What is the point of music covers that are identical in tone and meter to the original? I mean, there is absolutely NO point. I heard this cover of the Violent Femmes by Gnarls Barkley. Completely the same...except it was not as good...not even close. And it's on the radio. Hence my question: why?

Why is the radio putting this new song in its regular rotation when it could play a genuine classic? It's about commercialism and playing what the young audience wants. But it's stupid.

One of the things that I love about iTunes is that it tells me when I last listened to a track.

It's been almost a year since I listened to 'Animal' by Def Leppard. This needs to be rectified. Immediately.

Thank you iTunes.

Ash


Ash is a UK-based rock group. They got their start doing little punky songs when they were teenagers. Now some 10-years and 4-5 albums later they've solidified into a tight little rock group. They first grabbed my attention with their Free All Angels album, featuring the blistering hits 'Burn Baby Burn', and '13th Floor'. Man those songs rock. They have some nice mellow songs on the album too. I was initially drawn in by the mellow and became converted by the rock.

But their next album, Meltdown (which took at least a year to come out in the USA by the way...I enjoy my UK copy with bonus live tracks), is when they really started cooking. It leads off with the amazing 'Meltdown' and steamrolls its way down to my favorite Ash track 'Clones'. They actually used this song as the theme music to a Star Wars video game.

I love Ash's straight-ahead rock sounds. They love to rock and they're not ashamed. They're a dorky little group, evidenced by some of their early titles ('Girl from Mars', 'Kung Fu', 'Goldfinger') but they've progressed such that I metaphorically circle the date on my calendar when they've got a new album coming out.

I got to see Ash play at a radio station festival last year. They were pretty tight, though I was very surprised that they didn't play 'Clones

Sample of Clones
Sample of Evil Eye
Sample of Burn Baby Burn
Sample of Shining Light

Klobas says Check em out.

I was driving to work this morning, listening to music (when my iPod broke...grrrr) and I began reflecting on the music that moves me; that qualifies a group as being one of my favorite. I developed a criterion; would I buy their next album, unheard? In other words, see it/buy it with no previous exposure to it.

My current listing:

Jimmy Eat World, OK Go, Nightmare of You, Dream Theater, Queensryche, Guster, The Decemberists, The Mars Volta.

That's it. I'm pretty discriminating in my tastes. Bands come and go. Bands can put out a great album (Self-titled 30 Seconds to Mars album) followed by a mediocre one (Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars) or vice versa. So it's hard to buy albums from those groups without prior sampling. Depeche Mode and The Charlatans recent albums disappointed me and bumped them from my list. Collective Soul's last album was quite good and moved them closer (though I doubt they'll make the list ever again). There are a lot of bands who make my Hall of Very Good listing: like Rush, The Shins, Ash, and dozens more...but for the tip-top, cream of the crop...the Hall of Fame bands...those have a very high floor.

Nightmare of You

Nightmare of You is one of my new favorite bands. I discovered them through Jeff VanderMeer's monthly newsletter. VanderMeer is a marvelous literary fantasy writer who's turned me on to numerous bands throughout the years.

Anyway, Nightmare of You is a new band out of New York. They play music that's best described as a blend of sugary power-pop with indie cred. Their sweet romantic songs 'Marry Me', or 'My Name is Trouble' have lyrics like "I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan". Their slick style conjures immediate comparisons to the Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Panic! genre.

The closest comparison that jumps to my mind is OK Go. But Nightmare has some very questionable lyrics in some songs...too explicit for my tastes, so I bought the album but ended up having to delete 3-5 songs.

Click here for a sample

I have fallen in love with Nightmare of You. They've jumped onto my Immediate Buy list...and onto my list of Top bands.