Fats Domino - Fats Domino Swings

Fats Domino legacy begs for a deluxe treatment. A kind of "Complete Sessions" box with not only his best known takes, but lesser-known gems. Every one of his cuts is special, Fats just has this special something. One of my favorite collections of his early hits is called Fats Domino Swings (12.000.000 Records). Catchy title.

It's got most of his best known works: "Blue Monday", "I'm Walking", "I'm In Love Again", "The Fat Man" and of course "Blueberry Hill" - my favorite. "Though we're apart, you're part of me still", sung in his beautiful, calm and soothingly cheerful voice is priceless. This track is a special classic, even Led Zeppelin covered it live. Not that their version matters anything. Omitted is "I'm Ready", but I've got more of his disks and many of the songs are duplicated on some, but I never could tire of them. And one can buy them very cheap (which is a great, but a great shame too).

Fats plays piano, behind him shines the best New Orleans horn section you could dream of, I don't know if even Otis Redding's ensemble could rival those guys. Upbeat, uptempo tracks with one or two ballads, yeah, that's what me likes. Almost as much as digging into his quite unknown work and finding awesome tracks I've never heard before. He really recorded plenty of them.

Check out a small part of lyrics to "Bo Weevil": "on Saturday night / where I was born / down on the farm / guitar plinking / and we started drinking / till the break of dawn" - this is genuine good time music.

Ry Cooder - I, Flathead

Ry Cooder is a man to admire. Master guitarist, musicologist and archivist, open-minded producer, guy behind Buena Vista Social Club. He taught Keith Richards about open tunings which resulted in the Stones' best work. He recorded a great soundtrack to Paris, Texas which he built on one riff by Blind Willie Johnson. And I, Flathead is his most recent release which closes a trilogy released on Nonesuch Records (Chavez Ravine and My Name Is Buddy).

I, Flathead is a concept album and there's a book included which I haven't read and I doubt I'll ever will. I like particular songs, particular sounds, I know this album is great, but it's beyond my tastes. Just with titles like "Johnny Cash", "Can I Smoke In Here?" and "Steel Guitar Heaven" it should be one of the releases of the year. Well no, it's not for me. I just can't really get into world music. It ruins things for me. If Cooder decided to record a stricte blues album, I'm sure I'd fall for him.

But his inspirations are much wider and more interesting for most, making me a kind of musical outcast. Listening to the Stooges, Gram Parsons and Miles Davis in a row is still a step before Cooder's music! His explorations of American music are clearly not for me, at least for now. Or maybe I'll take a listen to his "Boomer's Story"... While I love Tom Waits, this albums owns too much to him with all those crazy and weird sounds.

But even on I, Flathead there are moments. Not to mention great songs on his previous, quite similar albums, Chavez Ravine and My Name Is Buddy. Check out "Poor Man's Shangri-La" and some others, you'll know. I, Flathead is an album I wouldn't really mind listening with some friends at a party, but only in case we were all baked beyond recognition. ;^)

The Stooges - 1970: the Complete Fun House Sessions

Punk as we love it. It's 1970, the Stones are at their peak, the Beatles are gone. The Stooges are simple, nihilistic, absurd, shocking, good, and they even know what they want. As the AllMusic review states, this is the true way to separate the Stooges fans from truly obsessed. I quite like Fun House, 8-CD set with complete sessions (!) is even better. Just because I love so those "session recordings" and I love hearing how the band develops. But it's all in theory... Now as we get back to the album, it sucks a little. Still love.

So, there are 30 takes of "Loose", which is one of my favorite Stooges songs. The thing is, all of those takes are almost the same, no kidding. I can say if it's an early or late take, but hell, they are the same. And there are only 2 songs that didn't make the album (one of them is blues so I'm all hot for it anyway, it's called "Slidin' the Blues"). I can even forgive them for bad jokes, I can't forget them the variety which is, I'm estimating, at zero level.

Every good band should have a set like this, showing it bare, with no special effects or production tricks, just messing around, being true. It's really fascinating. And punk is fun. Really. What else you've got to hear? "Louie Louie" by the Stooges.

Gram Parsons - Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels (the Gram Parsons Anthology)

While I just can't enjoy most of the country records, I find it great to put on Jerry Lee or Johnny Cash from time to time. If I was allowed to listen to only one country album though, I'm sure it'd be a Gram Parsons compilation, Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels. What a fucking great album - and I'm not very much into compilations myself, but this LP is wonderful, diverse and absolutely enough to fall in love with Gram. A classic.

We've got two CDs of the International Submarine Band, a little Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels and the man himself solo. We've got "She", "Hickory Wind", "Love Hurts" and "Sleepless Nights". Country and country rock can't, just can't get better. There are some really rare pearls I've never heard, well, never even heard of, that are just awesome. Gram was a very special guy and a very special story, and it's all there.

Recommended to everyone, not only fans of country. If you heard the Stones do "Dead Flowers" you can have a slight vision of what's to come on Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels.

Marc Ford - Fuzz Machine

Finally I got my hands on new Marc Ford album called Fuzz Machine. Well, I kinda like it. Ford is a talented white blues guitarist, weak singer and composer, but somehow he manages to put out really good solo albums (he got kicked out from the Black Crowes for drug use), like his 2008 Marc Ford & the Neptune Blues Club (with some Chuck Berry-esque rockers, "white blues" stuff and a very nice ballad, "Keep Holdin' On", not to mention "Main Drain" and "Shame On Me").

I'm a great fan of natural guitar sound, clear and undistorted, so I didn't like the title, but there's not much of that on the album. Ford nicely combines the styles of Clapton and Hendrix into his own, maybe reminding me a little of Ronnie Wood, but with many more boring instrumental passages.

I'm after one listen only, and have to say - it's usual good stuff Ford plays and a good contemporary blues album. With really, really decent production. I hoped for a hint of "Beck's Bolero" in "Bolero In Red" but that was totally different track. "You're the One" seems to be my favorite from Fuzz Machine for now but it's likely to change, it's a very consistent album. Maybe just one or two ballads too many...

Steve Kuhn - Mostly Coltrane

Steve Kuhn's career started in the 50s and since mid-60s he has been recording and releasing a great deal of post-bop piano. He recorded with many big shots in the jazz world, most famous of them is John Coltrane. Unfortunately for Kuhn he played with Trane for a very brief time in 1960 and got replaced in the quartet by McCoy Tyner without recording anything.

Almost 50 years later Kuhn finally decided to record a tribute album to the great saxophonist containing tunes written or associated with Coltrane. It's called Mostly Coltrane. I picked it up just for one song, "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (originally recorded by Trane on Coltrane's Sound in 1960), but other 12 tunes are worth checking out, too.

Kuhn plays with the listener perfectly. While Coltrane's "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" started with that unforgettable riff right away, Brooklyn-born pianist isn't rushing anywhere. He plays many notes teasing the listener with the melody, but never playing it in its original, crystal clear form. Kuhn's not covering Trane's work, he's reinventing it at times. His band includes bassist David Finck, drummer Joey Baron and guesting Joe Lovano on sax, who is an especially good addition to the usual Kuhn's trio.

Kuhn's usually a little too classical-oriented for my taste, but Mostly Coltrane will go down in 21st century jazz history as one of the finest tributes to John Coltrane.

The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker

90s were all about grunge when it came to good guitar-driven music, or at least early 90s. There was only one band then that released successful rock and roll records and got away with it: the Black Crowes. They debuted in 1990 with probably my favorite album of the decade - Shake Your Money Maker.

Heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones, the Faces and old blues singers, they weren't orginal at all - but the Black Crowes were, and still are, awesome musicians. "Sister Luck" is an obvious rip-off of the Stones' "Sway" for example, but who cares? I'd much rather hear it than a rip-off of anything else. Raw and hard "Struttin' Blues" and "Stare It Cold" are two another examples of the classic groove, but it's such a joy to listen to them, they sound like they're unstoppable, just go on and on, faster and faster. There are two fine ballads and absolutely insane Otis Redding cover, "Hard to Handle". The opening rocker with its remarkable slide guitar part reminds me of Neil Young's "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown", top this. Such a shame there's no "Shake Your Money Maker" on the album...

It's not only the best album in the Crowes 20 year history, it's a goddamn masterpiece. It really, really sounds like it was recorded in the 1960s, not 30 years later. Shake Your Money Maker was produced by Rick Rubin and the Rolling Stones' long time collaborator Chuck Leavell participated on piano. Highly recommended.

Sonny Rollins - On Impulse!

Sonny Rollins is mostly known for his absolutely awesome solo career during the late 50s and for taking a long hiatus afterwards. His later works are almost obscure, but outstanding nevertheless. I took a look at three of his Impulse! disks (released in 1965 and 1966) and the first one, Sonny Rollins On Impulse!, seems to be the most interesting of them all.

His tone changed since Saxophone Collosus from ten years earlier but it's still good old Sonny Rollins reinterpreting old standards. Disk starts with two standards, "On Green Dolphin Street" and lenghty "Everything Happens to Me". The first one was made famous by Miles Davis, second was played by almost everyone, from Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk to Bilie Holliday. Rollins is very lyrical, especially "On Green Dolphin Street" gained my attention as a very different version to the one played by Miles (not to mention Albert Ayler ;)). It's not melancholic anymore and swings beautifully.

Then there's calypso and I just love Rollins playing Caribbean rhythms, no matter if it's "St. Thomas" or anything else. This time it's "Hold 'Em Joe" - so joyful one can't resist dancing and jumping around. Rollins' backing band may not be well-known but sure knows how to swing, they are doing their job fine. Ray Bryant plays piano, Walter Booker is on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. And I can honestly say I'm glad Sonny decided to play with piano this time, Bryant is very prominent on this disk and deserves that place very much.

Both last tunes, "Blue Room" and "Three Little Rooms" are different and even more challenging, especially the first one noted. Judge for yourself, this is forgotten Sonny Rollins at his best.

Television - Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco

So, I haven't written anything about Television yet? Weird, I thought I had written how magical Marquee Moon was before. So, anyway... Television was a wonderful, short-lived band in the end of 70s that played rock. Art rock, punk rock, you name it - they were masterful musicians and had two guitars (played by Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd) exchanging leads (so-called weaving). And, they were good at playing long improvisations. Doesn't certainly sound like punk, right? Oh, there's more - they loved the Stones, the Beatles and others. They were rather neglecting early 70s music like Yes and ELP, though.

And they were playing almost everything but the blues. Their idea was simple - not to play the blues. Oh well. Damn it, I forgive them. They were epic anyway. Marquee Moon from 1977 is probably the greatest LP from that decade, such a shame 1978 follow-up was much weaker. Well, nevermind. Television broke up after two releases. But we're happy to have some live releases. Both from 1978, the first one is called The Blow-Up and was released in 1982 in shameful quality, second, from 2003, is much better. It's simply called Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco (waldorf salad instantly comes to my mind).

What we get: two 14-minute-long wild improvisations, two of undersigned's favorite tunes, one the Rolling Stones cover (Satisfaction, of course) and four other rockers. It is unbelievable. Makes me want to jump on stage and play with the band. What a divine album. Best live 70s rock ever released.

Dave Holland - Pathways

After Vijay Iyer's Historicity I wanted to hear some more modern-day jazz, so I downloaded released this year but recorded live in 2009 album by Dave Holland Octet called Pathways.

First thought: it doesn't site like an octet, everybody waits patiently for their time and has plenty of space. Holland's band consists of Antonio Hart (alto sax and flute), Chris Potter (tenor and soprano sax), Gary Smulyan (baritone sax), Alex Sasha Sipiagin (trumpet and flugelhorn), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibraphone and marimba) and Nate Smith (drums). This is the first time this group played together but you don't feel this - they are really swinging. My favorite cut is the longest one, "How's Never?".

Loud applause after almost every solo adds to the album very much. It was recorded at New York's Birdland and I'd love to be there, but since I'm a million miles away, I am pretty satisfied with this live document. Dave Holland said he was always a fan of Duke Ellington and dreamed about playing with such a powerful front line (3 saxes, 2 brasses). So, he made one of the best jazz releases of the year. And I don't miss piano...

Vijay Iyer - Historicity

I love piano blues and piano jazz. Hell, I just love pianos. There are many mighty solo piano LPs and this is by far my favorite setting of this instrument (start with Monk's Alone In San Francisco). But jazz trios (piano, bass and drums) can be very fine either. I guess this is the case with the rising star of 00s jazz, Vijay Iyer.

Born in 1971 in New York City, he has a very nice name and Indian roots ;) And he plays mean piano; his trio also consists of Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. They have released a couple of disks already, many critics say their last one, Historicity (Act, 2009), is their best. Now as I listen...

It's good. Sometimes Iyer is trying too hard and intense for my liking but in overall, it's good. One can't go wrong with jazz piano trios ;) And there's "Smoke Stack" by Andrew Hill. +10 to awesomeness. (Not to mention Stevie Wonder's tune...) All in all, it's recommended stuff.

I have no idea what's going on on today's jazz scene so hearing Vijay Iyer makes me happy there's still some good music around. I missed his show in Warsaw on the other hand - my huge mistake! I'll look for his Tragicomic LP (Sunnyside, 2008) and the good news: I'm looking forward to hearing his upcoming solo album named just Solo.

PS. Vijay Iyer won Downbeat Magazine's 2009 poll for Rising Star Pianist. So, he's like really, really worth hearing.

Muddy Waters - Screamin' and Cryin'

This album by Muddy is very close to my heart. It was recorded in my hometown, 16 years before I was born and 16 years after the famous Newport performance that marked his prime days. Waters was 61 at that time and well after his best years, but what does it matter? The recording is in very fine quality, the band is tight (my favorite, Pinetop Perkins, is on piano) and I'm sure all of the fans gathered at the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree '76 festival were amazed such a legend invaded Poland.


Everything starts kinda shaky but by the time the band gets into 3rd song ("Corrina, Corrina" sung by a duet Muddy-Pinetop) it's obvious I'm in for a treat! The legend is literally screamin' and cryin', but he's also a charismatic bandleader. He leaves the stage for a couple of songs to let his band show off ("Floyd's Guitar Blues" is remarkable - "hey, I know this riff!"), but then suddenly Muddy's back, never tired of singing his biggest hits: "Got My Mojo Workin'" and "Hoochie Coochie Man".

Highlights of the lenghty show include "After Hours" - several years later Pinetop Perkins recorded a solo album containing this song with the same title - and closing tracks (of 16 all - were they encores?), standard "Goin' Down Slow" and "What's the Matter With the Mill" also known as "Can't Get No Grindin'" straight from the 30s.

It's better than his previous work from the 70s and way more natural than all of the work he did after this while pairing with Johnny Winter. It's the last time we can hear Muddy howl "Howlin' Wolf" (by the way, the real Wolf died that year) or "Blow Wind Blow". Apart from a surprisingly great 1974's Unk In Funk, for me this is the most important of Muddy's outings from the 70s.

Tina Brooks - The Waiting Game

Tina Brooks released only four LPs and the Waiting Game was the hardest for me to find. It may not be the best session of his, but it's still such a wonderful hard bop date. One look at a typical Blue Note cover and a typically gorgeous set of musicians made me sure I'm gonna spend another 40 minutes listening to this album once again. Jazz, and bebop especially, really helps me forget about all the trouble I've got and keeps me focused enough not to drift away.

Johnny Coles is on trumpet, he's the guy who played with Mingus on his 1964 tour which speaks for itself. Enough to love him ;) Kenny Drew's on piano. He's a very bright pianist - I have only one album of his called Undercurrent and he certainly is groovin' the blues. Rhythm section is as follows: Wilbur Ware (known for his masterful playing with Sonny Rollins) and Philly Joe Jones - who was admired by you know who ;)


Tina Brooks doesn't overuse minor tones, even plays cheerfully at times. His interplay with Johnny Coles is absolutely amazing and the way Kenny Drew plays behind them sends chills down my spine - not to mention his solos, and he gets quite a few of them. Of the six songs, all of them are rather short, clocking at about 5-7 minutes - I'd love to hear those tunes played live by Tina's band, stretched to the limit.

There are quieter moments but don't wait for ballads - even if some moments are slow, they are loud and proud. The songs that I find the best are the opening track ("Talkin' About") and eponymous closing track. I rate those compositions higher than many of the well-known ancient jazz standards played to death on too many occasions during the 40s and 50s.

All in all, the Waiting Game is not as overwhelming as Tina's masterpiece, True Blue. It isn't exciting enough to be in every jazz enthusiast's collection. Neither it's original or rare enough to cost you fifteen bucks - unless you're a bebop lover. And I'm quite a maniac now ;) I wildly crave for jazz LPs that are swinging like famous Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder" but are challenging enough not to be called "radio-friendly". On this album, Brooks gets close.

Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport 1956

I haven't written about jazz in a long time but it certainly doesn't mean I stopped listening to it. The thing is, I got myself a two CD release of Duke Ellington's At Newport set from 1956 and since some time couldn't listen to anything else. This is the perfect album, so perfect it's impossible to describe, analyzing it seems like an insult to the Duke. And the man wasn't even satisfied with the results!


No doubt it's the greatest jazz live album ever released. I've listened to "Diminuendo In Blue and Crescendo In Blue" countless times and still haven't got enough. And I'm even not a fan of big band jazz! It's inspiring, awesome, stunning, original, blindingly amazing. This is the jazz album to get to start your collection.

Original LP with only five tracks - three parts of "Newport Jazz Festival Suite" on side A and "Jeep's Blues" and "Diminuendo... and Crescendo In Blue" - is the one to get for jazz newbies, everybody else will have glorious time listening to the expanded version.

Sunnyland Slim - Slim's Got His Thing Goin' On

This is the good old stuff mixed with modern blues musicians. Recorded in '68 by Sunnyland Slim, a talented pianist straight from the delta, with George Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Luther Allison, Shakey Jake, Al Wilson, Henry Vestine, Larry Taylor, Luther Allison and, most important, Mick Taylor of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers fame. Taylor plays on "You Used to Love Me", "My Past Life", "She's Got A Thing Goin' On" and "Substitute Woman". That's a shame he isn't featured on entire disc! Young British guitarist who was soon to join the Rolling Stones plays with confidence and respect to older bluesmen.

Slim's piano and voice are good. So are compositions, all of them but Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" credited to Albert Laundrew, which is the real name of Sunnyland Slim. Don't let that fool you, though... After the first chords of "Goin' Back to Memphis" you realize it's "Rollin' & Tumblin'" but under a different name. So is the case with most of the stuff here: it's all the usual hooks played by black blues musicians in the delta. "Slim's Got His Thing Goin' On" may be classic, but it's not ordinary. More, it's totally unique. The blend of electric guitars, harmonicas and pianos is wonderful, production just rocks. It's quite clear for a record like that!


My favorite song must be "Everytime We Get to Drinkin'". ;) But it's hard to tell, really, they are all the same. Slower and faster, all of them have a special kind of charm reserved for original Mississippi wailers. Get this disk and play it loud! It's... inspirational. ;)

Cocksucker Blues

Such a nice title: well, "Cocksucker Blues" was a song the Rolling Stones composed in 1970 to anger Decca, their record company. They succeeded. Musically a nice blues with only Mick on vocals and Keith on acoustic guitar, lyrically a masterpiece: a tale of a lonesome gay arriving in new city blah blah blah. :)

Two years later the Stones asked Robert Frank to make a documentary about their tour of America in 1972 to accompany the release of Exile On Main Street album. It was real: black & white image of rock and roll stars, drugs, sex, violence and the dark side of being cool. Despite that, I loved the film. Particular scenes were just epic no matter how sad the final conclusions turn to be.

Cocksucker Blues is banned from screening but you can easily find a bootleg copy, now it's everywhere. But before, two good reviews: at Times Online and random private website.

Deluxe Exile: comments

It's great, amazing and gorgeous - of course it is. But as always it's impossible to be 100% positive - the greatest album ever is rereleased with 10 additional bonus tracks (with ADTL single it makes it 11) and they rock, each one of them, but all in all, and compared with well-known 18 Exile songs, they somehow fade. Or maybe I'm not in the mood? That's like another new album and I know I'm going to listen to those ones often.

1. "Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)" - at first I even didn't like it. Catchy, groovy - maybe. I just wasn't amazed, it wasn't loud enough. But then I read the lyrics (they're good!) and the refrain that goes something like "I'm glad to be alive and kicking, I'm glad to see my heart's still ticking, pass me the wine, boy, let's make some love". And I listened again and now I love everything about this song :) Lyrics, groove, Mick Taylor's fills, horns that rush to the front from time to time, harmonica, the fact that it's quite long for a song like that (almost 5 minutes). Maybe it's Keith that should get his thing louder? Harder? I don't know. Taylor should've jam more in the end and Jagger should let him improvise and stop singing :) Tenor saxophone fills in the end are great, too... In overall, it's a finished song. Well-produced. Prime stuff. Stones at their best, even if it's lacking some hooks. Could be the best song on the disk, but there are even more interesting and unexpected ones.

2. "Plundered My Soul" - discussed before. Weak lyrics and the overall sound is more recent than from 1971. But it's good!

3. "I'm Not Singifying" - I've known this tune before in a version with Keith on great rhythm guitar and loved it! Dirty and mean blues. This version is different, being led by Nicky Hopkins' piano. Oh man I miss Keith's work there! But it's improved, really. Harmonica and horns in the end make the song great for me. Vocals are so-so, Mick Taylor's fills are not that divine and a blues song without a strong solo isn't a good blues song. On the other hand, last minute... Otis would've been proud!

4. "Following the River" - heartbreaking ballad, the kind I don't like. But it's really deep :) Convincing Jagger's vocal, newly recorded of course, but... strings! Strings! Aww come on. Two songs with strings that work for me are this one and "Moonlight Mile", but it's ten times less inspired. "You always saw the best in me" line really blows me though :)

5. "Dancing in the Light" - not a rocker, but close. Up-tempo, positive, happy song. :) Kind of "nanananana na nana": you love to sing it but you never know the words. Most prominent guitarist is Mick Taylor here, Keith's work is somewhere there hidden behind him. One of the best here. Certainly above average Stones level :)

6. "So Divine (Alladin Sane)" - one of my favorites. Awesome lyrics, awesome riff, awesome melody and vocal, and even the lazy solo by Taylor is something I'd love to hear more often from him. The instrumental of this is something that you've got to smoke to, this is far less hypnotizing. "You think your love is so divine / you pour it out like it was heaven-scented wine / You think your love is all I crave / Well, I've got better things to do than be your slave" :)

7. "Loving Cup" - the well-known drunk version with vocals very similar, but overdubbed. Shame. Same great phrasing, though :) Keith's guitar is electric and way more prominent than in the released version. I like it more. Slow and sexy :) It would be the best song on the bonus Exile disk, but it's not - I've already heard that many times! The line "I'm the man who brings you roses when you ain't got none, nothin" always cheers me up :)

8. "Soul Survivor" - another alternate take. Keith sings, this time, and the lyrics are clearly not yet developed - he sings random phrases ("well I just can't fuck it! et cetera!"). Musically it's the same track as the one released before except a little bit of horns added here and there and closing piano parts. So it's a let down. Great we have a Keith track, he sings great, but it's not very interesting one.

9. "Good Time Women" - the only one that was probably untouched. Mick's vocals are from the real Exile Sessions. And we've all heard it before! It's good. Slightly worse than "Tumbling Dice" :)

10. "Title 5" - closing track. Great because it's different. 1:47 of a jam between Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards, going back to the roots of the Stones - it's hard rhythm & blues! You don't hear them play like this at all. :)

And Japanese bonus track to the bonus tracks (^^) and worldwide single not included on the regular album: alternate "All Down the Line". A rocker this disc lacks. :)

2 songs we already heard, 9 new ones but 5 of them with very minor changes. It makes it only 4 songs that are completely new out of 11. Damn it, it's the new Rolling Stones album :)

The Rolling Stones - All Down the Line

Some more news concerning the release of deluxe edition of Exile On Main Street, possibly the Stones' best album, arrived. The second single after "Plundered My Soul" has just been released. It's an alternate take of "All Down the Line" and it's great, but not astonishingly different from the version we've known for years. Lots of Mick Taylor's guitar work and the general mess make it work really, really good!

It's got that Chuck Berry-esque vibe and is quite long (over 4 minutes) for a rock and roll song. Vocals are clearly not-yet-developed so Jagger shouts random phrases while the band has lots of time and space to jam over easy chords. It's so relaxed you can tell it wasn't going to be released back then. And again, like on "Plundered My Soul", Nicky Hopkins on piano shines and rolls!


Since Amazon UK is giving the single away for free but the rest of the world have to pay and I don't think it's fair, I put up a download link for free. Unfortunately it's been removed by Blogspot -_- Sorry. You can find it easily for yourself though!

The Black Keys - Rubber Factory

Now this is it! Enough bluesy and acceptable dirty. Or at least much more and less (^^) than previously reviewed Brothers album. Ladies & gentlemen... Rubber Factory, the Black Keys' masterpiece from 2004.

Indie sucks. I like DIY attitude but it doesn't have to mean lo-fi sound. However, in this case it suits the blues. It's raw and dirty but easily listenable and catchy, it has everything the new album lacks. "10AM Automatic" is oh so good! That's what I call a rocker. Slow "The Lengths" is a boring ballad but the next one's a hot song - you sure have heard "Grown So Ugly" by Captain Beefheart, huh? - this version is equal.


And they played "Stack Shot Billy" on Letterman. And "Aeroplane Blues" was mighty interesting... Just like the whole album really. Most of those 13 tunes don't have the definitive hook that gets stuck in your head but it's alright with me. It's a 4/5 album that I proudly keep in my collection :) And "Till I Get My Way" was a surprisingly good finale, just when I expected nothing new and was ready to switch the player off.

"What about the night / Makes you change / From sweet to deranged" - "10AM Automatic"...

PS. See their music video to the song "Next Girl" from the Brothers album. Funny. And I really like the girls.

The Black Keys - Brothers

They sound worn-out. Tired & forced. Songs are the same as always, but there's less driving guitar and more tricky synths. I wanted to like it but simply couldn't. I get tired listening to this music too long. There's no happiness or joy of playing and keeping the groove, not much more of the blues - it's strictly business.

If only they were more catchy, more freewheeling and eager to play rock and roll or just faster songs... On the other hand - the duo's brutal and raw concept takes effect. This is outstanding in a way - you rarely hear things like that on the radio. It's much worse than previous Black Keys' albums, though. But still - this is not the kind of music I'd like to listen to when I'm stoned and out of my mind. Makes me nervous.


Oh, well... The best cover art I've seen in ages.

Standout tracks: "Ten Cent Pistol", "Sinister Kid" (it should've been turned into something really great!), "Unknown Brother".

On a final note - I'm really curious what marks it's going to get from professional critics. Pitchfork - the most alternative and indie of 'em all - is of course gonna hail it and praise it, but what about the rest... I couldn't care less about the record but I still can't figure out how come it doesn't move me while it really should. I'm impatiently waiting for Allmusic to note that it's unlistenable shit - which Brothers isn't, by the way.