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The new and improved Atlanta-friendly Radcliffe Rating Scale:
5 BUSTYS - reaches out and slaps you silly if you even consider altering a note.
4 BLOORS - seemingly respectable, but appears on the persons-of-interest lists of the FBI, Interpol, and CSIS.
3 LOOGS - generally decent and gregarious, but has a tendency to annoy.
2 SQUIRGLES - honest and hard-working, but fired all the same.
1 RHETT BUTLER - frankly, harlot, I don't give a damn.
THE FINE PRINT: Before reading this review, please keep in mind that I'm fully aware that there is quite often an undeniable discrepancy between what I like and what is good.
1. Bill Hicks Politics In America
Hicks always reminds me of 3 or 4 of my friends. Put a couple drinks in 'em in the right circumstance and they'll deliver the same caustic/funny rants and alienate a sizable portion of the party. Hicks' ghost, therefore, has an open invitation to sit in the same corner of the room at all future social functions.
3 LOOGS
2. Detroit Cobras The Real Thing
Showing the Cobras at their most melodic - though shifted down a gear from their optimum cruising speed. It's amazing how well this jalopy still runs.
5 BUSTYS
3. The Supersuckers Good Livin'
At first listen I figured this must've been a forgotten track off their Must've Been High album - sloppy drunk C&W, in other words. Bonus points for finding a 'suckers song I didn't have.
3 LOOGS
4. Lucero Ain't So Lonely
One of those bands that doesn't slay you with originality, but also one of those bands that reminds you of the value of tradition. A nicely introspective Son Volt circa-Trace sorta vibe.
4 BLOORS
5. Crooked Fingers Twilight Creeps
Eric Bachmann meet Bruce Springsteen. Bruce, meet Eric. Oh and that sulky prick in the corner is Lou Reed.
4 BLOORS
6. Queens of the Stone Age Auto Pilot
I've always felt that QOTSA let themselves down with weak vocals (and the common metal preference for volume over momentum, but that's a complaint for another time), but this song really works for me. The lazy vocals are perfect and the band manages to work a slinky groove.
5 BUSTYS
7. The Woggles Push
Dang, this is the song the Detroit Cobras should've covered at the end of Baby instead of rehashing "Cha Cha Twist" - good old-fashioned late '60s garage rock with all the genre's inherent weaknesses intact (amateur vocals, lumbering beat, rudimentary riffs) and somehow becoming strengths.
3 LOOGS
8. The Black Keys Just Couldn't Tie Me Down
These guys remind me too well of one thousand and one '70s blooze bands. I really despise '70s blooze bands.
2 SQUIRGLES
9. Les Savy Fav Yawn, Yawn, Yawn
This is my intro to LSF and I like 'em so far. Got a real early '80s sound to it, and it manages to be melancholy and spazzy at the same time.
4 BLOORS
10. Devo Gut Feeling
I fucking love that first Devo album. Don't have any time at all for anything else they did, but for about 40 minutes they totally rooled.
5 BUSTYS
11. Iron & Wine Woman King
Great texture to this song. I find I get impatient with Beam's perpetually whispered vocals, but there's an undeniable stroke of brilliance at work.
4 BLOORS
12. Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter Tell The Boys
They remind me of the Cowboy Junkies if someone managed to lure Margot Timmins out of her narcolepsy. And I like the Cowboy Junkies.
3 LOOGS
13. Clem Snide Jews For Jesus Blues
I really like Eef's lyrics, even though they usually settle for wise-ass instead of wise, but the band's overly restrained strumming prevents most of their songs from lodging themselves in my consciousness for any length of time. This one is a case in point.
3 LOOGS
14. Widespread Panic Blackout Blues
This is the first WP song I've heard that didn't involve Vic Chesnutt. Not bad, though nothing that makes me want to run out and buy an album. Delivers the same kind of traditionalist charms as, say, the NRBQ.
3 LOOGS
15. The Glands Livin' Was Easy
Don't know a thing about these guys, but like what I hear. Rickety chording, kleenex box drums, swooning vocals - there's something very cool going on here.
4 BLOORS
16. The Ponys Lookin' Out A Mirror
Yesterday I had this mix on random with some other albums, and when this song came on I assumed it was the Dead 60s and I thought "shit, the Dead 60s don't suck as bad as I thought." But it was the Ponys and, good news, the Dead 60s still suck. Oh, but Richard Hell would like his vocals back.
4 BLOORS
17. Powderfinger Rockin' Rocks
I've got this album (and think that the chorus to "Don't Panic" is pop genius), but I wish these guys would tone down the big modern RAWK production, 'cuz they're just bordering on being interesting.
3 LOOGS
18. Sugar Gee Angel
In Husker Du I always preferred Grant Hart's McCartney to Mould's Lennon, and so I've always stayed away from Sugar albums. And even though this song doesn't change my mind on that stance, it's a nice shot of buzzing energy on this mix.
3 LOOGS
19. Drive-by Truckers Why Henry Drinks
Is this off Alabama Ass Whuppin'? I like the song well enough, but if I was watching them in concert this would be my opportunity to go take a piss or get another drink (just to ensure I didn't miss "Zip City", "Marry Me", or "Carl Perkins' Cadillac").
3 LOOGS
Average numerical score: 3.58, putting the mix right smack dab between a Loog and a Bloor (which is where I'd imagine to find Derris anyway).
Great mix, RD! It's getting a lot of play at chez Radcliffe, with absolutely nothing that makes me want to hit the skip button. Thanks, mang.
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