Vanilla Fudge - "Near the Beginning" (Atco Records, 1969)
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"<organ solo>"
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Okay, so no G'n'F'n'R today. Sorry Matt. Before the end of the week I swear. I have so many great new LPs that I I need to get the camera out anyway. Not even an impending Pharmacotherapeutics test can kill my buzz over owning Melvins "Houdini" on LP now. I am at once both unable to explain and embarrassed how excited it makes me. And, the best album of the year, Menomena's "Friend and Foe," is being mailed my way on lovely vinyl as well. I have been DYING to review that LP, I had no idea it was pressed. Get that CD BTW. It is simply the pinnacle of 2007 music, and I would say that it would be hard to top it. But Ween does have a new LP soon...
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Carl's Favorite Songs - #35 - Soul to Squeeze by Red Hot Chili Peppers
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By the way, for you new comers, I am listing my top 50 favorite songs of all time. I won;t comment on them until the top ten. They purposely do not match the LPs displayed, and are intentionally brief segments in the posts. That should do for housekeeping for another 15 posts or so...
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The Vanilla Fudge. Pure rock fury. No, that's Clutch. Pure psychedelic fury. More like it. I am posting this both because it is fantastic, and because its a gem in my collection, but also because there isn't much to say. If you like long organ and guitar acid grooves, and like to hear rock/Motown standards turned inside out ala shrooms, then the Fudge is where you are at. Its like progressive rock without the capes and poems. Between "Some Velvet Morning" and the side long Allman Brothers on Acid jam of "Break Song", your mind will be open. I got into them because Frank Zappa mentioned them a lot (negatively however, because people always expected the Mothers to sound like them), and because Al K. played their seminal track/cover tune "You Keep Me Hanging On." Incredible. Definitely head music that was at the same time a cliche and an achievement. If you like the Doors' more spacey jams, and early Yes, Pink Floyd, and Emerson Lake and Palmer, you got your self a new band to check out. Hey stoner, buy it already!
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Horns up!
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Some Loud Thunder" (self released, 2007)
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"All this talking... you'd think I'd have something to say. But I'm just talking, like a siren getting louder and farther away"
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It was an odd twist of coincidence. I was going to post and ask y'all to start firing off requests for albums to review... as long as they were in my collection, or attainable (no, Rich, Adam Again "Dig" is not on vinyl that I know of), and out of no where Matt makes such a request. "You have to," he says. The album? "Appetite for Destruction." Its the 20th anniversary (dear God, that long already?). So I agreed. I will take pics and do it soon. I wanted to take a short break from metal, lest I become a cliche.
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Carl's Favorite Songs - #36 - If the Truth Be Known by No Laughing Matter
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are a triumph. They exemplify music as an art form. They are entirely self supported and published; no label, just word of mouth. Their first LP was a marvel, and garnered a lot of buzz. Two of the three most powerful Davids in the world were even fans (Bowie and Byrne, leaving only Letterman to climb on board). While they are a modern take on Talking Heads, They Might Be Giants, and Violent Femmes, they sound little like any of those bands. Furthermore, the hard-to-love-if-you-are-only-a-casual-fan vocals further separate them from anyone coming before. Their 2007 LP, "Some Loud Thunder," was hotly anticipated. Could they repeat? Would there be a slump? Was it all overblown to start with?
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Most critics and moderate fans hated the new LP in its first few days of life. I was very upset to read the negative reviews, because almost all of them didn't get the art aspect of music. It's useless to try to explain to people that when a band has a hit that they don't always strike gold again. And the sophomore slump is usually the result of pressures and expectations out of the band's control. But CYHSY suffered from none of this, yet people turned on them. The biggest criticism is that the album sounded different, that it was more dissonant, that they over experimented with odd production effects, and that it wasn't as good as the first LP. All you have to do is listen to the first track on the first LP to get where they are coming from... they are experimenting with sounds as a collage; building a mood and a way to express feeling without being explicit (meaning "clear," not "dirty").
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If I am ever allowed to teach my dream course, modern music appreciation, I would use "Some Loud Thunder" as a test LP to see if a pupil has patience to appreciate music as art (much as early Modest Mouse, solo Frank Zappa, or middle period Bjork would have served to do before). While it is devoid of any real mix-tape igniting singles, it is a complete and fantastic LP. It was a great start to the slew of '07 releases, and to be honest, it was less of a disappointment than many of the follow-ups released so far (QOTSA leading the way on that list, holy crap was that a miss). Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are for music fans who spend more time lost in thought than trying to work on their fret board work. And best yet, it isn't for the tight jeans set.
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Horns up!

Black Sabbath - "Black Sabbath" (Warner Brothers Records, 1970) [key tracks: NIB, The Wizard]
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"Now I have you with me, under my power. Our love grows stronger now with every hour. Look into my eyes, you will see who I am... My name is Lucifer, please take my hand"
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Hey! I am back. You still check this site? Cool! Way cool! Lots happened this summer. The biggest news from Carl-ville is that we bought our first house. Its a nice little house in Council Bluffs. Come over anytime. I'll make you listen to records though. That's right, the man-cave is fully operational. Now NFL just needs to begin... Other news that makes me happy is the fact that I have now, in my possession, 3 of my top 5 wished for records. More on that in entries to come. And, I started my P3 year of pharmacy school (again... heh). Anyway, busy busy. On to the rock!
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Carl's Favorite Songs - #37 - Wasted Years by Iron Maiden
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Decibel Magazine recently had a Stoner Rock themed issue, in which they attempted to list the top Stoner albums of all time. I have very little quarrel with anyone making a list, because I know how complex and hard it is to do. However, my brother was upset to see that the number one album of all time was "Master of Reality" by Black Sabbath. In his opinion, it should be their first album. And I have a hard time making a good argument against him. The debut LP from Ozzy and crew is as chest crushing and soul blackening today as it was new and thrilling then... hearkening to groove metal and doom metal that wouldn't arise for a decade or two after the LP hit shelves. Frank Zappa himself often stated that his idea of the perfect rock songs/sound was a variety of Sabbath tunes from their first few LPs. The horror show, low toned, plodding macabre blues rock set the pace for ALL good metal bands to come. It is senseless to list Sabbath as an influence; from appearance, to theme material, to sound and packaging... all of metal as we know it is built on the Sabbath template (and to be fair, Zepplin too).
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On this LP, we are introduced to the demonic-yet-perfect vocals of Ozzy, the jazz/doom bass of Geezer Butler, and the still 10-fingered guitar wizardry of Tommy Iommi. The epic tracks just keep coming at you... "Black Sabbath," which is more of a tone setter for their career than a band theme song (the song is itself a miracle; inspired by the Boris Karloff movie that inspired them to change from a blues band named Earth to Black Sabbath, a demonic vision seen by Geezer, and uses a musical trick known as a dissonant harmonic progression with augmented fourth... banned once by Christian monks as being diabolus en musica... the evil-metal connection sealed in blood once and for all), "NIB" which is the musical equivalent of a Hammer horror film, "The Wizard" (a song which it at once about a literal wizard ala Gandalf, and the bands drug dealer. The theme and tone is set for all stoner rock to come, both in fantasy and herbal use), and "Behind the Wall of Sleep" which makes H.P. Lovecraft fandom a requirement for all future metal heads. The LP simply kills (that is p0wns for you l33t fans).
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Well, no use talking about Sabbath, better go listen to it. Thanks for checking in, lots of new vinyl was bought this summer, so I have some great treasures to share with you all. Horns up!