Blogcritics

Vinyl Tap: Crowded House - Temple of Low Men

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:26:04 EDT

"Into temptation / Safe in the wide open arms of hell..."
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #57:According to one of the memorable and melodic songs of pop apprehension that bejewel Crowded House’s foreboding Temple of Low Men -- the propulsive "In the Lowlands" -- "Black shapes gather in the distance / Looks like it won't take long." This 1988...

Vinyl Tap: Rod Stewart - Never a Dull Moment

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:47:35 EDT

I�ve worn it out well.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #56:I’ve worn it out well.Patterned after and released on the heels of Rod Stewart’s masterwork Every Picture Tells a Story, and nestled firmly between Long Player and Ooh-La-La by the influential Faces -- Small no more with the influx of Stewart, along with Ron Wood, in...

Vinyl Tap: The Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:49:06 EDT

This isn�t your mother�s Psychedelic Furs.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #55: There's conversation...

Vinyl Tap: The Replacements - Let It Be

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:40:38 EDT

Accept no substitutes. The Replacements' Let It Be is a roarin� little record I want my turntable to play and play again.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #54: Seen your video. Heard your record. One more chance to get it all wrongOne more time to do it all wrongOne more night to get it half rightOne more warningOne more warning soundWe're comin' outWe're comin' out.“Fingernails and a cigarette's a lousy...

Vinyl Tap: Jo Jo Gunne

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:31:02 EDT

From the primordial mist, in the land where Foghatsaurus and Grand Funk Triceratops roamed, the mighty Jo Jo Gunne emerged...
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #53: It was in ancient history, four thousand B.C.Back up in the jungle in a coconut treeHanging on a branch up under the sunWas a meddlesome monkey named Jo Jo Gunne...--"Jo Jo Gunne," Chuck BerryIt wasn’t ancient history, of course. It seemed a much more primitive era,...

Vinyl Tap: The Ventures - Walk Don't Run

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Sat, 8 Mar 2008 08:43:10 EST

Something Ventured, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gained.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #52: I’m not kidding myself: I would’ve run -- and not walked -- when I actually met Bob Bogle, a founder and mainstay of the Ventures back in in their mid-’60s heyday. I was only a wayward lad, so I’m sure my mother, who already knew him as a fellow musician --...

Vinyl Tap: Cindy Lee Berryhill - Garage Orchestra

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:55:50 EST

Garage Orchestra�s ramshackle Pet Sounds-and-kettle drums core is complemented with Cindy Lee Berryhill�s loosey-goosey vocals and upfront guitar.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #51: Garage Orchestra, from 1994, starts off with a siren on the first song, “Father of the Seventh Son,” in a clarion call that evokes the Beach Boys’ abandoned 1967 SMiLE project when a mentally fragile Brian Wilson, having handed out toy fire hats in the studio,...

Vinyl Tap: My Top Ten Album Reissues for 2007

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:36:57 EST

Zevon on Fire, Twilley Sincerely, Lofgrenesque, Pretenders Crawl, Costello Aims, HaveWilbury-WillTravel, U2 up a Tree, ELO out of the Blue, Secondhand Magazine, Faces OohLaLa!
Though most of these reissues are replete with bells and whistles -- extra tracks, remastering, super-duper deluxe editions, hot-and-cold runnning water -- a few are of the no-nonsense refresher-course variety. All worth perusing and considering, however, to some degree. 1) Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True (Extra Tracks, Deluxe Edition, Original...

Vinyl Tap: Bing Crosby - Hey Jude/Hey Bing!

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:19:05 EST

When der Bingle covered das Beatles in 1969, he went through the motions with insouciance intact and ascot scarcely askew.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #50:“The older [studio musicians] said, ‘He still sings great.’ The younger ones said, ‘He’s a Gas.’” I’m thinking maybe Helium, although the liner notes of Hey Jude/Hey Bing! don’t go on to claim balloon abuse as the cause of Bing...

Vinyl Tap: House of Freaks - Tantilla

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:11:10 EDT

The brutal slaying of Bryan Harvey, along his family, silenced an inspired, vital voice who could talk shop like he's speaking in tongues.
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #49: On their stripped-down but striking 1988 debut Monkey On A Chain Gang, the guitar-and-drums duo House of Freaks ends with an emphatic Wolfeian declaration that “You Can Never Go Home”: Standing on a dusty roadPraying for a signLightning only struck me once And then it...