Mountain Standard Time, The Dendrites

It's instrumental ska and it's good.
Buy this CD and go see the band live.
For more info please visit: www.Facebook.com

The Big Motif , The Big Motif

The Big Motif, from the band of the same name, grooves with a funky beat that you just can't help but enjoy. The five track EP/Demo from the nice folks at Hapi Skratch, surprised us with the quality of the grooves, the nice clean guitar work and just overall fresh sound. " The only weak part would be the vocals of Tony Pacello. They're passable, but not exciting and are easily ignored in favor of his smokin' guitar playing. The cool grooves come from the drums of Jeff Jani and the bass of Hunter Roberts. None of these are two and a half minute long radio-freindly cuts, but they don't need to be. This is music played the way you'd likely hear it live, with all the fills, solos and extras you want to hear anyway. "Bad Cat" has a blues-funk feel. There's some nifty flute from Sam Crowe on "Paper Crane.
Buy this music if you want to hear something funky, groovey and fun.
For more info please visit: www.TheBigMotif.com

Dead River, 19A.D.D.

When we first got this CD, we were intrigued. Nice packaging, with the jewel case inside of a cardboard sleeve. We pulled out the folded up 18 panel insert and discovered a full color poster approximately 14 inches on each side. This part was pretty impressive and really quite cool for a local CD. That alone had to cost them a small fortune. The album cover lists 15 tracks, so we thought this might really be something exciting. Unfortunately, we listened to the disc once through and we never want to make that mistake again. The first track "Siddhapur" was just noise. The kind of noise that makes you wonder if your CD player is broken. The next track was music... "Experimental" music, but we could hear some guitars and drums and stuff in there, so we'll call it music just to be nice. The rest of the album consists of guitar wanking interspersed with noise, spoken word weirdness and general mayhem. We understand that it was probably a lot of fun for the musicians who created it, and we fully acknowledge that it is one of the most creative albums we have ever heard, but we will never put it back into the player, ever again. It's like an entire album of "Revolution # 9" (The Beatles) performed by metalheads. Also, there are no singing vocals on the entire CD, which I suppose makes it instrumental jazz or some other kind of crap that we just don't care for. It's not entertaining, it's not fun and just in case you missed it earlier, we never want to hear it again.
Don't buy this CD, unless you really like weird shit.
For more info please visit: www.19add.com

Thirteen Ways To Ecstasy - Vibes on Velvet

Thirteen Ways To Ecstasy, a CD of instrumental jazz music from Vibes on Velvet, gets us off every time! The band members, Megan "GoGo" Wise (Buckwild), Susan Phelan (Rexway, Angie Stevens and many other bands) and Tony "Nascar" Aniscar (Railbenders) lace together some very tasty jazz tunes anchored by Wise's vibes. Vibes, which most of us might incorrectly identify as a xylophone, are a unique percussive instrument that provides a distinct flavor to any kind of music. Vibes can be spooky or creepy or sound like chiming bells. To give those unfamiliar with vibes an idea of what they sound like: The common household doorbell is like a seriously impaired, stripped down, two note vibes. Imagine a doorbell with dozens of notes being played adeptly with as many as four beaters at once (or in rapid succession) and you have some clue. If you've ever heard them before (maybe in the background music of a movie or TV show) you will recognize the sound instantly and be marveled.This album has a few covers, like "Fever" the only song with vocals on the album, sung by upright bass player Susan Phelan. The guitar work that hold all this music together, comes from Tony Nascar, best known for his lead guitar work with the country act The Railbenders. This album is both a fun listen and refreshing change of pace. There are no pretentious lyrics or face melting solos, just good clean music that anyone can enjoy. "Silver Hearse" sounds like it could easily be the soundtrack to The Addams Family or The Munsters, but it's not. There are 3 covers on the album: "Fever"(Cooley, Davenport), "Caravan" (Tizol, Elllington) and "Topsy" (Battle Durham), the rest are all original. "Blue Hooves" has a bluesy feel and drums instead of vibes. "Giblets" also lacks the vibes, but this one has a distinct country ambience. We can imagine that each one of these songs might just help bring your gal to ecstasy, under the right circumstances. It's certainly worth a try...
Buy this album for a nice change of pace.
For more info please visit: myspace.com/vibesonvelevet

Where We're Not , Jill Stevenson & Adam Widoff

Jill Stevenson's new collaboration with Adam Widoff takes us on a beautful and memorable stroll through their relationship. This is Jill's fifth album, We have no idea how many Widoff may have made, but that's not important anyway. They've given us six tracks including one cover: Bob Dylan's "Girl From The North Country." As Jill sings her way through the relationship we get the idea that it produced some terrific music and maybe little else (for the rest of us anyway). Stevenson's vocals are clear, clean and beautiful. With some vocal harmonies thrown in together with creative and interesting musical backing, the result is full and tasty. With equal credits given to Both Stevenosn and Widoff, it hard for the listener to know exactly who contributed what to each song, but since Stvenson sings them all, we're left with the impression that these are her words. The lyrics speak of longing and wonder on some tracks and love and excitment on others. Memorably stuck in our heads, "AmTrack" is the standout as best song on the album.
But these songs if you've ever been in love, even briefly.
For more info please visit: www.JillStevenson.com