Pete Krebs - Western Electric (CD, 1997)

For his second solo effort, Pete Krebs decided to maintain the basic structures of his first one, while adding in (if the title didn't tip you off) electric guitars, drums, the whole deal. It makes for a record equally as good as his first, but with a more souped-up feel.

At just under a half hour, it's a short disc, and with two of the cuts being instrumentals, it flies by. That may be my only gripe with this one, because the songs are great. "JFK" is a propulsive opener, a song that starts strong and builds momentum as it speeds along, aided by some of Pete's best lyrics up to this point.

This album also marks Pete's first forays into country and western-ish stuff, though I've never been sure if that's the right term for it. "Purple Heart of Texas" is country, but it's old-timey country, with a rootsy feel to it. It's "traditional," for lack of a better word. The lyrics are ostensibly personal but probably ultimately not based in fact, if that makes sense. Again: not a direction I saw him ever going, but he's great at it.

The sad songs are, of course, the heart of the album, but this time they seem to be about other people, which makes for a nice change of pace and tense. "Madison" remains one of Kreb's best songs, another one that I used to see him play quite a bit when he did his solo shows.

Elliott Smith plays on this album, but thanks to vague liner notes, it's hard to know the extent to which he did so. He seems to be doing some of the backing vocals, but it's hard to tell if it's him. He at least co-wrote "Tom Waits and the Attack of the Crab Monster," the ramshackle instrumental that closes the album. A fun song, but definitely wise to be the last one on the record.

Another Pete Krebs winner, another album that more people should know about but probably don't. It's a damn shame.

Pete Krebs - Brigadier (CD, 1995)

Wow, did this really come out the same year as Hazel's Are You Going to Eat That? I guess it did. And that would explain why this didn't seem to be Pete's post-Hazel debut (and it wasn't – they'd put out one more EP before officially disbanding), and more of a side project sort of thing.

Pete Krebs going acoustic had never occurred to me, though the first time I heard this record it made perfect sense. If Are You Going to Eat That seemed to be Pete heading in an introspective (read: hyper-sensitive) and aggressive direction, then this seemed to propose a method that musically suited his lyrics just as well, maybe better. The love-lost songs are still here, but they're not as blatant, not as forcibly gut-wrenching. And by coupling the heartbreak themes with smoothly detailed acoustic guitar strumming/plucking, they're stripped away of any pretense and left, bare-boned and stunning.

If you can't tell, I really dig this record. It's personal, it's simple (in regards to the minimal accompaniment), and the songs are fantastic. "D Tune Drop" was a staple of Pete's live acoustic sets when I used to see him in the early 2000's, and it never failed to put a smile on my face when I really needed one. And though all of these songs can be both depressing and uplifting, they're never boring.

It was (and still is) great to hear a guy who had spent his whole career (as far as we knew) wrenching away at a guitar take a step back and roll out some songs that weren't meant to be played with a "rock band." I could go through and talk about each of these songs individually, but it'd get too involved. And besides: they're all great.

I don't know if this CD is still readily floating around, but if you need a great partner for the dark and dreary fall, this is a safe bet.

I'm having a hard time finding any full songs, but you can listen to a few clips here.

Stallion Alert Book Review: Slash by Slash with Anthony Bozza (2007)

I'd been wanting to read this book since it came out, but I had no intention of shelling out twenty-some bucks to do so. Instead, I waited almost two years and was able to get it from Amazon for like five bucks. And it was worth every penny.

I'm not a huge Guns 'N Roses fan, nor am I particularly a Slash fan. I usually enjoy the music he makes, but it's gone no farther than owning a copy of Appetite for Destruction. Though I am familiar with the more well-known tracks from the two Use Your Illusion albums, so that helped me a little when he was talking about that era of his career. I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is, in many ways, probably exactly what you think it is: the story of Slash's life from birth to present, warts and all (literally, in fact). And while the tales of debauchery are certainly omnipresent throughout this surprisingly long book, there's also insights that come from Slash the Musician that are equally interesting. Hearing how Guns came up with some of their most famous tunes makes for some cool rehearsal stories, as does the first person accounts of the inner workings of one the world's most dysfunctional bands. (Spoiler alert: Axl is a diiiiick.)

This book was every bit as good as I hoped it would be, and maybe even a little better. You don't have to be a fan of the music to enjoy it, and Slash's writing style keeps the whole thing casual, which becomes inherently necessary when dealing with some of the unbelievable shit this dude has been through.

Notably unbelievable: That Slash is alive; that Steven Adler is alive; and that neither of their dicks fell off. And really: I knew Axl was a nut, but this book, by just pulling together well-documented facts, a few new ones, and offering some asides about them, really doesn't leave any mystery as to why Guns 'N Roses broke up. In fact, it seems a miracle that they stayed together as long as they did.

I highly suggest knocking this one out over a long weekend.

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Live and Let Die (CD, 1992)

Make no mistake: this is some hard shit.

When one thinks of gangsta rap (the real shit – the early shit) at its hardest and rawest, this record should be near the top of the list. But because it was so damn hard to get a hold of for so many years, I don't think it ever got its just due. I lucked out and scored a copy a few years before they reissued it, and didn't have to pay the thirty or forty bucks it was going for on eBay at the time. And I'll be holding onto this one until I decide to fork out the dough for the vinyl.

It's a damn shame that this is the only Kool G Rap and DJ Polo album I have on CD right now. I have Road to the Riches on cassette, but that's never been enough. Need to pick up that, this one, and Wanted Dead or Alive on vinyl real soon. Add it to the list.

Hearing the progression of Kool G Rap over he and Polo's three records is an interesting study. He gets progressively better as an MC, and progressively rougher as a streetwise motherfucker. While he started to show signs of hardening on Wanted Dead or Alive (after keeping shit relatively mild on Road to the Riches), on this record he's in full-on Tony Montana/Godfather/Shoot-you-in-the-fucking-face mode. And it's brilliant.

Apparently Warner Bros. had an issue with distributing this record, and while the content doesn't seem crazy over-the-top by today's standards, this was some rough shit for '92. It's right up there with the Geto Boys for the sheer brutality of all of it: lots of people dying, lots of bitches sucking dick, and no tolerance from G Rap for any of it. The most egregious offender is probably "Operation CB," in which G Rap chastises a kid for complaining of hunger when Rap's trying to fuck the kid's mom. (The CB stands for "cock block.") While it's hard to find humor in that narrative, the rest of the song is pretty witty. But Rap's discussions of sex are about as graphic as it can get, and his tales of drug running and making dudes eat pistols aren't spared any details, either. "Train Robbery" is a linear robbery tale that is crafted brilliantly, and simultaneously cringe-inducing.

G Rap weaves words on this record probably better than I've ever heard him pull it off on any other one. And Sir Jinx's beats are insanely great. Tracks like "Nuff Said" and "Crime Pays" are solid as stone, and when you break it down, there's really not a stinker on the whole album.

To top it all off, the guest spots are monumental: Big Daddy Kane kills it on "#1 With a Bullet," and when Ice Cube, Bushwick Bill, and Scarface show up on "Two to the Head," you know you're in for some murder raps. The beat is slow and steady, and the song is dark and dope.

Get with it.

"Ill Street Blues"

Kings of Pressure - Slang Teacher (LP, 1989)

I picked this up a few months back on a whim. I had never heard of these dudes, which actually surprised me a little. It's '89 hip hop and it's on the Next Plateau label, so it wasn't fully underground. Turns out I'm not the hip hop scholar I thought I was...

Anyway, I wanted to like this a lot more than I do. The beats are rudimentary (even by '89 standards), and the samples are lazy. It has potential to be a kitschy kind of fun, but the recording quality is so bad that it's hard to open up to it. Though I should say that I don't hate it. You can see what they're trying to do, and the knowledge-dropping deserves some respect. It's just the execution that's hard to get with.

Tracks like "Brains Unchained" and the title track are the highlights, with roughneck beats that almost hit as hard as they would like to. And like I said, these guys are down for intelligent hip hop, so that ain't a bad thing.

"Tales from the Darkside"

Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood (CD, 2003)

Aside from the terrible title, this still remains a good album. Four of the five songs from the Holy Roller Novocaine EP are presented here, and I think they've all been revamped. They add seven more tracks (eight including a hidden one tacked on at the end), and they're all solid enough.

Now that I think about it, this was the last Kings album I purchased, so maybe I didn't love this as much as I think I did. Actually, I remember what happened: I went to see them in Seattle with The Strokes (yeah, I like The Strokes, deal with it) and they (Kings of Leon) were dicks. They kept whining about the venue and berating the audience. Normally I don't give a shit about stuff like that, but it seemed a bit cocky coming from a band who had just released their debut, and from what I could tell, really wasn't blowing up the way everyone had expected them to. I remember being really put off by the whole affair, and not giving too much of a shit when they dropped their next record.

Now of course, they're oily bros who have finally become the arena rock stars they wanted to be, but I have to admit: this record still makes for a good listen. The best songs are the ones that were on the previous EP, but the other tracks aren't shabby at all. The guitar tones are grungy/twangy good, and the songs don't fuck around, which is a plus.

At what point did they start wearing sleeveless t-shirts and getting fancy little haircuts? Eh.

"Wasted Time"

Kings of Leon - Holy Roller Novocaine (CD, 2003)

I can't remember what made me buy into the hype surrounding Kings of Leon. I'm pretty sure I picked this EP up before I had even heard them, so I must have grown tired of reading about them in every music rag I flipped through. Sometimes they just goad me into listening to the shit.

Imagine my surprise when I actually liked the music. These five tracks are raw rock, nothing fancy. Summing up the band was tough for music journalists, and I understood why when I heard their songs. Sure, it was Southern rock, but it wasn't quite that simple. The singer's voice was certainly divisive; I wouldn't have blamed some people for being turned off by it. I didn't mind it, still don't. Caleb Followill has a vocal style that almost seems intentionally lazy, but it fits the music just fine.

For a brief introduction to the band (the whole disc is only fifteen minutes long), this small collection works well. "Molly's Chambers" is a great opener, and though "California Waiting" was just destined to be a pop hit, I'm not sure that it ever really took off the way they thought it would. I was a bit taken aback when "Molly's Chambers" ended up in a VW commercial, but it should have been a clear indicator that these guys were ready to go mainstream at any cost. Maybe I've got that all wrong, but considering what they're doing now, it sure seems like that was the plan.

Once the beards came off it was all downhill from there.

"Wicker Chair"