Below are our picks for RtBE's favorite albums of the year. It starts with our honorable mentions then moves into our top ten albums of the year. There is a short blurb about the album and a song from it, click on the title to read our full review of the selected records. The focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen to all the way through.
We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week ...Songwriters Showcase!
The final Dave's Picks of 2022 goes back to summer of 1990, just like the final Dave's Picks of 2021. Spring and Summer 1990 were the last consistently top notch tours of the Dead's career and archivist David Lemieux has made the most of them.
With the untimely passing of vocalist/guitarist Dallas Good after the recording of The Sadies newest release Colder Streams, the long running Canadian alt/folk/garage/retro-rock act is in a state of flux. However, none of that unknown is present on the excellent final release to feature Good.
The Doylestown, Pennsylvania outfit Ceramic Animal have been going at it for a few years now but hope to breakout to larger audiences with Sweet Unknown. The record was produced by Dan Auerbach (who plays and sings throughout the album) and released on his Easy Eye Sound label as the group deliver a sampler of pop rock styles, hoping some will stick.
In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's artists, Emma Gillespieis performing a live cover of "Forever Young"
Thoughts on Original: From the first time we covered a cover of this tune. "Forever Young" is a classic. A track that Dylan released two different versions of on Planet Waves, and a song tons of artists use to close out sets or play encores. Without doing research it has to be one of the top 5 most covered songs of his, and yet it was never one of RtBE's favorites. It is a great song, Bob has always treated it a bit sterile though and this is a flaw in Dylan; artists would give their whole careers to write a song like this and he treats it like an out take, Last Waltz version not withstanding.
Cover:
Thoughts on Cover Artist: This is the first time hearing Emma Gillespie.
Thoughts on Cover:
Such delicate cover and a wonderful way to wrap up this series for the year.
Here is more on the man who RtBE was lucky enough to have seen with his band the Roadmasters. They combined blues, soul and R&B with ease and were always a fun set of music.
We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...The Pretenders!
It is of Los Lobos recent live show at City Winery on Monday night December 19th.
RtBE have been fans of Los Lobos for a while but had yet to ever catch them live...that was a a mistake. This band kicks major ass still on the live stage. See them if you can.
I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore
*** out of *****
The insane cover art with candles gold skulls, planets, deities and the possible apocalypses all represent the experimental, overwhelming at times, ride that is $ilkmoney's newest release titled I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore.
That cover art seeps into the odd album intro setting a creepy vibe before the short blasting vocals kick off "I Ate 14g of Mushroom and Bwoy Oh Bwoy" as $ilkmoney sounds like a juiced up Busta Rhymes with a fierce driving vocal style. The skittering beats and braggadocio rapid fire lyrical style color tracks like "A White Bitch Killed Gary Coleman" and "One Glazed and One Jelly Filled Nucleus" while "S.F.C.S.S.S.$" uses soul samples and weed smoke to cloud the misogynistic lyrics.
Producer Khalilblu excellently accents $ilkmoney's aggressive style with a mix of modern and throwback hip hop sounds. Grand Theft Auto samples move into spoken word poetry around twinkling sounds on "A Visit from The Grand Portal Wizard Snake" while Jimmy "The Rent Is Too Damn High" McMillan gets his concept altered a bit on the following effort.
The most complete offerings here arrive in the center of the album as Khalilblu and $ilkmoney team to match machine gun rapping over creative beats on "Cuummoney Amiliani" while smoother music cools out "Jody Don't Love Me No Mo :-(" the rare exhale. Most of the album is very direct and in the listeners face, never more so than on the protest poetry of "Emmm, Nigga You Is Tasty :)" which moves from hip-hop to spoken word anger railing against the constantly pervasive racism in society and equating it effectively to cannibalism.
More modern hip-hop beats accent "Rent-Em Spoons Is A Good Idea" while samples and a laid back groove finish of the record on a production standpoint as $ilkmoney continues his distorted rapid fire spoken word, hating on capitalism and exploitation in hip-hop, Hollywood and more before sidetracking into mind expansion of 'Shrooms and Ayahuasca and ending with the sample of "there is always work at the post office" from Robert Townsend's excellent Hollywood Shuffle, a film that took on racial stereotypes in the arts during the late '80's.
Part album, part experiment, part art-exhibit, part protest $ilkmoney's I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore touches on a lot of topics in sometimes harsh and uncomfortable ways, not always succeeding, but always remaining interesting which is rare to find on albums these days.
The companion album to Leyla McCalla'sBreaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, muli-disciplinary music, dance and theatre work developed with collaborator Kiyoko McCrae, the Breaking The Thermometer record is a tribute to Radio Haiti and McCalla's personal journey as well as others Haitian memories and connections to that country.
Vocally McCalla sings with passion on "Dan Reken" and delicately on "Pouki" (which also features Melissa Laveaux)as McCalla's singing is dynamite throughout the album. The dance ready percussion and vibrating strings resonate on "Dodinin" while the personal stories of more Haitians start "Ekzile" before rising string work and percussion lead to a swelling finale.
"You Don't Know Me" stands out as a pop single on a very fluid album and while it is fine in and of itself, it seems a touch out of place and one note. Better is the slow rising dawn of "Vini We" complete with sweeping doorways and animal noises as the environment of Haiti comes to audial life. The field/earth song "Artibonite" is pushed along by percussion and McCalla's strong vocals before the floating/smoky guitars of "Mountain Song" and the French vocals of "Boukman's Prayer" wrap things up.
The incredibly personal project from Leyla McCalla, Breaking the Thermometer, is an engaging journey of self-discovery and identity definition as well as a positive musical portrait of Haiti. While not as world welcoming as her best past work, the historic importance and individual Haitian pride throughout makes for a enjoyable discovery.
In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a live cover byFederico Borluzziplaying "Must Be Santa"
Thoughts on Original: In 2009 Bob Dylan released Christmas In The Heart and unleashed his version of the rollicking "Must Be Santa" and it's killer video upon the world.
Based on a German drinking song, "Must Be Santa" was concocted by Hal Moore and Bill Fredericks and first released in 1960. Dylan's version is a blast in a polka style tossing in Presidents into the mix. While technically not an original for this series...who cares?
Cover:
Thoughts on Cover Artist: This is our first time hearing Federico Borluzzi who is a singer-songwriter from Aosta, Italy
We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Run The Jewels!
Having caught RTJ now twice at the Garden, I can attest they put on a great live show. Here they are back in 2018 on ACL.
Pro Sound, Pro Shot, Setlist below. Enjoy:
1:44 Talk To Me4:25 Legend Has It9:15 Blockbuster Night, Pt.112:01 Oh My Darling Don't Cry17:35 36" Chain21:10 Stay Gold24:45 Don't Get Captured28:24 Nobody Speak31:51 Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)34:46 A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters38:18 Thursday in the Danger Room42:50 210048:19 Down
Another year is finishing up and @RockBodElec wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE presents 2022's Favorite Albums Part 3: Top Five.
In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album, either on this site or elsewhere, we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name/title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.
Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle, Spotify or singles for us.
The number ten just works for this, so here is the second part of our top ten, numbers five through one. You can see the back end of our top ten and the albums that just missed as well.
Like all of our lists or 'best of's' these are meant to start conversations, not end them...
Another year is finishing up and @RockBodElec wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE presents 2022's Favorite Albums Part 2 (Numbers 10-6):
In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album, either on this site or elsewhere, we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name/title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.
Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle, Spotify or singles for us.
The live show is a slippery thing. There are lots of variables at play, most having little to do with the performance itself. Does the venue have enough bathrooms? Is it going to rain? What day of the week is it on? Did I have a shitty day at work before hand? Did tickets cost waaay too much? All of this effects one's opinion of a live show before the band even tunes up and with reason, but when the stars align, there is no place RtBE would rather be than in the moment of magic occurring spontaneously from the stage.
Live Music Has No Equal!
Taken By The Fantastic Megan Donohue
While obviously we can't see every show that is out there, we try to get out often to catch live music. Sure there are a few left in the calendar year, but for now, here is a listing of the best concerts we were fortunate enough to have caught in 2022 (THANK GOD LIVE MUSIC IS BACK!).
There are links to show reviews in the titles, also because who doesn't love arbitrary rankings, one show at the bottom took the top prize as RtBE's 2022 Favorite Live Show. We also make mention of a few live streams we enjoyed in 2022 as they now seem like a positive development for all involved.
In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a live cover by Pete Morton performing "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"
Thoughts on Original: (From the first time in this series we tackled a cover of this song) A rambling transitional tune from Dylan as he moved from folk to his rock phase backed by The Hawks, pushingthat wild thin mercury sound which Dylan was just starting to dabble in. Perhaps because of it's rarity, not appearing on any official album, it is always a joy to listen to when it pops up, but there are better tracks in this vein such as the unfinished "She's Your Lover Now", but that is a whole separate post.... Cover:
Thoughts on Cover Artist: This is the first time we are hearing Pete Morton.
Thoughts on Cover:
Like a cover a few weeks back, Morton takes a rollicking electric original and strips it down to acoustic strums and it works well. I am not sure about the hat, but I am sure about Morton's gusto, a fun cover of an underappreciated jam.
Swedish new wave punkster Manuela Iwansson has released the single "Strangers On A Train" from her debut album Dark Tracks which you can check out on Bandcamp.
The Stockholm based singer has been working on the album for a while, check out the song below:
We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Merle Haggard!
Another year is finishing up and @RockBodElec wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE presents 2022's Favorite Albums Part 1 (Honorable Mentions and Let Downs):
In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album, either on this site or elsewhere, we will link to that review and just give a quick summation; click on the name/title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE also worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.
Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but long playing releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle, Spotify playlists or streaming for us.
These are the albums that just missed out on being included in our top ten favorite for the year (coming soon). After some very excellent albums we have a few releases from artists we dig, which we were let down by.
Like all of our lists or 'best of'' these are meant to start conversations, not end them...
It is of the recent Hold Steady Massive Nights show at Brooklyn Bowl last Friday night, 12/2.
While this wasn't our favorite tHS show of all-time, it was a real joy to see friends, loved ones and familiar faces at the Bowl. Great night as always.
Each year the music industry dips into the past to deliver box sets, live albums, re-masters and outtake collections to sell to the music loving masses (present company included). This look back will round up some of RtBE's favorite archival releases from the past year.
Usually these releases can fall into the money grab category, not really adding much outside of revenue for the label and (hopefully) the artist. Every now and then though some spectacular collections are unearthed and are worth any price.
RtBE includes live albums in this category, since they were recorded in the recent or distant past and thus fall into archival release status.
With the increase in vinyl, and enhanced Record Store Days to help smaller sellers, there are more and more archival releases each year. RtBE are sure to miss a lot of them, but the quality and abundance is exciting. Post your favorites, or any we may have missed in the comments.
These were our favorite archival releases of 2022, click the link in the title for full length reviews.
Just like in years past, we will be choosing our favorite albums of the year, a few that were underwhelming, our favorite live shows, and highlight some fantastic archive releases, all of which will be posted over the next few days.
Today we are starting out by judging books (records) by their covers (vinyl sleeves, jackets, digital pics, etc) with the Best Album Art Work of 2022.
The biggest gripe RtBE has with digital music is not the quality (that has been massively improved) nor the disposal nature of it (still a problem, but whatever), it is the lack of amazing album covers and art work.
Sure there may be great album art out there but seeing it on a screen, on Spotify or elsewhere is nothing compared to holding an LP or even a CD booklet with pages of lyrics, pictures etc.
Thankfully the rise of vinyl is helping this dilemma but it is still not enough. The hours we spent staring, actually holding, examining tons of covers while listening to music can't be adequately recorded, it added new dimensions to the sounds. You were connected to album in a more physical way; things were deeper, more evocative...Anyways...
Addie Brik has released a new video for her song "Retromingent"
It is from her album That Dog Don't Hunt. Regarding the lyrical themes of this song, Brik says:
“Whatever people do or do not do to you along the way, if you can’t let go of that you’ll never get to where you should be going. So, there is Logos, the truth, not my personal take, or some lobbyist take on truth and I have a responsibility to think correctly and hold myself to higher standards, my future, heaven or hell, depends on it. People do what they do and will get their comeuppance. There’s a natural working order here that fulfils itself.”
We are now heading into the new normal with live music during the Covid-19 era. Live shows will need to be flexible and live streaming is a great way to keep music going. Streams have become essential for live music junkies like RtBE. Things are (hopefully) improving on the pandemic front but live streams will be an option for artists during the foreseeable future. We will highlight various shows/streams/virtual events for your viewing and listening pleasure and as a way to help out the artists. You can check out our weekly Full Show Friday series for concerts from the past and as always, please support the artists any which way you can.
Today we highlight: Eric Slick Live at Relix Studios
In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's artists, Istoperforming a live cover of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"
Thoughts on Dylan Original: From the first time we tackled a cover of this tune: A simple little number coming off of John Wesley Harding it discards the lyrical wizardry for a down home spin. We are rewarded with easy bliss, not often found in Dylan tunes. The emotions displayed by the singer here are heartfelt, hearty and easy going, just like the tune as a whole. Always a pleasant ride, bring that bottle over here...
Cover:
Thoughts on Cover Artist: This is the first time RtBE have encountered Isto (aka Chris White) who is a musician and guitar teacher, based in New York City and Newark, NJ.
Thoughts on Cover:
A sweet, slow rolling solo stroll through the pleasant tune. Sung and played properly and affectingly.
We are now heading into the new normal with live music during the Covid-19 era. Live shows will need to be flexible and live streaming is a great way to keep music going. Streams have become essential for live music junkies like RtBE. Things are (hopefully) improving on the pandemic front but live streams will be an option for artists during the foreseeable future. We will highlight various shows/streams/virtual events for your viewing and listening pleasure and as a way to help out the artists. You can check out our weekly Full Show Friday series for concerts from the past and as always, please support the artists any which way you can.
Today we highlight: The Hold Steady - Massive Nights @ Brooklyn Bowl
RtBE will be in the house for the annual Massive Nights Friday Night show at Brooklyn Bowl in about 8 hours, but if you can't be there with us, you can still get down via this FANS live stream.
To get pumped here is some of of their live stream from earlier this year in London:
We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Lucinda Williams!
Austin City Limits is the longest running music series in television history and to end 2022, each Full Show Friday on RtBE will showcase this classic program.
Today start, we go with the legendary Lucinda Williams from 1998.
Pro-shot, Pro-sound, setlist below. Enjoy:
Lucinda Williams - Austin City Limits 1998 - Full Performance.
Lucinda Williams (vocals, guitar), Kenny Vaughan (guitar, backing vocals), John Jackson (guitar), Richard "Hombre" Price (bass), Randy Leago (Hammond B3, Accordion), Fran Breen (drums), and Jim Lauderdale (acoustic guitar, backing vocals).
1. Pineola (0:19)
2. Metal Firecracker (5:00)
3. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (8:38)
4. Right in Time (13:19)
5. Drunken Angel (17:58)
6. Greenville (21:21)
7. Still I Long for Your Kiss (25:43)
8. Lake Charles (30:13)
9. Changed the Locks (35:42)
10. Disgusted (39:31)
11. Jackson (42:45)
12. Sweet Old World (49:02)
13. Passionate Kisses (54:12)
14. Something About What Happens When We Talk (56:54)
15. Joy (1:00:54)
16. Cant Let Go (1:09:33)
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