Review: Vinyl Reissued of 3 Hole Albums

I can't think of a band that arrived with more baggage than Hole. By the time they released their first album in 1991, Courtney Love was already partnered with the biggest star of the barely-there-yet alternative revolution. Her explosive personality was all over MTV, and her myriad controversies were about to turn Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair into The National Enquirer. 

All this Love made it hard to take Hole's music at face value. That may have actually been a boon for Pretty On the Inside, which is way too abrasive and tuneless to get much traction on its own merits outside of the hardest of hardcore grunge puppies. I also can't think of another debut album by a pretty popular band that is so hard to listen to, with only the somewhat garagey "Loaded" and somewhat psychedelic "Clouds" having enough distinctive personality to rise above their own lack of melodies. Pretty On the Inside makes Bleach sound like Meet the Beatles. 

Review: Ventilator's 'Reseda Spleen'

As a former obsessive bedroom Portastudio recorder myself, I've always had a soft spot for home recordings: Pete Townshend's Scoop compilations, Liz Phair's Girlysound tapes, the first ten years of Guided by Voices. These recordings have an atmosphere that is decidedly unpolished and full of forbidden "you weren't supposed to hear this!" allure. 

I'd never heard of Matt Devine's home-recording project Ventilator, but I was curious because of my fascination with straight-to-High Bias-TDK music. Imagine how hoodwinked I felt when I heard Ventilator's Reseda Spleen! This album sounds as lo-fi as Revolver! That's probably because Devine cheated by not using one of those shitty cassette recorders Phair and GBV and I used. He used a proper Tascam 388 ¼" reel-to-reel tape recorder (purchased from a Mighty Morphine Rangers stuntman for $1,000, no less) and got a proper professional engineer to mix it. Earl Mankey engineered freaking Beach Boys albums! Not good ones, mind you, but still...The Beach Boys! Who just happens to have a Beach Boys engineer hanging around their home? What kind of home recording is that?

Review: 'Pretty in Pink: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'

Pretty in Pink is not my favorite John Hughes movie. Andie is too mopey, and we don't really want to see her end up with major appliance Blane; we want her to end up with Duckie, even though Duckie is kind of a creep. He's friends with Andre Dice Clay, for chrissakes! It's the one John Hughes movie in which the adults are much more likable than the kids. Harry Dean Stanton and Annie Potts really save Pretty in Pink.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #25 - 1

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's happening in the end, my only friend, the end, from 25 to 1...

25. The Left Banke- "Desiree" (1967), in which the normally mellow Left Banke pound out a spiraling prog riff worthy of King Crimson.

Review: The Cranberries' 'Live at the London Astoria II, 1994'

A whopping nine months before finally releasing their second album, The Cranberries played half of No Need to Argue during a set at London Astoria II. They also played seven tracks from their superior debut album, on which Dolores O'Riordan was really on fire, sounding particularly possessed as she whispered and snarled through a demonic "Not Sorry" and hopping happily on the band's best song, "Dreams". 

Review: 'The Bad Seed' Blu-ray

In 1954, William March published a book about a child who kills not because she's an invading alien, like the kids in The Midwich Cuckoos, or because she's the antichrist, like the kid in The Omen, but because she's entitled, covetous, and completely immoral, like Donald Trump. Because of its all-too-human monster, The Bad Seed was a genuinely scary novel, and with its tight storytelling and clearly defined characters, it was ripe for adaptation into an equally chilling movie.

 The problem was it was a little too ripe. Producer/director Mervyn LeRoy should have sat on The Bad Seed until Hollywood was ready to make a picture about children killing children without pulling punches. Instead, Warner Bros. rushed it into theaters in 1956, forcing LeRoy to defang March's tale with camp eight years before Susan Sontag even got a chance to define the term.

Review: 'The Star Trek Archive: 100 Objects and Stories from the Final Frontier'

Star Trek has been granted longevity that few franchises could ever dream of because it was smart, well-written, had a specific point of view, and was full of memorable, lovable characters. But, like all enduring sci-fi works, it was also full of stuff. Just as Star Wars had its lightsabers and landspeeders, Star Trek had its phasers, tricorders, Enterprises, tribbles, and pointy ears. 

Review: 'Forbidden Planet' Limited Edition Blu-ray

There have been many, many Shakespeare adaptations, but one of the most creative picked up the relatively obscure Tempest and plopped it down on some distant planet in the future. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that screenwriter Cyril Hume or director Fred Wilcox ever copped to the origins of Forbidden Planet, but come on! You have a mad genius daddy and fetching daughter living in isolation only to have a crew of travelers invade their paradise and turn their relationship upside down. Daughter wants to make off with one the ship's captain. Daddy wants to rain down holy hell by commanding the elements. Sure Shakespeare probably never considered an interstellar angle, nor did he conceive of a zany animated Id Monster or Anne Francis in a series of miniskirts short enough to get his play banned in Spain, but the parallels are undeniable.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #50 - 26

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's got the munchies from 50 to 26...

50. Nazz- "Forget All About It" (1969), in which if you haven't got time to rest then take the record off now... NOW!!

Review: 'Muddy Waters At Newport 1960' (Chess Acoustic Sounds Series)

The Newport Jazz Festival had always had a somewhat rocky history. A lot of (racist) locals didn't want a jazz fest in their neighborhood. This sometimes made it difficult to find a venue. Certain musicians took issue with the choice of performers, feeling that there should be more of a focus on artistry than luring in punters with popular entertainers, some of whom didn't even play jazz. Nevertheless, the NJF went down without too much incident from 1954 through 1959, and provided the music world with such transcendent events as Dizzy Gillespie's 1957 appearance and the classic 1959 concert film Jazz on a Summer's Day.

Review: John Lee Hooker's 'The Real Folk Blues' (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

Earlier editions of Chess Record's Real Folk Blues series had been singles compilations. John Lee Hooker's installment of 1966 was a freshly recorded clutch of nine songs that flew in the face of the series' name. There's little folky about Hooker's steamy, electric blues numbers, several of which he stretches like he's burning midnight oil at some wee-hours club. He starts at full fire with the enthralling "Let's Go Out Tonight" and barely lets up from there. Even when he brings the tempo down a bit on things like "Stella Mae" and "You Know and I Know" or way down on "Peace Lovin' Man" and "I Put My Trust in You", the band sounds uncontainable and Hooker sounds infatigable. Only on the closing track, the gorgeously serene "The Waterfront", does he truly relax, sounding like he's still playing as the staff finally starts placing chairs atop tables for the night.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #75 - 51

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's picturing itself in a boat on a river from 75 to 51...

75. The Pretty Things- "S.F. Sorrow Is Born" (1968), in which S.F. Sorrow is born.

Review: Muddy Waters's 'Muddy, Brass & Blues' (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

With his third proper album, Muddy Waters shifted into very different territory, which was signaled to anyone who bothered to look at the record's title. Waters fattened his usual arrangement with a beefy horn section for Muddy, Brass & Blues. The prominent brass and woodwinds, plus the way producers George Barge and Ralph Bass pumped Willie Smith's drums and Calvin James's electric bass up in the mix, give the record a soul flavor, though the songs stick close to the blues formula. 

Review: 'Looney Tunes Collector's Vault-Volume 3'

Looney Tunes shorts have been repackaged and repackaged on DVD and Blu-ray, and it can be a real task trying to make sense of the various golden collections, platinum collections, showcase collections, spotlight collections,  collector's choice collections, and on and on. There's a lot of overlap, although many of these sets will also draw in fans of animated wise-assery because they offer some unique cartoons. 

Review: 'The Hammer Horror Omnibus'

Hammer horror was always more about aesthetics and the enthralling presence of the studio's big stars than story. What is Hammer without all of that crimson house-paint blood, those lush Victorian sets, the decayed Gothic castles and cemeteries, and the enthralling presence of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee? 

Review: 'Howlin' Wolf' (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

Like his first album, Howlin' Wolf's second was a collection of singles, but Moanin' in the Moonlight's tracks were culled from a near-decade of recording. His self-titled sophomore (often called "The Rockin' Chair Album" because of its cover photo) featured tracks from a much tighter time period: 1960-1962. Ironically, there's more of a diverse spirit on Howlin' Wolf than there was on Moanin'. This is immediately apparent as the record zips from the frenetic clattering of "Shake for Me" to the slow grind of "The Red Rooster" to the intense chugging of "You'll Be Mine" to the rustic bop of "Who's Been Talking?" to the romping "Wang Dang Doodle" and on through other major classics like "Spoonful", "Down in the Bottom", "Back Door Man", and "Tell Me". All this makes for a livelier listen than Moanin' in the Midnight, a terrific album in its own right but one that feels a bit grey in light of Howlin' Wolf's multi-colors.

Review: 'Punk in 50 Pieces'

Speaking as someone who has written one, books with titles like The Story of (insert band, genre, medium, era, etc.) in (insert number) Songs/Albums are often driven by ulterior motives. In my case, I had about 700 album reviews and used this format to shape them into what I hope was a fairly cohesive history of the rock LP called 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute. I don't know how successful I was, and I do know that the storytelling wandered off course pretty regularly, but I did make an effort to maintain that historical aspect throughout the book even though my real motivation was to turn all those reviews into a book. 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #100 - 76

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's behind the Joke Wall from 100 to 76...

100. The Monkees- "Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?" (1968), in which Peter Tork feels it's necessary to state the obvious.

Review: 'R.E.M.: A Perfect Circle'

By early 1989 R.E.M. had thoroughly broken out of mere college radio-stardom and achieved the more mainstream variety, having scored two genuine top-ten hits on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. That same year, Tony Fletcher published Remarks, the kind of slim, photo-heavy biography that tended to follow an artist's ascent at the time. Over the years, Remarks swelled and shed names, coming closer to the serious, in-depth biography called R.E.M.: A Perfect Circle published in 2013. R.E.M. had officially broken up two years earlier, and Fletcher vowed that milestone was a good excuse to call it quits with further updates. 

Review: Joan Jett's 'Bad Reputation' (45th Anniversary Edition)

Just a year out of The Runaways, Joan Jett put out her first album, and its strongest cuts made it clear that she was refreshed and ready to get back down to work. With its balance between covers and self-penned originals, Bad Reputation recalled early-sixties LPs, as did the songs she selected to adapt. If "Shout" and "Wooly Bully" seemed more fitting for a bar band than a heavy hitter, at least Jett's sneering rendition of Leslie Gore's "You Don't Own Me" gave her something to sink her fangs into and emphasize that she wasn't going to be anyone's dolly bird. She doubled down on that stance with her own compositions, especially "You Don't Know What You Got", "Jezebel", and "Don't Abuse Me". 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #125 - 101

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's following the White Rabbit from 125 to 101...

124. The Turtles- "You Showed Me" (1968), in which The Turtles take an old folk-rock tune The Byrds couldn't be bothered to release and turn it into something sinister and majestic.

Review: 'Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, the '60s & the Pop Youthquake'

Everyone who thinks that the world revolves around New York City should... wait, I'm not sure how to finish that sentence. Actually, a quick look at all the movies, TV shows, and books set in Manhattan alone (there are four other boroughs, you know!) kind of supports the idea that NYC is where everything is. And music? How many histories covering New York's punk scene or The Velvet Underground have there been? "A lot" is the answer.

Yet when considering what must be the most fertile period for pop music, the sixties, the New York City scene is often little more than a sidebar. While what was happening in London, Los Angeles, Detroit, and San Fransisco is often portrayed as downright mythic, what was happening on the East Coast islands seems quaint and scattered, at least when you've finished swapping legends about Lou Reed and Nico. And Dylan doesn't quite count as he was actually from Hibbing, Minnesota, and his New York City phase was just one of many. 

Review: 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home-The Making of the Film'

The Wrath of Khan may be the best Star Trek film, but The Voyage Home is easily the most lovable. It's the cinematic equivalent of "The Trouble with Tribbles": fun, breezy, a bit silly, and more focused on the dynamics between the crew than matters of galactic gravity. 

I do wish there was a bit more of the Enterprise's crew in John and Maria Jose Tenuto's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home-The Making of the Film, but this is still a pretty wonderful book that really conveys the film's warm, joyous spirit. The writers provide a clear idea of Leonard Nimoy's sensitive directing techniques, the challenges and triumphs of bringing the film's humpback whales to life, and the key members of the film's crew, most notably Kirk Thatcher, the wunderkind who not only served as associate producer, but also played the punk who gets memorably silenced by Spock and wrote and sang the punk song that so displeases our favorite vulcan.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #150 - 126

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's meditating transcendentally from 150 to 126...

150. The Monkees- "P.O.Box 9847" (1968), in which Boyce and Hart finally get to produce a Monkees record again after a long hiatus but The Monkees take all the credit.

Review: 'I Am the Night: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of Batman: The Animated Series'

Batman has gone through uncountable on-screen iterations (or, at least, two dozen), and each batfan has their favorite. Personally, I'm a campy Adam West fan. But even I will admit that the best realization of the caped crusader was Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski's. Batman: The Animated Series pleased fans to no end by capturing both the darkness and the fun of the comics, which is something that no other on-screen Bat-property has managed. It was beautifully animated, especially for an after-school cartoon from the nineties. The voice talent was top notch and the stories were often excellent. All the Batman movies or TV shows followed in the Animated Series' wake were merely sucking its fumes.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #175 - 151

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's discovering the meaning of life in a blade of grass from 175 to 151...

175. The Incredible String Band- "You Get Brighter" (1968), in which The Incredible String Band create such a light and joyful psych-folk confection that even atheists get wrapped up in their chants of "Krishna!"

Review: Storm Thorgerson's 'Mind over Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd' Fifth Edition

Storm Thorgerson belongs to a very exclusive club of well-known album cover artists. Honestly, the only other one I can think of is Roger Dean, and just as Dean is closely associated with one band (Yes), Thorgerson is renowned as the photographer behind the light-refracting prism, the flaming handshake, and the field of hospital beds. Although he created covers for groups as varied as Def Leppard and The Cranberries, Thorgerson will always be remembered as Pink Floyd's favorite coverman.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #200 - 176

 Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's 2000 light years from home from 200 to 176...

200. The Beatles- "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (1967), in which John Lennon takes full advantage of all the grey areas in circus-poster copyright law.

Review: Vinylphyle Edition of The Band's 'Music from Big Pink'

When I last got my hands on a record in Universal Music's new audiophile series, it was the decidedly lo-fi The Velvet Underground and Nico. Despite the dodgy original recording, the Vinylphyle treatment—all-analog mastering from the original master tapes, pressing at the renowned plant RTI by Joe-Nino Hernes, a mastering engineer with an impressive track record—really brought out the the best in The Velvet's noisy, druggy, mesmerizing debut.  

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #225 - 201

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's bogarting that joint from 225 to 201...

225. The Pretty Things- "Private Sorrow" (1968), in which S.F. Sorrow is drafted into the army and kicks off an adulthood of non-stop trauma.

Review: 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad' Blu-ray set

In 1958, Ray Harryhausen stretched himself beyond pictures menaced by a single big octopus or space monster for a greater challenge and a huge leap into pure fantasy. With The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, a whole menagerie of stop-motion creatures were required, and the master outdid himself with the film's towering cyclops, horned dragon, two-headed Roc, four-armed cobra lady, and swashbuckling skeleton. Perhaps the work wasn't quite a refined as it would be five years later in Jason and the Argonauts, and one skeleton is no substitute for a whole regiment of them, but with his first stop-motion-showcase mythological swashbuckler, Harryhausen virtually created a new genre of film that he and he alone would continue to master with Jason, Sinbad's two returns in the seventies, and Clash of the Titans.  If 7th is a bit primitive compared to those later entries, it is no less charming. 

Review: 'Dracula Has Risen from the Grave' Blu-ray

A quaint little village is still reeling from Dracula's last rampage, and though the count is dead, the local priest can still feel his evil presence. That's probably because "dead" is a relative term when it comes to vampires, especially one in a long series of Hammer Dracula movies.

So what happens next? The title says it all. Freddie Francis's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is Hammer's fourth vampire picture, and it's the third with Christopher Lee and the second without Peter Cushing as valiant Van Helsing. Cushing is sorely missed, but a couple of youngsters take up the slack: Barbara Ewing as sexy barmaid Zena and Barry Andrews as refreshing atheist Paul. Because this is a Hammer picture, which always balanced its buckets of red-paint blood and leering close-ups of cleavage with a pretty conservative outlook, you know Paul will see the light by the time the closing credits roll, but it does this with enough subtlety to not be totally off-putting. 

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #250 - 226

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's seeing sounds and smelling colors from 250 to 226...

250. Jefferson Airplane- "She Has Funny Cars" (1967), in which Jefferson Airplane express the belief that owning several cars with pop-up chassis is really what makes a lady attractive. 

Review: 'Night of the Living Dead: The Official Story of the Film'

When a scrappy commercial production agency decided to branch out into feature films, the Latent Image team had no idea they would change the face of horror forever. As violent and despairing as Night of the Living Dead would be, the story behind the movie is kind of adorable. Its creation was a true all-hands-on-deck operation, as actors doubled as makeup artists, foley artists, and sound mixers. Pennsylvania locals pitched in to play zombies more than willing to stuff Silly Putty and actual intestines into their mouths. While the job of film-director tends to attract only the most massive of egos, George Romero had to be talked into directing the picture after trying to fob it off on Karl Hardman, who co-produced the film and played surly dad Harry Cooper, among several other behind-the-scenes roles. And everyone dressed up and rode in limos to attend the boozy premier in Pittsburgh, which lavished the film with the local attention it wouldn't really receive nationally until it became a Midnight Movie sensation.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #275 - 251

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's sampling the brown acid from 275 to 251... 

275. The Byrds- "5D (Fifth Dimension)" (1966), in which The Byrds trip so hard that they pass right through the fourth dimension, which is vectors, and into the fifth one, which has freedom, which, honestly, is a much easier concept to grasp than vectors.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #300 - 276

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's getting hassled by The Man from 300 to 276...

300. The Doors- "Strange Days" (1967), in which The Doors play with some very strange echo effects and make their most legitimately psychedelic song in the proces.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #325 - 301

 Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's smoking a number from 325 to 301...

325. Os Mutantes- "Adeus Maria Fulô" (1968), in which Os Mutantes give the clearest possible response to the question, "Wait...so what exactly is Tropicália?"

Review: 'The Real Folk Blues' by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

In the early sixties, Chess kept its crosshairs on the emerging folkie scene, hoping it might be a market for the label's blues artists who boasted the kind of "authenticity" that was grade-A currency to the coffee house set. If Muddy Waters's Folk Singer was a testing of waters, then those waters must have been warm and inviting enough for Chess to launch its Real Folk Blues series. Muddy, always the first name in blues, was to get the series rolling in 1965, with a second installment, devoted to Howlin' Wolf, following that same year.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #350 - 326

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's being crowned lizard king from 350 to 326...

350. The Beatles- "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967), in which The Beatles introduce a glorified home movie of their recent vacation that has led many a Beatlemaniac to opine, "Well, at least the music is nice."

Review: 'Ferris Bueller... You're My Hero'

Imagine crazed Nick Cage as Ferris Bueller, popping his girlfriend Tandy, played by Meg Ryan, out of class so that the couple and their pal—the guy played by Emilio Estevez, not the girl played by Lara Flynn Boyle—can go to a depressing strip club. Ferris is also buddies with that druggie his sister—his twin sister, not his kid sister—meets at the cop station. 

Review: 'Hey! Ho! Let's Go! The Story of The Ramones'

In 2002, Joey Ramone had died just a year earlier. The rest of The Ramones was still alive and Everett True had just published Hey! Ho! Let's Go! The Story of The Ramones. Dee Dee Ramone would die half way through that year. Johnny Ramone would follow in 2004. A year later, an updated edition of Hey! Ho! Let's Go! acknowledged these two grim milestones. 

Review: 'Freddie Mercury: By the Man Who Knew Him Best' (Omnibus Remastered Edition)

The simplicity of its title implies that Freddie Mercury is a biography. The claim in its subtitle, By the Man Who Knew Him Best, implies intimate access into the life of a superstar who was completely audacious on stage but shy and guarded in his private life.

Freddie Mercury: By the Man Who Knew Him Best is not a biography though it does afford intimate access into the life of the Queen frontman. It's a memoir of a limited period in Mercury's life, as Peter Freestone joins Queen's touring crew as wardrobe master in 1980 and sticks around as his  personal assistant until the singer's death eleven years later. Freddie Mercury largely reads as a diary of that time. Freestone writes of his day-by-day duties in a consistently amiable tone. He discusses Mercury's volatile relationships with no more dramatic emphasis than he discusses music video shoots, Freddie's favorite foods, or procuring dry underwear for his boss after a show. Only when discussing his friend's death does Freestone's amiably neutral tone drop. The author goes into much more intimate detail than he does anywhere else in the book.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #375 - 351

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's mellowing out from 375 to 351...

375. The Doors- "People Are Strange" (1967), in which Jim Morrison sings a jaunty little number about how you shouldn't be a weirdo, apparently without ever passing a mirror in the process.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #400 - 376

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's piping at the gates of dawn from 400 to 376...

400. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band- "Abba Zabba" (1967), in which it's probably best not to think too much about Captain Beefheart's apparent interpretation of traditional Native American music and just enjoy how damn freaky it is. 

Review: 'Classic Blues from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings'

In my recent review of Chess's reissue of Muddy Waters's Folk Singer, I noted how the label consciously intended to appeal to the new movement of young folkies that emerged in the early sixties and how that album was a pure blues document regardless of its title. That was not to say that there is no relationship between the blues and folk music. It's just that Waters helped remake the blues into a thoroughly urban form that didn't plainly connect to the blues' rural roots. 

Review: 'Iconic Objects of the 1980s'

Like, if I'm gonna read a book called Iconic Objects of the 1980s, I'm not doing it to learn a bunch of stuff like some poindexter. I'm doing it to get totally wigged out by a bodacious buttload of bitchin' eighties junk. I want every page to be a righteous barf-bag of Rubik's Cubes, shoulder pads, Yamaha synths, leg warmers, Casio watches, Swatches, Walkmen, Pac-men, and He-Men. 

Fer sure, there's all that stuff and more on the pages of Agata & Pierre Toromanoff's new book, but when that book is called Iconic Objects of the 1980s, I expect all the pics to be from the eighties! So, like, what's up with that He-Man action figure (don't call it a doll!) from 2002? Last time I checked, 2002 was not in the eighties. What about that bizarre Garbage Pail Kid sticker that looks nothing like a Garbage Pail Kid sticker... you know, the one I could only find on-line on a stock photo site, suggesting that it's probably some kind of bogus fan art or whatever. In fact, a lot of the images used in Iconic Objects of the 1980s are stock photos. That might account for why a shelf of VHS tapes includes Kill Bill, Resident Evil, and some Harry Potter movie. Those are some great movies from the eighties... Not!

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #425 - 401

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's attending the love-in from 425 to 401...

425. Os Mutantes- "Bat Macumba" (1968), in which mid-sixties Batman Fever reaches all the way to Brazil.

Review: Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' -35th Anniversary Edition

Smashing Pumpkins debuted in the year of grunge, and though they fit in pretty nicely with that scene's predilection for grimy guitars and self-pity, there was something else going on. The scene lauded punk-level skills, but Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were virtuosos, the latter seeming pretty well versed in jazz technique. Along with the noise typical of grunge, there were dreamy waves of psychedelia and goth. Plus Corgan had an innate sense of melody largely absent from grunge, with the exceptions of Kurt Cobain and Mark Lanegan. The Pumpkins were also capable of debuting with a remarkably consistent album that even Nirvana couldn't match with their own first effort. Though it doesn't swell with alterna-hits the way Smashing Pumpkins' next two albums would, Gish may still be their strongest album. At least it's my personal favorite.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #450 - 426

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's being beautiful from 450 to 426...

450. The Byrds- "Old John Robinson" (1968). in which The Byrds take a sort of old-fashioned folk tune and bring it up to date with a baroque string interlude and mega-phasing.

Review: 'Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash'

The Clash are considered to be one of the definitive punk bands and celebrated for being one of the most politically progressive bands of the punk movement. The reality is a bit more complicated than that. "White Riot" may speed by with the simplicity and velocity we expect from punk rock, but what would a mohicaned, safety-pin-nosed hooligan make of "The Magnificent Seven"? Latter-day punk Kurt Cobain was famously perplexed by Sandinista! And how does Joe Strummer's famous declaration "we're anti-violence" jibe with his tendency to punch people? Or the group's allegedly Marxist viewpoint synch-up with Mick Jones's zeal for luxury? Or the group's demand for active participation in social change synch-up with Topper Headon's druggy inertia?