The Olms – The Olms – Vic Garbarini dubbed Peter York and J.D. King’s debut album like finding an old Gene Clark demo from the 1960s. It isn’t that good but you get the idea. Country-folk twang and strum. Catchy stuff. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
I Will Be Me – Dave Davies – Unlike his brother this isn’t a rehash of past triumphs. And unlike his brother, this is a hard rock extravaganza with Dave’s guitar front and center. And finally, unlike his brother the songwriting is negligible – B
Evil Friends – Portugal. The Man – I count two great songs from the indie rockers, “Hip Hop Kids” and the brilliant cool “Creep In A T Shirt” and just about everything has the swirly pop rock psychedelia of Of Montreal only catchier. A success… produced by Danger Mouse – B+
DNA – Little Mix – English girl group have surprise hit song and release generic girl group album honoring the ancient history of Spice Girls who broke Stateside and Girls Aloud, who didn’t break Stateside – C
Like Clockwork – Queens Of The Stone Age – I’ll admit to never liking these bombastic nits, if you’ll admit “I Sat By The Ocean” is the only time they get it right – C-
The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here – Alice In Chains – Does the world need two songs called “Phantom Limbs”? It barely needs one – C-
Complicated – Sia – I love her voice but her songwriting puts me to sleep – B-
DJ Box June 2013 – Paul Oakenfold -When Daft Punk bemoan the state of EDM, they are complaining about this House Music by the numbers: all bass rushing forward and drums turning down. Me? I love it – B+
Supercollider – Megadeth – I’ve been reading Plato the past coupla days and this is why Megadeth is better than QOTSA: everything has its own purpose and Megadeth fulfill its purpose to provide hard metal guitar bangshangalang and QOTSA don’t – B+
Where It All Began – Mathew Morrison – Glee’s High School teacher has a pleasant enough voice, and he doesn’t handle the standards with the sledgehammer sincerity of Seth MacFarlane. But this is completely useless substandards. Except for the one with Smokey Robinson – D+
The Dreamer (Acoustic) – Rhett Miller – A drag of an album does not improve when played again with just guitar- C