It’s been a while since my last review and one thing is nearly certain… I haven’t missed much. Music is in a state this year. A state of uninspired boring to be exact. Fuck me for having high standards I guess. Thankfully I have had many other endevours to keep me occupied in the meantime, all of which are going very well. Keeping me busy and out of trouble.

I return to this blog to review something that I thought would never happen. Even when I heard that it was about to happen, I seriously doubted the quality that would come forth. Silly Mughead.

After eleven years one of my favorite bands have pulled it all back together and made one of the greatest comebacks of all time. There can be no doubt left after hearing the new album several times. You can listen to it for yourself in it’s entirety HERE.

“Forth” is The Verve’s 4th album and giving it to you straight… I can’t stop listening to it. That’s the first sign of a great album. I find Richard Ashcroft’s voice in my head wherever I go now. Hearing Nick McCabe’s guitar again fills me up with everything I look for in music. Inspiration. Visions.

Each and every song on the album is amazing. At first, I was uncertain about the single “Love is Noise” but it has already grown on me after a few listens. My immediate favorites are “Numbness” and “Sit and Wonder”. But like I said, the whole album shreds. “Columbo” and “Appalachian Springs” and “Judas” are all cutting edge Verve. It’s unbelievable that The Verve can come back eleven years later and not only release something relevant, but something that is arguably their best work to date.

The album is released next week on August 26th and I suggest you buy it and listen to it over and over again as it is hands down, my favorite release of the year to date. It’s lack of competition aside, this album has rescued my ears in every way. When an album comes along that I really love, I strap on my old trusty headphones, smoke a joint and take a long walk along the pacific ocean . And that’s exactly what I did yesterday.

Honestly, it’s like walking with a long lost friend that you were certain was dead. Turns out they were just sleeping. I’m not going to go further detail. Just a heads up for you to check this album out and buy it.

I stumbled onto Ryan’s Smashing Life the other day and thought it might be worth posting a link to. This guy seems to have enough free time to not only post everyday but also add a link to an mp3 that you can download if you right click on it. If you are looking for new music check it out!

My wife and I have recently started our own business. Which is off to a wonderfully smooth smart. However, for the time being it seems that my free time will slightly diminish, temporarily side-lining me for yet another vacation from writing this blog.

In the meantime I can tell you that if you haven’t heard the new Black Keys album, you should check it out. It’s one of my favorites of the year so far. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks is solid as well. Maybe the best album of 2008 so far is The Racontuers new album. Not only does it far surpass their first, it also far surpasses the White Stripes last release as well.

Now that I have my first review of the year under my belt, I find myself wandering back out into the musical desert, searching once again for that always elusive musical fix. With The Black Crowes having left me in a state of serious wanting, I picked up two new releases and decided to see what they are made of.

The first was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds new album, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! Initially, I wasn’t very excited about reviewing this release. I’ve heard Nick Cave many times before and while I can admit respect for his artistic vision, I have never found myself in desperate need of listening to anything he has created, with the exception of the song “Red Right Hand”. So I found a quiet bench in an abandoned park and I half heartedly pressed play.

The album opens with the title track “Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!” which strangely reminds me of a cross between Franz Ferdinand and that old Suicidal Tendencies track “Institutionalized”, you know the one that has a hilarious amount of talking? Nick Cave talk-sings his way through most of the track telling a rather strange story that lyrically, is very interesting. But while interesting, I am certain I only need to listen to this song once.

I am a big believer in the fact that truly great music is best quantified by the strength of the urge that it gives you to listen to it over and over again.

The second track “Today’s Lesson”, while it was easy to see the potential there, just didn’t have enough on it to connect with either. Actually, it reminded me of Kiss in a couple spots. It might be a kick-ass song to hear live though.

With the album off to an average start “Moonland” begins. Surprisingly, I found myself captivated within a few seconds. Cave’s dark swooning lyrics instantly connect. I absolutely love the tiny drum scattering about in the background throughout the track. I found myself smiling because I had finally found a good song, the first one of the year.

From here we move on to “Night of the Louts Eaters”, a hypnotically dark hymn that takes you down into a darkened basement and locks you inside the bowels of what could be an old clock, that seems to be stuck. Parts of this song remind me of The Doors vocally. Cave’s lyrics are proving to be near genius. From the title to the fade out, Nick and his Seeds nail this one. It’s even better than “Moonland”.

“Albert Goes West” shatters the hypnotic spell of the last few minutes with it’s much more aggressive sound. I found this to be a terrible transition. While the song gets better as it goes, I found it slightly too noisy and a bit unfocused. It’s something you might find yourself listening if you are having sex in a bathroom with the town whore. I’m pretty certain I won’t be listening to that one again. “We Call Upon the Author to Explain” follows that up and again Nick Cave’s vision is brave. I imagine that he doesn’t give two shits about what other people think about what he is doing. He talk-sings his way through this track as well, telling another incredibly interesting story. He definitely took some chances on this song. Overall, I think great lyrics make this song worth listening to.

“Hold On to Yourself” comes over you like an icy wind, I love the strings that sit back, itching away in the back of your mind. Cave’s voice is truly great on this track. At times he reminds me of PJ Harvey. This song clearly shows why you have heard of Nick Cave. The track is just really fucking good. After that “Lie Down Here (and be my girl)” cracks you in the head with a distorted guitar, violently being played like a dying pterodactyl. It’s a harsh transition again, but more bearable than that last one. This is the kind of song that might grow on you.

“Jesus of the Moon” brings it back down and Nick Cave all of the sudden is reminding me of Neil Diamond. Well not Neil Diamond, but definitely his evil twin. Another really good song. I just can’t seem to find any fault with these songs. The lyrics keep standing out. All the musical choices are brave and inspired I think. “Midnight Man” is next and it has great sound to it. The keyboards really make this one, bubbling up kind of like the drums do on “Moonland”. Another kick-ass song. Unbelievable. With only one song left, I start to look back at my notes and find myself completely shocked at how many good tracks are on this album.

“More News From Nowhere” wraps up this album, coming in at seven and a half minutes long. It’s a seriously mellow tune that is filled with so many stories and great lyrics, it feels more like five minutes. With lyrics like “i don’t know which is which, or who is whom, they’ve stolen each others faces” and “it’s getting strange in here” it reminds me of a group of friends completely wasted on mushrooms, locked in someone’s apartment.

Ok. It’s a great ending to an album filled with some of Nick Cave’s best work. Indeed. If The Black Crowes got two-point-five stars, this should get at least four. If you get a chance you should check it out. I’ll be reviewing that other mystery album in a few days. Check back soon for it, it think it has the potential to be even better than this one was.

Maybe this year won’t be so bad after all?

Let me be the first to say it.

This year in music is off to a slow start. While last year was one of the best years for new music in a long time (mostly due to Radiohead, Wilco, Iron and Wine, Ryan Adams and Feist, all releasing some absolutely sick material), this year there is nothing even on the horizon that immediately jumps out at me as something to be overly excited about.

Maybe Portishead in April.

The artists who made last year great can all but be ruled out for contributing any new material to aid us in our quest for musical inspiration. And all of that is concerning for a music junkie. Basically what I am saying is that this is my first review of the year and even though I have been busy with some other very important endevours, I will still normally write if inspired to do so. The point being that there just hasn’t been jack-shit out there yet as far as new releases go.

With that said, the most interesting music news to date, has to be Maxim’s complete fuck up on the new Black Crowes album Warpaint. As you certainly already know, Maxim took it upon themselves to review the album after only hearing one song. They explained that it was an educated guess, giving the new album only two and a half stars. Wow. Wow.

Upon hearing this news I was completely disgusted. I mean what kind of worthless morons has Maxim been employing? And I haven’t heard of anyone getting fired over this either, which means that they are actually ok with all of this. Even the apology seems to have been completely mishandled by Maxim as they apologized through the media and not directly to the band. The Black Crowes have been openly pissed off by the whole event, and rightly so.

Just imagine that you have spent a few solid months creating an album, just to have some no name loser tear it apart, without even hearing it. It’s a little more than disturbing. Still, I wonder if the Black Crowes would have cared if Maxim had given them five stars instead of two and half. I seriously doubt it.

My advice… the next time you pick up a magazine and start reading music reviews, remember The Black Crowes. I suggest finding all your music reviews online from people like me, who do this for free and have no ulterior motives for doing so.

So finally, what about the album? I mean what kind of “blogger” would I be to not fully review the album at this point?

Warpaint, it’s a fitting title considering the battle it has been through even before being released. Let me first speak honestly to the fact that I am not a Black Crowes fan. I suppose I could best be described as indifferent about them.

While there is no doubt that they have created a couple classics during their musical career, the real question for me is not about how this album compares to their other albums. The question is whether the damn thing is worth listening to more than once. For me there is a standard measurement I use for whether I dig a new album or not, and it’s simple.

Is my mind getting blown while I am listening to it?

See, I am looking for moments in music that capture me and give me no other choice than to connect with it. I am looking for something to inspire me and make me stop, forget about myself and just be consumed by someone else’s imagination. It’s not a science. It’s subjective. On that note, I’ll move on to the actual review of this here album.

Warpaint opens up with “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution”, a twangy southern classic rock track that is the Black Crowes. For me, it failed to excite in almost every way. Not a good way to begin. At this point in music, if you are going to write a tune like that, it better make people’s jaws drop or it’s just a waster of all our time. We’ve heard it before.

The second track “Walk Believer Walk” however, takes a slower more bluesy approach that actually proves much more successful. Reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, there is actually not much to this track… it’s just done well. The ballad “Oh Josephine” follows that up and in doing so, bored me to death. There was nothing even mildly compelling for me about this song, so I won’t bother spending much time on it.

“Evergreen” opens up with a thicker guitar and seems promising at first, but it falls short quickly by following in the footsteps of again, what has been done so many times before. Mid-way through they break it down, which catches my attention for a minute but unfortunately looses it as the song ends up slipping back into it’s own footsteps. The next track “We Who See the Deep” is solid, mostly because there is more going on musically than the other tracks. Still, I see a pattern forming here that doesn’t look good for the rest of the album.

“Locust Street” is a country ballad that definitely inspired me, it inspired me to go and listen to some Ryan Adams once I’m done with reviewing this album. “Movin’ On Down the Line”, while slapped with a completely unoriginal title and lyrics, proves to be my favorite track thus far as it at least attempts to leave the box that these tracks all seem to be trapped in.

“Wounded Bird” falls right back into the same mold that these songs have all been apparently birthed from. I wanted to stop listening to the song half way through but forced myself to endure it, otherwise how could I continue to talk shit about Maxim without being a complete hypocrite. “Gods Got It” is funny and for that reason I can say I enjoyed it. Nothing special going on here though, just letting people know that god’s got money and everything else that you need. Not like we didn’t know this already, still I found it humorous.

“There’s Gold in Them Hills” is a slow track that drags along a bit and then pulls itself up and takes a seat at the bar in some southern saloon before dragging itself back down again. Not terribly inspring. The final track “Whoa Mule” starts up with some vocals and a snappy drum, followed by a harmonica. It gets into a groove and stays there pulling off yet another tune that cannot be classified as neither good nor bad. During the last two tracks it occurred to me that this is the type of album that is much better after four or five beers. That’s right, beer goggles have multiple uses.

While the obvious musical ability of these guys is not in question, the fact remains that my mind is completely unblown. Unfortunately, I am forced to conclude that Maxim, actually guessed right. Nice guess Maxim, right on the money. Amazing. Two-Point-Five Stars. It doesn’t excuse the fact that those pencil-pushing-numb-nuts over at Maxim never even heard the album before reviewing it. But it does make me laugh.

It also reinforces the fact that if you are getting your music reviews from Maxim, you should consider having your fucking head examined. But more than that, it clearly shows that people should be getting their music reviews online, from people who actually care and do this shit for free, having no conflicts of interests. It only makes sense. Or better yet… just listen for yourself and make up your own damn mind.

Thank You. Good Night. And Remember… Trust No One.

Happy New Year Everyone! Check out Radiohead’s New Year Eve Video Below. By the way The Mughead Review is currently on vacation. But check back soon.

Saturday, December 1st, 2007 – Los Angeles – The OrpheumTheater

Having just seen Iron and Wine three days earlier in the exact same venue, in my mind The John Butler Trio had a mountain to climb. We arrived right as the opening act, Bret Dennen had started his set. Let me start there. I had heard of Brett Dennen a while back, this kid was some kind of prodigy and it is just known that he has the soul of a much older individual. Now I can say first hand that all of that is true. Bret is an example of someone who has truly embraced themselves. Full of hilarious quirkiness, the crowd was completely impressed by this young and up and coming artist. I could hear murmurs throughout the audience all saying the same thing, “this is the best opening act I have ever seen”. I completely agree. There is just something fantastic about going to a show and experiencing something for the first time. I didn’t know any of Bret’s songs very well. And it didn’t matter at all.

After Bret wrapped up to a standing ovation, I thought John Butler’s mountain might have just grown a few inches. Now I really want to impress upon you that, having seen The John Butler Trio at bonaroo’s live webcast earlier this year, I knew that these guys didn’t fuck around. It’s just that Iron and Wine a few days earlier was so great, I felt that John Butler just had his work cut out for him.

What I could never had predicted was how insane it would be to see John Butler play guitar live right in front of you. Again, we had amazing seats. 10th row center, right on the aisle. Honestly, within minutes the John Butler Trio was on there way to being one of the best live performances I had seen all year. No offense to Iron and Wine, but it became very clear that this band has been playing together for much longer. The new album “Grand National” wasn’t in my top ten list of 2007, but I should mention that it was number eleven.

Every song John’s Trio played made me shake my head in amazement. But when the band left and John Butler played “Oceans”, which is a long instrumental acoustic guitar solo, I can happily say that was the sickest thing I have ever seen someone do with an acoustic guitar. Thankfully someone posted a video of this song from the show on YouTube which I have posted below. They must have been sitting right across the aisle from me. Watch the whole video, seriously.

Wow! I was completely shocked at the brilliance of this performance. Go and see these guys, I beg you. There is nothing better you could do on a Saturday night. The goosebumps that I had at this show were so big, I think they had their own goosebumps to deal with.

John Butler is one of the great artists of our times, same as Sam Beam. I feel seriously lucky to have caught this show. Thank god my wife insisted on it. John’s drummer and bassist kick serious ass in their own right as well. The highlights for me had to be “Oceans”, “Funky Tonight”, “Better Than” and a slower version of “Fire in the Sky”.

Throughout the show the crowd was warm and appreciative. I could tell that the Trio was satisfied. Buy this album, put it in your cd player and go for a drive. Or even better, go see these guys live. You will not be disappointed, I promise you.

Wednesday, Novemeber 28th, 2007 – Los Angeles – The Orpheum Theater

Sam Beam might be the nicest man on earth. As it should already be clear, Iron and Wine released not only their best album to date, but arguably the best album of the year. Needless to say I was excited to see how this new album would translate into a live performance. The band nonchalantly took the stage, Sam Beam smiling like he knows something that everyone else just doesn’t. Looking at Sam feels what I imagine looking at the Dalai Lama might feel like. You can actually see kindness and peace, and a tenderness that radiates forth.

My Wife and I were again, lucky enough to have great seats for this performance. Fifth row at the Orpheum is no joke. It might even be better than first row since you can see everyone in the band all at once. The Orpheum is such a beautiful venue by the way, simply outstanding. Even if it is in downtown Los Angeles.

Sam Beam doesn’t need a band to back him up. Don’t get me wrong, they did a great job backing him. But Sam is just that amazing and talented. I think it’s important that Sam is always exploring and expanding his craft. That is why “The Shepherd’s Dog” is such a powerful album. I’m sure that Sam needs to keep himself interested and since he has mastered singing and playing acoustic guitar solo, this was the next logical step.

Listening the new album played live is almost like hearing it for the first time. It has even more of a reggae vibe than it already does. Which I seriously loved. It definitely takes on a more natural quality when performed live, kind of the way that a Radiohead song does when played live.

Iron and Wine played every song that I wanted to hear, except “Burn that Broken Bed”. Every song they played was captivating and beyond my expectations. My favorites that night were “Wolves”, “Carousel” and “Woman King”. But it was the last song, “Trapeze Swinger” which Sam played solo that quite literally brought the audience to tears. I’m not sure if any other artist has ever brought actual tears out of me. I have posted a live performance of “Trapeze Swinger” down below which was played in Edinburgh a month earlier.

What an inspiring performance! So happy to have seen Sam beam and his band of merry musicians perform. I will see them anytime they are playing nearby. You should check them out if you ever get the chance.

For those of you who plan on staying home the weekend of December 8th and 9th, you may want to check out the live webcast of the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas at the AT&T Blueroom. While the Saturday night show seems rather dull in comparison to what else is on that night (The Ultimate Fighter Finale for free on Spike TV), the Sunday night show will surely be worth catching.

As December quickly approaches, and the new album releases dwindle down, we have taken the liberty of releasing our top ten favorite albums of the year.

To each their own. We have come to these conclusions using the simplest method we could think of. We just asked ourselves which albums we listened to the most. As always, we suggest that you buy every one of these albums. It’s important in this day and age to support all of the artists that fuel your love for music. With Christmas right around the corner any of these albums would make a great stocking stuffer.

We have also put together our Best of 2007 mix. Call it our holiday gift to you. Contact us by clicking right here for your free copy. That’s right. We’ll mail it at absolutely no cost to you whatsoever. Exactly how a real gift should be. Thanks for everything. Enjoy!

1. Iron and Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog

2. Radiohead – In Rainbows

3. Wilco- Sky Blue Sky

4. Pinback – Autumn of the Seraphs

5. Feist – The Reminder

6. Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger

7. The White Stripes – Icky Thump

8. Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgarus

9. Spoon – GaGaGaGaGa

10. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha