They Call Dawn the Morning and I Wish We Said Goodbye

There is a lot of great music that comes out of a break up (just ask Fleetwood Mac) and Nicole Atkins hit the trifecta since her last album breaking up with a longtime boyfriend, her band, and her label. On Neptune City, Atkins went for a songs that harkens back to the singer-songwriters of the fifties but bigger. But for Mondo Amore Nicole gets much moodier with songs that border on psychedelic at time.

This is no more apparent than on the track that closes out Mondo Amore, The Tower where she unleashes any pent up emotions from the previous nine songs for six full minutes where Atkins wails just as much as the guitar on the track. It is a good bookend to the opening track Vultures which is more contained than the closer but still manages to hit an emotional high.

Other standout tracks on Mondo Amore include Cry Cry Cry, the catchiest tune on the album which should be coming to an adult contemporary radio station near you soon if you have a competent musical director. On the flip side You Come to Me rocks the hardest of the songs and borders on indie fuzz but never cross that line. While My Baby Don’t Lie is a foot stomping old time track that sounds like it was recorded in the time of Leadbelly.

Song to Download – Cry Cry Cry (You can currently also download Vultures for free on iTunes)

Mondo Amore gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 2/9/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Never Gonna Leave This Bed - Maroon 5



I wonder at what point to the other dudes in Maroon 5 say to the lead singer, “Um, when do we get a music video where we spend the whole time making out with models?” And is Adam Levine in a bet with former tour mate John Mayer who can cover the most skin with silly tattoos?


Thunder On the Mountain (feat. Jack White and the Third Man House Band) - Wanda Jackson



Jack and Meg may have retired The White Stripes but it looks like Jack isn’t quite done with color coordination just yet, this time going with black and pink to help out Wanda Jackson on this Bob Dylan song.


2getha Baby - Ghostface Killah



Who else but Ghostface Killah make a song about chicks that still sounds hard?


Wet - Snoop Dogg



One rapper that cannot is Snoop Dogg. Sexual Sedution was entertaining in a cheesy kind of way, but someone really needs to hold an auto-tune intervention with the Boss Dogg.

Don't Call it a Comeback vol. III: Toad the Wet Sprocket

It seems like once a week I am listening to my iTunes library and I hear a song that makes me go, this artist really needs a comeback. So I thought I would start a new feature here on the 9th Green highlighting an artist that really needs to reenter the public consciousness. The only criterion is that the artist hasn’t had a legitimate hit in over a decade.

Due for a Comeback: Toad the Wet Sprocket

Biggest Hit: All I Want



Last Hit: Good Intentions (1996)

Where Are They Now: The group broke up in 1998 but regroups occasionally for shows. Lead singer Glen Phillips released three albums last decade. Last year the band released its first new studio track in over a decade, the Sam Phillips holiday tune It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas. Word has it they currently writing songs for a new album which would be their first since 1997’s Coil.

Why the World Needs a Toad the Wet Sprocket Comeback: Because modern rock has all but disappeared. Maybe it was my formative year, but I remember the mid nineties music very fondly with so called modern rock from Toad and similar bands like Hootie and the Blowfish, Counting Crows, Better than Ezra, and Blues Traveler. Only Dave Matthews Band seemed to transition well into the new millennium, but maybe a reunited group that started the trend (unless you consider R.E.M. part of the genre) can kick start the modern rock movement. Even if it isn’t very modern anymore.

Previewing Lizard Lick Towing

Every professions seems to be getting their own reality shows these days, truck drivers, tanning salons, pawn shows, and you can add towing to that list tonight when Lizard Lick Towing premieres tonight on TruTV at 10:00. Like any reality show it is less about the location than the personalities and Lizard Lick has a few of them.

Ron Shirley looks like Nasty Brian Nnobbs complete with pointy Mohawk but is pure redneck and is an ordained minister. Amy Shirley is quick with an insult to her husband when she isn’t worried about him taking high risk repo jobs. And there is Bobby Brantley who is listed at Ron’s best friends despite the two fighting most of the time.

Tonight focuses on a particularly tenuous repo of a car whose owner’s rap sheet is about as numerous as the number of tattoos on his body that leaves Bobby in a precarious situation that tests his friendship with Ron even further. Bobby also has a run in with someone who needs something out of his car, and the anger confrontation is only made more humorous when you find out what that is. And Amy drops a bombshell almost worthy of a daytime soap.

Lizard Lick Towing airs Mondays at 10:00 on TruTV.