Elvis Presley – Elvis: Viva Las Vegas
RCA Records (7/31/07)
Rock / Vocal
Hi, I’m Jeff, and yes, Bambi’s doing her Elvis tribute this week to commemorate the 30th annivrsary of his death, I figured that it could be no more apropos to feature this album this week (though I just realized that she featured this same album in her Tuesday edition… oops… oh well, I’ve already got it all written up, so here’s an opposing viewpoint). Viva Las Vegas is a collection of tracks that captured the essence of the man who basically owned Sin City for the majority of the early ’70s. One listen to this album and you’ll know why. Casual Elvis fans probably won’t recognize too many of the tracks (many of which are covers), but the rest of you will be greatly rewarded. For those of you just joining us, Elvis played 58 consecutive sold-out shows back in 1970 at the International Hotel (which became the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971), and continued to play there regularly until 1976. With the exception of the first track, which is an original recording of “Viva Las Vegas”, all of the tracks are culled from performances at that hotel. Just having completed a highly successful comeback in the late ’60s, Elvis is top-notch in these recordings, as is the TCB Band, his famous backup band. The collection starts out with the American standard “See See Rider” and Ray Peterson’s “The Wonder of You”, before Elvis revisits his Southern roots on a version of Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” which features Jerry Scheff’s now-famous fuzz bass solo at the end of the track. The standard “Let It Be Me” has been covered by numerous other artists including Kenny Rogers, Tom Jones, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, but Elvis brings his own sensational flavor to the track, while the cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is beautiful, beautiful stuff. It almost moved me to tears, but then again, that might have been the Hot Sauce From Hell that I was putting in my macaroni and cheese that I was eating during this review. But maybe not. Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” doesn’t really soar or have any sensational element to it (until the final 20 seconds or so), instead offering an almost unpolished, garage feel. This for some reason really made me feel like I was there in the smoke-filled International Hotel lounge watching the performance live. A cover of Righteous Brothers “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” pwn3d my ass, and is probably the best track on the album, as it shows that on that hot August night in 1970, Elvis was at the top of his game, not only in his stage show, but also his vocal range. Sweet Jesus, the tears were just starting to dry from “Bridge Over Troubled Wa… er, I mean, the Hot Sauce From Hell, when he had to go and do this one. Elvis originals “Just Can’t Help Believin'”, “An American Trilogy” and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” are all fantastically executed, not to mention remastered—yes, the remastering is really that damn good, but they could have included some previously unreleased material, or, at the very least, a live rendition of “Viva Las Vegas”. A nice rendition of Three Dog Night’s “Never Been to Spain” kicks off the last few tracks before we get “You Gave Me a Mountain” and the dramatic and soaring “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)”, which was a wonderful choice to close out the set. If you buy this album, the terrorists will lose miserably. If you buy this album, world hunger will suffer an excruciating shot in the balls. If you buy this album, global warming might decrease slightly. It might not flow like one cohesive concert, but it’s a damn good collection that commands recognition. One a side note, has anyone tried those Elvis peanut-butter-and-banana-flavored Reese’s cups? They’re really not that good. Save your dollar, along with fourteen other ones, and buy this album instead.
Hi, I’m Sean Hannity1, and wow, Jeff Fernandez, you sure do have a lot to say about Elvis. I like Elvis, but come on, you’re starting to sound like that gas-bag Alan Colmes. Or Barack Obama, with his speeches supporting terrorism. Haven’t heard those yet? Oh, just wait, they’re coming, I can feel it. Toby Keith told me. For those of you ignorant liberals who don’t know, Toby keith is the greatest singer ever, as well as the most patriotic man in America, right after me. While this album represents the seedier side of Elvis, with the booze, and the drugs, and all the other stuff that liberals love, it’s still a good collection.
OFFICE – A Night at the Ritz
Scratchie Records/New Line Records (9/25/07)
Rock / Alternative
Residing in the Chicagoland area, I’ve heard buzz about this group for while now, but since I only really go to shows once in a blue moon (and when I do it’s artists like Pigface and The Sisters of Mercy) and haven’t been to Schuba’s in about five years, I’d never heard their music. OFFICE’s MySpace page describes their sound like “[a] broken Xerox machine spitting out love letters to a cocktail party in reverse slow motion.” I have no idea what that means, but I appreciate it on an abstract poetic level. But seriously. Originally starting out as a musical complement to his office themed installations, lead singer/songwriter/producer Scott Masson’s musical experiment has come full circle to become a full-blown five-piece band. And the critics just love them. Really, really love them. Like I’m surprised that the critics haven’t married them yet. Masson’s voice has hints of Ian McCulloch and Freddie Mercury at times, which works well with the synth-pop-laden musical elements of A Night at the Ritz. “If You Don’t Know By Now” and “Company Calls” are danceable punk in the same vein as Radio 4 and The Rapture, and this, ladies and germs, is why this band is such a hit. Chicago is chock full of hipsters, and most of them love this stuff. That’s not to shit on it—it’s very catchy, and the incredibly infectious beats make it difficult not to at least nod one’s head. “Q&A” has some great musical elements, while Masson sounds a bit like that guy from Travis. Good stuff. I’ve either heard “The Ritz” somewhere before (probably in a commercial), and if I’m mistaken, it’s because it sounds very similar to other tracks that are currently being used in car and mobile phone commercials, and will more than likely be the band’s first big score.
Hey Jeff, since I’m willing to ask questions and challenge the assumptions that many in the mainstream news media are not, when are you going to get off of your lazy Mexican ass and start speaking out against illegal Mexican immigrants, who are raping our children and eating our beans at an alarming daily rate? Are you going to sit by idly and watch as our country becomes a cesspool of Mexican disrepair? Not me, I’m a real American, Jeff Fernandez! You should be ashamed of your wetback self! I propose we put up a giant moat between Mexico and America and fill it with piranhas, and if we run out of piranhas we can just put Ann Coulter in there to pick up the slack. This OFFICE CD reminds me of the days when I used to bar-tend back in the ’80s, but with a lot less coke. Hey, my president, Mr. George W. Bush did it, so it’s OK. I’m so patriotic that I put the American flag on my book cover… and it wasn’t because I’m using the flag as a merchandising tool for my own self-aggrandizingly patriotic screeds cashing in on my TV celebrity! I’m the angry American! Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!
Poets & Pornstars – Poets & Pornstars
Wenzl-Hopper Records/Adrenaline Music Group (8/21/07)
Rock
Originally released in December of 2005, this album was subsequently reconfigured—some of the tracks from the original version were cut, while some new ones were added—and had some marketing bells and whistles thrown in courtesy of Adrenaline Music Group. Those of you who have frequently watched programming on the WB Network over the years might know singer/producer Hal Ozsan as a character actor seen in shows like Dawson’s Creek and Felecity (as well as the ABC Family Channel’s Fallen miniseries), while the rest of us are seeing Ozsan for the first time here. Frequent patrons of L.A.’s Viper Room will more than likely know this band from a Friday night residency in which they garnered much support from the locals. Much like Buckcherry, Poets & Pornstars recalls the days of filthy cock rock by paying homage to bands like Poison and Mötley Crüe, also throwing in dashes of roots rock à la The Black Crowes, as evidenced in feel-good tracks like “Rock and Roll”, “Get Your Kicks” and “My Devil’s Song (Sexwinewomensongssugarmagicmoney)”. We get the obligatory rock ballad with “In the Dark”, and the obligatory sexually suggestive track in “Monkey”, to go along with the obligatory hot chick bass player in Sally Hope. While the music doesn’t get as intense as the aforementioned Buckcherry (maybe you need heroin for that), the majority of the album is really very good, and while I’d label it Buckcherry-Lite, compared the Nickelbacks of the world, it’s got balls the size of Cisco Adler’s.
If this album were any more liberal it would be Communist. Seriously. And who wants to hear music by porn stars? I mean, that Andrea True Connection song wasn’t bad, but disco is mostly music for the gays, with their buggery and their rainbow imagery. They’re corrupting our youth! We must cure them! Gay marriage is for suckers, too. AIDS was made up by scientists and liberals, just like global warming. Why should we be getting people all riled up over AIDS and global warming when the real issue here is The War on Terror? In fact, I think we should up the terror warning to RED just to show how diabolical those people in Iran are. You really think they aren’t thinking about blowing up your child’s school right this very second? Well, they are. If we bomb Iran, Toby Keith will be happy. And if Toby Keith is happy, well… I don’t know.
Superbad Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Lakeshore Records (8/7/07)
Soundtrack
I really want to see this movie. It looks ridiculously hilarious. Regarding the soundtrack, guitarist Lyle Workman, formerly of Bourgeois Tagg and Frank Black and the Catholics, scores nearly two-thirds of the album with funky jazz instrumentals, while the rest of it contains classic tracks by artists like Curtis Mayfield and The Bar-Kays. Kind of nice, as I would have expected a soundtrack full of indie or dance-punk tracks. This was refreshing. But yeah, Workman does some incredible things here, putting together musical compositions with a wide range of influences. The majority of the tracks, like “Super What?”, “Evan’s Basement Jam” and “Funk McLovin” are acid jazzy bliss that could have come off of the latest Down to the Bone album, while “Like a Pimp” has a samba/cumbia thing going on, and “Sleeping Bags” recalls days of childhood innocence from years past. These funky instrumentals mesh very well with the two Bar-Kays tracks (“Too Hot to Stop” and “Soul Finger”), Curtis Mayfield’s “P.S. I Love You”, and tracks by Rick James, Jean Knight and Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66. Hell, even the sole Roots track (“Here I Come” with Malik B. and Dice Raw) works really well with everything, despite being the only track in the set to have been recorded in the past 25 years. Even if you don’t have any interest in the movie, pick this album up, as it has some funk/jazz gems and is going to be a big-time sleeper at the end of the year.
Yes, I like jazz, so for the most part I like this album. Some of the stuff is a little too “Al Sharpton” for me, but I can overlook it. Sometimes when I’m dreaming of making sweet love to Ann Coulter, I imagine that Curtis Mayfield is playing the background, but then sometimes the music changes to John Mellencamp and I’m all of a sudden having sex with Nancy Pelosi… and she wants to talk about the benefits of stem cell research! My god, those nightmares are the worst. That’s why I don’t drink Ovaltine before bed anymore.
ENDNOTE
1 In an effort to prevent any legal action or threat of legal action from Sean Hannity or the Fox News Channel (and you know that they’d totally do it), MachineGunFunk.com must disclose that this is not really Sean Hannity. It’s actually Widro dressed as Alan Colmes.
