"Intro" Tio Bitar Dungen I love this band. LOOOOOOVE this band. And this song works like an overture to their last, and possibly best, full-length release. From the bass lines to the fuzzed-out, tuba-amp guitars, this intro gives a top-to-bottom rundown of what this album will be like. There will be a return to a 70s classic rock style. There will be frantic, wailing highs anchored in pounding percussion and delirious rock riffs. There will be toned-down but tuned-in pyschedelia. There will be enough variety and consistency to make you want to come back.
"The Future Pt. 1" Voxtrot Voxtrot My brother-in-law-to-be says this is the best album of 2007 so far. And of course I haven't listened to it yet. I bought it, but I still have to conduct at least four random obsessive trysts with other new albums before I'll get to this one. Sounds good and poppy and layered and fun, though.
"Passwords & Alcohol" Down Below It's Chaos Kinski Kinski's first effort is one of my all-time stoner rock favorites. I like to tell people the band sounds like an updated version of what Black Sabbath would sound like if they were twenty-somethings who knew better than to sing. And because they chose to vocalize on this song, I'm not as big a fan of this tune, or this record, as I was the last one. It's not bad, and I'm sure a Kinski live show would make my neck sore for a week, but I'm just not in love with this album.
"Express Yourself" Soul Sides Vol. 2: The Covers Byron Lee and the Dragonaires You say you're having a party sometime soon? Run out and by this album, put the pod on repeat, and you'll be good all night. Soul-sides.com is home to possibly the greatest music blog of any genre. Their tireless efforts to catalog the history and future of soul music should have gotten them the Nobel Peace Prize over that droning ex-vice president, Chicken Little guy. I mean, how could you possibly care about rising ocean levels drowning the poorest people on Earth, the coming resource wars, and the suffocation of the only planet in the universe known to hold the magic of life when you've got the Dragonaires lip-bitingly funky reggae version of this soul classic?-- Sean Cronin
