Canned Heat - Living The Blues

Have you heard of Canned Heat? Wait. Loaded question. You have, but you may not know it. They have a plethora of outstanding tracks out there - most of which you'd recognize at the drop of a hat. These guys are all about blues, but in a more uptempo fashion. From what I hear, they were sort of pioneers at making blues something you could tap your toes to. They formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California - which makes perfect sense. One could almost call this west coast blues, since it has that sort of feel to it. When the band was launched - they were called 'Canned Heat Blues' - after a 1928 song done by Tommy Johnson. After touring and becoming popular around the US, fans seemed to simply shorten the name to Canned Heat. The band went with it. With the way they did music and their general attitude - they became icons of the hippie era. They basically played every major music festival during the 1960's. The band had two international hits - including one off this album 'Going Up The Country'. Now, I love this song. And the track is a remake of an older blues song done by Henry Thomas called 'Bull Doze Blues'. The group had a knack for turning old, obscure blues tracks and revitalizing them into something new and fresh. Boy were they rewarded for their efforts too. They sold many copies of this album and the song was #1 all across the world. My only complaint about this album is the length. It's too darn short - but then again, all albums were that way back in the day. I love the feel of it and I love the uptempo blues idea in general. I've always been a fan of the Canned Heat - and you might already be - just give 'em a shot.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Refried Boogie, Pt. 1

2. Pony Blues

3. My Mistake

4. Refried Boogie, Pt. 2

5. Sandy's Blues

6. Going Up the Country

7. Walking by Myself

8. Boogie Music

9. One Kind Favor

10. Parthenogenesis



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. Going Up The Country

2. Pony Blues

3. Sandy's Blues



FINAL RATING:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Amon Amarth - Once Sent From The Golden Hall

Wednesday you say? Death metal you say? Sure. Those things go together like peanut butter and jelly. I think... Anyways, follower janis! knows her metal, and she asked that I take a peek at Amon Amarth. Turns out they are a Swedish death metal band that started making tunes in 1992. Apparently the name is translated to English to mean 'Mount Doom' which is a reference from JRR Tolkien's book 'Middle Earth'. The band worked on an album in 1993 called 'Thor Arise' - but it was never released because of the poor sound quality and unevenness of the audio. Even though it was never done in a studio - the band started to get a little bit of a following. 1998 saw the signing with Metal Blade Records, and the debut release of this album. Looking back, it was praised for being this raw fusion of dark rhythms and then the lead singers growling vocals making for intriguing metal. The band does a lot of their writing based on mythology and Pre-Christianity themes. I guess there is a genre called "viking metal" - who knew? These guys would fit that sort of label though. While I suppose I can see the reason why music like this exists - it definitely isn't for me. I never did enjoy the shouty type of metal, and this is nothing but shouting things I can't understand and using words that aren't in anyone's vocabulary under the age of 2,000. I wouldn't recommend popping this in today unless you're really in the mood for a headache.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Ride for Vengeance

2. Dragons' Flight Across the Waves, The

3. Without Fear

4. Victorious March

5. Friends of the Suncross

6. Abandoned

7. Amon Amarth

8. Once Sent from the Golden Hall



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. Ride For Vengeance

2. Without Fear

3. Abandoned



FINAL RATING:

1.5 out of 5 stars

Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You

The New Music Tuesday variety hour now begins, and we showcase the Red Hot Chili Peppers latest works. Now, I won't claim to be the biggest RHCP fan - but their last record, 'Stadium Arcadium' really failed to meet any sort of expectations set forth by their previous records. And unlike my last review, the double album went on too long and made me want to stop listening to music forever. I'm giving away too much - I haven't reviewed that album yet. I literally have no expectations of this album - as I feel it could be just as subpar as the last one. They've gone through some changeover, and bassist Flea made the comment, "it’s just like a very … meaningful and rejuvenating rebirth for us." So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this will be something new and outstanding. The album is supposed to touch a lot on life and death through the lyrical content. Not sure about you all - but I typically don't look the the Chili's for my spiritual music and thinker type sounds. I guess it's hard - because this album does have this upbeat sort of Ben Folds piano type feel to it. And I don't get it. I mean, I'm not saying bands shouldn't change their identity and find new musical niches over the years. In fact, I love when bands reinvent themselves to create great music. I do. But honestly - your name is the RED HOT Chili Peppers. Since when did you move to albums of zero heavy guitar work and all ballads? They should be the Mild Yellow Bell Peppers. Now don't get me wrong, some of these songs are kind of good - and I'd probably tolerate the album if it said "Train" on the front. But it doesn't. It says RHCP, and it should be at least some heavy rock or deep alternative rock stuff. But it's not. The album is almost exactly one hour of me getting increasingly annoyed that I can't tap my toes to one single track. And for that, I say no to you Chili's. Just stop.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Monarchy of Roses

2. Factory of Faith

3. Brendan's Death Song

4. Ethiopia

5. Annie Wants a Baby

6. Look Around

7. Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie, The

8. Did I Let You Know (This I Know)

9. Goodbye Hooray

10. Happiness Loves Company

11. Police Station

12. Even You Brutus?

13. Meet Me at the Corner

14. Dance, Dance, Dance



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. I'm so annoyed I can't objectively put up a Top 3. Maybe some other day.

2.

3.



FINAL RATING:

1.75 out of 5 stars

Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact

Tuesday is here, and we start with the Techno variety hour. I know absolutely nothing about Gang Gang Dance - other than they were on my related to Nick Jaar from last week. I seem to recall being fairly disappointed in his effort - so hopefully this one gets me a little more jacked up. So turns out the band is from New York - and has been making tunes since 2001. They're fairly well known for their experimental style - which pretty much means you never know what genre you're going to get from them. Album to album - show to show, it's always new and fresh. From what I'm hearing this album - it's pretty heavy into synth and everything feels 'Take On Me'-ish circa 1985. Which when combined with cool beats and heavy percussion, sounds pretty cool. I can't really find any critics that have anything negative to say about this album and the band as a whole. Quite honestly, before I looked into anything else - I was really digging the vibe this puts out. I mean, it's very different - but still super awesome. Pretty spacey feeling, but still has the merits of an electronic record. This is just about the perfect length for what it is. I don't feel as though you could make an experimental rock/dance album that was overly long, because people would tend to lose interest after a while. With being concise and dropping 10 tracks, you get the exact feel of what they want you to, and then that's it. It ends and it makes you want to put it back on and run through it again. No drag-on feeling and no feeling of 'what the H did I just listen to?'. Delightful, check it out.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Glass Jar

2. 8

3. Adult Goth

4. Chinese High

5. MindKilla

6. 88

7. Romance Layers

8. Sacer

9. 888

10. Thru and Thru



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. Glass Jar

2. Adult Goth

3. Chinese High



FINAL RATING:

4 out of 5 stars

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter IV

Since it is my birthday, I don't have as much of a problem doing one rap type album for you guys and then a real rap album for you all. 'Tha Carter IV' dropped today, and I really want to listen to it. So why not give you guys a peek into the world of Weezy too? Exactly. Sure I'm also bucking the New Music Tuesday trend, but hey - it's my bday! It's my party and I'll review if I want to. Everyone knows about Lil Wayne at this point, and his struggles with the law and his respect in the industry. Now - I wouldn't call myself the biggest Weezy fan ever, but I do respect what he's doing. Building the Young Money camp and making music pretty much non stop for his legions of fans. When I did 'Carter III' a while back, that was really the first and only album from him that I couldn't put down. I loved every minute of it. Since then, each album he puts out has probably 3-5 tracks I really like, then a bunch of stuff I would turn off. I like that he's willing to mix it up and try new things - but sometimes it's those odd styles that are a turn off. So far, this album seems much more "normal" and it seems he was looking to make another classic like Carter III. And at first glance today - I really like this one again. From the singles you've heard so far, '6 Foot 7 Foot' is that go hard type rap that any real fan of the genre will love. 'John' is that typical forgettable Rick Ross collaboration. 'How To Love' is that sort of hate it or love track, but I like the ballad and it's not overly poppy which is nice. 'She Will' is the Drake collaboration, and it's got a nice beat and solid lyrics too. But the biggest surprise was the 3-part track that is the Intro/Interlude/Outro. It's really good. I went back to those each a couple times. Of course there is also the T-Pain collabo that I can't stand, but then there is one with Bruno Mars that makes me happy. Happy that Bruno is getting more work with major rappers and happy because it's just a good song. All in all, I'm really content with how this came out, and glad that Lil Wayne went back to the magic formula. It's rumored that this could be his last album, and if it is, I think he can sleep well knowing he dropped a great one.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Intro

2. Blunt Blowin

3. MegaMan

4. 6 Foot 7 Foot

5. Nightmares Of The Bottom

6. She Will

7. How To Hate

8. Interlude

9. John

10. Abortion

11. So Special

12. How To Love

13. President Carter

14. Its Good

15. Outro



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. 6 Foot 7 Foot

2. Intro/Interlude/Outro

3. How To Love



FINAL RATING:

4.25 out of 5 stars

Tyler The Creator - Goblin

Well B Siders - today is a day. What day you ask? It's my birthday! I'm still at work and not celebrating like perhaps I should - but that's okay, because I can blog about music, which is a very fun thing to do. And last night, watching the MTV Video Music Awards - there was one person spotlighted a couple times, and I've been paying attention to him for about a year or so now. Tyler the Creator was born in 1991 and started doing the music thing in 2008 or so. He grew up in Los Angeles and attended thirteen different schools during his twelve years of education. From what I can see, it wasn't a behavior thing or whatever, seemed they just moved around LA and Sacramento quite a bit as a kid. He taught himself to use the piano at 14, and he knew he loved music. He's the leader of the hip hop group OFWGKTA, which stands for something too long and kind of dumb, but he also acts as the producer of all their music and videos. This was his second studio recording, with the first dropping in 2009 and not performing very well. This one has seen more publicity and sales - but still nothing amazing. It's pretty easy to tell why though - this stuff is so against the grain, it's very odd to know what to think. While I think there are some aspects of this album that are really promising and feel the talent is there - it doesn't come together as something more than a really odd album. It's probably worth looking into - because he'll probably blow up someday and you'll have been on the front end of it, but don't be surprised if you're left scratching your head when you're done.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Goblin

2. Burger

3. Yonkers

4. Untitled 63

5. Radicals

6. Steak Sauce

7. She

8. Transylvania

9. Nightmare

10. Tron Cat

11. Her

12. Sandwitches

13. Fish/Boppin Bitch

14. Analog

15. Bitch Suck Dick

16. Window

17. Untitled

18. Golden



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. Goblin

2. She

3. Yonkers



FINAL RATING:

2.25 out of 5 stars

Boyz II Men - Cooleyhighharmony

The reviews can be so scattered - the other day I heard the song, 'It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday' - and I thought, "man, I gotta review that album". Turns out I'd never gotten to any Boyz II Men yet - and that song was off this - their first record. Perfect! 'Cooleyhighharmony' came out in 1991 (holy cow - people in my generation are getting OLD!) and is a sick 9x platinum. I think most of those sales were piggybacking the major hype surrounding the single 'Motownphilly' back in the day. Which by the way, why did the group have to name all their stuff with no spaces? Was that cool back in the day? Anyhow, this is named after the film 'Cooley High' and the album is dedicated to the group's tour manager Khalil Roundtree - who was murdered in Chicago in 1992. This album was reissued in 1993 after the popularity of a certain track off the 'Boomerang' soundtrack - perhaps you've heard of it? A little track called 'End Of The Road'? Yeah, we all know it. I haven't heard it in probably 10 years - but I probably still could recite every last word. This album started with a small 10 tracks - but the reissue contains 17. Not a bad bump in a couple years. We all know this album, and we all know the band. I won't sit back and tell you that the album is so amazing you need to rush out and buy it or whatever - but it's a really nice throw back joint. There are a couple songs on here I forgot about - which was a nice surprise. 'Motownphilly' isn't going to make my Top 3, and that should tell you something - given how big it was. This is so worth going back on today if you're looking for something to whisk you away to the early 90's. Or even if you're just a B2M fan.



TRACK LISTING:

1. Al Final del Camino (Spanish Version)

2. Please Don't Go

3. Lonely Heart

4. This Is My Heart

5. Uhh Ahh - (sequel version)

6. It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday (Original Version)

7. In the Still of the Nite (I'll Remember)

8. Motownphilly (Radio Edit)

9. Under Pressure

10. Sympin (Radio Edit)

11. Little Things

12. Your Love

13. Motownphilly (Original Version)

14. Sympin (Original Version)

15. Uhh Ahh (Original Version)

16. It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday (Radio Edit)

17. End of the Road



Listen To Samples



Top 3 Tracks:

1. It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday

2. End Of The Road

3. Please Don't Go



FINAL RATING:

4 out of 5 stars