Thoughts on Springsteen, Shinedown and a multitude of upcoming releases.
Some rattling on here…
I like the new Bruce Springsteen. It’s got a communal, rally in town square feel to it with whoops and hollers seemingly throughout the disc. It’s a very critical look at the state of America right now and I think it pretty much nails it on the head. It might not be the ‘fun’ listen or the ‘easy to hear’ listen, but that doesn’t mean it’s not listenable. I tried listening to it with headphones and I liked what I heard. It sounds a lot better, in my opinion, than say ‘Magic’, the 2007 album which sounded a little over compressed. There’s a different producer at work on ‘Wrecking Ball’ and a host of new musicians filling out the rich sound. There are also a few contributions from the E Street band including two appearances from the late Clarence Clemons. I’d say ‘Wrecking Ball’ is closer in overall feel to past Bruce albums like ‘Devils & Dust’, ‘Ghost of Tom Joad’, and ‘Nebraska’ with some of the more modern touches that appeared on ‘The Rising’, modern for Bruce, anyway. Yes, it’s a dark album but well worth hearing. Bruce has got a lot to say here and he’s getting it off his chest. It’s an album with a purpose. I also think it has one of Bruce’s best ever songs in American Land appearing only on the special edition of ‘Wrecking Ball’.
I’m looking forward to the new Shinedown album this month. There aren’t many modern rock bands that get my attention these days, so many of them sounding so much alike, but Shinedown is a big exception. They are a four piece band from Jacksonville, Florida and they are about to release their fourth album entitled ‘Amaryllis’. That’s the name of a type of flower as I discovered. What I like about Shinedown is that unlike so many of their brethren, they are not afraid to use melody and singer Brent Smith can really actually sing. He’s got a powerful voice with quite a range sounding at times like Chris Cornell meets James Hetfield. Yes, they can be very heavy, but I never find them unlistenable. They follow up the highly successful ‘Sound of Madness’ with this new album. If you like heavy music but have given up on newer bands, give Shinedown a try. You might like what you hear. And if you don’t like them too heavy, they are also not afraid to bring out the acoustic guitars once in a while. The acoustic CD/DVD ‘Live in Kansas City’ might be a good starting point!
Thoughts and prayers for Jerry Gaskill, drummer of King’s X as he recovers from a recent heart attack. Jerry is one of my all-time favorite drummers, certainly in my top ten, and a good guy to boot as I have met him and the King’s X guys a few times in 24 years of listening to them and seeing them in concert.
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Let’s get rolling…
Recently released and not mentioned in last edition:
* King’s X - Burning Down Boston: Live 1991 (for Jerry Gaskill. See link below.)
* Kate Campbell - Two Nights in Texas: Live
* Bill Mallonee - Hardscrabble Dreams: WPA. #13
* Samestate - The Alignment
* Scarlet Tanager - American Songbird
* Kate Miller-Heidke - Curiouser
* Bell X1 - Bloodless Coup
3/6
* Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
* Magnetic Fields - Love at the Bottom of the Sea
* Bowerbirds - Clearing
* Kaiser Chiefs - Start the Revolution without Me
* Owsley Brothers - Cobalt
* Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
* Fireflight - Now* Blues Traveler - 25 (2 CD best of.)
+ Footloose
+ Immortals
+ Like Crazy
+ The Skin I Live In
+ Jack and Jill
3/13
* Adrenaline Mob - Omerta
* Delta Spirit - S/T
* Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear
* Said the Whale - Little Mountain
* Drowner - S/T
* Lucero - Women & Work
* Soulfly - Enslaved
* The Decemberists - We All Raise Our Voices to the Air: Live
* Janis Joplin - Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968
+ The Swell Season (Documentary and soundtrack.)
+ The Descendants
+ My Week with Marilyn
+ Melancholia
+ Young Adult
+ The Three Musketeers
+ The Women on the 6th Floor
+ The Adventures of Tintin
+ Happy Feet Two
3/20
* The Shins - Port of Morrow
* Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s - Rotgut, Domestic
* The Hunger Games soundtrack (Produced by T-Bone Burnett.)
* Joe Bonamassa – Live from the Beacon Theatre
* B.B. King – Live from Royal Albert Hall 2011 (w/guests.)
+ The Muppets
+ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
+ Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
+ The Sitter
+ Carnage
3/27
* Shinedown - Amaryllis
* The Mars Volta – Noctourniquet
* The Cowboy Junkies – The Wilderness
* Justin Townes Earle - Nothing's Gonna Change
* The Pierces - You and I
* Joan Osborne - Bring it on Home (Blues covers.)
* Sons of Bill - Sirens (Produced by David Lowery.)
* The Used - Vulnerable
* Flying Colors - S/T
* Janus - Nox Aeris
* Jack Blades - Rock 'N Roll Ride
* Jeff Scott Soto - Damage Control
* Alter Bridge - Live at Wembley
* Overkill – The Electric Age
+ Metal Evolution (Eleven part series from VH1.)
+ Iron Maiden - En Vivo: Live in Santiago, Chile 2011 (2 DVD's.)
+ Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
+ A Dangerous Method
+ Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
+ Hop
4/3
* Kate Campbell - 1,000 Pound Machine
* Great Lake Swimmers - New Wild Everywhere
* Adam Cohen - Like a Man
* Simone Felice – S/T
* The Jezabels - Prisoner
* Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know
* Denison Witmer - The One’s Who Wait
* MxPx - Plans Within Plans
* Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal
* Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick sequel
+ War Horse
+ We Bought a Zoo
+ In the Land of Blood and Honey
4/10
* Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls
* M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion
* Scars on 45 - S/T
* Florence & the Machine - MTV Unplugged
* Nanci Griffith - Intersection
* Bonnie Raitt - Slipstream
* Steep Canyon Rangers - Nobody Knows You
* The Mastersons - Birds Fly South
* Trampled by Turtles - Stars & Satellites
* Swans - The Burning World
* Jenny Gillespie - Belita EP
* Hands - Massive Context EP
* The Safety Fire - Grind the Ocean
* Elliott Yamin - Let’s Get to What’s Real
* Monica Lionheart - Indian Summer
* Taproot - Episodes
* Halestorm - Strange Case of
* Accept - Stalingrad
* Fastway - Eat Dog Eat
* Counting Crows – Underwater Sunshine (Covers.)
* World Party - Arkeology (Box set.)
+ Joe Jackson - Live at Rockpalast 1980 and 1983 (CD/DVD.)
+ Joe Satriani - Satchurated: Live in Montreal
+ The Iron Lady
+ The Darkest Hour
4/17
* Dar Williams - In the Time of Gods
* Train – California 37
* Eric Hutchinson - Moving Up Living Down
* Jason Mraz - Love is a Four Letter Word
* Cowboy Junkies - Nomad Series box set (5 CD’s.)
* Sun Kil Moon - Among the Leaves
* Neon Trees - Picture Show
* Dry the River - Shallow Bed
* Our Lady Peace - Curve
* Battles - Dross Glop
* The Forecast – Everybody Left
* Switchfoot - Vice Re-Verses (Remix CD.)
* Thousand Foot Krutch - The End is Where We Begin
* Jack Johnson - Kokua Festival: Live
* Janis Joplin - Pearl Sessions
* Hank Williams III - Long Gone Daddy
* Loudon Wainwright III - Older than My Old Man Now
* Jamiroquai – Rock Dust Light Star
* Europe - Bag of Bones
* Dragonforce - The Power Within
+ Grateful Dead - 14 DVD Box set
+ Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
+ Shame
+ Born to be Wild IMAX
4/24
* Greg Laswell - Landline
* Jack White - Blunderbuss
* Brad - United We Stand
* Dandy Warhols - This Machine
* Sarah Jaffe - The Body Wins
* Brendan Benson - What Kind of World
* Carole King - Legendary Demos
* Warren Haynes - Live at the Moody Theater
* Tyketto - Dig in Deep
* Prong - Carved into Stone
+ Peter Gabriel - New Blood: Live in London
+ Amy Winehouse - Fallen Star
+ Contraband
5/1
* Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts
* Garrison Starr - Amateur
* George Harrison - Living in the Material World (2 DVD’s/CD/book.)\
* Thin Lizzy - a few Deluxe editions
+ Haywire
+ Joyful Noise
+ New Year’s Eve
5/8
* Keane - Strangeland
* Silversun Pickups - Neck of the Woods
* Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship
* Toadies - Play.Rock.Music. EP
* Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee
* Trioscapes - Separate Realities
* Pennywise - All or Nothing
* Glenn Frey – After Hours (covers.)
* Dee Snider - Dee Does Broadway (CD.) and Shut Up and Give Me the Mic (book.)
+ Underworld: Awakening
5/15
* Beach House - Bloom
* Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
* Tenacious D - Rise of the Fenix
+ Albert Nobbs
+ Rampart
5/22
* The Cult - Choice of Weapon
* 12 Stones - Beneath the Scars
* Malice - New Breed of Godz
* Slash - Apocalyptic Love
* Great White - Elation
+ Certified Copy
5/29
* Rush - Clockwork Angels
* Regina Spektor - What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
* Edward Sharpe - Here
* Melody Gardot - The Absence
+ Man on a Ledge
+ Gone
6/5
* Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Americana
* Rhett Miller – The Dreamer
* Brandi Carlile – Bear Creek
* Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Big Moon Ritual
* The Temper Trap - S/T
* L.A. Guns - Hollywood Forever
6/12
* Metric - Synthetica
* Bouncing Souls - Comet
* Giant Sand - Tucson
+ Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows
6/19
* The Raconteurs - Live at Montreux 2008
LYRICS of the MONTH:
No lyrics this month, but check out these sites:
http://www.brucespringsteen.net
Happy March Madness!!! See you in April.
Chris Barlow
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