Monkey with a Typewriter

This is one of those CDs that just makes you smile. As with Johnson's previous efforts, everything's happy, light, and fun. And with guests like G. Love, you can certainly read the laid-back stoner references between the lines on songs like The Sharing Song (If you've got one/ Here is something you can learn/ You can still share/ Just by taking turns).

Particular favorites include "Upside Down" which seems to be a happy variation on a theme based on "Sympathy for the Devil". Or maybe I'm reading too much into that opening drum riff. Johnson also covers Jack White's "We're Going to Be Friends", a song which has been covered quite a bit lately (check out Bree Sharp's cover online). Maybe it's the Beatle-esque simplicity of the song, but no matter who sings it, it always seems to strike the right chord. I'm waiting for the Henry Rollins cover myself...

Songs like "With My Own Two Hands" and "Lullaby" will keep you mellow, while upbeat numbers like "Jungle Gym" and "People Watching" will have you humming the rest of the day. For me, the standout track is "Broken", a great song about the moment you realize how much difference one special person can make in your life. Or, monkey, in the case of the movie.

See the movie! Buy this CD!

To paraphrase Homer Simpson... "Green Day... is there anything they can't do?"

There's nothing like watching a band reinvent themselves to become something different, yet familiar. Green Day is still writing catchy, hook-driven punk (although punk purists might argue the term). They've added a few new layers - political awareness and maturity. American idiot unfolds like a hybrid of epic prog-rock and punk opera. The album shifts between classic Green Day pogo rockers and newer Green Day radio friendly ballads, telling the tale of a suburban wasteland where the kids aren't all right, the people in power are corrupt, and the youth are just to overwhelmed with their own problems to care. The lyrics (which you'll probably need to read - Billy Joe Armstrong is assaulting the mic with that quasi-British thing) are some of the more meaningful seen from the group. They're older now, more mature, and able to reflect on their youths and offer lessons to those coming up. Standout tracks like "Are We the Waiting", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "St. Jimmy", "City of the Damned", and "Give Me Novacaine". Check them out at greenday.com

I admit, I'm a bit biased in favor of this album because of my fondness for the sadly departed Sifl N Olly show. It's hard to classify Lynch's style... is it rock? Comedy? Rock-edy? It's crescent fresh, that's what it is. The disc has some great straight-ahead rockers like Cuz You Do and Try Me (both featuring Ringo Starr on drums!). It also has some heavy metal anthems that would make any mullet-jockey proud, particularly Rock n' Roll Whore (Featuring Jack Black!). What else does the album offer? How about a bunch of... well, fake songs? These tracks have clever titles like Fake Bjork Song, Fake Talking Heads Song, Fake David Bowie Song, or Fake Depeche Mode Song. These songs are less Yankovic style parody then they are humorous loving tribute. The Talking Heads and Bjork songs in particular could fool even some die hard fans of those artists. This is one of those albums where all of the tracks come highly recommended, although they may not appeal to all musical tastes. There's something for everyone here, from the street-ready lyrics of Rapbot, to the heart-wrenching lyrics of Horny Kind of Love.

She's always there at the end to lead me. Yes, it sounds like something a stalker might say. But stick with me here... I write to music. I simply can't do it if everything is purely quiet. I have a select few albums that I listen to repeatedly. Over time, new albums are added, old favorites briefly retired. I listen to them until I know them by heart, so that I'm driven by the rhythm, enjoying the aural scenery while I focus on driving. There are some artists that simply never leave the rotation. And the only one whose albums are ALL in the stack is Aimee Mann. I start almost every script, novel, or short story with her. And inevitably, when I get stuck, when I'm at that last ten pages, or staring across the chasm between me and the ending (which I always swear is only ten pages away, really), she's there to lead me. I don't know how she does it. The first note hits. Her melancholy voice somehow bypasses my ears and saturates my brain and my heart. And it just goes. Chasm? What chasm?

Bachelor no. 2 is the disc that always gets me there. Little of the driving rock that can be found on her earlier albums is present here (and don't get me wrong, I LOVE her earlier stuff...that's how I begin everything I write). Here, she has found her niche. Her songs always manage to make you smile while breaking your heart. She writes the kind of thing in two lines that most playwrights try to do in two acts, from the classic line in Deathly: "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?" (which spawned the fabulous John C Reilly storyline in Magnolia), to "...but you're mistaking speed/ for getting what you need/ and never even noticing. you never do arrive..." from Driving Sideways. Beckett couldn't have said it better. Anyway. Let me finish erecting this pedestal.
Tracks you gotta hear:
1. How am I Different
2. Nothing is Good Enough
3. Red Vines
4. The Fall of the World's Own Optimist
5. Satellite
6. Deathly
7. Ghost World
8. Calling it Quits
9. Driving Sideways
10. Just Like Anyone
11. Susan
12. It Takes All Kinds
13. You Do

Oh... did I just list all of the tracks? I DID! THAT'S how good she is.

Leonard Cohen is one of those magical artists that you only discover at the perfect time in your life. This may be when you're in the depths of despair, or perhaps in lying next the one you love, or will love, or used to love... He covers it all. And this 2-disc collection covers his career to date wonderfully.

It's amazing to hear his voice transform from Dylan-like folkster into the trademark Gravel-Bass that men only wish they could have late at night while trying to seduce some unsuspecting young thing. Thirty one tracks in all, and every one of them is simply amazing. I prefer his less-synthesized songs, but even those mid-80s early 90s electro-pop fusion pieces go down like warm honey tea on a cold night. Pre-fab Top 40 music withers and melts next to the heat of his lyrics, and yet... he sings about the same things. The one that got away. The next one coming down the street. The happy times, the angry times, the mistakes, the perfect moments. As another great songwriter once said, "Give me a Leonard Cohen Afterworld..."

Listen to (EVERYTHING! But my favorites are...):

Disc One
3. Sisters of Mercy
6. Bird on a Wire
8. Famous Blue Raincoat
13. Hallelujah (Voted the greatest song of all time by Canadians! Millions of Canucks can't be wrong!)
16. I'm Your Man
17. Everybody Knows
18. Tower of Song

Disc Two
1. Ain't No Cure for Love
3. First We Take Manhattan
7. Waiting for the Miracle
8. Closing Time

Not since Extreme's "Pornograffitti" has a concept album so rocked. Debate the merits of the former if you will, but doubt not the power of The Flaming Lips. Most people know them through their hit "She Don't Use Jelly". I don't understand how a group this good could be so obscure, or fringe, or whatever you want to call them. But perhaps that's why they're so good. My definition of a good album is one that contains at least three good songs. A great album is one where half of the tracks are good. So what can be said about an album that goes wall-to-wall with greatness? Yes, The Flaming Lips are the Empire Carpet of the music world, laying down luxury-cushioned, deep-pile... Jesus this metaphor fell apart really fast. Anyway.

You must listen especially to:
1. Fight Test
3. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1
6. Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell
7. Are you a Hypnotist??
9. Do You Realize??
11. Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)