Bottle Rockets - Zoysia (CD)- Bloodshot Records.
That this band puts out wonderful music shouldn’t
surprise anyone,they keep releasing discs of fine rock
music tinged with Americana every few years. This
might be the finest CD they have ever released, up
there with Classic releases 24 HOURS A DAY and THE
BROOKLYN SIDE. Brian Henneman’s song writing has
always looked at love, the love of all things
interesting to those who might be deemed WHITE TRASH,
and social aspects of everyday life. It’s the society
aspect of his writing on this disc that is really
the gem, with songs about being accepted in your
neighborhood and competing with the Jones’ plus a song
about what it would be like if we all had to make
choices not by what we see and how we judge things by
their outer beauty, but with all of our other senses.
A great disc. Possibly the best released this year.

Buffalo Bill Season 1 & 2 (DVD) - This TV Show from
the early 1980’s was one of my favorite. I hadn’t seen
it in a long time, so when the DVD’s were announced, I
was excited but also a little apprehensive. What if
all of my memories of the show were build up over
time and I had a grandiose idea about it, and then it
turned out to be horrible. I’ve watched almost all of
Season One and I can say with the exception of Gina
Davis (She truly is horrible and stiff) that this show
is as good as I remember. Want to know why? Dabney
Coleman is the perfect jerk as Buffalo Bill. He is
wonderfully self centered and egotistical. I had no
problem liking him, unlike some pompous people who
have a little redeeming bit in their character. With
the exception of a few times when he is faking remorse
to make someone do what he wants, this guy never feels
sorry for what he has done. Perfect. Dabney Coleman
will always have a spot in my perfect TV Character
Hall of Fame for this one.

Lemonheads - LEMONHEADS- VAGRANT RECORDS - How the
hell can Evan Dando keep calling himself The
Lemonheads after all these years? Well, he is the
Lemonheads after all these years, cause he is the only
original member. Anyway, with the help of Bill
Stevenson (ALL, DESCENDENTS, BLACK FLAG, many more)
and Karl Alvarez (ALL, DESCENDENTS,ALL SYSTEMS GO)
Dando has created a perfect album where his quirky pop
music meets some really good rock sounds, good loud
guitar and great drumming. It’s something that Dando
needed, cause his last disc BABY I’M BORED suffered
from being to trite and too poppy and polished. Dando
is a little quirky with his songwriting, and I like
that, he’s a little off in his head and that is cool.
By adding the best punk rock drummer in the land along
with a really fine bass player in Alvarez, Dando put
the heaviness back in his pop side leanings. Another
good listen, even if you only know Dando from his
lighter pop songs, you’ll like this cause you’ll be
glad he added the extra sauce.

Pernice Brothers - LIVE A LITTLE - ASHMONT (CD) -
How the hell does Joe Pernice keep perfecting his
brand of pop music and keep releasing music in a good
release cycle? Cause he knows what the hell he is
doing. I challenge anyone to find a Pernice Brothers
release that hasn’t been really good. Try it, you
won’t succeed. Pernice just knows what works and
keeps perfecting it. I do enjoy when he puts a little
guitar into the songs, something a little heavier, but
you can’t deny how enjoyable his pops songs are. It’s
like he’s been working on perfecting the candy bar
over the years, and you keep buying them knowing they
are going to be good and you never have to worry about
it being stale or the same candy bar in a new wrapper.
What you get is a songwriter at his peak, which has
been about seven years now, who has crafted that candy
bar, and then continues to add nuts, and coconut to it
to make it sweeter but never too sweet or bitter.
Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys Almond Joy.
Although, I think you Mounds people will like it too.

www.frankblack.net - The Best Frank Black website I
have seen. Although the news is only updated when
something major happens, making it less a fan site and
more like most artists websites; it’s in the forum
section where you will find things about Frank Black
that you might not know or have been looking for. I
found a link to Frank’s Headache video, which I have
always liked and wanted to see again. Very useful.

www.sparklehorse.com and www.sparklehorse.org The
First one is the bands website and is very, very slow
at updating. It was almost a year and a half before
the site was updated last year. This year found some
new stuff including news that the next Sparklehorse
record should see the light of day in September. The
second site is a fan based site, it’s updated a little
more frequently, but not much. It has more fan based
news and information, and can be useful in helping
fans get through those months when the band site is
stagnant.

www.steveearle.net and www.steveearle.com - The first
one is a fan site and is updated a lot. It has bunch
of archived information and keeps up to date with
anything that Earle is doing, including any books that
are written about him or television appearances. One
of the best music sites run by a fan, a must for any
Steve Earle or Americana fan. The second one is
Earle’s official site, and the updates like you would
guess are less frequent. While it does have a nice
layout and it is official, I would stick to the fan
site first and use this one as a back up in case of a
crash to steveearle.net.

www.tvshowsondvd.com - This is one of the sites I
check all the time, it is updated every day and has
lots of information about TV shows coming out on DVD.
I keep hoping when I check it that it will tell me GET
A LIFE starring Chris Elliott season one will be
coming out on DVD. No such luck, yet. If you have
ever wondered if a show you loved, but haven’t seen on
DVD yet will make it on the release schedule, keep
your browser tuned to this site. You can also vote for
which shows in what format you would like to see
released.