those sounds back in 77 or whatever year this list is for. The bad news though is this was a double album and it goes on to long.

0374 Weather Report – Heavy Weather - This is a jazz album, and it's the type of jazz that people who hate jazz like to point at to describe why they hate jazz music. It sounds like peppy 70's sitcom music, until it starts to go free form and really shitty. So pass on this one.

0375 Muddy Waters – Hard Again - Holy shit this was great! Really great! Muddy Waters totally owns the blues on this, the band is loud and tight, yet it all comes off incredibly loose and juicy. So if you want to know what electric blues can be like, GET THIS ALBUM!

0376 The Stranglers – Rattus Norvegicus - A fairly decent punk offering. This stands out from other punk in sounding rather accomplished and oddly American with songs about going to the beach. I'm guessing they are making fun of that sort of thing. Anyways, it's better then I thought it would be, but I doubt I'll ever listen to it again outside of a list.

0377 The Clash – The Clash (1st Album) - I've been a big fan of The Clash since Junior High (about 50 years.) so this one wasn't a surprise. I loved it again as I've loved it before. Joe Strummer had the best voice for punk rock. Not a bad track on here, this raw first album is dead solid. And recommended! (Note - The link on this one is for the American version, which is still pretty good)

0378 David Bowie – Low - This one was basically a bunch of droning instrumentals, and the song "Sound & Vision". It's the start of something that is called "The Berlin Trilogy" and is considered highly influential. It was boring and completely forgettable.

0379 Steely Dan – Aja - Steely Dan can fuck off.

Well that's it. Not a great list of albums admittedly. Maybe if I enjoyed the albums more I wouldn't of made a mistake somewhere in the numbering. That works for me, blame the list itself! Bwaa ha haaa!

1001 Albums: 0360 - 0369, It's Still '76, And It Sucks!

2011-04-13T15:57:00.001-06:00

The run had to end sometime. After a few posts of nearly non-stop greatness, the list has petered out into mid 70's hell. 1976 ends with a whimper folks. The high light is "The Ramones", but it's a bit of a meh still since I'm such a big fan of the band already. Hell, I'm wearing my Ramones converse as I type this! Anyway, here's how it fizzles out. Bleh! I should also probably mention that many of these were listened too while I was sick with my annual cold and flu, so I'm probably being extra miserable instead of my usual snarky.

0360 Aerosmith – Rocks - Huh! Aerosmith show up again? It's more of the same, this one has "Back In the Saddle." That's about all I got on this one. Just not a very memorable album.

0361 Parliament – Mothership Connection - I really liked this one! It's a more dance-y album compared to "Maggot Brain", and just a ton-o-funk-fun!

0362 Penguin Café Orchestra – Music from the Penguin Café - I did not like this one! It's kind of a classical music sounding jazz thing, and it's problem was this. I would start to like it, then it would get a little too jazzy and I'd find it annoying. So this one too is a big pass.

0363 Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene - A friend asked me if I had this album, and I was all pleased to say that I did! Then I listened to it and hated it. I really hated it. It's boring ambient music. Stupid ambient music. God damn did I hate this, and now I hate my asshole friend for getting me all excited.

0364 Ramones – Ramones (1st Album) - This is the silver lining to this batch of records. The Ramones first album is perfect in every way. I've also loved it for a long time, so it's sad that this is the high light.

0365 Fela Kuti – Zombie - Not a rock concept album sadly, but a funky jazz album. Not a very good one either.

0366 Peter Tosh – Legalize It - The title track is about marijuana in case you were wondering. So this album does nothing to try to sway you into thinking there is more to the reggae lifestyle then smoking blunts. That said, I actually prefer Tosh to all the Bob Marley that has been showing up on this list. The music is a bit more bouncy, I don't know, it just works.

0367 Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life - This is a shock since I was positive when reviewing all those other Stevie Wonder albums that I already listened to this on this list! Anyways, it's still too long in my opinion, and hit and miss. I'm just not a fan of this type of sophisticated R&B. I like fast and loose soul music.

0368 Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive - This one is just fucking stupid. How it got to be so iconic is beyond me. Actually, I do know why. Frampton uses a "Talk Box" on a couple of tracks, and that was hot shit in the seventies and music clods ate it up. Aside from the talk box, all that you will find here is pedestrian white rock and blues performed by a mediocre guitarist. It's a giant bore, the acoustic part of the set is absolutely terrible. The cover art even looks idiotic (though not as bad as the follow up "I'm In You", look it up...), like he's going to come in your face any second... fuck this record and Peter Frampton. The asshole.

0369 Brian Eno – Before & After Science - I was dreading this since I didn't care for the ambient last album Eno put out on this list. So it was a nice surprise to see him return to more proper songs and what not. Not nice enough for me to be impressed though.

Actually, to be fair, that Parliament album was pretty sweet too. And Brina Eno is actually from 1977, so maybe that's a sign that the next batch of albums will be better. 1977 means The Clash and some punk faves should be showing up. Let's hold thumbs shall we?

1001 Albums: 0349 - 0359, It's 1976!

2011-04-05T16:35:00.001-06:00

As the tile says, it's 1976. Friends, 1976 is no 1975. No sirree Bob! It's not all terrible, it just seems very bland compared to the dizzying heights reached in the last blog. It stars out pretty strong, but quickly slides down hill. Only one personal favourite is to be found. It's a little disappointing, but I suppose to be expected as well. Genre albums that no one gives a hoot about have returned in great quantity after taking a break, and it slows everything down. Here it is, you'll see what I mean.

0349 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (1st Album) - It's weird to think that Tom Petty goes back this far since I discovered him due to his cool videos in the late 80's. Anyways, this Tom Petty is more of a straight ahead rock guy, and not as jingle jangely as the later Tom Petty. He is good, American Girl and Breakdown are both great songs. So don't let the idiotic album art fool you.

0350 The Modern Lovers – Modern Lovers - I love this album a ridiculous amount. Some may know Jonathan Richman as the lovable balladeer in "Something About Mary". Before that, he did this, an amazing lo-fi album that sounds like The Velvet Underground with a sense of humour and naive romance. It's truly great stuff, Richmans thick Boston accent is perfect for these types of songs. That said, buy the re-issue with bonus tracks since it has my favourite song "I'm Straight" on it. RECOMMEND!

0351 David Bowie – Station to Station - This appears to be the album that introduced the "Thin White Duke" persona. Bowie mentions it in a lyric anyways. The big song on this one is "Golden Years" and it really is a great song. Nothing else though really stood out. The album sounds remarkably cold, and worse, kind of boring. Sorry Mr. Bowie, but I think this is where we start to part ways.

0352 Joni Mitchel – Hejira -Holy shit, ANOTHER JONI MITCHEL ALBUM?!?! Alright then! It starts out with the song "Coyote", which is a fave song of mine. I've listened to it 100's of time on "The Last Waltz" by The Band. The rest of the album is a bit of a blur already even though I listened to it yesterday (as I type this). I remember liking it more then the previous album, but it's not exceptional in any way. I'm also going to stop predicting Joni Mitchel albums...

0353 Boston – Boston (1st Album) - People who hate over indulgent seventies music can point their fingers at this scoundrel. It was practically made by one guy, and everything is polished to a glossy glow. That said, it's actually really good, it's hard not to get caught up in the joy of rock on this. It really does manage to come off as fun and full of life, and ROCKS. Plus it has a cool UFO on the cover. Recommend.

0354 Eagles – Hotel California - My hatred of the Eagles and this album are well documented. All I'll add is, this is as perfect and polished as that Boston album and it shows a huge difference. Boston is full of life, while this is a dead, soulless husk. Avoid!

0355 ABBA – Arrival - My friend Steve Lensman gets his wish, as his favourite band appears! I might be exaggerating, I'm sure he asked about them at some point. Anyways, this is the ridiculously popular bands fourth album so I guess it took a while for them to get up to speed. I've never been huge on them, and I still don't understand their popularity. I mean, grand mothers too little kids like these guys! Big hits like "Dancing Queen" and "Money, Money, Money" can be found here, and are decent enough. Otherwise, I'm a bit meh on this. The awkward "Kiss the Teacher" is no help, that's for damn sure, and the girls sing so loud they sound shrill to my ears. Or this is just evidence that I have no soul since I'm clearly in the minority.

0356 Kiss – Destroyer - The mighty KISS make an appearance. I was never much of a fan, and consider to be not much of a fan to this day. This is still a fun little rock'n record and worth a spin. Detroit Rock City and Beth are the big hits, but the song about Gene licking your pussy is the camp highlight.

0357 Rush – 2112 - Being a Canadian means that I am hardwired by birth to like Rush probably more then I should. This was their big breakout album, and features the 20 odd minute title track. It tells some story that frankly I never full understood. It's certainly no "Bytor Vs. Snow Dog". Anyways, it's dead solid prog-Rush, with amazing playing. Hell, there's more riffs in the first 5 minutes of 2112 then most bands use in 5 years.

0358 Jorge Ben – África Brasil - African Brazil jazz I guess. Did nothing for me.

Joan Armatrading
0359 Joan Armatrading – Joan Armatrading (1st Album) - Overly earnest folk with very little style. This one did nothing for me either.

See? Modern Lovers is the big one here, with Boston and Rush following for the top 3. When Boston and Rush are in the top three recommends, well, that says it all.

The silver lining? ~~The numbering makes sense again since I'm mostly caught up! Hurray!~~* Let's hope the next batch is better. Come on 1976! You can do it!

Till next time!
*I screwed up the numbering, so fixing it means it makes no sense again. Rats!