Black Crowes and Jimmy Page – Live At The Greek

The set-up: Drop an actual rock legend into the line-up and rock out every teenage boy’s dream: pretending to be Led Zeppelin. The band’s renditions of the music are passably fine, but Chris is no Plant, not even close. In fact, his voice just makes the Zep (and other old blues) songs sound like Crowes songs, which can be disorienting at times. It should be an orgasmic supergroup, and comes off sounding thin somehow, instead. Added bonus: at least now they can play all these classic, tried-and-true songs in concert when things are lagging and claim context for it.

Carolyn & NQ, Arrogant Worms, It Might Get Loud and SLOOOOAAN!

Another long while between blasts. It’s about bloody time I got at least something up here…

Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle – Let’s Just Stay Here

I’ve loved this disc from the get-go. And I was writing initial reviews of it in my head right after I got it. Obviously, I never got around to the actual writing part. But now I realize that this negligence has actually been a blessing in disguise. Sure, I’d have raved about this record at the time. It’s a solid, engaging and excellent effort that definitely has its own feel, creates its own space to breathe and be all the awesome that it is and then goes for it full-on. But the added advantage I have in waiting until now to post this is in getting to tell you just how much of a good friend this record has become with repeated listens. Damn, man. This rules. The trademark humour, the harmonies, the excellent music from the band. It sounds equally great in my iPod, my stereo, and in my rumbly old truck. Yeah baby, this is the real deal.

Arrogant Worms – Three Worms And An Orchestra

A fun DVD, exactly as you’d expect: the group’s goofy songs with full arrangements from the Edmonton SO. They underhand-pitch most of their schtick between songs, and fair enough. Good family fun. The song ‘Celine Dion’ still makes me howl.

It Might Get Loud

A mostly cool meeting of three generations of guitar biggies; Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page. They play, talk, reminisce…

It was nice to see the elder-statesman Page still so enthralled with the music, and he seemed a good sport about this gig. He gets paid the least attention, though, which is odd given his legacy.

It’s hard to take somebody who calls himself The Edge seriously, especially since he’s been playing essentially the same damn riff for twenty years. All his effects and knob-twiddlings fail to interest me.

White came out best in this, to my mind. The brash impatience and energy, the studied acknowledgement of the dark corners of the blues, the wavering between respect and arrogance. We laughed when he said, on the way to this historic meeting, that he expected a fistfight. Haha. Yeah, if the future remains in his hands we’ll be alright.

Recommended viewing, even if they do totally butcher ‘The Weight’ during the end credits.

Sloan – Hit & Run EP

Sloan has a new EP and a B-Sides collection available for cheap on their web site. You should go buy them right now. http://www.sloanmusic.com/

This EP is a thoughtful collection of new material in that inimitable Sloan style. Strong writing, gorgeous song construction and instrumentations, incredibly catchy hooks, and the sense that while these songs are great on the EP, they’ll be even better live. Yeah baby! SLOOOOAANN!!!

I’ll get to writing about the b-sides collection after I give it another full spin.