Raine Maida – 2008 – The Hunter’s Lullaby
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Raine Maida
Title: The Hunter’s Lullaby
Label: Kingnoise
Released: Aug 26, 2008
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Careful What You Wish For
#Sex Love and Honey
#Yellow Brick Road
#The Less I Know (feat. Jared Paul)
#Earthless
#The Snake and the Crown
#Confessional
#China Doll
#Rat Race
#One Second Chance
Review:
Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida has long been considered intense–not just musically but also in his day-to-day political activism–so it should come as no surprise that his debut solo CD, The Hunters Lullaby, is neither light nor fluffy. Including similar but slightly different versions of the four tracks that comprise his 2006 EP, Love Hope Hero, this ten-song CD, according to Maida, didn’t start out as musical numbers, but instead as poems. In fact, poetry runs throughout this disc, whereby Maida repeatedly breaks out of singing and veers into rhymes a la Patti Smith, Saul Williams, and Leonard Cohen. The disc’s catchiest tune–lead-off single “Yellow Brick Road” (no relation to Sir Elton’s similarly named track)–is quite unlike OLP, with a Middle Eastern-sounding fiddle weaving around Maida’s Beat-meets-Slam-poetry, as he recollects his early punk-rock roots. Much of the CD is jam-packed with deep convictions, ranging from topics including politics and activists (“One Second Chance”), to moving his family from Canada to L.A. (“Careful What You Wish For”), to a song inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (“China Doll.”) That said, every instrument used on the disc is acoustic, not electric (including wife Chantal Kreviazuk on piano and vocals), resulting in a lyrically noisy but sonically subdued disc.
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Tags: 2008, Digipack, Kingnoise, Raine Maida, Standard
Cypress Hill – 1991 – Cypress Hill
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Cypress Hill
Title: Cypress Hill
Label: Ruffhouse / Columbia
Released: Aug 13, 1991
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Pigs
#How I Could Just Kill A Man
#Hand on the Pump
#Hole in the Head
#Ultraviolet Dreams
#Light Another
#The Phuncky Feel One
#Break It Up
#Real Estate
#Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk
#Psycobetabuckdown
#Something For The Blunted
#Latin Lingo
#The Funky Cypress Hill Shit
#Tres Equis
#Born To Get Busy
Review:
Led by the deep-toned Sen Dog and the deliciously adenoidal whine of B-Real and backed by DJ Muggs’s beats–as thick as the smoke they inhaled–Cypress Hill spun dope-fueled tales of revenge, revolution, recreational drug use, gangbanging, and cultural pride. Like R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural, but with a hardened voice and a B-boy attitude, Cypress Hill slow-walked their funk-flavored way through a minefield of anthems (the still sizzling “How I Could Just Kill a Man”) and comic manifestos (“Stoned Is the Way of the Walk”). Heavy on the bass line and punctuated by flashes of wit and rage, Cypress Hill’s joint was definitely one to draw deep on.
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Tags: 1991, Cypress Hill, Jewel Case, Ruffhouse / Columbia, Standard
The Doors – 1985 – The Best of the Doors
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: The Doors
Title: The Best of the Doors
Label: Elektra
Released: Nov 1, 1985
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Break on Through (To the Other Side)
#Light My Fire
#The Crystal Ship
#People Are Strange
#Strange Days
#Love Me Two Times
#Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)
#Five to One
#Waiting for the Sun
#Spanish Caravan
#When the Music’s Over
#Hello, I Love You
#Roadhouse Blues
#L.A. Woman
#Riders on the Storm
#Touch Me
#Love Her Madly
#The Unknown Soldier
#The End
Review:
The Best of The Doors delivers exactly what it promises. Rather than relying solely on the hits, this collection also mines the darker, and often richer, recesses of The Doors material resulting in a fairly representative statement. The hits are here: “Light My Fire” with Ray Manzarek’s keyboards on a dizzy, psychedelic spree; “People Are Strange,” with Morrison’s tortured psyche barely being held in check; “L.A. Woman,” with its bluesy sexuality. More important, favorites of fans are here, like the controversially (at the time) explicit “The End,” which was one of the first of Morrison’s forays into narrative poetry. In hits like “Break on Through,” “Hello I Love You,” “Roadhouse Blues,” and others, The Doors melded psychedelia, blues, hard-edged rock, and poetry from the edge like no other band before. The Best of The Doors is a trip in every sense of the word.
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Tags: 1985, Elektra, Jewel Case, Standard, The Doors
The Black Crowes – 1990 – Shake Your Money Maker
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: The Black Crowes
Title: Shake Your Money Maker
Label: Def American
Released: Jan 24, 1990
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Twice as Hard
#Jealous Again
#Sister Luck
#Could I’ve Been So Blind
#Seeing Things
#Hard to Handle
#Thick N’ Thin
#She Talks to Angels
#Struttin’ Blues
#Stare It Cold
Review:
Few young bands have embraced classic rock as fully as the Black Crowes did. Their debut album features a bar-band stomp rooted in the back catalogs of the Rolling Stones, Free, the Faces, any number of early-’70s hard rockers. The secret of their success has been singer Chris Robinson’s lanky rock-star poses matched with a voice as raw as whisky and as inviting as velvet. Add a healthy rhythm section accentuated by producer (and Rick Rubin prot�g�) George Drakoulias and you’ve got the dynamic shuffle of their hits (“Jealous Again” and the title track). While the band clearly likes to party, they’re even more convincing as the Sunday-morning comedown of “She Talks to Angels.”
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Tags: 1990, Def American, Jewel Case, Standard, The Black Crowes
Big Dumb Face – 2006 – Duke Lion Fights the Terror!!
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Big Dumb Face
Title: Duke Lion Fights the Terror!!
Label: Flip / Geffen
Released: Apr 17, 2006
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Burgalveist
#Duke Lion
#Kali Is The Sweethog
#Blood Red Head On Fire
#Space Adventure
#Fightin’ Stance
#Organ Splitter
#Mighty Penis Laser
#Robot
#Rebel
#Voices In The Wall
#It’s Right In Here
Review:
Big Dumb Face has created a big, dumb record–intentionally so. Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland’s side project is so self-indulgent it’s almost endearing. Almost. From the GWAR-meets-Cannibal Corpse death-metal attack of “Burgalveist” to the “Bonanza”-theme feel of “Duke Lion” to the Martian-style vocals of “Kali is the Sweet Hog,” Borland, who apparently plays all the CD’s instruments, is goofy rather than clever.
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Tags: 2006, Big Dumb Face, Flip / Geffen, Jewel Case, Standard
Beastie Boys – 1998 – Hello Nasty
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Beastie Boys
Title: Hello Nasty
Label: Capitol
Released: Jul 14, 1998
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Super Disco Breakin’
#The Move
#Remote Control
#Song For The Man
#Just A Test
#Body Movin’
#Intergalactic
#Sneakin’ Out The Hospital
#Putting Shame In Your Game
#Flowin’ Prose
#And Me
#Three MC’s and One DJ
#The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin’)
#Song For Junior
#I Don’t Know
#The Negotiation Limerick File
#Electrify
#Picture This
#Unite
#Dedication
#Dr. Lee, PhD
#Instant Death
Review:
On their previous album, Ill Communication, the Beastie Boys expanded their parameters yet again, melding cutting-edge hip-hop with slinky jazz, butt-wiggling funk, weepy classical, and combustive punk rock. Four years down the line, the group’s music isn’t nearly as organic. They’ve all but abandoned the guitars and returned to the kind of old-school beats and rhythms that defined their groundbreaking 1989 disc, Paul’s Boutique. But Hello Nasty isn’t a regression, and it’s anything but a cop-out: in addition to resurrecting the best elements from their past, the Beastie Boys have embraced the dopest high tech gizmos of the computer age. Hello Nasty gurgles like galactic sulfur pools, whizzes like a Sega game, and slurps and thumps like the best backward Hendrix loops. Add in a cavalcade of Latin percussion, calliope keyboards, and exotic samples (Stravinsky, Stephen Sondheim, Jazz Crusaders, Rachmaninoff), and you’re left with one of the most creative and jubilant hip-hop records to date, even if you exclude witty lyrics like, “I’m the king of Boggle / There is none higher / I get 11 points off the word quagmire” (“Putting Shame in Your Game”). To paraphrase �ber-critic Robert Christgau, Paul’s Boutique may have been the band’s Pet Sounds, but Hello Nasty is the Beasties’ Sgt. Pepper’s.
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Tags: 1998, Beastie Boys, Capitol, Digipack, Standard
Beastie Boys – 1992 – Check Your Head
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Beastie Boys
Title: Check Your Head
Label: Capitol
Released: Apr 21, 1992
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Jimmy James
#Funky Boss
#Pass The Mic
#Gratitude
#Lighten Up
#Finger Lickin’ Good
#So What’Cha Want
#The Biz Vs. The Nuge
#Time For Livin’
#Something’s Got To Give
#The Blue Nun
#Stand Together
#Pow
#The Maestro
#Groove Holmes
#Live At P.J.’s
#Mark On The Bus
#Professor Booty
#In 3’s
#Namaste
Review:
With their third album, the Beasties transformed themselves from smart-ass punks with a hip-hop jones into a playful live funk band with some solid rhymes, assisted by the extraordinary keyboardist Mark Ramos Nishita. A couple of tracks look back to their old school rap roots, and they still deploy goofy samples like nobody’s business, but they’re mostly making their own grooves (including some instrumentals worthy of being sampled in their own right). Their universalist world-view results in some excellent, off-the-wall fusions–the metalloid bump that forms the funk pulse of “So What’cha Want,” Sly Stone’s “Time for Livin'” transformed into a hard-rock bomber–but they don’t have to prove how clever they are any more, and they’re stronger and more humane for it.
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Tags: 1992, Beastie Boys, Capitol, Jewel Case, Standard
Beastie Boys – 1989 – Paul’s Boutique
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Beastie Boys
Title: Paul’s Boutique
Label: Capitol
Released: Jul 19, 1989
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#To All The Girls
#Shake Your Rump
#Johnny Ryall
#Egg Man
#High Plains Drifter
#The Sounds Of Science
#3-Minute Rule
#Hey Ladies
#5-Piece Chicken Dinner
#Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun
#Car Thief
#What Comes Around
#Shadrach
#Ask For Janice
#B-Boy Bouillabaisse: 59 Chrystie Street/Get On The Mic/Stop That Train/A Year And A Day/Hello Brooklyn/Dropping Names/Lay It On Me/Mike On The Mic/A.W.O.L.
Review:
After the out-of-nowhere success of Licensed to Ill, the Beasties had to prove they were more than one-album wonders, and they hit it out of the park with this follow-up. The Boys’ lyrics are a hysterical deluge of cultural allusion (Ponce De Leon, Sadaharu Oh, and Love Connection’s Chuck Woolery all get name-dropped), compressed wordplay, and adenoidal snottiness, but the real stars are the Dust Brothers, whose production is a hip-hop landmark. Their music tracks sound like the history of rock and funk radio boiled down to a pure concentrate–monster jams built out of thousands of unexpected samples (Johnny Cash! The Sweet!). It’s a killer party album, kinetic and dense, and it never slows down.
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Tags: 1989, Beastie Boys, Capitol, Jewel Case, Standard
Army of Anyone – 2006 – Army of Anyone
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Army of Anyone
Title: Army of Anyone
Label: Firm
Released: Nov 14, 2006
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#It Doesn’t Seem To Matter
#Goodbye
#Generation
#A Better Place
#Non Stop
#Disappear
#Stop Look and Listen
#Ain’t Enough
#Father Figure
#Leave It
#This Wasn’t Supposed To Happen
Review:
Army of Anyone features Richard Patrick, the lead singer of Filter, Dean and Robert DeLeo, founding members of Stone Temple Pilots, and drummer Ray Luzier. The foundation of the group was laid when Richard Patrick enlisted the DeLeos to help him co-write a song for the Filter album he was working on at the time. The result “A Better Place,” turned out to be prophetic, and the beginning of something new. Within a couple of days, the three musicians decided they would take this working relationship to the next level, and Army of Anyone was born.
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Tags: 2006, Army of Anyone, Firm, Jewel Case, Standard
More Than Me – 2009 – Minus One
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: More Than Me
Title: Minus One
Label: Self Released
Released: Mar 13, 2009
Packaging: Cardboard Sleeve
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Danced All Night
#Unconditional Truth
#Drag
#Shoelace
#The End
#Better Part Of Me
#Unconditional Truth (C.J. Eriksson Mix)
Review:
Latest release from the Buffalo boys. Hooky rock-pop that’s slickly produced and just plain fun!
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Tags: 2009, Cardboard Sleeve, More Than Me, Self Released, Standard