If you haven’t been introduced to the wild world of Hank Williams III, then now’s your chance, with “Long Hauls and Close Calls,” the first video from his new album, Damn Right Rebel Proud. (And don’t forget to check out our interview with HW3 over at Bullz-Eye!)
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Seriously, how white are we?
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Jeff Giles, me, and David Medsker: dancing machines, every last one of us.
Man, do we love this series. Eagle gets away from their classic rock leanings and brings in four of the Fab Five – Andy Taylor, having left the band once again, does not participate – to dissect Duran Duran’s 1982 worldwide breakthrough album Rio, and while it doesn’t contain any of the bizarro production stories that were revealed in the episode dedicated to Def Leppard’s Hysteria, it is still a very entertaining and informative analysis of one of the biggest albums of the ‘80s. Nick Rhodes describes the origins of the opening sound on the album’s title track, and talks about how he remodeled “The Chauffeur” into an electronic track from its origins as an acoustic number. They even recruited David Kershenbaum to talk about remixing several Rio tracks to make them more “American” (smart move, that). John Taylor pulls out his bass and plays a few riffs, and reveals that he had to switch from his fingers to a pick and back on “Hold Back the Rain.” Russell Mulcahy is on hand to talk about the videos he shot in Sri Lanka (three videos in three days, yikes), and Bob Geldof is on hand to rave about the record, too. It’s a fine addition to an excellent series. May we suggest ABC’s The Lexicon of Love as a future candidate? (Eagle Vision)
This sassy little outfit from Denver has been slugging away at the rock n’ roll game since ’96, and Holler and Stomp is the sixth full-length album Dressy Bessy has pumped out since then. Everything about it screams kitsch – from the cover art donned with pink graffiti and busted trash cans and vintage 1970s stereo equipment, to lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Tammy Ealom’s sometimes off-pitch but always spunky vocals that mix equal parts Debbie Harry and Joan Jett, to the Ramones-like punk blast of the music that comes straight out of “My Boyfriend’s Back” territory. They’re like the harder-edged second coming of the late D.C. combo Tuscadero, and “Automatic” almost sounds like it could have been written with that even more obscure band in mind. This isn’t important music, or even “great” music. But it’s damn fun for the little while that a party-time helium-suck lasts, and deflates the pressure one’s brain may be under after listening to too many political commentators or prog records. Save it for when your favorite cool rock chicks come over to play your old childhood board games… with shots of tequila. (Transdreamer 2008)
It must have looked great on paper, and few musicians are more deserving of a tribute than Les Paul, but as misbegotten encomiums go, Les Paul & Friends: A Tribute to a Legend ranks somewhere near or below George Martin’s disastrous In My Life — and that album featured performances from Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, so you know you’re on dangerous ground here. Tribute is a hack job, from the shoddy artwork (which lists the tracks in the wrong order) to the songs themselves, a handful of which have been poached from the last Les Paul tribute album, 2005’s American Made World Played. What you end up with is a foul-smelling hash that has its high points (notably “The Good Luck You’re Having,” featuring guitar work from Paul, Hiram Bullock, and Joe Bonamassa), but also answers the question of what it would sound like if Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls covered U2 (answer: he’d make “All I Want Is You” sound vaguely like “Black Balloon”) and leaves room for Jeff Golub to add an inexplicable cover of Ace’s “How Long.” What does this have to do with Les Paul? In most cases, not much – in fact, Paul doesn’t even appear on some tracks. It has the look and feel of a shady licensing deal gone wrong, but even if you choose to believe the folks who put it together had the best intentions, there’s no reason to purchase this album. Pick up 2005’s The Best of the Capitol Masters: 90th Birthday Edition instead, and leave this to the truck stops and swap meets it deserves. (Immergent 2008)
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