Albums for Eternity with Bottle, the Curmudgeon

Maybe you forgot, but Spirit is my personal favorite Psych Rock band (if we don't include Iron Butterfly). What's their first "reunion" album like? Oh no, critics favorably compare it to Clear. That's the absolute worst of their original 4 albums. On the plus side, it's the least influenced by Randy Hawaii-fornia, so maybe it's actually better than the 2 stars Allmusic gives it. I definitely can't fault the concept, they had a great run with some terrible jet lag 3/4 of the way through, and after a ridiculously messy breakup they are by definition "Farther Along."  No, wait, this actually sounds good. Granted, good in the context of 1976, but Spirit never understood the concept of genre to begin with; they played all of them whenever convenient. I do have one criticism, some of the songs and instrumentals have an "unfinished" vibe, rather than what I'm sure was the intended "... and so forth..." fade out. Regardless, t

Speaking of New Wave, I just listened to the penultimate J. Geils Band album, Feeze Frame, and it is awesome. You know the title track and Centerfold, but i highly doubt you know the album closer, Piss On The Wall.  It's not even really reviewable, to be honest, it's Freeze Frame, couple songs, Centerfold, couple more songs, and Piss On The Wall. I guess i could rehash what Post-Punk/New Wave New Wave was all about (actual dance club Rock & Roll with quirkily expensive synth leads), but you know The Cars and The Motels and Talking Heads. Believe it or not, the Ramones were considered New Wave rather than Punk in the beginning. Now we'd call them Pop Punk, but the point is that Rock in the late 70s existed on a spectrum from Corporate Cock to Nerdly Neurotic Pocket Protector, and in 1980/81 J. Geils Band said hold my beer, I gotta take a leak, how's this for "radio-friendly, twitchy nerd Rock with huge sing-along choruses?" Freakin' awesome, dude, freak

I'm told Secret Treaties by Blue Öyster Cult is one of the best proto-metal albums of all time, but my ears are like "whaaaa?" Agree or not, this is Punk. Original, old-school, impossible to differentiate from New Wave, undeniably evolved from Psych/Garage Rock Punk, with a splash of Glam. This has way more in common with The Tube's or Boomtown Rats or New York Dolls or the Stooges than Uriah Heep or Black Sabbath or Deep Purple. If you wanted to call Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly Proto Heavy Metal i wouldn't bat an eyelash, but not this. I'm batting all of them with my "do critics even listen to albums before deciding what to write about them" face. I will give you the fact that it's a stellar album that delves into the darker side of human mundanity, but not really in a metal way. For starters, it's too intentionally weird. Less horror and evil, more really bad acid trip. No monsters or psychopaths or demons, just standard people suck stuff

Damn, how do you even begin to describe the awesomeness that is Enforcer?  Ok, I guess you start with a Mötley Crüe riff, play it 40bmp faster, then add some Iron Maiden style dueling leads, and have King Diamond sing a Judas Priest song on top of it. Yeah, just the best parts of Speed, Thrash, Glam, and NWOBHM all at the same time like you're actively trying to have a heart attack by the end of the album. Death By Fire, go check it out and rush over to bottlesmusic to buy my copy before someone else does.

She didn't intend to, but my sister Tabby Brown suggested we listen to "the BEST of SAM COOKE" tonight. By all means click here  for my humorous review, if you want. Otherwise, keep reading for the princess bride version. Sam Cooke's "best of" album came out in '62, he recorded A Change Is Gonna Come in '63, and got shot by a hotel night manager in '64. I don't know much biology, and i only took French for reading because i had to in Grad school, but I do know that I love Sam Cooke and A Change Is Gonna Come is one criminally obscure song inspired by Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind. I'd bet money you don't even know the Otis Reading, Seal, or Greta Van Fleet versions. Shame on you, you non mentally ill music afficionado wannabes [eye roll]. Luckily, I'm mentally ill enough for all of us, so play it again, Sam.  Fun fact, if you zoom way in on the photo, you might just be able to see my dad made sure to let everyone know th

Where did we leave off? Oh, right, the narrator (who we've chosen to think is a fictional version of lead singer Brandon) was telling us about the aftermath of a fight he had with Jenny. Then I got tired and put him on the backburner like he specifically asked me not to do. Sorry. We'll listen to side b next, but notice that side a is essentially a self-contained cycle, where the conversation in the first song can logically follow the "help me out" of the last song. Instead, we physically flip the album over and meet Andy. 6) Is Andy a new 4th character, or are we (the 3rd character Brandon was already talking to) Andy? Well, we know that Andy is a high school athlete, and the narrator feels like they are the only one who truly loves him, but beyond that everything is up for interpretation. There is no indication that this is the same narrator, but also no indication that we aren't Andy. Logically, then, we should assume that this is all still the same conversatio

Target splurged on some anniversary editions, huh? Ok, eventually I'll get real pretentious and a/b the 55th anniversary remix of the posthumous Beatles album Abbey Road with my original, but tonight I just want to enjoy the debut album Hot Fuss by The Killers. The Killers of course have the distinction of hands down lifetime winner of best Christmas album, building a complete concept album about Santa trying to kill Brandon one holiday single/video per year, but who doesn't like Mr. Brightside? No lyric sheet, but you can easily understand all the words, so that doesn't really matter. What does matter are those quacking bass lines and synth leads. Fabulous. Fun fact, the album actually contains multiple demo recordings because they literally scrapped every song they were working on except Mr. Brightside after hearing Is This It by The Strokes. I already told you how that album completely changed the world of Alternative Rock, and this album is literal proof. I'd actual

Tonight's album is a special request from my friend Shauna Conway, and wow is it gorgeous. Mon Rovîa (more specifically "monroviaboy") is the artist, and his new EP Act 3: The Dying of Self is the album. Obviously we're also going to listen to Acts 1 and 2 as well, but longtime readers will know how much I adore listening to things out of order. I'm also a big fan of explaining the artistic context up front so that we never have to play the pseudo-musicological guessing game of Artistic Intent.  Janjay Lowe was adopted by Christian missionaries during the Liberian Civil War (technically 2 by proxy civil wars stretching from 1989 to 2003), now lives in Tennessee, says his primary musical influences are Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend, and plays Ukulele. I'm already hooked. You know Araminta Ross as Harriet Tubman, adopting her mother's name when she married John Tubman. That's the concept we're delving into with Act 3: The Dying of Self, a complex, mul

Do you like crusty, gargly, deathcore with random acoustic interludes that sounds like it was recorded by meth addicts in the room next door at a terrifying downtown extended stay motel? I know I do, and that's why I'm sharing Red Horse by Early Graves with you today. They are sadly no longer a band, calling it quits back in 2021, but that in no way means you can't listen to them or buy my copy for the unreasonably reasonable price of 15. Buy a couple more to save on shipping while you're at it.  Call me an elitist snob, but I don't think extreme metal should sound good or well produced. Played really well, sure, but shimmeringly open and polished to a chrome shine? He'll no, real metal should sound like you recorded it with an actual boom box tape recorder and a non-musical friend to cup the mic to prevent clipping. Bonus points for making me feel like i need a tetanus shot and strong antibiotics after listening to it. As for the concept of Red Horse, I'm g

Today we're checking out what we can of the new Linkin Park album From Zero. The scuttlebut is that they have a new lead singer who pisses on the grave of Chester Bennington. I doubt it, I listen to my ears not the internet. Now, The Emptiness Machine is definitely a confrontational lead off single. Mike Shinoda is the rapper, so we're already off to a rocky start from the functional perspective. It's also clearly the melody from The Final Masquerade, so that's real abrasive on first listen. Chester was the clean singer/screamer, and idunnohername has the impossible task of filling his shoes while not sounding too much like him. Thanks, Mike, her name is Emily Armstrong. The question is, can she be herself while filling Chester's role in the band? Um, yeah, she can. Review over, Emily is a totally acceptable replacement from a purely musical perspective. I can't help you if you wanted the Linkin Park brand to be buried in the Nu-Metal graveyard, and i really can