A Fiver Courtesy of BKP

I've got eight new CDs in the car now and thirteen on the computer yet to be committed to disc.  Allow me the chance to blow through a few of the many BKP has sent my way.  To be honest, these only received one full spin and a cursory follow-up.  There are a couple of others worthy of the full treatment so look for those later. 

Based out of New Orleans, the band started as the Unknown Blues Band and counted one Warren Haynes as a founding member.  One fateful night they opened for a band which included Dickey Betts and the rest is history.  Big Al keeps the regional stew pot cooking on this album produced by Anders Osborne.  Kept three tracks.

Keeping with the blues vein (I've got a few of those...blue veins, that is)

The Most Southern Blues Band provides hints with the cover art that they ain't talkin' 'bout The South as I know it.  They mean South as in Argentina!  They do a few standards, like "Route 66," and some of their own compositions.  The singer reminded both BKP and myself of a Tom Jones overwrought style.  Keep three of their tracks.  The covers were mostly appalling...

 

Two blues and now two more akin to the old Mad Rocker style of yore...

Just never got this guy.  Sounds absolutely the same as he did fifteen years ago.  Try as he might, he'll never be as good as Alice Cooper.  Only keeper is a cover of GFR's "We're An American Band."

New band that REALLY wants to be Black Sabbath (I have their new record waiting in line).  Sonically clean and crisp, but the vocals were just awful.  I'd rather hear cats fight.  Had to wade through 38 minutes of slop to get to the title (and thankfully, instrumental) track for a keeper.  I won't waste my time, and yours, playing any of it here...

This was by far the most interesting of the five, as it should be when you have about 37 albums credited amongst the members.  King's X, Eric Gales Band (duh), Mars Volta.  I had to go all the way back to the first years of Music 4 Less for my one King's X album and the debut from Gales.  Mars Volta is interesting but too self-indulgent.  This was highly recommended by BKP and nearly out of my target window for new releases, so I bumped it up in the rotation and actually gave it a full second spin.  My computer's music player labeled it "heavy blues-rock/psychedelic."  I jotted down "Hendrix-ian" and "Cream-ish" as it played on.  Then damn, about half through the record...



It was the vocals that held me back from getting additional albums from Pinnick & Gales twenty years ago and it still holds true today.  The music, too, seems a bit disconnected, not always melding into cohesion.  But it isn't a total loss as I'll keep approx. 30 of its 72 minutes. 

Thanks again, BKP, for sending these along.  Those previously mentioned two other records will get the full treatment and posted ASAP.