Five for Fighting

Wednesday's USA today features a review of a new album by Five for Fighting - The Battle for Everything, by Elysa Gardner. Giving the record 2 stars Gardner, who describes the band as "purveyors of heavy-handed, maudlin guitar-pop" comments that frontman John Ondrasik "aspires to more gracefully lyrical expression on the Todd Rundgren-esque One More for Love". The album she concludes is a "ploddingly earnest ...affair"

Spin the black circle

Ruby - Salt Peter. 9 years old and still sounds fresh. Lesley Rankine shines in this sort of rock/trip-hop classic [which again influenced Garbage] featuring one of my tracks of the 90's - Paraffin.
Splender - Halfway Down the Sky. Some delightful Todd produced pop/rock.
Thea Gilmore - The Lipstick Conspiracies. Modern pop/folk at its best, and another of 2003's best releases.
Whiskey Mule - Fuel For the Mule. Demo CD bu bunch of 17 year olds, featuring a friend. 70's rock influenced. Lead singer is woeful, but with a little work there is potential there.
The Boomtown Rats - Best of . Bob and the boys did crank out some cool tunes
Boss Hogg - Whiteout.

And the tracks:

Curve - Hell Above the Water. Curve really should have been bigger. Garbage essentially ripped off half their sound and made money whilst Curve hardly kept their head abouve the water. This track from the album 'Gift' was proof that they could still crank out a good tune.

Iron Maiden - Rainmaker - Just when I was sure that they would never record a decent tune ever again ... One of pleasant surprises in the singles market of 2003.

Rudd's support the Runt

Article in The Boston Globe (30th January) about Boston outfit the Rudds, ahead of gig at Lizard Lounge 31 January, and about singer John Powhida's vocal heroes - Daryl Hall, Todd Rundgren, and Cheap Trick's Robin Zander - who have influenced him since his teenage years growing up in Albany, N.Y. "That's the sound to me," Powhida says. "I liked the freeness and wildness that Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren had. They'd slip into falsetto, take chances, and every time they sang a song it seemed like they were playing with their voices. That's an element of music I like a lot, that experimentation."