See Ya'

Looks like I'm going to go quiet for a while, maybe forever. My employer just issued some blogging guidelines that, in my reading anyway, make almost all of what I write here pretty much out of bounds. Here are a few parting thoughts:

--Windows Vista is actually a pretty damn sweet piece of software. My wife, who has a Mac with OS X, keeps hogging my computer so she can try out new features.

--"24" is over-rated, at least for the first season. We're a little more than halfway through and it hasn't totally gripped us like some other shows.

--Like "Lost", which resumed after a 2-month hiatus and shows it can still kick ass. This is the best stuff Carrie-Anne Moss has done since "The Matrix" trilogy.

--Number One Son has a loose tooth, and he is learning to read. Exciting developments, both.

--If you ignored my earlier post on the San Francisco band "Ride the Blinds", repent now and correct your mistake. I saw them live the other night and they blew the club away. Think vintage Stones crossed with a bit of Allman Brothers and even some Skynyrd (minus the whole hokey Southern thing). These guys are really, seriously good. If you want me to send you some tracks, write me at scott.lmnop -- at -- gmail.com.

That's all I got. I'll still be lurking around various comments sections, and I'll be checking the above e-mail occassionally.

Later.

Best Albums of 2006

This was a good year in music for me. I certainly wasn't overwhelmed with choice but the ones I did buy are sure to be long-term staples of my collection. I was obsessed with each of the following albums:

5. Wolfmother, Wolfmother: Australian power rock trio channels Zep, Sabbath and Deep Purple and sound fresh and exciting while doing it. My favorite review of them praised them for being not so much retro as vintage. Check out their appearance on Letterman, doing their hit "Woman". And you can hear all their songs on their Web site.



4. The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers: Jack White of The White Stripes hooks up with a few of his favorite musicians for this excellent side project. The craftsmanship is fantastic -- dig the drum intro to "Yellow Sun" -- and the result is one of the most eclectic yet listenable albums of the year.

3. Ride the Blinds, Ride the Blinds: This San Francisco trio was my find of the year. For a band that still plays to crowds of 20 people in tiny local clubs, they produce some of the best rock and roll this side of the Rolling Stones. If you like the Allman Brothers, Creedence, the Stones, or Zep, you need to hear this band. For a free taste, check out the tunes on their MySpace page. And that's not even their best stuff.

2. The Black Keys, Magic Potion: This is the fourth album for the Akron-based blues-rock duo, and it may just be their best. While it lacks a "catchy" track like "10 a.m. Automatic" off their last album, the whole thing hangs together better than any of their previous efforts. These guys just rock the house through all 11 tracks, from the opening drum roll and guitar lick of "Just Got to Be" to the feedback-heavy shrieks of "Elevator". Streaming tunes here.

1. Ben Harper, Both Sides of the Gun: This is possibly Harper's best work in nearly a decade. Harper splits his first studio-recorded double CD with one disc of acoustic ballads and one disc of funk and rock-driven electric stuff. Highlights include the lush ballad "Picture in a Frame" and Zep-worthy guitar wankfest "Serve Your Soul".

Watch This Now

Check out this video of Ride the Blinds performing live. Yes, the audio quality is dismal and camera work sucks, but if you don't think this is one of the top five music clips ever posted on YouTube, then you are beyond hopeless, should immediately seek out the nearest nailgun, put it to your temple and keep firing until you run out of nails. Be sure to watch through the Bonhamesque drum solo that starts at 3:20.

The Return of Rock

Rock and roll lives. The rock scene has been pretty dismal for many years now, with most of its promise blown away along with Kurt Cobain's brains. Since then we've been treated to a monotonous parade of mediocrity posturing as greatness, of lame bands trying to substitute image and attitude for actual talent, and, for the most part, succeeding wildly.

Exceptions such as The White Stripes don't disprove the underlying assumption but instead stand out as lonely islands of rockitudeness in an ocean of suck.

But there are signs that the foul tides are finally retreating as new bands rediscover the Golden Age of rock, when the licks were hot, vocals were smoky, bass lines were bluesy and recorded tracks were simply proof of concept -- jumping off points for live shows featuring mind-blowing jams and guitar solos worthy of Valhalla.

The lastest encouraging omen I have descried is Ride the Blinds, a San Francisco trio with a seriously outsized sound. Their self-titled album and its follow-up, "Start Running" are must-haves if you have ever found yourself rocking out to one of the following bands: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I can't put it much better than this reviewer on Amazon.com, who probably wrote what is the best music review ever:

Imagine Bon Scott, up in rocker heaven, decided to play a joke on Ted Nugent. One night when Ted is drunk and in a good mood from a day of playing with his guns outdoors, Bon's ghost comes down and sodomizes him. Ted, thinking he's turned gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), believes it must be caused by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Why? Because Ted don't think so good. So Ted chases down the Skynyrd tour bus on the highway, pulls up next to it, and starts unloading buckshot. This leads to crazy mayhem on the bus. Some old groupie who has been around from the 70s, long enough to have a throat crusted with the dried semen from guys in both Creedence Clearwater Revival and War, jumps up from between the drummer's legs. Just then Ted shoots out a tire, sending the bus careening, and making the groupie fall forwards onto the drummer. That drummer spews his load somewhere on her stomach. One chance in a million, the groupie gets impregnated with an evil mix of DNA from Skynyrd, CCR, and war. When the kid grows up he learned to play guitar and recorded this album. This is all true.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is in fact the best music review ever.

So, rest assured that rock and roll lives. All you have to do is tune in, turn on, and Ride the Blinds.

P.S. Oh yeah, other recent rock-revival acts are: The Black Keys (think Cream), Wolfmother (think Sabbath and Deep Purple), and Earl Greyhound (think Zep). Leave a comment if you know of any more.