T.V. On The Radio - Dear Science

DGC/Interscope/Universal

And right when you thought indie rock had gotten boring once more. Yet again T.V. On The Radio smash all preconceptions of the genre, the scene, and the soul of modern music with Dear Science: full length number four. I wouldn't say they sound like Radiohead, but the comparisons in composition style is undeniable. It would be hard to downtrot the soul-influence infused into the entire being of this band.
Beautifully crafted electronic beats lay behind droney wave after droney wave of guitar ambience, leaving listeners the intense hit of each snare strike and each burst of magnificant hook. Vocals are certainly centered in the musical construction and for good reason. Reminiscent of Motown, Tunde Adebimp's falsetto crooning works better than anyone could imagine. Perfection, down to a T.

Tech N9ne - Killer DOUBLE CD

Strange/Fontana

After years and years of Tech N9ne coming up, I still can't figure out how I feel about him. First off, his rhymes and flow are genius: somewhat gangster in flow but still original, with moments that are a more sensible Busdriver. 20 years of doing this, and he is still sticking to his own jam.
But, when it comes down to it, Tech N9ne is a juggalo (for those not in the know, it means he is a follower of the ICP faith), and it is hard for me to take any juggalo serious. And I guess you arent entirely supposed to (the "theme" of this album is Tech N9ne in therapy with a naked female psychiatrist and going through his insane mind), but I can't shake the almost pathetic feeling I get from a renouned hip hop artist following a band who has annual "Dark Carnivals". If you are into anything he's done before, you'll love this. If you are in the anti-juggalo camp, stear clear!

Hank Williams - Unreleased Recordings Disc 2

Time Life

If this isn't a gift from god, I don't know what is. Possibly the best country musician in the history of the world has three CD's worth of mostly unreleased material. Amazing in its entirety, jawdropping individually. Winning a plethora of awards post-mortem (mostly through Jr.), Williams wrote litterally thousands of songs over the years, and unfortunately was taken before his time (aged 29 from something along the lines of mixing morphine with alcohol).
Pioneer of the "honky-tonk" style, he made himself a legend through simple songwriting, genius lyrics, and an incredible knack for hooks. There is little to say about this album beyond "wow". For everyone.

Jeff Beal - Music For The Motion Picture Soundtrack Appaloosa

Lake Shore

Classical compositions for the movie Appaloosa. The movie is a western, staring a few notables (Ed Harris and Renee Zellweger), following the basic plot of westerns: peaceful town, outlaws kill people, someone needs to save them. You know the drill.
Beal's music is what you would expect: ghostly, and vaguely eerie, contemporary classical with moments of riding feel, and lots of horns and percussion (to imitate horse hoofs). If you like westerns, go for it!

Autumn - Velvet Sky

Bull Creek

Autumn creates incredibly well developed country-inspired singer songwriter folk. With extensive pop sensability and not much holding her back, Autumn makes her presence more than well known on this album: she makes herself seen in the spotlight of the album through and through.
Her voice is beautiful and emotional, but not cheesy with twang or drenched in auto-tune. Perfectly produced, and not really too much of anything. An incredibly solid pop album.

Marcus Goldhaber - Take Me Anywhere

Fallen Apple

RStripped down lounge jazz put to perfection. Marcus Goldhaber isn't doing anything all that showy, but refuses to make music that is sub-par. Goldhaber's voice isn't incredible, but he makes it work with a bit of solid swing. Minimal instrumentation (piano, drums, bass, and an occasional harmonica), this slow jazz quintet does the style perfectly.

Various Artists - Motown Collection DOUBLE CD

Time Life/Universal

Motown is a fixture of modern society, even if the grooves of the rusted over machine is so hard to see in full detail nowadays. The emotion, the groove, and the soul that went so far into the genre are still here, but unfortunately buried far beneath anything that any of us could still recognize as what Motown embodied.
And, coming highly suggested for all of those who missed what the genre meant, we have The Motown Collection, a double cd of 30 tracks picked only slightly at random (definitly would not be my first picks from their discography), but nonetheless still brighter shinning than just about anything on the airwaves these days. Included on here are household names (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Rick James, Diana Ross) and some of the less modernly publicized godsends (Bonnie Pointer, Smokey Robinson, The Commodores). Honestly, this is pure beauty.

Marcus Johnson - FLO (For The Love of)

Three Keys/Marimelj

Cool, smooth jazz. Johnson lets downtempo walking basslines meander their way from beginning to end of this album, not really doing anything new but still keeping in the genre presented. Nothing innovative, just the steady run of elevator music.

The Game - LAX

Geffen/UMG

To be honest, I have been incredibly disappointed with the state of hip-hop nowadays. It's lost its bite. It's slipping from anything aggressive, and residing as party music from white college ragers. The Game is starting to revive my faith. LAX is a requiem, not a rivival, of 90's gangster rap. And not half assing it, nor making it at all fake: The Game is legitimate. Look at his feuds with all of the regulars: Suge Knight, 50 Cent, and even Memphis Bleek. It's Death Row drama all over again.
LAX pulls off the sound and feel of traditional gangster rap perfectly. Incredibly aggressive, honest, and not skipping a beat. The Game's flow strikes hard ala N.W.A, with rhymes to back it up. Most of the tracks are actually incredibly personal (a good majority is about his sons) but not falling into the cheese dilemma that artists like Will Smith confronts with such topics. This is a revolution for hip-hop.

Various Artists - Made in Iceland

Iceland Music Export

Woah! This is craaaaazy! There is a heavy heavy electronic Rage Against the Machine cover that starts the whole thing off and it just gets weirder from this. The second track is a drugged out electro-dub-dance-rap song that slays really hard.
Then, what does this comp do to you? It puts a beautiful Elephant6-esque pop gem right after! WTF? It's like all the musicians from Iceland decided they needed to send a message to the rest of the world's pop-bands: "We are better than you, I'm sorry, that's the way it is." Transmission revieved, Icelanders.

Aretha Franklin - This Christmas Aretha

DMI

Armed with nothing more than her voice, Aretha Franklin has taken the world by storm. Since childhood her fame has surpassed anything before her; Franklin has been a pop sensation since birth. With more awards than most people have heard of, and more of an inspiration than anyone in this year's election, her decades of musicianship has lead to nothing short of a lifetime of perfection.
This Christmas Aretha is much of what it sounds like: Christmas traditionals and contemporaries, sung by the diva herself. While we (as a bunch of Jews) are probably not going to appreciate this album as much as most, this does not take away from the essense of her incredible soul, coupled with unbelievable range to really create an album for every (christian) family.

Augustanta - Can't Love, Can't Hurt

Epic/Sony BMG

This is what Coldplay would sound like if they wanted to release a country album. Not that "Can't Love, Can't Hurt" is a country album (it's not), it just has a certain melancholy twang to it that points in that direction.
It almost fooled me. In fact, what Augustana has here is definitely a pop record, but one that seems to draw from a wider pool of influence than most. There is some strong 90's pop-rock in the mix that carries most of the songs, but along with this is also a little bit of glam (a la Elton John) and some moments are even reminiscent of the Pixies (although these are brief at most). It doesn't deviate far from the formula, but it tries, and the formula seemed to have worked pretty well in the first place.

Pete Seeger - Can't Start A Fire Without A Spark

Smithsonian Folkways

If you have ever read JSI Top 21 at all, you know our opinions of Pete Seeger. The man changed the world, litterally. The way we listened to music, the way we saw ourselves, and litterally changed the way we view politics in music. Seeger's brand of emotionally driven, story-telling folk dwarfs anything that has attempted the stature that the legend has produced.
Can't Start A Fire Without A Spark actually took me a while to figure out what exactly it was. I knew it was a compilation of some sort, but didn't quite realize that it was just the originals from Springsteen's tribute album of the same name. He couldn't have made better choices: Included on here is "Old Dan Tucker", "Jesse James", and "We Shall Overcome," which are three of my personal favorite songs. This is a great starting point for any newcomer to Seeger, but also a great mix for the longtime lovers.

Jose Gonzales - In Our Nature

Imperial/Mute

In Our Nature is a strange beast of a folk album. One part Iron and Wine, another Elliot Smith, and even a little Syd Barrett thrown into the background every now and then, these ten songs meander and float through your head and surround you like a really comfortable pillow. Recommended if you are into the mellow side of the musical spectrum and like closing your eyes and smiling a lot.

Strive - Fire

GoDigital

Unfortunately, this is another record that falls short of the mark. Being described as somewhere between The Fray and Switchfoot or U2, this band just does not cut it. Incredibly bad crooning vocals, boring song construction, and perhaps the most soul-less approach to a band as possible. I'm at a loss of words for this.

The Dirty Heads - Any Port in a Storm

EMG/Fontana/Universal

What the shit? I didn't really know what to expect from this record and, after actually listening to it, I don't really know what to say, but here it goes anyways . . . This is the whitest white-boy rap album ever. Little did I know that after they get home (and out of their stupidly large trucks), bros turn down the Sublime, take off their NorCal hats, and "let the beat drop."
Not only is this one of the worst rap albums I have ever heard, it is also one of the worst reggae albums I have ever heard... at the same time! It is the musical incarnation of everything that sucks about college students playing beer pong in between Jager shots. Wait, this is HILARIOUS!

Murs - Murs For President

Warner Bros

Living Legend's spotlight has always sort of shined on Murs. At least, for me it has. And his solo records don't really change my mind. And Murs For President doesn't prove me wrong. Yeah, I would vote for Murs; he's got a step up on anyone else.
Murs For President, as expected, is just a continuation of Murray's Revenge, not expanding on any of his personal ideas because, well, he perfected it. Incredibly dynamic in style as well as persona, Murs manages to construct himself as a performer that isn't quite gangster, but doesn't quite fit into any other category any better. Interesting beats, and lots of songs about women (not all bad). Hell yeah.

Eric Durrance - Angels Fly Away

Wind Up Nashville

Another in the long stream of country youngin's creating a name for themselves, Angels Fly Away is a solid country record. Not outstanding, but solid. Songs that have meaning, music that's driving, and a lot of hardwork that you can hear through the soundwaves.
Aligned probably best with the like of Garth Brooks, Durrance uses a lot of pop approaches to his song writing without trailing too far into that dark and evil category of arena country. For country fans nationally.
***So Nice, Gotta Do It Up Twice (Created by the Original NYC DJ, Jocko, 1955)***

Romans - All Those Wrists

Black Market Activities/Metal Blade

Romans are heavy and aggressive, that's for sure. They take all the right influences, ranging from Converge to early Poison The Well, and probably some of the more mainstreamly-successful acts like Refused. So yeah, I guess this comes out pretty successful.
My only complaint is the effects get cheesy at times, but overall, this is pretty awesome. At times fast and assaulting, other points emotional and heavy, All Those Wrists are Romans response to Opposite Of December: Incredibly well constructed songs layered behind catchy verses and solid breakdowns. I'm sure this album will change some people's lives.

Nicholas Payton - Into The Blue

Nonesuch/Warner Bros.

Nicholas Payton creates groove after groove on Into The Blue, a spectacle of a jazz album. Well produced and orchestrated, Payton manages to create his own in the world of jazz music.
Nothing too pretentious, but with just the right amount of flair, the album runs from beginning to end like a really good movie: ups, downs, and the occasional cute moment. His trumpet playing is phenomenal, which is very much directly in the spotlight.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Warner Bros.

I'm not going to lie: I was interested to hear this album. Maybe I should say itching to get a listen. Here's the deal: Kill Em All, to this day, is still one of my favorite albums. Even the fact that I can barely stand singer James Hetfield's voice hasn't detered me from that release. So I keep hoping that they'll go back to their original sound, with all the aggression, soloing, and just plain mean-ness that the first couple records revolved around.
The album uses all the right ingredients (guitar wailing, harmonies, occasional screams, and a really awesome album layout) but still doesn't compete. There's just something missing. Maybe it's that they are all a little old to still be doing the same thing that they always have, or maybe they've run out of good ideas. Death Magnetic missed the mark on those grounds, but hey, at least it's not St. Anger. center>

***If You Like Music, You're Gonna' Love This!***

I salute to you Commander
And I sneeze

Cause I have now an allergy
To your policies it seems

Where have we gone wrong America
Mr. Lincoln we can't seem to find you anywhere

Out of the millions
From the desserts to the mountains

Over prairies to the shores
Is this just the madness of King George

Yo George
Is this just the madness of King George

Yo George
Well you have the whole nation on all fours

Political Article: Obama Echoes New Deal to Counter 'Greed is Good' By: Linda Hirschman Back To Top Barack Obama is finally telling Americans why enacting his economic programs is the right thing to do. Not just prudent, not just efficient, but right. For a long time in America, talk about what's right has been the monopoly of the right. But Obama's election will be little more than Bill Clinton's third term unless it sparks an overall revival of liberalism, and no political movement revives without core beliefs about what's right. After 30 years of conservative, "greed is good" political philosophy, Obama faces the daunting task of explaining to Americans why they should once again care for one another. For an agonizingly long time, it looked as if Obama was not going to produce a new way of thinking. In the first debate with John McCain, Obama stuck to his centrist script of trying to sound like nothing more than a kinder, gentler tax-cutting conservative, assuring his listeners that "95 per cent of you will get a tax cut." It looked as if the economic debate was going to focus at most on whether federal taxing and spending would stimulate the economy, not whether it would make a more just society. But as the magnitude of the conservative failure has become apparent to all but the densest Americans, Obama the philosopher emerged, with an intriguing combination of new New Deal and old New Deal thinking. The new idea is that people who are now successful should care for the ones left behind, because they were once the left-behind themselves. Obama floated this idea for the first time in the exchange with the now-infamous Joe the Plumber. Why should he pay taxes just as he became successful? Joe asked. When Obama suggested the tax increase, at $900, was fairly small, Joe was having none of it: "I mean, I've worked hard. I'm a plumber. I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American dream." Franklin Roosevelt had one answer for people like Joe when he made the speech that announced the New Deal: "We know that individual liberty and individual happiness mean nothing unless both are ordered in the sense that one man's meat is not another man's poison." The truth is that Joe will have to contribute $900 so "another man" will not be poisoned (or starve, as FDR put it a little earlier). But Obama is reluctant to say that we are all in the American enterprise together. That would be socialism, right? Instead, he made a deft move, telling Joe that he should consider his extra taxes like a transfer not to some stranger, but to his own, former, less successful self: "Over the last 15 years, when you weren't making $250,000, you would have been given a tax cut from me, so you'd actually have more money, which means you would have saved more, which means you would have gotten to the point where you could build your small business quicker than under the current tax code... Put yourself back 10 years ago." This is a brilliant strategy because it takes a middle ground between asking people to act from pure altruism toward others - as any redistributive scheme must ultimately do - and the purely selfish individualism that fuelled the conservative movement. While former selves are not exactly us, they are linked to us through the chain of common memories that makes our life story. This is not news to philosophers - John Locke described our relationship to our prior selves centuries ago. But it's a little surprising to hear it on the rope line! Framing the appeal as sympathy for your former self also invokes the idea of equality of opportunity, rather than equality of result, which conservatives have so effectively rendered illegitimate. Finally, this approach is particularly well-suited to the voters Democrats are desperate to have back - the striving, white-male working class the Ohio plumber so perfectly represents. So what if the argument doesn't work with voters who were always rich (and who will be the majority of people taxed under Obama's scheme)? Trust fund babies, suck it up. There are, of course, people who will not entertain any progressive taxation, regardless of how it is framed. But framing is the business of political revival, and Obama just made a good, fresh move. To his credit, Obama is also starting to put his voice behind the revival of traditional liberal care for others. Here, too, he has incorporated some of the best insights of post-New Deal philosophy: that some of everyone's success is not the result of virtue but of luck. People are born talented, they find themselves in the right place at the right time, and so forth. In 1971, long after the New Deal, iconic liberal philosopher John Rawls invoked this insight in his seminal tome, A Theory of Justice, to argue that a person's talents do not support a moral claim for their reward. Talking to Joe, Obama put it more simply: "folks like me ... have worked hard, but frankly also been lucky." Putting the call for altruism in personal terms is also useful, in this era of personal politics; billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha, started the process when he found out his secretary was paying as much tax as he was, and Obama has picked up the approach, invoking Buffett's willingness to pay more and putting himself on the line. Obama's willingness to sacrifice a few marginal dollars was particularly appealing when he offered it in the last debate after John McCain, one of the richest men in the Senate, said that he did not want to pay more taxes himself. With his customary caution (some would say laggard initiative), Obama also may have sensed an opening for a little old-fashioned distributive justice. So as McCain was flogging him about taxes in the last debate, he finally admitted that he might spread a little wealth. It was hard not to think of FDR's "economic royalists" when candidate Obama said, "Then Exxon Mobil, which made $12 billion, record profits, over the last several quarters, they can afford to pay a little more so that ordinary families who are hurting out there - they're trying to figure out how they're going to afford food, how they're going to save for their kids' college education, they need a break." In his analysis of the debate, Time's Joe Klein suggested that the pundits fully expected the ideological conservative magic to work again, and that is why they initially scored John McCain on the debate so much higher than the polled public did. But polls ultimately showed that the debate watchers weren't remotely interested in the philosophy of possessive individualism this time around. By massive margins, debate-watchers handed the victory to Barack Obama, who said he wouldn't mind paying a little more. And with that payment he will buy much more than an electoral victory. He will be laying the groundwork for real political change.

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