Back in April, I wrote this about Big Dipper:
But if they pull a “Mission of Burma”-style return to active duty (and I hope they do), I would love to see/hear them again when they have another few shows under their belt, hopefully in a better-sounding room, and when I’ve had a chance to rein in […]
Entries Tagged as 'b'
Boston Spaceships/Big Dipper, 30 Sep 2008
30 Sep 2008 · No Comments
Tags: the paradise lounge · live · 2008 · indie rock · b
Big Dipper/Great Plains, 26 April 2008
21 May 2008 · No Comments
Great Plains is the band that ruined my life. You might know their signature “Letter to a Fanzine” as the “Why do punk rock guys go out with new wave girls?” song. But I know it as the Song of the Big Lie:
You like everything that comes out on SST
You like everything that comes out […]
Tags: live · the middle east · 2008 · indie rock · g · b
Blue Öyster Cult - Cultösaurus Erectus
26 Jan 2008 · 1 Comment
Cultösaurus Erectus is the BÖC album that everyone likes better than I do. Conventional wisdom calls it a rebound from the disastrous Mirrors. but I think it’s actually a worse record (although perhaps not quite as dated production-wise). The band sounds unsure of its own identity. Presumably they were feeling pressured to repeat the success […]
Tags: 1980 · columbia · hard rock · b
Blue Öyster Cult - Mirrors
05 Jan 2008 · 1 Comment
Mirrors is my pick for most-underrated BÖC album. It has a terrible rep, which I think is partly because it opens with “Dr. Music,” one of the worst tracks ever committed to tape by the classic lineup. (Discuss: are the harmonica squeals the kiss of death, or the synth-toms, or the faux-soul backing vocals, or […]
Tags: 1979 · columbia · hard rock · b
Blue Öyster Cult - Imaginos
20 Dec 2007 · 1 Comment
Fair warning: Imaginos not only has a storyline, it has snippets of dialogue interwoven into some of the songs. Every track is at least 5 minutes long. “Overblown” doesn’t do justice to the arrangements; there are several guest lead vocalists, and for a band with such serious guitar chops, there’s a befuddling proliferation of stunt […]
Tags: 1988 · columbia · hard rock · b
Blue Öyster Cult - Heaven Forbid
20 Dec 2007 · 1 Comment
And now for something else completely different, taking up the gauntlet thrown by my pals Jestaplero and Flasshe, a subjective evaluation of the relative merits of a non-comprehensive selection of Blue Öyster Cult records, starting with the one that’s probably at the bottom of my pile, 1998’s Heaven Forbid.
Novelist John Shirley titled his […]
Tags: 1998 · columbia · hard rock · b
B for Brontosaurus - A Thousand Times Yes
05 Aug 2007 · 1 Comment
I love this band so much that I’m untrustworthy on the subject. Usually I cringe when backing vocals stray out of tune or when tempos drift between instruments. When B for Brontosaurus exhibits these flaws (which they do sometimes, especially live) I make excuses to find it charming, rather than grating. “Their enthusiasm outpaces their […]