Rock Around the World

INXS Mercury. NR
Elegantly Wasted

In 1982, another band from Australia came from the land down under and performed quite well on the charts...that band's sound seemed to define everything for a brief moment.

Then along comes INXS and so that band literally got put out of work. "The One Thing" was the first resonance of the impending change and then with "The Swing" album it was pretty much a done deal that INXS was the new Aussie Sound.

Originally on ATCO, Atlantic's Commonwealth label, and eventually on Atlantic domestically, INXS pretty much delivered on their contract with Atlantic as recording artists, posting successful albums in America and much of the World throughout the 80's.

Now INXS is back Stateside again, this time on Mercury. Only the labels have changed as INXS continues with an updated version of their trademark Rock with a dance beat sonics.

The album is a solid Mercury debut! Buy it, try it, take it home, you'll like it!


Internet Listening Pleasure: Elegantly Wasted, Everything I Do, Don't Lose Your Head, Just A Man, Girl On Fire.

Robert Cray Mercury. NR
Sweet Potato Pie

Cray's voice is an Instrument, itself as formidable as his Hard Tail Strat.

Robert Cray's voice has got this mentholated tone to it on this one. I bet he smokes Salems or Kools...if he smokes.

Hoo Wee, baby, this album feels like it was cut in Memphis or Muscle Shoals. Very vintage with a nice pressed back tone where the song is King. So...warm. The horns have got a Willie Mitchell tone.

The last five tracks are a slam dunk.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Trick Or Treat, Simple Things, Jealous Minds, Not Bad For Love, I Can't Quit.

Roy Orbison Virgin. NR
The Very Best Of Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison's impact on musicians and style is tremendous.

Stylistically, here is a man who single handedly removed sunglasses from the realm of Movie Stars and brought shades to the masses through Rock And Roll.

Roy was the first kool Rock Star. That voice behind those shades, man. Kool, baby.

Roy's writing style is close to that of a secular hymnologist, since Roy's vibration was not of this world...spiritual...supernatural...transcendent. Roy's songs were like little hymns.

Roy's voice was the Main Thing though...Hauntingly sincere...having the same effect on you if you heard it through a Dynaco or VTL System driving Jamo speakers or through a little G.E. transistor radio with a mono speaker. There was no stopping this voice.

This compilation is a great source for any Rock and Roller interested in having a Complete collection.

Kudos to Don Was for production on After The Love Is Gone and to Jeff Lynne for production on I Drove All Night.

Roy Orbison: The Lone Ranger of Rock & Roll.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Only The Lonely, In Dreams, After The Love Has Gone, I Drove All Night, Running Scared.

PREFONTAINE Hollywood Pictures Music Inc./Hollywood Records. NR
Original Soundtrack

Prefontaine is a movie for all those Track and Field buffs out there. At the time of his death, Steve Prefontaine was The United States Of America's greatest distance runner.

Up in Oregon, there is a running circuit made from wood chips piled up real high so that it's elevated. It is said to be one of the best places for runners, anywhere. That park is named in honor of Prefontaine.

The music on this Soundtrack captures Steve Prefontaine's times.

I heard Stephen Stills work out the changes for this version of Love The One You're With live at the China Club back in '95. For this cut, the bottom is not there, Steve. You should have used Gerald Johnson. And that's the truth.

Wow! Dig If 60's Were 90's.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Fortunate Son, Crosstown Traffic, Baba O'Riley, If 60's Were 90's, I Shall Be Released.

When We Were Kings DAS Label/Mercury. NR
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I was walking out of the BUG Music building with a friend after discussing ideas with Fast Eddie about who should sing her music. She belongs to a family that is Blues Royalty.

So we're walking down Hollywood Blvd. and she's telling me how the Democrats are important to her. I'm like, fuck the Democrats, "You need that guy", pointing to a street vendor's painting of Muhammad Ali. "That man is like a King to the World outside of America." Her response was, "Check It, Emery, I hear what you're saying."

Listen to the first track and you'll hear that Muhammad Ali was about giving his people a dignity that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X could never give.

Muhammad Ali got in the ring and kicked mighty ass in the name of his people. Listen to track 17. Bundini Brown is right on time. Muhammad Ali backed his shit up.

As a result of his boxing exploits and subsequent WorldWide Respect, it is Muhammad Ali that is called upon by The United States Of America, the country that once imprisoned him, to shuttle back and forth among Arab Muslims, after America's diplomats run out of words.

In the end though, this Movie is about a Fighter, a Man who used his mind to exploit the overbearing force of the Killer Elite in George Foreman. No One took more punishment from Foreman than Muhammad Ali took in Zaire. It was there in Zaire that Muhammad Ali demonstrated why Kings rule nations. Foreman's physical prowess was no match for Muhammad's Mind.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Tracks: 1,3,4,7,9,10,12,13,17,18.

Bobgoblin MCA. NA
The Twelve Point Master Plan

In February, MCA invited me down to the Whisky-A-Go Go to hear this new band.

The premise for this band is that they're based on a future apocalypse where America experiences a 2nd Civil War that fractures the United States into two territories.

From what I can tell, Bobgoblin comes from the Liberation Front States, being soldiers in the LFS' Motor Forces. Their job is to conduct secret missions inside the opposition: The States of The Republic, which must be run by Tipper Gore's Offspring.

On one of their sorties, the four soldiers dicover a subversive movement fighting the SOR called the Black Market Party. They decide to go AWOL and join the BMP, becoming their first Rock Band, naming themselves after a mission code: Bobgoblin.

There's more, but I'm getting tired of the preamble. Let's talk about the music.

Bobgoblin sounds like a modern, punk-popped version of Cheap Trick: Pop music with an edge.

Overthrow feels like the spinner to me.


Internet Listening Pleasure: One Down, One Across; Standing Up to the Voice of America, Overthrow.

Apocalyptica Mercury. NA
Apocalyptica plays Metallica by Four Cellos

Have you ever heard Pablo Casals or Yo Yo Ma?

Well, this ain't them. It's spookier, since this band of cellos has chucked the chamber music and dips into Metallica's bag with some startling, cello driven only tracks.

Some of you may wonder what exactly is a cello...It's that instrument Michelle Pfieffer was burning up in that scene with Jack Nicholson in The Witches Of Eastwick.

Dig Apocalyptica's version of Enter Sandman.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Enter Sandman, Welcome Home (Sanitarium).

Grosse Pointe Blank London . NR
Music From The Film

I went to see this movie the other day and never laughed so hard in my life, so far this year.

This is a movie that should do very well in the word of mouth department, since everyone in the theatre I was in had something to laugh about.

There is some funny, funny shit in this movie. In his best work since The Grifters or Say Anything, John Cusack portrays a Mechanic that goes back to his hometown in Grosse Pointe, Michigan for his high school's 10th anniversary Homecoming.

The funniest part for me was when the Mechanic encounters a classmate that never made it out of Grosse Pointe and harbors some unresolved animosity towards Cusack's Mechanic. The Mechanic lays some psychoanalysis jargon (acquired from sessions with Alan Arkin's Psychiatrist character) on the poor fool. Turns out the dude just wants to read poetry and do Coke. Very Funny scene.

Kudos to Minnie Driver and Dan Aykroyd, who keep pace with George Armitage's splendid direction. Most especially, Joan Cusack is spot on as the Mechanic's Job Coordinator.

There is not enough room on the CD to put all the great music from this film on. Listen for SiouxSie and The Banshees, Jimmy Reed, and Nena underscoring some of the scenes.

The music that makes it to the CD is a treat. Contributions from Queen & David Bowie, Pete Townshend, Violent Femmes, and Johnnie Nash are happening.

This movie is going to be a classic because of the proximity of humour to such a dark character. Funny, funny stuff!


Internet Listening Pleasure: Under Pressure, I Can See Clearly Now, Let My Love Open The Door E. Cola Mix, Blister 2000.

DONNIE BRASCO Hollywood Records. NR
Original Soundtrack

I've never seen a movie that dealt so strongly with the theme of trust and betrayal as I have seen in Donnie Brasco.

Maybe it's my Brooklyn Born, New York sensibility that helped me to understand Our Thing and what it took for FBI agent Joe Pistone to become Donnie Brasco and take down some key players from New York's 5 Families.

All I can tell you is that Mr. Pistone better not order out for pizza too often...one day, the pizza he'll get at the door will be frozen.

This movie so intrigued me that I read the book. I think anyone who likes this movie as much as I did ought to read the book.

With this movie, Johnny Depp is definitely off Sunset Boulevard and hopping in the Hills with Hollywood Royalty. There was one scene in the movie where Depp's character dulls the line between Pistone/Brasco and hits his wife. Everyone in the theatre I was in gasped.

Kudos to Al Pacino for a role that beats the acting he did in City Hall and Heat. Forget About It!

Michael Madsen portrays the silent intensity of the real life Sonny Black to a T. Michael Madsen has incredible screen presence.

The Music in this movie? Forget About It, it's that good. This soundtrack does justice to New York in the late 70's.

Everybody, I want you to meet a friend of mine, John Polito, one of the best young audio engineers out there. John's the reason why this album sounds so good.


Internet Listening Pleasure: A Stranger On Earth, What You Won't Do For Love, Heart Of Glass, Don't Bring Me down, Disco Inferno, Return To me.

Bossa Nova Beatniks Perigree Records. NA
Heart To Beat

The Mose Allison meets Bossa Nova thing is still going strong for these cats out of Huntington, NY.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Heart To Beat, Fingers In The Cake, Let Me Take You.

Flipp Hollywood. NA
Flipp

A sonic cocktail shaken with ingredients from such distillers as Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Sex Pistols, maybe an olive or two from Iggy Pop.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Bleed, I Don't Care, Change, Unglued, Half A Brain.

Kyle Vincent Carport/Hollywood. NA
Kyle Vincent

Kyle Vincent is a throwback to the A&M sound of the 70's where almost everything released by that label became a Pop Hit.

If you liked the Bangles or The Go-Gos, you'll like Kyle Vincent. Wake Me Up has a Susanna Hoffs/Bangles vibe to it.

Next Time We'll Go Crazy has got a 90's version of Burt Bacharach's vibe.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Wake Me Up, It Wasn't Supposed To Happen, Next Time We'll Go Crazy, All Your Promises.

Radish Mercury. NA
Restraining Bolt

Radish has got that wall of guitar sound that I like, coupled to the familiar approachability of the vocals.

Simple Sincerity is the spinner.

Dig the production on this album.


Internet Listening Pleasure: Simple Sincerity, Today's Bargain, A Promise, My Guitar.

Boz Scaggs Virgin. NR
Come On Home

I heard It All Went Down The Drain in a Suzuki Swift with a Clarion head and a pair of dual cones going up and down Route 19 in Florida, looking for a Golf shop. Here I am in a rental car in an unfamiliar town, and Boz Scaggs is coming through loud and clear over the radio with all this going on.

I love radio, because it's the final test of a song. You can throw everything you've got into the production and promotion of an album, but if the song doesn't fly on the radio, then it won't bounce around in your head while you've been busy doing other things besides critical listening...

I've got my Mobile Fidelity version of Boz's Silk Degrees always at the ready when I need to hear somethin' soulful, but rocking. Now I can add this album to the Scaggs section, since Come On Home is a real humdinger!

Dig The Willie Mitchell Horns!

11 of the songs come from Artists whose songs Scaggs likes to sing. Artists like Fats Domino, Mable John, Ketty Lester, Syl Johnson, Bobby Blue Bland and Earl King.

Boz Scaggs' voice is a national treasure. A cadre of excellent musicians expose this fact. Kudos for the production, recording and mixing of this album.


Internet Listening Pleasure: It All Went Down The Drain, Don't Cry No More, Come On Home, Love Letters, I've Got Your Love, Your Good Thing Is About To End, Sick And Tired.

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