Wooden Nickel -----------------------------------------Spins --------------------------------------- CD of the Week Marilyn Manson $9.99 Born Villain BACKTRACKS Every album Marilyn Manson Bob Marley & The Wailers has released since 2000’s Holy Wood Catch a Fire (1973) has painted him into an awkward corner: without a tragic controversy With its single “Stir It Up,” this re- like the Columbine massacre to cre- cord introduced reggae music into the atively fuel his distaste for American mainstream during the early FM rock n’ media and culture, his relevance roll radio days. Bob Marley’s major label dwindles as he tries to generate controversy of his own that actually debut featured Bunny Wailer and Peter ends up making him sound desperate. While Born Villain is unlikely Tosh and blended African/Jamaican per- to fully revitalize his career, at least now he sounds like he’s fighting cussions with the groovy keyboards, mel- to remain relevant in an evolving culture that has long overlooked low guitars and Marley’s own soothing vocals. him. It may be no longer interesting to hear his signature moans, Political and unapologetic, the album oozed with soul and re- groans and grunts covering topics like death, lust and being inhu- flection at a time when Jamaica had earned its independence less $11.99 man, among other Gothic oddities, but the rejuvenated music sounds than a decade earlier. like a best-of compilation of his post-Columbine albums. The Wailers weren’t the first to do it, but along with Jimmy RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Let’s face it, 2009’s The High End of Low was a indeed a low. Cliff and Toots Hibbert, they were among the first reggae bands to Out of the Game Old buddy/bandmate Twiggy Ramirez may have returned to the fold, reach a global audience. but the music was still disappointingly limp. Manson acted as the The album opens with “Concrete Jungle,” an endearing but If modern pop music has a genuine crooner a la grumpy old man caricature growling at mindless teenagers blasting dark song that musically has some of the bluesiest guitars ever Bing Crosby or Perry Como, it would have to be their loud rap music and was alarmingly unoriginal as he stretched heard in reggae up to that point. “Slave Driver” slows things Rufus Wainwright. The son of folk singers Loudon down with the background vocals that coo behind the track for Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle has been the same stale ideas shamelessly thin over 72 minutes. The lyrics in called “the greatest songwriter on planet” by no Born Villain are also guilty of these traits, but at least Manson acts about three minutes, as does the gritty “400 Years,” where Tosh less an authority on the subject than Elton John. his age, and the album knows when to stop before the audience gets takes over on vocals. Critics are calling Out of the Game his best work thoroughly bored and alienated. Side two opens with the familiar “Stir it Up” and then moves ever, which is saying a lot for the guy who made To hear songs like “Hey, Cruel World …” and “Overneath the on to the funky “Kinky Reggae,” a song that still resonates and is the classics Want One and Want Two. Get Out of Path of Misery” early on in Born Villain is a pleasant assurance that one of my personal favorites 40 years later. “No More Trouble” the Game for just $11.99 at any Wooden Nickel those other albums are behind Manson. Okay, maybe not entirely, again hits the peace and love vibe, but doesn’t get in the way of Music Store. as the theme of broken love rears its stale head once more in the the scratchy guitars and beautiful backing vocals. rather embarrassingly sleazy and phallic “Pistol-Whipped.” Tracks Following the success of this album, Marley wanted to tour, TOP SELLERS @ in the middle like “The Gardener,” “Flowers of Evil” and “Children but Tosh and Bunny were inclined to cut another album. This led of Cain” may botch the pacing, but at least the riffs are enjoyable to the eventual breakup of the band, and separate careers evolved Wooden Nickel enough to merit at least one listen. Perhaps the best cut of the al- graciously for the next couple of years. (Week ending 5/6/12) bum is “Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day.” Manson’s music Marley died of cancer on May 11, 1981; Tosh was murdered hasn’t sounded this vital in years, and he sounds genuinely angry. in 1987, and Bunny still tours. TW LW ARTIST/Album This is still a Manson-by-numbers album, only this time the Fun Fact: Marley’s 11 children have released over 40 solo 1 1 JACK WHITE result is a more cohesive product that almost resembles a full-on records. (Dennis Donahue) Blunderbuss (CD & LP) comeback. But for Manson to celebrate this improvement by cover- ing Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” (likely a diss towards long-time that showcases the many, many different sub-genres White has 2 2 HANK WILLIAMS 3 frenemy Trent Reznor who sampled it himself over 10 years ago played around with over the last decade. I didn’t want a country re- Long Gone Daddy (CD & LP) and is now winning Oscars) is premature, considering his audience cord or a blues record. I didn’t want a pop record. White can do all 3 2 MARILYN MANSON may overlook him once more and lump Born Villain in with the past those things, absolutely, but it’s not what I want from the man. I want Born Villain couple of Marilyn Manson albums. (Colin McCallister) it all. And damn if I didn’t get exactly what I wanted. Blunderbuss plays through as a true tour de force, packed with so many ideas and 4 7 WARREN HAYNES BAND Jack White moods and heats that I’m almost tempted to call the 13-song collec- Live From The Moody Theater tion his best work since those albums I listed above. Blunderbuss White, like Ryan Adams and Beck, just seems to have the his- 5 – BONNIE RAITT A few weeks ago Jack White tory of rock n’ roll etched on the back of his soul. He can summon Slipstream was featured in a New York Times tiny moments from history and make them his own. He can write exposé written by pop writer Josh songs that feel like classics that should’ve always been. And here he 6 4 HALESTORM does it over and over again, better than he has since he was playing Strange Case of ... Eells. Typed up in support of his then-upcoming debut solo record, to crowds of 50 in and around Detroit, and with better musicianship 7 – STORM CORROSION Blunderbuss, the story revealed than ever before (sorry, Megs). He does it better than, dare I say it, Storm Corrosion much about White, framing the ec- anyone else out there right now. Blunderbuss is not just the great centric song-maker as one of the new Jack White offering, it may be the best album of 2012 so far – a 8 – ALABAMA SHAKES great musical auteurs of his time – the bastard son of Bob Dylan, Son record that will be played all year long, over and over again, each Boys & Girls House and Iggy Pop. Then the advance reviews started to roll in – all song revealing itself in different ways, at different times, just like positive and many glowing. “A new classic,” I thought to myself as White Blood Cells did when it first hit the public eye a decade ago. A 9 – SILVERSUN PICKUPS my last 13 bucks hit the Wooden Nickel counter on a Friday after- brilliant piece or work from a true genius of his craft, here realized Neck of the Woods noon. Surely. But, before I put the disc in my player, I revisited some better than ever before. The Third Man strikes again, finally. Good thing I had that 13 bucks laying around. (Greg W. Locke) 10 – LIONEL RITCHIE of White’s classic records he made with The White Stripes: White Tuskegee Blood Cells, Elephant and De Stijl, mostly. My favorites. Records that, to me, more or less always felt like solo Jack White albums, es- Bear in Heaven pecially when contrasted against the work he’s done with side proj- Saturday, May 12 • 1 p.m. All-ages • Free I Love You, It’s Cool LivE AT OUR NORTH ANTHONY Store: ects The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs. Then, finally, I put Blunderbuss in the players and turned the Bear In Heaven create a very HOPE ARTHUR knob to 9.9. Opener “Missing Pieces” felt instantly classic. Familiar. particular kind of music. At first lis- That Jack White sound that sounds both like every great classic rock ten, its icy synths, tribal drum beats W/SUNNY TAYLOR & record but also only like Jack White – poppy, Rhodes-driven, with and rather vaguely distant vocals the kind of verses and minor guitar solos that I’ve been longing for put you in a head space not unlike ZACH KERSCHNER ever since Elephant ended the classic run. The man’s best song in Rick Deckard’s in Philip K. Dick’s 3627 N. Clinton • 484-2451 … well, ages. The next track, “Sixteen Saltines,” also feels instantly 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of 3422 N. Anthony • 484-3635 like classic-era Stripes. The rip, the howl, the forever youthful mind. Electric Sheep? Is what you’re hear- 6427 W. Jefferson • 432-7651 White sings a John Hughes-like story of boy and girl, stocked with ing what you’re really hearing? You’re supposed to think one thing, We Buy, Sell & Trade Used CDs, LPs & DVDs guilt and sadness and loneliness.