CAUSE WE SEZ SO!
VINYL:
• Tori Amos – Abnormally Attracted, limited edition Tori litho w/ purchase (while supplies last)!
• Booker T – Potato Hole
• Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
• Les Claypool – Of Fungi and Foe
Leonard Cohen reissues:
180 gram Sundazed reissues: Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome aboard new Tampa Calling Contributor, Vinyl Fever’s Lee Wolfson, who will taking over on each week’s new music releases and other such interesting music tidbits, from what it’s like running an indie music store, to offering info on the latest in new music, to giving the inside scoop on any special promos or giveaways his store may be offering. Here’s his inaugural post, a list of new releases you may or may not be aware of.
Terry Adams (of NRBQ), Holy Tweet
Maria Bamford, Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome
Buju Banton, Rasta Got Soul
Behemoth, The Art of Rebelling Live (CD/DVD)
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway (ahahahahahaha! yeah, really!)
Brian Blade, Mama Rosa
Booker T., Potato Hole (with Drive By Truckers and Neil Young, too — it’s REAL SWEET!)
The Boxmasters and Billy Bob Thornton, The Boxmasters
Braid, Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five (a re-release of the 1995 debut album comprised 26 tracks, each one named using a different letter of the alphabet.) Read the rest of this entry »
It Is Time for a Love Revolution
Lenny Kravitz
Virgin/EMI
Lenny Kravitz’s shameless lifting of classic-rock riffs dates back to his 1989 debut album, Let Love Rule. He does the same robbery routine on It’s Time for a Love Revolution (and again incorporates “love†into the title). It wouldn’t be so annoying if the retro rocker actually had something to say — or could express himself sans platitudes.
Kravitz carpet bombs the listener with clichés, over-singing like a slightly more masculine Celine Dion. The album contains so many crimes against the art of language that it should be mandatory listening for aspiring songwriters. Exhibit A: “I want to do this thing /I don’t want no drama mama /It’s love I bring†(“Will You Marry Meâ€). But at least that’s a feel-good love song, the kind listeners have come to expect a few Hallmark moments from.
Kravitz hits an embarrassing low, though, when he enters politics, displaying all the insight of a sophomore majoring in physical education. Apparently, no one informed the sexpot rock star that comparisons between the Iraq war and a certain Asian conflict of yesteryear have been beaten with greater thoroughness than the detainees at Guantanamo.
Titled “Back in Vietnam,†Kravitz’s plea for peace might be the first antiwar song that inspires devout pacifists to reconsider the merits of preemptive strikes, waterboarding and collateral damage. Lyrics don’t get much lamer than ham-fisted rhymes like: “We’re gonna fly over the world inside our giant eagle/ We do just what we want and don’t care if it’s illegal/ We’re on a horse that is high, we think we’re so damn regal.†If Kravitz could only shoehorn “beagle†in there, he might have a future career as the next Dr. Seuss. 1 star
