Musings From the Back 9: 90's Rock Edition

Just how predictable have you become when a magazine gives you a negative review without actually listening to your album? In The Black Crowes defenses, how can you take a music review from Maxim seriously when they are best know for bringing you pictures of a half named Avril Lavigne? Still, you are not going to be too surprised with what you hear on Warpaint, the first album from the brothers Robinson is seven year, first since Kate Hudson tried to Yoko Ono the band. The band gets you right back into the fold with Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution which could have been created out of the same template of Jealous Again which itself pulls from classic southern rock of the seventies. The band does stretch its boundaries a bit like on the spacey Movin’ on Down the Line, the old time blues stomp of God’s Got It, and the eastern influences that creep into Whoa Mule but there isn’t here that will bring in any new listeners, but it won’t disappoint those that have waited on a new album from the band.

Warpaint gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.




When you hear the phrase These Are Good Times People spoken by someone under the name The Presidents of the United States of America you may think it is another George Bush spin job as purported by Fox News. But it is just those Seattle goofballs who brought us such nineties classics as Lump and Peaches. Instead of silly songs about Boll Weevils and Dune Buggies we get to be entertained by songs about Ladybugs and French Girls. The highlights include Mixed Up S.O.B. which puts the pop in power-pop, the instantly catchy Sharpen Up Those Fangs, and More Bad Times, the happiest song about not being sad enough you will ever hear. Knowing that their sound can get old quick, the Presidents knew to keep the album at as listenable forty minutes with only two of the fourteen songs going over 3:15 mark.

These Are Good Times People gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.