Just Hanging Around

So the drums are officially coming to an end.They've all been recorded, and are just in the editing process right now. This leaves me with a lot of free time. Ryan and Patrick have gone back to school for a couple days, and Rico is back in Fresno for work, so I'm the only one left. I play a lot of videos games. Its given me a chance to also work on lyrics, and finalize them. I brought my trusty typewriter along with me to max out on mega indie street cred.

A friend also had given me a bunch of random records that she didn't want, and I brought them with me, since my record player has been up at the studio. I thought I'd go through and do a little review of each one, for fun.

MEGA VINYL REVIEW BONANZA:

Sade "Promise"

Most people know Sade from her hit 'Smooth Operator', and I must say that the one thing about Sade that is true, is her smoothness. Shes so smooth its almost impossible for the record needle to play the album due to its smoothness. Its not bad. Very 80's though. They didn't stop at jazz/blues ballads, they took it to the next level by adding synth and drum pads. Her band is pretty hilarious looking too. They all look like current members of Culture Club. I did like a lot of the songs though. Its the kind of thing you can't say is necessarily bad, just needs to be slowly gotten used to. The songs mainly focused on the same topic of 'Taboo love' or 'Painful love' or even 'Painful Taboo Love', which I understand is illegal in Alabama, but overall its well written love songs. Definitely check it out.

Shelly Berman "Inside Shelly Berman"




I've never ever listened to a comedy record before. And I think for a good reason. This was definitely a rare find. Shelly Berman, from what I read on the back of his record, is a middle aged man (or was a middle aged man) who does stand up. The one exception being that he did it in the 1960's. He also appeared to appeal to a much more conservative older crowd at the time. Let me start out by saying that , yes, there were funny parts. He seems to be a clever guy. But its VERY hit or miss. He also has the annoying habit of fluctuating his voice very high, as if hes performing with some kind of pressurized mining tool attached to his scrotum. The one thing I found very ironic was that when I pulled the record out of its case, the sleeve wasn't just a plain white paper sleeve, nor was it the Shelly Berman sleeve, but a 1970's Elton John sleeve for one of his albums. This was even more ironic that the Elton John sleeve was inside the shelly Berman case, as the album was called "Inside Shelly Berman" and Elton John is a noted Homosexual. I don't know about you , but it made ME laugh.

Peter, Paul, And Mary "In The Wind"




I didn't listen to this record because most of the songs are just covers of old folk songs and Bob Dylan originals.so I guess you could say that I have already heard the album in different forms. But I do know that Peter , Paul, and Mary were the creepy , engineered brain child of the folk nazi Albert Grossman, who also happened to be Bob Dylan's manager in the 60's. The cover of the album is kind of funny though.



Thats all for now.
All of you have a fun thanksgiving, and a good season.
We'll be back with more updates soon.

thank you!

-alex