Category Archives: Pop Culture

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: Dirt by Mark Selby

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Mark Selby Dirt CD Cover

Artist: Mark Selby
Album: Dirt
Release Date: 2003
Label: Vanguard Records

After gaining notoriety for penning hits recorded by Kenny Wayne Shepherd (“Blue on Black”) and the Dixie Chicks, singer/songwriter/ guitarist Mark Selby earned his moment in the spotlight with the release of his own critically lauded, 2000 debut, More Storms Comin’. His exceptional sophomore CD, Dirt indicates that album was not just a fluke. Many of Selby’s songs (some co-written with his wife, Tia Sillers) give vibrant life to romantic ruminations he keeps in his head, (“Willing to Burn, ” “Desire”). Favorable comparisons to Gregg Allman permeate this disc, not only in regard to Selby’s lyrical blues-rock guitar playing, but also his visual songwriting and slightly rough-hewn but engaging vocals — especially appealing on the lead track, “Reason Enough.” Excellent flanged guitar adds a hypnotic undercurrent to the gorgeous title track, but never detracts from the song’s true grit. No need for bells or whistles here: the music does all the talking.

Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/MarkSelbyRocks/

This article was originally written for Rolling Stone’s Online Magazine. Though Rolling Stone remains in print and online, this article is no longer a part of their archive and has been added to the content base of The Worley Gig for our readers’ enjoyment.

Music, Pop Culture

America Needs More Religion: A CD Review

Please enjoy this thought provoking review of Bad Religion’s The Empire Strikes First CD, by Eric J. Iannelli by clicking this link: In Perspective: America Needs More Religion.

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: You’re Gonna Ruin Everything by The Maroons

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Maroons Youre Gonna Ruin CD Cover

Artist: The Maroons
Album: You’re Gonna Ruin Everything
Release Date: March 5, 2002
Label: In Music We Trust

The Pacific Northwest is the unrivaled breeding ground for the great plague upon pop music known as “indie rock”: the most un-melodic, uninteresting, unenergetic music this side of death. Yawn city. But The Maroons are a whole new animal in the indie rock zoo, in that they seem to be highly familiar with Mid-70’s rock (Sweet, T-Rex, The Kinks), the essence of which permeates their sophomore album, You’re Gonna Ruin Everything. Guitarist Jim Talstra’s Brian May-inspired guitar licks on “Can You Feel?” are spot on, while Mike Clark’s Three Dog Night-inspired keyboards (on the clever “Dance Floor Flirt,” for example) leave plenty of hook residue in their wake. Add a lead singer, John Moen, who sounds like the gay reincarnation of Marc Bolan, and you’ve got a bunch of tunes that would be at home on the soundtrack to Velvet Goldmine. If the Posies wrote a rock opera about the life of a Guided By Voices fan, You’re Gonna Ruin Everything might be the result.

Official Website: http://inmusicwetrustrecords.com/themaroons.html

This article was originally written for Rolling Stone’s Online Magazine. Though Rolling Stone remains in print and online, this article is no longer a part of their archive and has been added to the content base of The Worley Gig for our readers’ enjoyment.

Music, Pop Culture

What is that Bucket Doing on his Head?

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Art By Robot Bobrox (Image Source)

A Rad Guest Post By Sir Millard Mulch

Buckethead’s fans think he is a unique, underground artist with pure intentions. This is not true. Buckethead is a strategic advertisement for himself.

It has nothing to do with his music and everything to do with his visual appearance — the same scam as every other Rock Star. He’s an accidental genius phenomenon of masterful marketing tricks; on a higher level than any mersh band on the radio could conceive of. After all, if he didn’t have a BUCKET ON HIS HEAD and a weird mask, no one would give a fuck what he did.
Continue reading What is that Bucket Doing on his Head? →

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: Perfumed Letter by Bill Mallonee

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Bill Mallonee CD Cover

Artist: Bill Mallonee
Album: Perfumed Letter
Release Date: August 26, 2003
Label: Paste Records

Singer/songwriter Bill Mallonee’s roots rest in the Athens, GA soil that nurtured college radio pioneers REM and underground stalwarts, Let’s Active. After releasing a dozen impressive albums with his country–folk rock project, Vigilantes of Love, Mallonee explores a classic pop sound — Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles (“She’s So Liquid) meets The Monkees (“Extraordinary Girl”) — while staying true to his love of heady, introspective lyricism on his excellent solo debut, Perfumed Letter.

Mallonee strikes his best balance of wistful and whimsical on the deceptively uplifting post-breakup song, “Your Bright Future.” Floating on a Foo Fighters-inspired melody, Mallonee keenly addresses lost hope and its subsequent resignation in the lyrics, “There’s a little piece of you I may never see again/There’s a bigger piece of me that’s simply vanishing.” With Perfumed Letter, Mallonee steps off from the Bob Dylan/Neil Young amalgam of VOL to find peers among Beck, The Eels and Mercury Rev.

Official Website: http://www.billmalloneemusic.com/

This article was originally written for Rolling Stone’s Online Magazine. Though Rolling Stone remains in print and online, this article is no longer a part of their archive and has been added to the content base of The Worley Gig for our readers’ enjoyment.