Just cause he was so damn cool.

Jim Jones Revue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0WtJ3RYlTo

Rock may be dead, but nobody told these guys. They've got all the cliches but god damn it they've got the old-time energy as well. I don't care how many Little Richard riffs they rip or how many times this lead singer watched Tex Perkins woo 'em in Berlin, these guys want the old gold. They want to sweat and scream and bleed and they want you to join them. I don't care if it's all been done before, because ironic detachment never got them dancing. Maybe it actually takes courage to be a Jerry Lee meets Beasts of Bourbon rocker in 2011, and the two records I have by these guys actually rock hard and change the dynamic of the room. I say go.

Outrageous Cherry

Around and around we go on the music obsessive merry-go-round, looking for satisfaction through price and medium and, oh yea, quality. My general pattern has been vinyl  >cassettes> cds> vinyl> soulseek> and vinyl again.  But we've had another quantum leap in record prices, and who wants to lay out 18 bucks for a new slab based on Internet raves when you've been burned so many times before?  So many folks have left the sterility of the Soulseek game, so it's harder to hear new music for free first to purchase later, which leads me back to the bargain cd bins, a place I thought I'd never return. These serve a couple of functions- they let you hunt for dollar nuggets, which are more fun to listen to than just throwing down plastic for brand new stuff (maybe because expectations are so low), veritably risk-free and make finding treasures far more likely (assuming you can call any cd a "treasure"). They also allow you to take chances without blowing cash that could be better spent getting really drunk.

So I snuck out of work recently and headed out to Concord Rasputin's to escape consciousness by flipping through hundreds of misfit cds, and lo and behold some are some purty darn good: Espers II (gorgeous female singing backed by bearded Pennyslvanian Renaissance reenactors), that Ministry record with "NWO" and "Jesus Built my Hot Rod" on it, a Jesus Lizard ep I'd never seen, and a number of others that will probably get a listen and then get shelved. The big winner, though, is Outrageous Cherry's Out There in the Dark, which is jam-packed with enormous hooks and inventive songwriting. I have one other record by these guys and it has some great tunes, but this one is just so relentlessly consistent that I wonder if I missed the hype boat when it sailed or if it (mixed metaphor and cliche alert) flew under the 1998 tastemakers' radars. I say get your 90s version of a 60s psych-pop freakout on and be fully prepared to press repeat and have these songs stuck in your head the rest of the week, a plight you really ought to thank me for in cash.

Apache Dropout

This is the best new record I've heard this year, but its oddness makes description a challenge. One song sounds like Thin White Rope, but that's the only one. Another sounds like a darker Modern Lovers, but that's the only one.  An ode to Johan Kugelberg  includes a spoken word break about fucking in the streets. The back cover has an intense Indian woman with a nuclear blast above her head. What does all this mean? Quality, sir. No easy category quality, but that indefinable stench of goodness keeps wafting from the speakers and it's been too long since I've had a whiff.  Rambling, shambling backyard yesirree quality time (fire up the barbecue and whip out the mushrooms, dad!), and we even get a singalong chorus for anthemheads ("Teenager"). Sneakily addictive and druggily pop, this wins the first half of the year for being- follow the circular logic- really, really good.

You Need This

http://www.aggronautix.com/products.cfm

Dig the Bargain Bin

Finally, Amoeba listens to its cheapest customers and offers a "Newest Arrivals Bargain Bin,"  an essential space for those who can seemingly only gain musical pleasure cheaply. Sure, once the wind blew you into the used bins and there the nuggets sat, but like all things to the old, those better days have passed. Anyway, I played hooky a few weeks back and here's some of the haul. It was about seven bucks for the eight records, which last time I checked cost less than half for a new record by some garage band in Wisconsin.

Ron Wood & Ronnie Lane- Mahoney's Last Stand- apparently, this is the soundtrack from some movie I have not seen, but having listened to these mostly instrumental grooves for a quiet morning, I'd like to. This came out in '76 after the Faces' prime, but they're having a hoedown on somebody's million dollar porch and having themselves a time. Worth your buck, hippie.

Eddie Money- Can't Hold Back- I can't make it through the whole thing- all right, I can't make it through Side 1, but with two radio hits in the first three overproduced spurts of schlock, who needs to? Worth a buck only if you overly romanticized Eddie Money's McNally's escapades beyond all subsequent hospital visits.

Van Halen- 1984- have you also forgotten the boys look futuristic on the back cover and that no Eagle regular has ever looked more flaming? Of course it's worth a buck, if only for "Hot for Teacher," which  rocks.

Miles Davis- Bitches Brew- I've had this on the ipod for years, but there it sat in all its gatefold glory, inside a shirtless smiling Miles and some Gleason liner notes doing the beat thing a decade late. I dig the new directions- purists can suck it.

Waylon Jennings- The One and Only- we're a long way from outlaw territory- this was an attempt at mainstream Nashville success before rebellion became marketable. Worth a buck only for the context, at least to this cheap bastard.

Dusty Springfield- Dusty in Memphis- send a big ballady English songstress to record with top Memphis studio dudes and let history write the story. I could listen to that voice all of Sunday morning, and somehow the demons keep their distance or nap their frolics off. I'd have paid top dollar for this, so drop your buck if you see one.

Doc & Merle Watson- Then and Now- this is a surprise winner, a Grammy-winning father-son effort that makes these long-covered tunes their own. Even the TVZ cover doesn't piss me off, which doesn't surprise me given the reverence the great one had for Watson.  Worth a bicentennial quarter, at the very least.

Willie Nelson- Phases and Stages- I can't tell one Willie Nelson record from the next, probably because I rarely play them more than once. Somehow they call out to me as soothing respites to the day-to-day when I'm trolling the record store, but nothing ever jumps out and screams 'play me' when I'm actually listening. Worth a buck if only for "Bloody Mary Morning," a song I can't remember but a sentiment I stand full-heartedly behind.

#WINNING!