2006 MIX CD

ST.LOUIS DINER REVIEW

January 3, 2007

A new year. A new project. It has occurred to me over the years that there is no authoritative source on St. Louis Diner’s. Similar to my long held lament regarding the lack of meaningful coverage on dive bars. We can only deal with one nightmare at a time so for your 2007 pleasure I give you the St. Louis Diner Review. It will rarely discuss Diners but when it does it should be...insightful. Instead of focusing solely on Diners we will have my occasional thoughts on Books, CD’s and...politics....because 2007 is after all.... an election year. This space should also give me an ability to post pictures from my sweet little digital camera. In order to get things off to a good start I give you...my compilation of 2006 music releases.

1. Solomon Burke: “That’s how I got to Memphis”. Solomon Burke the self proclaimed inventor of rocking soul. Began his career as a gospel singer and...well, never really made it. But he is still around and kicking and this CD is great and this song, a cover of the great Tom T. Hall song. So many songs about love, what you do for love, where love takes you and how stupid love is...and how sublime but this is one of the best. Sweet tune...sugar sweet voice and so much gospel soul. It is all good.

2. Bob Dylan: Rollin And Tumblin: His latest “Come Back” is of course nothing of the sort. The critics loved it, several people bought it...it must be a success and it must be awesome but the fact of the matter is that it is heavy on four chord progressions and bar blues...mixed in with his failing voice but....really some of it is very sweet and it is definitely an excellent CD. Not Love and Theft and certainly not in line with his best work but...even when Dylan mails it in he is awesome and this is a LOT more then mailing it in.

3. Johnny Cash: “Loves Been Good To Me.” I guess we are a little heavy on covers but the fact is that all of Johnny Cash’s best songs are covers. This is a Rod Mc Kuen song popularized by another dead crooner...Frank Sinatra. This is the last...”American V.” CD out of the sessions he did with Rick Reuben. Reuben took a failing legend and with his voice and great song selection did more then rehabilitate but made his last work his most consistent and for a lot of us his best. This song and the whole album is not up to the first several of the American Recordings but serves as a good introduction. If you do not own them....be embarrassed.

4. Los Lobos: “Luna” off of their much acclaimed CD “The Town and The City” These boys are just flat out the tightest band around. Playing in almost the same form since 1973 Cesar Rosas guitar chops and vocals and David Hidalgo’s ability to play everything while singing like the Latino Curtis Mayfield makes for high quality music loping between Jazz, Country, alt-country, rock, blues....everything...at once. This is nothing more then just...a really nice song.

5. Neil Young: “Looking for a Leader.” If you cannot tell we are weighting this CD towards the old guys first. Neil with 6000 albums over the last million years is definitely...a survivor. He was a little self righteous about this CD because he said no one else was doing it (meaning protesting the war) but that fails to take into account Steve Earle, Mike Doughty, Bruce Springsteen....and the list goes on and on. Still, you have to love a self righteous Bush hater... and I do. Neil is full of condemnation, feedback and 4-4 time. Rock on.

6. Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint: “rearer to You.” Speaking of self righteous it is hard to leave Elvis out. Very little in the way of genres left untapped or causes left untouched by him but...shit...well, what a voice. The Frank Sinatra for an age only he writes most of his own stuff and is a brit (small b). This Katrina eulogy “The River in Reverse” is a great one and easy to listen to as it reccessitates Toussaint’s career again and not with any unpleasant results. His piano, organ and vocals works nicely with Costello’s own band The Imposters as well as the Crescent City Horns. Too tame for the good but this is some fine muzac.

7. T-Bone Burnette: “Baby Don’t Say You Love Me.” A rockin song by one of the most talented, critic’s darling, unknowns of our time. His high point acclaim wise came as the genius behind the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack. He was Costello’s guitarist for much of his best work and tours and plays about as hot a guitar as any white man alive. This song sounds like a cover but only because it is so tuneful. Sort of a mix between “Baby Please Don’t Go,” and “Don’t tell Me You Love Me” (was that by Nightranger?) Anyway, the whole CD is brilliant the way only Burnette can be brilliant.

8. Frank Black: “Elijah.” Frank Black back recording solo CDs after his very lucrative reunion tour with the Pixies turns out a nice little 2CD release, “Fast Man raider Man.” The CD is very consistent in that is top quality, great songs, great musicians and a little punch but of course ultimately it is the words and Black’s plaintiff voice that makes it all worthwhile. It is a little too much material but each disc has at least 4 really good songs that make it worth the price. One of the best releases of the year.

9. Yo La Tengo: “Mr. Tough.” Already a college radio hit from their fabulously titled “I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass.” Good stuff. Very poppy for Yo La Tengo but they always seem to throw in some gems like this. It could have been a top 40 song in the 80's or 90's. Our favorites from Hoboken, Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley along with James Mc New rock on and on and on the album there is plenty of self indulgent noodling and feedback but...Mr Tough is tough.

10. Cracker: “Where Have Those Days Gone?” David Lowery remains the funniest man in rock and roll and this CD pounds it out as well as any. This song is a typical rollicking California road trip for a misplaced east coast boy. With his guitarist Johnny Hickman ripping off some nice riffs he tells us about heading down south of San Diego with my “only Jewish, Mexican friend.” And of course you believe it.

11. Built To Spill: “Liar” This is my CD of the year. Built to Spill is really just a guy named Doug Martsch from Idaho. He has been spinning out Neil Young jangle pop with crunchy guitars for about 15 years now. The new CD is awesome and Liar is not the strongest track on the CD but it is one of the only ones short enough to make a CD like this. He combines the great guitar hooks with a slow lonesome caterwaul that... can make you very sad and at the same time...bouyant. Buy it...do it today.

12. Alejandro Escovedo: “Break This Time.” Escovedo has put out some of the best singer songwriter stuff from Austin (and that is saying something) over the last ten years. With his past bands including the Nuns, Rank and File, The True Believers he finally came to his own as a solo artist. He almost died two years ago from hepatitis C complicated by life style issues relating to...his lifestyle. This CD, “The Boxing Mirror” is as introspective and sullen and morose...and joyous, as anything you might find. He gets into lost relationships and his dad and...well, just about everything that brought him to the door of death, and back. Not always easy to listen to but always worth the effort.

13. Patty Hurst Shifter: “She Like A Song”. Not just a band with a great name. These guys raise the southern jangle pop banner to some serious heights. They really rock with hard rifts that bounce along and when they sing, “She’s like a song, and I’m like the radio, turning me on...” It is just some really good stuff and these guys are not that well known. I doubt they ever break through but...

14. Lucero: “What Else Would You Have Me Be?” Memphis own Lucero takes us to Asbury Park with their release “Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers.” It is good stuff and it rocks along like no ones business. I really like these guys and although I like their softer stuff with some lilting guitar more then this, the CD is critically acclaimed and has a lot of good rock songs on it. Don’t ignore it.

15. Cat Power: “Hate” The pretentious self involved Chan Marshall from her CD “The Greatest.” I have a tendency to hate acts like hers. She likes to not show up for shows, cries on stage...mails it in from a position of drunken stupor but sometimes turns in some very painfully good work. You always have to turn the speakers up and can rarely catch the words but she leaves no doubt that life has wronged her in some fundamental ways that even the redemptive powers of rock and roll cannot mend....

16. M. Ward: “Go To Home.” All the songs on this CD sound alike to me and I have as large a problem with Ward as I do sometimes with Cat Power except...oh..yeah...he is an awesome guitarist. The music is always deep, textured and distorted and his vocals rarely raise above a deep scratchy breathy mess. The CD is very even and picking a best song is tough but this one, like his earlier CD’s that should just be picked up and listened to a few hundred times.

17. Okkervill River: “The Presidents Dead.” Will Sheff has become one of my favorites. He released this on a limited edition EP this year and it was...really good. Normally he just writes songs about murdering woman but this song about where he was when the President Got Shot on the tarmac...oh, well it has not happened yet, but this song meanders and is everything that a good ballad should be. Look out for this band and look out for him on solo. They both should albums out in 07.

18. The Decembrists: “Oh Valencia.” More whiny, beautiful cure inspired angst from the Decembrists with their new album, “The Crane Wife.” This is on everyone’s top ten list, at least everyone who is cool. If nothing else you need, as a 45 year old man to buy it to keep up your indie rock cred. Seriously, it is a very good CD and this song is not too shabby either.

19. Oh No Oh My: “Walk In The Park.” I asked my son to throw in one of his favorites for the year. Normally he goes for huge, mopy ensembles of 12 or so musicians making a horrendous racket with at least on cello like “The Arcade Fiire” or “The New Pornographers but this song which sounds like the Turtles was his pick. Sounds like a 60's vocal band but it has nice pop sensibilities. Cannot speak for the rest of the Cd but I am not sure that I need to at this point. Give it a spin.

20. Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy: “Thunder Road” Tortoise has redfined staring at your shoes synth/trans/guitar/mope for...well, for far too long. Bonnie Prince Billie (aka Will Oldham) is one of my favorites so it was going to be...”interesting” to see what they did together. The album over all underwhelmed me but this cover of the Springsteen song that got me through junior year of high school seemed as the master card people say....PRICELESS.



These of course are not in order. Tune in soon for my first book review of the year. Should be....fascinating.