Bradley's Buzz

Random CDs

This week we take a crack at some new bands, some new CDs, some old favorites and some crazed gay rockers; you know the typical week here at Bradley's Buzz - so let's move it on up with our Random CDs of the week

TORI AMOS – Little Earthquakes (1991; Atlantic)
Opening up with the brilliant “Crucify” and one of my favorite lines ever (I’ve got so much guilt I could start my own religion), this is the ultimate in the Tori experience. Sure, she’s gone on to other things including a fairly brilliant turn at a more electro style but for the most part Tori has tended to bore me as the years go by. I know there’s a ton of Torifanatics out there ready to lynch me but I can’t help it. Little Earthquakes is a brilliant album and nothing else in her catalog really compares. My ultimate favorite on the entire album is “Tear In Your Hand” which is probably the most poppy and filled song on the album, (I think she’s just pieces of me that you’ve never seen) but the piano intro of “Silent All These Years” and its excellent take on a bored housewife theme, at least to me, it’s like an update of “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan” to me, and it’s a testament to know that will only a piano backing, this song is one of the most powerful things ever recorded – so you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts/ well what’s so amazing about really deep thoughts/ boy, you best pray that I bleed real soon/ how’s that thought for you. Brilliant, vindictive, pissy, everything I like. “Precious Things” with its story of teen anguish, feels like I lived the whole song with Tori (I want to smash the faces of all the beautiful boys/ those Christian boys/ so you can make me cum that doesn’t make you Jesus). “Happy Phantom” with its happy little piano chord and not so pleasantries is a gem. The acapella horror of “Me & A Gun” still resonates all these years later, particularly when you find out it is a true story. When this album came out I hadn’t really heard anything like it before. Sure, there’s Kate Bush but this new breed Tori was just a little more edgy. Of course the entire time Tori has been recording, Kate was taking a sabbatical and I wonder if Kate just got bored of listening to Tori as well and that’s why she finally came out of the woodwork. Well, no matter what this album stands the test of time as one of the best albums ever released. (5 Bradleys)

VIOLENT FEMMES – Violent Femmes (Slash; 1983)
I can’t believe how old this album really is, opening with the classic (yes classic) “Blister In The Sun” which had it ever been an official single would’ve made it into the top 10 of my top 80s singles, but alas this gem didn’t get released but everyone certainly knows it. With its acoustic drum and bass and Evan Dando’s whispers this stands as a testament of all that is good in independent music. “Kiss Off” and its “I hope you know this will go down on your permanent record” also comes into play as one of the best songs. After all you take 1, 1 cuz you left me and 2, 2 for my family… “Add It Up” gives us the immortal lines, “why can’t I get just one fuck/ I guess it has something to do with luck” and “don’t shoot shoot shoot that thing at me…” it’s practically genius. It’s one raw rocking gem after another with a ballad or two thrown in for mix and ending with the awesome ballad “Good Feeling” which did get some airplay in Wausau, though it was in 1994 on the ‘alternative rock’ station. Incidentally, I can’t listen to Violent Femmes without reminiscing about a party I had once where a girl was puking in the bedroom while the album was playing, I went into the room to check on her and her boyfriend and in between her splashes of vomit into the bowl she yelled, “Tell Brad to quit singing. I can’t handle it right now.” I hate her still. (5 Bradleys - I can't help it)

PRETTY IN PINK SOUNDTRACK (A&M; 1986)
I love this movie, I love Molly Ringwald, I love that she worked at a record store, I love her car, Annie Potts, Jon Cryer, Andrew McArthur, and all the music on this CD. Opening with OMD’s “If You Leave” it only goes up from there. “Left Of Center” by Suzanne Vega is the anthem of anyone who ever left on the side lines of the main stream, New Order’s “Shell Shock” – The Smiths brilliant, “Please Let Me Get What I Want”, and my favorite “Wouldn’t It Be Good” (wouldn’t it be good to be in your shoes/ even if it was for just one day), “Bring On The Dancing Horses”, the always welcome “Pretty In Pink”, I mean really isn’t she? This is pretty much my teenage life caught on CD. Now I need to go out and buy that new version of the DVD that came out. (4 Bradleys - Pat Benatar should be on every compilation from the 80s)

STEFY – The Orange Album (Wind Up; 2006)
A friend of mine really likes this new band out of Orange County and so I heard the first single “Chelsea” in its electronic rock glory and decided I’d hunt down a cheap copy of it. So I did and tho and behold it came in less than 2 days – Stefy is a band but Stefy is also Stefy Rae the lead singer of this little outfit. Utilizing her inflections like Gwen Stefani, I have a feeling that ghost will follow this girl everywhere she goes. The album as a whole is fairly catchy and sticks with you after that last chord is played, the problem is it’s not all that wonderful to have stuck with you. The lead single is great, then we get “Hey School Boy” a song I also like but try as much as I can to wrap myself around “Orange County” I’m just having trouble. Part ballad part electronic opus it’s a story song of privileged boy and girl meeting, falling in love, losing everything when she gets pregnant, well not exactly everything for the chorus tells us – we’ve still got our MTV, JayZ and Gwen Stefani/ Tivo for my sweet 16….” You get it. At one moment I think it’s funny and then the next I’m a little ticked off for it seems I’m an areaist and I can’t stand the OC. The minute I cross that border it’s like the life is sucked right out of me. It’s very strange and this girl is all about the OC – there’s “Orange Crush”, the aforementioned song, and the color orange pops up over and over again. I think it’s supposed to be cute but I’m just not digging it. I think the problem is the lyrics cause the music is all really good and infectious but this 20 year old just hasn’t suffered or lived enough to tell me anything I could care about. The band’s influences seem to be Blondie and Gwen and you all know that Debbie and her boys can wrap a lyric around a high-speed chase and make it the most exciting thing in the world. Even Gwen in her OC glory had been around the block a bit and was able to create love stories with epic and sometimes disgusting results – “Bathwater” and “Don’t Speak” are practically ingenious compared to this. The Sounds seem to me to have the same problem, excellent hooks but the lyric writing is lackluster and I’m big on lyrics and like I said I want to like it, I really do. and there are some pretty cool moments, I really love the chorus on "Lucky Girl" though I'm not clear on the rest of the song. But rest assured, I’m gonna keep listening to Stefy until I hear what’s there. Until then, I have to apologize not to Stefy but to Shae, for not liking it as much as I wanted to and as much as I'm sure he wanted me to. (2 1/2 Bradleys)

PANSY DIVISION – The Essential (Alternative Tentacles; 2006)
Now this is more my speed – 30 hard rocking raw punky takes on gay sex, politics, friendships and lovers – if you’re looking for the ultimate queer punk I can’t direct you anywhere else but here. There’s The Cocksucker Club, Bunnies, Homo Christmas, James Bondage, Luv Luv Luv, I Can’t Sleep, Denny, all the greats from one of my all time favorite bands of all times; the only thing I don’t like is there aren’t any of their excellent covers on here but those are still available on More Lovin’ From Our Oven so I guess that’s okay. By the way did I ever tell you all about the time Jon Giloni kissed me? That’s right I am only a flick of the tongue from being a queer punk boy myself. (4 Bradleys) Oh, by the way the disc comes with a bonus DVD disc that has frickin' videos! Sure, they are low budget and are taken from Public Access, but there is one official video and plenty of fun to be had.Including this one at You Tube

GWEN STEFANI – Love Angel Music Baby (Interscope; 2004)
Lest you think I was too harsh on a pseudo Gwen, even the real thing can be knocked down a few pegs. I was so looking forward to Love Angel Music Baby when it hit the shelves, but like a lot of other people I was a tad disappointed. Like Stefy’s The Orange Album there are moments of fun and greatness, as simplistic as it is once you hear “Hollaback Girl” the song is stuck in your consciousness for days, but like Stefy, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. What I love about this album is the music, it’s fun and exciting and trippin’ in that oh so cool fashion ghetto diva way that Gwen was courting at the time. But like the other album, the lyrics are somewhat childish. Gwen can kick it up as she proved in No Doubt, but how am I supposed to be utterly taken in to song like “Rich Girl” when I know without a doubt that umm Gwen you are a rich girl. Same with some of the songs that reflect a little too much on her Harajuku girl obsession. I’m starting to think she’s one of those reverse racists… but then again none of this stops me from dusting off the album every now and again and throwing it on the stereo. Much like today, where I was swept into Gwen’s little world of fashion, teen love and Japanese chicks. Plus even with “Hollaback” firmly entrenched in my mind now, so is “Bubble Pop Electric” and damned if I didn’t wish I was a rich girl. (3 Bradleys)

AND FOR THE KILLER, THE RELEASE I’VE WAITED FOR – THE BEST OF THIS WEEK’S BUNCH –
SCISSOR SISTERS – Ta Dah (Universal/Motown; 2006)
If you were to mix a blender of Elton John, Robbie Williams, ABBA, Hedwig & Velvet Goldmine, I think the glass you poured would be filled with five Scissor Sisters. That’s right this band is so damn good it takes seven or eight other people to combine them. I loved the first album, every single cut was a practical masterpiece and I so wanted to be able to create an album like that. When it was announced that poor Jakey Poo had some problems dealing with sudden fame etc. and the new album was going to be darker, I was a tad more excited. Alas the darkness of Scissor Sisters is nothing compared to the darkness of say Morrissey. You will still find fun clubbing going on in Ta Dah, in fact even the more “dark” lyrics are still sped forth with such sarcasm and excitement, it’s still fun. The lead off track and single “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” has me up on the floor in no time. Very Bee Gees, very Elton (he even plays the piano) and very Scissor Sisters. It’s excellent. All the songs continue to come in and out like a New York subway train. But what I love is that the SS’s aren’t just there to make you dance; this is an album full of contradictions. They’ll pull in a rag time song and I’ll still be singing along as “we all were born to die,” and then they’ll move right into the smooth club electro of “Kiss You Off” – probably my favorite track at this time. Ta Dah! isn't quite as infectious as the debut album but I think I'm beginning to like it more and more as I listen to it. The shifting music, the crazy fanatical lyrics, it's going to get some steady airplay around here that's for sure. If you haven’t discovered this super cool band yet, get off your ass and hit the store. You are going to love it! I, on the other hand am now mad at that damn Trent dude from Pink is the New Blog again. This time because someone scored him some tickets to the sold out Scissor Sisters concert last night. I drank and drank and drank myself silly on Monday night waiting for this stupid raffle to end at Rage so I could get my free tix! Did I get them? Ummm I don’t feel like dancin’ or tellin’. (4 Bradleys and I’ll give it up for Jake if he wants)

Playing in the car stereo - SWIVEK - darkness + light (2006; Flexible)

posted by swivek @ 10:57 AM