The Production Side

Growing up in the 90’s it was hard to ignore R.E.M.
Afterall, the band released back to back classics with 1991’s Out of Time and 1992’s Automatic for the People, only to be followed up by the 1994 rocker Monster.
Then, the Athens legends began a slow descent.
In retrospect, 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi is actually a great album, but was hard to realize that then after the departure of drummer Bill Berry and the following releases.
Up from 1998, Reveal from 2001 and Around the Sun from 2004 are, for the most part, lackluster albums that many have forgotten.
Long story short, I …read more

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Besides the new Racounters new album, the only other release worth mentioning today is The Lemonheads – It’s a Shame About Ray.
Wait a minute…didn’t that come out in 1992?
Yes, it did. But, it’s receiving the good old collector’s edition treatment.

So, here’s what the collector’s edition contains:
Disc one is the original album (with classics like “My Drug Buddy”, their cover of “Mrs. Robinson” and of course the self-titled track), plus ten bonus tracks; which are mainly demos of tracks from the album, but still very cool.
Disc two is a DVD filled with lots of goodies, like three live videos from Australia, such …read more

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Just a reminder that today is the release date for the soundtrack to the documentary Body of War.
The two-disc set features tracks from legends like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, John Lennon to some great new acts like Bright Eyes. Tom Morello appears with Rage Against The Machine and The Nightwatchman, while Serj Tankian and Eddie Vedder appear with solo tracks and from their bands (System of a Down, Pearl Jam).
In fact, Vedder’s folksy and powerful track “No More” is the anchor for the entire album, since it was specifically written for the subject of the film Tomas Young. He unveiled the track …read more

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The not so serious Seattle band are back with a new album, which is their first album in four years, and will be on the road too.
These Are the Good Times People hits stores today and is the band’s sixth studio album; so if you enjoy the simplistic and goofy music of PUSA then you should snag a copy.
The band is also currently on the road. They’ll be on the west coast, which includes a stop at the SXSW Festival before heading to the east coast and then they’ll set off to Europe.
To hear some new tunes, “Ghosts Are Everywhere” …read more

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Back in 1996 a seemingly sweet girl popped up into the music world. However, she quickly established that she was anything but sweet.
I would have to say that Fiona Apple’s debut album Tidal was an unexpected way in giving women a new voice. It was anything but the classic “I am woman, hear my roar”, instead it was dirty and giving guys a taste of their own medicine.
The opening track, “Sleep To Dream”, is a fine example of this, as well as her breakthrough hit “Criminal” and “Shadowboxer”.
There are also gems on Tidal show that Fiona isn’t all bad, like the …read more

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This past Sunday, February 3, was a pretty big day…and I’m not talking about the Super Bowl.
It marked the 10th Anniversary of my favorite Pearl Jam album, Yield.
Released on February 3, 1998, Yield was the band’s fifth album and marked somewhat a return to the band’s more straight forward roots, following the huge success of Vitalogy and the underestimated No Code.
Most of the album was influenced by Daniel Quinn’s novel Ishamael, most notably “Do The Evolution” and the recording was captured on the documentary Single Video Theory.
Yield kicks off with a bang during “Brain of J”, which is apparently about conspiracy …read more

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How could Beck make 1996’s Odelay any better?
Well, how about giving the classic album a bit of that deluxe edition treatment.
So, what does the deluxe edition add to to the album that already spawned “Devil’s Haircut”, “Where It’s At”, “The New Pollution”, as well as the personal favorites, “Novacane” and “Ramshackle”? How about 19 more tracks of sweetness!
Beck throws in two unreleased tracks onto disc one, “Inferno” and “Gold Chains, before unleashing a second disc full of b-sides and remixes, which many here in the States have never heard before. Probably the coolest gem on this deluxe edition is “Burro”, which …read more

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I recently rediscovered this gem of an album by one of the more unique bands from the 90’s.
You may actually be asking yourself right now “You the bleep is Mr. Bungle?”; which is a fair question.
Mr. Bungle was the first band of former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton. When Patton landed the gig as lead singer for Faith No More, he remained in Mr. Bungle. He is actually wearing a Mr. Bungle t-shirt in the video for “Epic”.
Anyways, California was the third and final major label album from the band released on July 13, 1999; it was supposed to be …read more

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Today is the physical release for the soundtrack to Juno, although it has been available digitally for some time.
Anyways, this soundtrack is great, it fits perfectly with the movie (which is very good and is defiantly worth catching). It’s indie friendly, but manages to squeeze in a couple classic songs and some 90’s alternative tracks, which is why is it is relevant to this blog.
The soundtrack, just like the movie, opens up with the folky “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar, which pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the soundtrack and movie.
From there it moves to the Kimya …read more

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Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo just released Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo today.
Basically, this is 18 track compilation of demos by Cuomo from 1992 to like 2005. Most of the material is taken from Weezer’s early days, outtakes/demos from The Blue Album and Pinkerton; which is very good, because Pinkerton is hand’s down Weezer’s best album. Also from around this time are tracks taken from the space-themed concept album, Songs from the Black Hole, which was supposed to follow Weezer’s debut album.
Other tracks worth mentioning are a demo of “Buddy Holly” and a cover of Ice Cube’s “The Bomb”.
The compilation gets stale towards …read more

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