Barenaked Ladies & Beastie Boys

People might get all excited thinking about a group called "barenaked ladies," but I think that humans who aren't wearing their fur look like chicken that's been boiled too long.
Sometimes, there's a reason you can get a CD at a yard sale for only 25 cents, and it's not always because there's no jewel case or liner notes. All I could hear on Barenaked Ladies' Stunt were pop jingles like they play over TV commercials for car insurance. I'm sorry to report--oh, let's be honest--I'm not at all sorry to report that this album has only one moderately decent tune on it: "It's All Been Done." And yes, it has. This one's going in the free box at the next yard sale.

Thank the goddess Bastet for Beastie Boys! My ears needed a good wringing out after that last album, and they got it. Who would have thought, back in 1994, that if you threw a flute, hip-hop beats, Buddhist chants, and a couple of distortion pedals into the kibble bowl and stirred it up, you'd get this? Well, I guess the Beastie Boys did.
My person was introduced to Ill Communication by a Scot named Campbell who was famous for beating up his girlfriend's car by bashing it with his head during a jealous fit. He also wore a knife to French translation class and propositioned nearly every class member, including the teacher, a grad assistant who never really recovered from the experience.
What Campbell and Beastie Boys knew was that "You can't, you won't, and you don't stop" the Beast. Just listen to the beastie roar in the middle of "Sabotage," not to mention all the gimmicky distortion that is totally redeemed by the standup bass, and the pure-porn-soundtrack wacka-wacka on "Sabrosa" and "Transitions."  Ill!
Listen to "Sure Shot" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwF5r9AV6D8. 
Be sure to turn up the volume.
Peace Out!

Bandits Soundtrack

The movie, Bandits, is a 2001 combo heist movie and romantic comedy starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. After my person saw the film, she bought the soundtrack, which has an eclectic collection of artists, including Bob Dylan, Bonnie Tyler, Aretha Franklin, and Mark Knopfler.
The first cut on the album is "Gallows Pole" by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, which sets up the movie's buddy theme, and each song that follows tells a little piece of the story.
My ears perked up when I heard Tanita Tikaram's "Twist in My Sobriety," not only because I've battled a catnip addiction for most of my life, but also because the song contains some unusual oboe sounds. I'm not exactly sure what an oboe is, but I imagine it to be a delicious bird of some kind.
I didn't mind too much when my person started singing along with Five for Fighting's "Superman," but then she picked me up and swooped me around the room, shouting, "You'll believe a cat can fly!"
Even though she put me down when that song ended, things just got more peculiar when the next song began. It was "Crazy 'Lil Mouse" by In Bloom, and my person began hopping around the living room, doing a dance that looked like a combination of The Eqyptian and The Frug. Let's face it: she's mental when it comes to music.
Chase some "Crazy 'Lil Mouse" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG6--lkvVXo
Later, she took the CD downstairs and played the song over and over again while she pounded on her drum kit. 
I stayed upstairs and stuck my head under a pillow.
Peace out!

Fiona Apple & Gwyn Ashton

Doesn't this woman look sorta like a cat?

Fiona Apple's Tidal is just one CD in my person's "Angry Women of the '90s" collection, and I'm never quite sure when those tunes are going to come off the shelf, but when they do, stay out of her way! Out comes the turkey baster--or sometimes, a real microphone--and the caterwauling begins. (I really like that word, because it starts with "cat.") 

It's powerful stuff. The way my person sings those lines "I've been a bad, bad girl. I've been careless with a delicate man" makes me tremble a little, and when she gets to "Darling, give me your absence tonight," I know it's time to go nap under the bed.

Apple's second album, When the Pawn, includes the titles, "Limp" and "A Mistake."  I agree.
Listen to "Criminal" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRv4VQra2kc
Gwyn Ashton's 1996 Wanted Man is a little hard to find, but there are still a few CD copies available on Amazon.com. My person found our copy in a bin at a Best Buy in Oklahoma City.  
Ashton is part of a 2-man blues band now, grandiosely called Two-Man Blues Army, but Wanted Man features a full band, as well as two guys on the Hammond organ and three different harmonica players. It's a tasty blend of blues and rock, acoustic and electric.
Sample a little Ashton at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQ2JmGfQl4 

Ashton was born in Wales, but most people think he's Australian, because that's where he started his music career. My person said to tell you that you can find out more about Ashton on Wikipedia. I'd do that for you, but I'm not very adept at using the computer keyboard. I'm really good on the piano keyboard, though--I can play with all four feet.
Peace out!

Christina Aguilera, Bernard Allison, & the Allman Brothers

Listening to Christina Aguilera's Stripped album took me back to my kittenhood. MomCat used to grab each of us in turn, hold us tightly against her, and kick the living daylights out of us with her back feet. Made my head reel, and I used to wonder what the point was of it all. Soon as "Fighter" started, I got it:

          Made me learn a little bit faster

          Made my skin a little bit thicker

          Makes me that much smarter

          Thanks for making me a fighter.

                 Thank you, MomCat, wherever you are now.
Listen to "Fighter" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7pQpNx-F4

My person told me she saw Bernard Allison's band several years ago when they opened for Jonny Lang in Idaho Falls. My person was just learning to play the drums, and she got Allison's drummer, James Knowles, to autograph a copy of their Across the Water CD. There are several high-energy cuts on this album, starting right off with "The River's Rising." Then, "I Want to Get You Back" has some clever double-entendre lyrics, and "Change Your Way of Living" uses traditional blues format to send its gentle message.
Listen to "The River's Rising" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZjQUATctdk

What cool cat hasn't grown his own little soul patch like Greg Allman's? From "Statesboro Blues" to "Midnight Rider" and "(Sweet) Melissa" to "Whipping Post," The Allman Brothers Band's decade of hits 1969-1979 offers up some of the founding tunes of Southern Rock. Does Purina make Southern Fried Cat Chow?
Listen to "Statesboro Blues" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JToo3iwTOso 

Peace Out!

AC/DC, Bryan Adams, & Aerosmith

We started off the year with AC/DC's The Razor's Edge. This oldie was recorded in 1990, when my GramCat was just a kitten. Whoever designed the album cover must have hired a cat to create that killer slash! 

I really liked "Thunderstruck," but "Fire Your Guns" made me jump off the back of the couch (my favorite spot to lounge while listening to music) every time they shot off those rounds. Also, I don't think I really understood the point of "Got You by the Balls," since I haven't had any of those for a long time.
Listen to "Thunderstruck" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RukUetw0hAM

The next album up was Bryan Adams' 18 'til I die. The best track on this disc is "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You." My person grabbed the turkey baster and pretended it was a microphone as she sang along and danced around the kitchen, but all I wanted her to do was to sit down in the Comfy Chair so I could look good sitting on her. By the way, "Black Pearl" will remind you of every little coal kitty you've ever romanced.
Listen to "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BJOfMBJS0A

The rest of the afternoon was filled up with a collection of Aerosmith's stuff. I thought I'd like A Little South of Sanity, because it had a pig on the CD, but then I saw the slogan, "Fried on a Stick." Now, I'm no pig-lover, but that's just sick!
Get a Grip and Pump were full of wondermous classic Aerosmith. Steven Tyler must have been a Tomcat in a former life, 'cause his wails are clearly the "call of the wild" from a Tom to his lady love. However, I just had to leave the room after my person put on Honkin' on Bobo, Aerosmith's misdirected stab at a blues album. The first two cuts, "Road Runner" and "Shame, Shame, Shame" were pretty good, but when that Tyler guy launched into "Never Loved a Man (Girl)," it was just pathetic. Aretha Franklin owns that song, and nobody else should even attempt it.
Listen to "Road Runner" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCKWFfa1LQU
Peace Out!