The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
| Posted: 17 Dec 2011 09:47 PM PST IT'S taken a while, but finally, the major record labels have decided that instead of making no money at all for their intellectual property, smaller returns are a fair compromise. That's probably how Warner Music's Original Album Series has come to be. Better late than never, huh? The series packs five of an artiste's seminal or earliest albums (usually from its first and in chronological order) in a single package. Sure, for the price paid, expecting liner notes or any form of literature is too much of an ask, so the slip cases are a fair deal. Putting a positive spin, some titles actually have the slip cases replicating the LP (mini LPs are what they're called), which is intriguing because the tracklist information is split to two sides (Side A and B, or Side 1 and 2). During the LP era, a lot more thought was given to the running order of songs on an album because any buyer trying out a record would be looking to try the first song on either side, and the flow of each side was always carefully planned. So, listening to the songs from this standpoint reveals how an artiste worked out the album's presentation. No surprises then that when The J. Geils Band got its career moving with its self titled debut, the groovy Wait was chosen as the opening track. This 1970 album is bristling with rambunctious bar-band nuggets and amidst the band's self-penned tunes, J. Geils Band also judiciously serves up the covers like John Lee Hooker's Serves You Right To Suffer and Otis Rush's Homework, among others. This is greasy American pub rock, replete with bluesy guitar, funky pianos and organs and ripping blues harp. Peter Wolf's gnarly vocals perfectly underpin Geils' understated and economical blues guitar, while Magic Dick's earthy harp wails puts the icing on the cake. The Morning After saw the band exploring similar pastures on its second album, but a certain degree of slickness seemed to creep into the band's music, perhaps hinting at the Top 40 sensibility the band embraced in the 1980s. Still, I Don't Need You No More, Whammer Jammer and Looking For A Love positively crackle and confirms that rock 'n' roll was alive and kicking in the early 1970s. The J. Geils Band was a true purveyour of good-time rock n' roll, and was best represented on the concert stage, so it wasn't surprising the sextet's third was a live album, Live Full House. It captures the raw, aggressive edge of the band – which often got smoothed over in the recording studio – what with studio gems that became barn-burners on stage, like First I Look At The Purse, Hard Driving Man and Looking For A Love. J. Geils and band announced their arrival with the tighter and more combustible Bloodshot, it's biggest selling album up to that point and one that clearly gained from the live adventures of Full House. Not only does the band sound tighter, but there's a greater confidence in Wolf's vocals and J. Geils simply tears it up on guitar on rockers like (Ain't Nothin But A) Houseparty and Back To Get Ya, with aching balladry supplied by the yearning Start All Over Again. Against the energy of Bloodshot, J. Geils Band's Ladies Invited, it's fourth studio album, was a subdued affair. Not that it wasn't entertaining, it's just that the songs weren't as memorable, and their inability to become FM rock staples attests to this. J. Geils Band plied a similar route to its contemporaries on the other side of the pond, with British bands like Savoy Brown and Chicken Shack all brandishing a similar bar-room boogie soaked in earthy, urban blues. The Original Album Series runs the gamut of music genres, catering to rock (Little Feat, Foghat, Kix, Dokken, Faith No More), blues (Bonnie Raitt, Paul Butterfield Blues Band), alternative/punk (Jesus and Mary Chain, Violent Femmes, Sisters Of Mercy, X, Echo & The Bunnymen), jazz (Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus), singer-songwriters (Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Dr John, Tom Paxton), country (Emmylou Harris), folk (Carly Simon, Tim Buckley, Rickie Lee Jones), soul (Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin), pop (A-ha, Everything But The Girl, The Monkees), New Wave (The Cars, Pretenders) R&B (Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick) and everything in between. It's hard to cast a blind eye on a bargain and the Original Album Series is Warner Music's most precise stab at the budget-friendly ethos. As for the stats, a single package retails at RM55.90 while blowing out on two at a go will only cost ya RM99.90. Ain't that sweet? Speaking of which, shouldn't some of these titles be neatly wrapped up and given out as Christmas presents? 'Tis the season of giving and receiving, after all ... Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Posted: 17 Dec 2011 05:55 PM PST ATLANTA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Rapper Slim Dunkin has been shot to death in Atlanta, police said on Saturday. Dunkin, 24, whose real name was Mario Hamilton, was killed on Friday at a studio where a music video was being filmed, Atlanta police said in a statement. "Moments after his arrival, an argument began and the victim was shot," the statement said. Dunkin was taken to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital where he died a short time later. He belonged to a group called 1017 Brick Squad, which includes rappers Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame, according to the Atlanta group's Facebook page. Police said there have been no arrests in the case. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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