Scorpion Lightning Rumbles Revolution

Records spin one time over the Internets (usually).  I come up with some obvious yet slightly weird rating system.  Each record gets a rating and some snarky comments.  Okay maybe not snarky, but probably not very nice.  I don't like very much new music these days.

1 Sack of Jay Cutler - Ehh...most people living in Wisconsin can claim one.
2 Sacks of Jay Cutler - I guess that's pretty good.  But he probably still beat you down field more than 2 times.
3 Sacks of Jay Cutler - Cool.  He's rattled and probably threw at least one interception.
4 Sacks of Jay Cutler - Nice!  You probably beat his team!
5 Sacks of Jay Cutler - You are a BEAST!!!  We need your ring size!

Patterson Hood "Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance" 3 Sacks of Jay Cutler.  Pretty cool.
Patterson Hood is the main songwriter and vocalist in the band Drive By Truckers.  He is a true storyteller.  The songs on this solo album are not going to surprise you if you know his music.  Each song tells a story and each song is pretty good.  However the one thing missing from this record is the one really strong song that you have to play over and over again.  Oh well.  I guess I'll just have to settle for playing the whole record when I feel like chilling and listening to some stories.  Highlights: "Leaving Time" and "Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance."

Randolph Miller "A Summer of Revolution" 4 Sacks of Jay Cutler.  Very strong stuff!
This review is a little out of the ordinary for me since I know Randolph Miller.  Actually I know him as Randy Miller and he has been a good friend of mine for many years.  We have played together in cover bands on and off for probably more than 20 years.  With that said on to the review:  Randy is an amazing guitar player!  Yes this album is full of unbelievable shredding that will wow even the most expert guitarist.  But the one thing that completely took me by surprise is to hear what a great composer Randy is.  Each song has sections of layered guitars that seem like musical landscapes worth hundreds of pictures.  The only thing that is lacking is the rhythm section (which Randy lays down himself with bass and drum programs.)  "Revolution" makes it obvious that with a killer rhythm section this guy could be touring the country as a rock/metal guitarist.  I'm going to cut the review here since I usually don't get too in depth on the records but let me just say if you want to get together over a few beers and analyze this record song by song just shoot me an email.  I can't wait to see what's coming from this creative hurricane of a guitarist.  Highlights: "Charlemagne's Hammer (More Fun)", "Life of the Mind", and the super sweet album cover by Randy's wife Jana!

Will Johnson "Scorpion" 3.5 Sacks of Jay Cutler.  Makes me think!
Sure I love my rock & roll with spitfire and grooves, but I also love slow tempo, acoustic guitar, quiet and thoughtful vocals, with some sweet reverb-y piano.  That's what I get in buckets with Will Johnson.  He is the leader of the bands Centro-matic and South San Gabriel.  He's from Austin and like his hometown he has cool grooves flowing in his blood.  Scene: I'm walking in a beautiful park.  It's Fall and the leaves are colors that I never thought leaves could turn.  Will Johnson's "Scorpion" record is in my ears (probably earbuds unfortunately).  Everything is right with the world.  Run credits.  Highlights: "You Will Be Here, Mine" and "Bloodkin Push".

Comments

Post a Comment

You are loved. Probably.

Popular posts from this blog

Cheap Sidekicks and Cursive Girls

Image
Shaky from the coffee...wired from the sound...ready to take on the World...only because I won't be sleeping for hours if this feeling doesn't go away. Record reviews (I hope): Random scale of randomness... 1 wide awake hour of creativity.  This is probably not worth the time. 2 wide awake hours of creativity.  Ehhh...I'm just not convinced this is the real thing. 3 wide awake hours of creativity.  This is the norm.  Something worth the effort. 4 wide awake hours of creativity.  This is better than the rest, but something else is probably the best. 5 wide awake hours of creativity.  Great, greater, the bestest! Cursive "I Am Gemini" 2 wide awake hours of creativity.  Indie Dream Theater for sure. I admit it.  Years ago I had a musical affair with Cursive.  I came across 2003's "The Ugly Organ" and loved it, loved it, and loved it again!  But as it sometimes happens Cursive and I fell out of love.  Ok so it was me.  Still...we could have
Read more

Will Facebook and Twitter Miss Me When I'm Gone?

This one might be better for a philosopher or a psychiatrist to try and tackle. However this topic has me so curious that I thought, “Why not just put something out there in a blog and see if anyone has any insight out there?” I was on Facebook a while back and I noticed that a FB friend of mine had posted something about a friend of hers who had died unexpectedly. I looked him up by the name that she posted and I took a look at his wall. Not really out of morbid curiosity to see what happened, but mostly to see who he was. What kind of guy was he? Married? Single? Did he have kids? While checking out his wall I noticed that he had tons of postings from FB friends. He seemed to be a very popular guy. He had hundreds of FB friends and most of them were posting on his wall. I noticed that there were a few different kinds of postings. A few of the postings were just mentioning that they just saw him the other day and then would ask if anyone knew what had happened to him. The other ki
Read more

Big Haunts Sleep Past the Few

Image
Welcome!  Bienvenidos a mi blog!  How do you say blog in Spanish?  I'm going to have to check Google translator.  Be right back!  Cool.  In Spanish it is blog!  Like you didn't know that was coming.  Today on Fiercely Me (the blog sent from Heaven): I review 3 new records and then tell you why they suck.  No that's too negative.  I might have good things to say too.  Nope.  I don't. Don't forget that I listen one time through the whole record, I give the record an unfair rating from a random and arbitrary rating scale, and then I try to express my feelings about the record with written words. Okay this has gone on way too long!  On to the random and arbitrary rating scale! 1 hour nap.  Not even worth the time it took to try to fall asleep. 2 hour nap.  Not bad but really it could be better. 3 hour nap.  Good.  This should be the standard that others are measured by. 4 hour nap.  Now this is getting ridiculous!  This is so good that you might as well just
Read more