Lovely covers - the Marianne Faithful, the Lou Barlow and the Bright Eyes particularly. They left the Channukah song off "Now..Kosher"? Hmmm...

That does seem like a pretty glaring omission, now that you mention it.

Adrian Belew's new solo album, Side One, with Les Claypool on bass and Tool's Danny Carey on drums, is out today as well. Sound clips at Amazon make it sound like a must have for guitar fans.

Also a new solo album by Sylvain Luc, Ambre.

Yes! Chemical Brothers! I have been longing for a new album from them. =)

Al, love your writing.
Please email me off list. I have a question for you.
Tanks in advance

Al - a real fan!

those two bright eyes albums should be top of folks lists.

hmmm, weird day...all sorts of "i don't get it" discs being mentioned.

first Elliot Smith, now Bright Eyes.

i've been trying to narrow down what exactly it is about some of these singers that leaves me cold....they're often described as "downcast", "moody", etc. i get absolutely no emotion out of any of it.

weird.

Bright Eyes is fucking terrible. I mean, seriously...

That said, "I'm Awake It's Morning" will probably end up in my collection because Emmylou Harris sings on three of the tracks. I LOVE Emmylou.

I sampled the Marianne Faithfull album yesterday at B&N... sounded pretty good. Some of the reviews seemed so-so on it, but it'll probably be a good one to check out.

I'm listening to the Trail of Dead album now... good. Not as epic, perhaps, as past albums, but worth the listen.

I highly recommend the Nat King Cole collection. MuzikMan liked it too. If all you know is "The Christmas Song," this is a great place to start.

great line: "I, however, disapprove on grounds that the album cover is not quite gay enough"

these country hats can get away with the most questionable shit because, you know, they're country

Hard telling what Chesney and Toby Keith are doing up in the hayloft, but I'm sure it's good clean Republican fun.

Eric,

Just curious what is so great about the line "not quite gay enough"...because my expectation is a line "not quite straight enough" wouldn't be such a great line.

Mr Lamb, is this some PC rebuke? Big tough gay cowboys are funny. Run of the mill hetero cowboys are not particularly.

In fairness, however, the specific phrase "not gay enough" comes somehow from SNL. I forget where exactly.

Al,

The question wasn't directed to you...but I will make this comment...

I find it interesting that the primary people who I've seen or heard make comments about "gayness" of Kenny Chesney are straight men.

The gay community doesn't claim him.

Straight women drool over him.

So..what do some straight men see in him?

How would they know he's appealing to someone of their gender? I don't think gay men or straight women put it in their head.

Bill, it isn't nearly that insidious or sociological: I was merely responding to the wording of Al's comment, which struck me as humorous. It was droll.

Eric,

I wasn't trying to be either insidious or sociological when I asked you the question...which you still didn't answer.

I didn't read it as funny, so I didn't get the joke. I was asking to find out.

I made my own response to Al...some straight men seem to know an awful lot about what makes some men homoerotically appealing in the same way that Dr. Dobson seems to know an awful lot about it being hard work to resist having sex with other men. That's just an observation in the same general territory as this topic.

Not PC at all...I'll defend Al's right all day to make the comment. It's just I didn't see it as funny, and I wanted someone to talk about what makes it funny instead of assuming the blogcritics audience all see the world the way he does...and then deflecting by bringing up a tired old PC line..or "I just saw it as funny, that's all." It doesn't answer the question.

as I said, the WORDING is what was funny, not any of the real world implications. The wording in conjunction with the picture of a good looking country star sitting in front of his blue chair in a cowboy hat and some kind of odd sleeveless shirt struck me as funny. It's that simple: funny either is or it isn't, and it's prefectly fine if it doesn't strike you as funny.

I thought it was funny. Whether or not Keeny Chesney is gay or straight or talented or not doesn't really matter, it's just an amusing comment on the album cover.

Big AL on Chesney: "I, however, disapprove on grounds that the album cover is not quite gay enough"


Al, you must understand that not everyone can meet the high standards set by Prince.












========

heh. Just hadda.



BTW: I thought it was a great, funny line.

great one Shark!

Such an odd comment shark...can anyone define what you mean by "gay"? Since Prince is most definitely not gay, does nothing to appeal to a gay audience and has never been embraced in a significant sense by gay audiences?

Dumb, uniformed attempts at humor are just that...dumb, uninformed attempts at humor.

i think yer sarcasm detector is busted.

Bill, you are coming at this from an entirely different place. I'm sure you can see this. None of this has anything to do with actual "gayness" or gay people or appealing to gay people or not appealing to gay people or gay constituencies: it has to do with perception and image and the contradictions inherent in them both

Like Dorothy

you mean the Wizard's Dorothy?

Yes - I'm sure you know the appropriation of Dorothy as a symbol for the gay movement, esp. the 'rainbow' - It was more Judy Garland, really who was the symbol(friend of Dorothy). Someonce could provide additional info - interesting analysis on sex in Oz here, not down Under

The term "Gay" was used by Gertrude Stein in her story about Miss Furr and Miss Skeene in 1922 - probably an early reference.

indeed, I was being funny (again) by quoting the movie

Eric, again, I just find it very interesting that only a group of straight men here seem to be identifying Kenny Chesney and Prince with "gayness" enough to make a joke about it. You have to have a concept of gay to have it be funny, don't you?

I don't know any gay men who really seem to have any concept of what makes women sexually appealing to men, but Al's comment reeks of seeing something in Kenny Chesney...otherwise the joke wouldn't be funny at all. I find that very interesting.

My supposition is that gay men don't tell jokes about "straight enough" because 1) They really don't have much of a clue about being straight or even think they do and 2) They really don't care.

It just seems Al has some concept of "gay" that other straight men find funny...and seems to care enough about Kenny Chesney looking "gay" to make a joke about it...that's my point.

Sarcasm is fine, if it makes sense.

By the way, Al's original reference is here from SNL way back in 1994 with Norm McDonald:

http://www.fakenews.net/update/1994_12_03.html

He was referring to Interview With the Vampire...a movie about a bisexual vampire. It's funny to me because there is gay content in the movie and gay people often whine and bitch about ostensibly gay pop culture not being 'gay enough.' - 'Will and Grace' for example. That's where the humor originated. And yes, Norm McDonald's humor was aimed directly at concepts of 'gayness.'

I'm sure that's a fair objection, but surely you can see a studied attempt to foster a gender-bending image throughout Prince's career? We're talking about image.

Regarding Kenny: I don't think anyone commenting cares one way or the other about the REAL Kenny Chesney, I assume he's straight because I always assume people are straight unless I am clued in otherwise. I just don't think about it very much one way or the other, but the picture in question is hilarious as a caricature of a "gay cowboy" stereotype and I am absolutely certain that it wasn't meant to be that. That is where the humor comes from for me, that and Al's wordplay.

Lamb, suffice it to say that I hate having to explain this kinda stuff.


Saleski: "i think yer sarcasm detector is busted."

Add to that, his irony meter.

Eric,

A sincere thank-you...you finally answered the question I was asking in the first place. Thank you.

One small caveat on Prince...gender identification and sexual orientation are two very very different things. Transgender and androgyny have nothing to do with straight, gay or bisexual sexual orientation. It is a confusion many make however.

I've known transgender and crossdressing people that were straight and ones that were gay...their own gender identity had nothing to do with who they were attracted to.

okay good, it all boils down to image

Lamb: "One small caveat on Prince...gender identification and sexual orientation are two very very different things. Transgender and androgyny have nothing to do with straight, gay or bisexual sexual orientation."

Big Al will be thrilled to hear that!

I gotta question for the gang:

I'm sexually attracted to k.d. lang.

Am I gay -- or straight?

Thanks in advance,
Gender Confused Male in Texas

..maybe I'm just old school, but I thought "gay" meant happy...

Well...you know, a lot of the new Kenny Chesney album is kinda downbeat.

Shark, I only think there's an issue if you are attracted to her BECAUSE she's a lesbian: that shit's masochistic and weird.

Geez, people. Let me break it down a little. I do not put much stock in much of any modern so-called "country" music. It ain't country. It ain't country folk making it, not people who grew up in anything like the circumstances that produced most of the classic country music. The sounds they make come out as homogenized, pasteurized country cheese food. Garth Brooks is to country music about what Cheez Whiz from a can is to actual cheese.

Corollary, many of the cowboy affectations in modern country music look campy and gay to me. Kenny Chesney's album cover does not look like a cowboy who's been out tending a herd, but like a member of the Village People on a break from a show at a gay nightclub.

As to Prince, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out he'd been with men. Besides being a bit of a dandy, he's hinted at such an idea in his music once or twice. For example, in his classic "Anna Stasia" he asked, "Have you ever wanted to play with someone so much you'd take anyone, boy or girl?"

On the other hand, not that it makes any difference whatsoever to the genius of his music one way or the other, Prince is certainly king stud with the ladies. It's all good.

i believe that shark has also mentioned that he has an odd attraction to charlie sheen as well.

;-)

and make no mistake, k.d. lang is tits on toast from my perspective

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

If KD came up crooning "Pulling Back the Reins," she could slap a wig and smear some lipstick on me, and change my name to "Sheila."

Charlie Sheen? Man, I could never get that drunk.

======

Big Al, all the 'real' country music is comin' outta Texas. And we thank gawd few beyond the Red River know about most of it.

i'd do john cusack for a tenner. Or for free, even. Depends on my mood.

I'm glad all of Al's "FANS" speak out when he makes a post requiring very little skill. Cut and paste of the new release list. Its essential... but honestly, you guys need to give Mr. Borland props for that?

Didn't meen to barger in on your love fest for Al... but he's gotta go.

it's all about improving the Big Tent from within

Al, Duke, and Chris perform a very valuable and time-consuming task for us each week with the new releases, and we appreciate it very much

What about these pictures?

Thanks, HeyThere. Those are definitely some of the GAYEST pictures ever.

Now that the Chesney-Zellweger farce is over due to FRAUD (codeword for GAY- see author Terry McMillan's similar claim in her divorce from gay husband) we can put this argument to rest and await to see Kenny on the arm of Rob Thomas at the next music award show.

Hey Kenny,..I've got two passes to see the NYC Premiere of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN...wanna go? Call me. RJ

Hey Kenny,..I've got two passes to see the NYC Premiere of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN...wanna go? Call me. RJ