Brain Donor - Love, Peace & Fuck

Brain Donor is a power trio "Stuporgroup" featuing Julian Cope on bass and vocals, and Spiritualized duo, Doggen on guitar and Kevlar Bales on Drums. They play a ridiculously loud blend of Van Halen style Metal and Stooges style garage punk. The excellently titled "Love Peace & Fuck" is their debut album and perfectly channels Cope's well documented love of Japanese Rock and Roll lunatics like Guitar Wolf and Speed, Glue & Shinki. Played at maximum volume, on double necked guitars while wearing dayglo facepaint and platform boots.

It's an acquired taste, but I've certainly acquired it. 15 minute long jams with titles like "Pagan Dawn", "Odins Gift To His Mother" and this one, "Get Off Your Pretty Face" turn it up, grow your hair and rock the fuck out...

                                      



Billy Bragg - Mr Love & Justice

I'm a big fan of The Bard of Barking. Obviously it helps that i'm one of those lefty pinko communist types, but even in his non political songs (which there are more than you may think), Theres a strong case for him being Britains greatest living lyricist. Mr Love & Justice is his 12th studio album and the second to feature his backing band, The Blokes. This particular version is the limited editon double CD version, so you get the full band version of the album, along with a stripped down solo version, Identical to the versios of the songs Billy plays on tour. His voice has got stronger and more controlled over the years and the full band versions of the songs fit perfectly to create one of his best albums.

Among the musicians on the album is Billy's longtime collaborator Ian Mclagan, formerly of The Faces, and Robert Wyatt pops up on backing vocals on the album's lead single "I Keep Faith". here's a live version...

Brad - Interiors

Like The Afghan Whigs, Brad are a Grunge band with Soul influences. I (and probably most people who own this album) was attracted to the band via their connection to Pearl Jam. They share a guitarist in Stone Gossard, and Pearl Jam's other guitarist Mike McCready guest's on "The Day Brings" from this album. There's a laid back, 70's pop influenced tinge to the album which reminds me of Big Star, Fleetwood Mac and even Wings in parts, but there's also straight ahead Grunge Rock tracks like opener "Secret Girl".

There's a bit of a lull in the middle of the album but there's some beautifully crafted songs on here. I was going to go for "Some Never Come Home" with it's gorgeous blend of piano, guitar and mellotron, But probably the most representative track is the album's lead single "The Day Brings"...

Boy Hits Car - Boy Hits Car

Another one that's not so good. Boy Hits Car were an American Alternative Metal band who I saw and quite liked for a few months in about 2001ish. I've always been a big fan of Incubus, and it's fairly obvious Boy Hits Car are too, as they sound almost exactly like Incubus, with more 12 string acoustic guitar, contrived hippyesque lyrics and none of the really good songs. Don't get me wrong, they're ok, but there's nothing really on this album that makes me want to play it over and over again.

Apparently one of the tracks on this album was the intro music for a wrestler I've never heard of, And the bass player now does voice acting in various cartoons, usually credited as "other voices", and the singer looks exactly like that dickhead from Toploader. I bought the album when i was about 18 or 19 and must have liked it at the time, but like the haircut I had back then, I have no idea why i thought it was a particularly good idea. All the songs sound pretty much the same so here's the preposterously titled "I'm A Cloud", see how long you can last before wanting to punch the singer...

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

Its probably a dead heat between this and Hunky Dory for the accolade of being my favourite Bowie album. Ziggy Stardust is an absolute bloody masterpiece. Bowie's songwriting was perfect, the concept excellent (the album is set 5 years before the end of the world and tells the story of an alien rockstar sent to spread a message of hope to humanity), Mick Ronson's guitar playing is sublime and the overall arrangements and producton couldn't be any better. From the opening "Five Years" to the closing desperation of "Rock & Roll Suicide" there's not a second of it's 38 minutes wasted.

This is another one of those albums that you really should own, seriously, go and order it now because it's fantastic. It's got "Starman", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock And Roll Suicide" and "Suffragette City" on it, plus a few you may not know which are just as good. here's "Moonage Daydream"...

Bossk - .1 EP

Bossk are named after a fairly obscure bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back, and play slow, brooding Post-Metal which builds from quiet melodic clean guitar parts into crushing metal riffage. They're mostly instrumental and sound similar to Isis, "Mr Beast" era Mogwai (Specifically "Glasgow Mega Snake") and Pelican.

This is a 2 track EP but is over 35 minutes long, so you definitely get your moneys worth. The band split in 2009 but have recently reformed so are worth chcking out when they play live next year. I've seen them a few times and they've been consistantly fantastic each time. I Particularly like the opening track "1" whcih opens with quiet Ebowed guita before gatting heavier and heavier. there doesn't seem to be a full studio version of it on youtube so here's a slightly edited down version...

Boss Hog - Whiteout

Mr Jon Spencer is a Rock and Roll legend. either with his Blues Explosion, Rockabilly lunatics Heavy Trash, 80's Garage Punks Pussy Galore and this band, the Hip Hop/Rock Influenced Boss Hog. Led by Spencer's wife Christina Martinez as their vocalist, Boss Hog sound similar to a female fronted Blues Explosion, with more emphasis on keyboards and poppier melodies. The album has a similar kind of vibe to Beck's "Odelay", with it's 60's inspired organs, distorted guitar and hip hop beats.

Whiteout is their third and possibly final album, released in 1999, although they have toured again more recently so there's hope they may release anothe in the future. "Itchy & Scratchy" from his album was featured on a Levi's advert at the time so is probably their most well known song, however "Get It While You Wait" is my favourite of the 11 tracks on offer. here it is...