Review #5 - Steve Miller Band

Anthology - 8.4

Coming into listening to this album I had listened to the Steve Miller Band only through the radio. I knew about "The Joker," "Fly Like An Eagle" and the rest. But that's it.
Anthology really opened my eyes to the eclectic skill of the SMB. None of the songs featured here on his early career's best of are prominent songs that I was familiar with. But from the opening guitar, harmonica, and vocal harmonies of "I Love You" it becomes clear that SMB is far from a two or three trick pony.
Side one of this double LP starts of with dual down home country tracks with "I Love You" and "Going to the Country." The side hits a bit of a mis-step with "Baby's House," a long ballad that allows the listener to lose focus on the album. "Kow Kow Calqulator" has a nice groove and finishes the side on a high note.
Side two finds SMB in more of a soul groove. The country twang and harmonicas have been ditched for a Memphis-style organ that suits the band very well. The harmonica returns however on the side-closer "Living in the U.S.A.," which is a definite album highlight.
The entire album shows the different sides of the band, but despite changing styles, the music is always consistent. "Journey from Eden" is a quieter song, but just as solid as anything else presented here. The only low points are the sometimes cheesy lyrics, like on "Seasons" and "Celebration Song." However, the melodies of at least "Celebration Song" remain strong.
All in all, without knowing much about Steve Miller Band, this is a great entry point to the band. Without surviving on the strength of singles this shows that the band put together quite a few other quality pieces along the way.

New Song

I have been writing songs for awhile now, and recording them every so often.
Here is a new one that I recorded today.
Wrap Me Up

Review #4 - The Gramercy Six

Live At The Firehouse - 8.0
Of all the LPs I own, this one has absolutely got to be the rarest. I've got a pretty hard to find Velvet Underground double album that will make its way to this space eventually, but I don't think it can top the Gramercy Six. Scouring the Internet for The Gramercy Six and especially this album yields little to no results. The only information I could gather is that they have and continue to play at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. There are also several listings of an album called Great Swinging Sound that was originally pressed in 1959.
Suffice to say, I am probably the only person on the entire Internet that will have ever reviewed this album. When I got my first record player I picked this album up at the local record store, Boo Boo Records, because I had been in my high school's jazz band and wanted a few jazz albums in my collection. It cost $1.
As someone who grew up in the Northern California area, I have been to my fair share of Sacramento Jazz Jubilees, and Live at the Firehouse is very reminiscent of the classic ragtime, swing and dixieland sounds that you hear at the festival. Recorded in 1983, its very possible that this was recorded at the Jazz Jubilee itself, although that is doubtful, given that it isn't mentioned in the liner notes.
As a classic swing and dixieland album, Live at the Firehouse is quite strong. The musicianship is smooth and the band is tight. I can imagine sitting under one of the tents in Sacramento listening to Gramercy while I eat my garlic fries.
None of the songs here particularly stand out, aside from album closer "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." The Duke Ellington standard is a good reference point and really shows the skill of the band. This album takes you back to classic Sacramento jazz and they do it very, very well. Excellent for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Review #3 - Graham Nash

Wild Tales - 6.8
My last review took on the Stephen Stills-led band Manassas and this one will cover one of his closest musical partners, Graham Nash. The albums are quite different considering how closely to principle song writers worked together. Whereas the Manassas album is steeped in soul and very groove-based, Nash's work here channels Bob Dylan more than Marvin Gaye.
Nash's songs are good and they especially shine when he busts out his harmonica and slide guitar. However, his choruses have the tendency to become very similar to one another, and not particularly inventive. Songs like "Hey You" start out very strong, with a quality opening melody, but by the time the chorus rolls around I have become sick of it already. This is not to say that Wild Tales is a bad album. It definitely has its moments, on songs like "And so it Goes" and "Another Sleep Song," but the highs are just not high enough and lows are a little too cheesy and generic to suit my taste.
The album is not very eclectic, and because of this it does flow well as an album. The songs tend to blend together a bit as most of the keys are minor.
All in all, the album is consistent and well written and played. Nothing here will surprise you, but it might make it back to the record player a few times in the future as a low-key listen.

Review #2 - Manassas

Down the Road - 7.3
Stephen Stills' band Manassas released their second album, Down the Road, in 1973. I didn't know much of Stills' work before listening to this album outside of a handful of songs on a Crosy, Stills, Nash, and Young record I own. I go this album through my fiance's mom amongst a huge box she gave me for Christmas last year.
This album immediately takes hold of you on the first song, "Isn't It About Time." The song settles into a comfortable groove while talking about the evils of war and violence. The groove very much reminded me of The Beta Band. However, the rest of side one really fails to recapture the feeling of this first song and the rest of the side is relatively forgettable. Part of this may be due to the fact that the first song is written by Stills, and he doesn't have another song penned by him alone until "Business on the Street," the final song of side one.
Stills takes more of a center stage on side two of this record. "Do You Remember the Americans" is a forgettable country twang track that starts of the side. The next two songs are much better though, and Stills talks about not needing drugs and about the consequences they can have on "Down the Road" and "City Junkies."
Down The Road has some definite latin roots. "Pensamiento" is entirely in Spanish on side one. "Guaguanco de Vero" has the chorus sung in Spanish on side two. "Guaguanco de Vero" is easily the stronger of the two tunes.
The album closes out with the chill groove of "Rollin' my Stone." All in all, most of the songs here are solid, but none can match the opening force of "Isn't it About Time," although "Rollin' my Stone" and "City Junkies" come the closest to challenging its supremecy. This is a record I will continue to spin from time to time, but I'm not going to annoint it classic status.

Back

So it's been nine days since my last post. I wanted to be more on top of this than I have been. While gone I saw Vampire Weekend..it was a decent show. I think their second album while be nowhere close to as good as the first. I'm also a huge Sacramento Kings fan and they managed to climb to .500 for the first time in three years. My fiance and I also booked our wedding location. Ok, onto my next review...

Review #1 - George Harrison

All Things Must Pass - 9.0

For my first review I've decided to take on the slightly large task of reviewing George Harrison's triple LP All Things Must Pass. This seemingly monumental album came out in 1970, the same year that The Beatles released Let It Be, their final full length. Harrison used his back catalog from the Beatles era in combination with new material to fill up the three discs. Phil Spector shares production credit with Harrison.

Side 1 starts out rather slow with "I'd Have You Anytime," surprisingly a collaboration with Bob Dylan. However, after that start it picks up with the next three songs all qualifying as incredible, and also working together quite well. "My Sweet Lord" is the big hit from this album, a great single, but "Wah-Wah" and "Isn't It a Pity" are just as good. The lyrics manage to be sensitive and meaningful without crossing the dangerous border into cheesy. I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, but listening to this album (in particular Side 1), you can really feel Harrison's spirituality come through. If this album were just one side, I'd have a hard time not giving it a 10.

However, there are five more sides to this sprawling collection. Side 2 completely switches gears with "What Is Life," an upbeat number from Harrison. It feels a little out of place after listening to Side 1, but is undoubtedly a very good single. Dylan contributes the second song, "If Not For You," which feels more in place with the album's overall feel. Harrison's slide guitar is perfect on this and just about every other song here. "Let It Down" is another gem here, allowing Harrison to showcase a mellow melody for the verse paired with a rocking chorus.

Side 3 and 4 are full of great songs as well, although you can see that Harrison maybe ran out of material a bit towards the end. Side 3 is very good, although the title track "All Things Must Pass," despite being great lyrically, drags along at a slow clip. Side 4 features the wanktastic "I Dig Love," probably the album's weakest song along with a reprise of "Isn't It A Pity." "The Art of Dying" is one of the album's more rocking tracks however, and becomes the centerpiece of the 4th side.

This is really where the album ends, but included here is one more vinyl, which contains a seemingly separate album, Apple Jam. In the liner notes it says that Apple Jam was "recorded during sides 1, 2, 3, & 4." It really just sounds like a bunch of musicians getting high together and just feeling the music and making up jams on the spot. Although not necessarily something you'd want to listen to over and over, it's still a very interesting look into what these incredible musicians did for fun while waiting for the next take. Eric Clapton plays guitar along with Harrison on these jams.

All in all, the album is very solid and a great listen. The reason it doesn't score higher is that it seems to drift into cheese territory a few times and some songs made me really want to move on to the next as soon as possible. Cough "I Dig Love" Cough. I also think the album is a little top heavy. Side 1 is so great that Side 2 can't possibly live up to it, although it's still very good. Side 3 drops off a little more, and Side 4 continues the trend, before Apple Jam closes out the set on a relatively strong note.

Introduction

Hi there

My name is Craig and this is my blog.. It's named after a line from one of my favorite songs by my favorite band.

My purpose in creating this blog is to sort through the large amount of vinyls that I have amassed over the past year. My fiancee bought me a record player for my birthday last year and I have gone to town. I've acquired records from her mom, my dad, a friend's parents, the flea market, the used record shop, new record shops, for Christmas, etc. I've also purchased a new turntable, speakers, and a receiver. So it's safe to say that I am invested a bit here.

I just did a quick count and came up with 190 vinyl albums that I currently own. A good amount of these records are albums that I've never even listened to. This is what happens when you get 40 or 50 at a time on occasion. So my goal is to go through my collection and review every single one of them on a scale of 0-10. I will differentiate with decimals as well. I've attempted to catalog most of my albums on rateyourmusic.com. You can check that out here.

I started college as a journalism major, although I now work as a computer programmer in San Luis Obispo, CA. I've remained interested in journalism although I've never really pursued it besides when I worked as a sports writer for the local paper in high school. I've been in a few bands, although I think that part of my life is probably done. However, my most recent band is going strong in LA. Check them out here. I live with my fiancee Shannon and dog Tobias. I've always struggled to finish projects, so here I go, embarking on a new one..bigger and badder than the rest! On to my first review...