Monday, September 10, 2007 - MUSIC WHILE BROWSING

Here I’ve decided to post music reviews for the “Music While Browsing” section of Mel’s Diner.

Trans Siberian Orchestra – Christmas in Sarajevo.  TSO rocks!  I was lucky enough to see them live a few months ago and I was blown away!  Sure, a lot of it is pretentious Christmas Carols, but there is nothing wrong with that.  And the musicians!  I about died when I saw one of the guitar players was Alex Skolnick!  I remember him from Testament and he still has it. 

Brian Setzer Orchestra – Jingle Bells.  There is only one Brian Setzer and we are lucky to have him.  Sit back and enjoy the love that is Brian Setzer, the man who single handedly brought back two genres of music – rockabilly and swing.  If he said he was going to start a polka band, I would say we were all going to learn to love golabkis!

Chris Isaak - Blue Spanish Sky - I love Chris Isaak.  He fully captures the old, crooner's feel.  Maybe not as old as Old Blue Eyes or Bing, but Roy Orbison and his contemporaries.  Chris had a short lived show on Showtime and I loved it. 

The Cure - Pictures of You - There is a rule you can stand by and it is one that will never let you down.  That rule is The Cure videos always suck.  This is no exception.  Fortunately, the video is very small and off to the side of the computer screen so it's kind of hard to see how bad it really is.  Another rule is that The Cure is always (almost) great, so the song you hear is worth LISTENING to.  This is, again, no exception.

The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get”.  As a former heavy metal band member, I can say there is no one – NO ONE who was ever in a band that didn’t want to be in a Mighty, Mighty Bosstones.  This band was the epitome of fun, talent and doing it their way.  Any band with a person who only danced and played no instrument is the band I ALWAYS wanted to be in.  They left us a few years ago without being anything other then the MMB.  What else can I say, other than, “I love you guys!”

Slayer – “South of Heaven/Raining Blood”.  What makes Slayer so special is what makes The Beastie Boys special.  Every album is different.  Haunting the Chapel is different from Hell Awaits which is different from Reign in Blood.  And they could have done ten more Reign in Bloods I would have been happy, but they came out with South of Heaven and it blew my mind.

Judas Priest – “Victim of Changes”.  The thing to know about this song is Rob Halford had just finished a whole concert before hitting that note at the end of the song.  There are 2 kinds of heavy metal singers – Rob Halford and everyone else.

Flock of Seagulls - “Space Age Love Song”.  I can’t help it, I love the guitar in this song.

The Ramones - “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”.  The Ramones redefined/defined punk rock.  It was now totally OK to do a catchy tune, still with a simple, root note bass line.  God Bless the Ramones!