ARCHIVE 2022

THE BEST AND WORST OF 2022

BEST ALBUMS

The Afghan Whigs- How Do You Burn? (see review)

Archers of Loaf- Reason in Decline-  I loved the indie music scene in the 1990’s.  Alias Records had some of the best indie bands at that time including Archers of Loaf.  Reason in Decline is the first album from Archers of Loaf in 24 years.  It is a solid and enjoyable listen and exemplified everything I liked about the band back in the day.

Matt Nathanson- Boston Accent (see review)

Weezer- SZNS Spring-  Weezer gave us four new EPs this year in SZNS series, one for each season.  I was not able to listen to the Winter one before writing this.  I enjoyed Summer and Autumn but Spring was the stand out favorite.

BEST AND WORST IN CONCERTS

2022 was supposed to be the year to bring back live music in full force after the pandemic.  I had some unlucky breaks this year regarding concerts.  After holding tickets since 2020 (!), I thought this would finally be the time for the Last Summer on Earth tour with the Barenaked Ladies, Gin Blossoms, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.  It was for every city on this tour except two, Cincinnati being one of the two.  I did not find a COVID related cancellation with TWO HOURS notice before doors opened to be acceptable protocol.  After three cancellations, I got a refund instead of seeing the FOURTH reschedule of this show.  

I was looking forward to Nine Inch Nails’ appearance at the Louder Than Life Festival.  As a concert veteran and having attended four NIN shows in the past, I have never been to a show where crowd surfing was tolerated by security.  Having this constantly throughout the show hindered my enjoyment of the show even though the band sounded fine.  Louder than Life’s policy regarding crowd surfing was like a parent appeasing a bratty kid.  Crowd surfing is dangerous, and we wish you wouldn’t do it.  However, if you don’t like people crowd surfing, you can “enjoy the show elsewhere”.  So much for concern for the audience’s safety.  Also, Bring Me the Horizon, who played before NIN, were terrible.

Despite these two incidents, the best show I saw this year was the Afghan Whigs at Headliners in Louisville, KY.  I think the band blew the roof off the venue, when they opened with the rocking, “I’ll Make You See God”.  The show was special because it debuted “Domino and Jimmy” with guest singer, Marcy Mays.  I have been a Whigs fan for almost 30 years, and this was the first time during that time they played in Louisville, which was also special to me as a fan.

I also give honorable mention to Robyn Hitchcock’s show at the Burl in Lexington, KY.  Robyn Hitchcock has collaborated with R.E.M. and I enjoyed several of his albums in the 1990’s.  The Burl is a small venue and the rows of chairs set up added to the intimacy of the performance.  I almost felt like I was in church.  I loved rediscovering Hitchcock’s eccentric glory and having music geek moments like “he played three songs from Queen Elvis”.

BEST MUSIC MOVIE

ELVIS- Elvis was a fresh take on the legendary singer’s life.  Newcomer as a lead, Austin Butler, was the embodiment of the singer.  Tom Hanks’ Dutch accent as Elvis’ sleazy manager, “Colonel” Parker, was a little grating (I think he was supposed to be annoying).  The film gave new light on how this business relationship shaped Elvis’ career.   

BEST COMEBACK

BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD- It started with the hilarious movie, Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe.  The movie relied on many of the jokes from the original series about the duo’s oblivious idiocy.  However, it gave the duo relevancy for today with jokes about smart phones, Beavis’ “relationship” with Siri, and educating the duo on their white privilege.  After the movie, came a new series.  The series brought back old favorites from the original series like Mr. Van Driessen and Mr. Anderson. The series had a few episodes that imagined the duo as middle-aged men.  The duo still poked fun at music videos but added current trends like Tik Tok videos for the duo to critique.  Two of the funniest moments of the season were when we find out that Beavis really digs BTS and Beavis’ rage over an episode of MTV’s Ghosted.  Many times, reboots are just tired retreads of the original.   Both Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe and the series don’t change what made the original great but also make the duo funny and relevant for today’s audience.

WORST COMEBACK

CLERKS III-  I was an early fan of Kevin Smith’s films.  However, some of his later film ideas were really bad.  He also knows that his early films were his best so he is going to reboot the hell out of them.  Case in point, his unnecessary second sequel to Clerks.  He already brought closure to these characters in the 2006 sequel, Clerks II.  Clerks III was unfunny, even depressing at times.  Smith has done several other Jay and Silent Bob films and a Clerks cartoon.  Clerks was Kevin Smith’s masterpiece, but he needs to accept that he has driven this idea until the wheels have fallen off.

WORST DOCUMENTARY

THE HOUSE OF HAMMER-  I took notice of actor Armie Hammer when he was in Call Me By Your Name.  His recent scandals have disturbed me in many ways that go beyond what I am going to say here.  However, the tell all documentary on this scandal, House of Hammer, was the most poorly made “documentary” I have seen.  First, some of the things stated in this documentary were discredited and had to removed from later showings.  “Experts” in the documentary were two women who had read articles about the case and gave their commentary on Tik Tok.  I and many read the article about this scandal in Vanity Fair but I am not an “expert” for a documentary.  The other main “expert” was Armie Hammer’s disgruntled aunt, Casey Hammer.  This woman is estranged from the Hammer family and doesn’t appear to have had any contact with Armie Hammer since he was a child.  Yet, she too is an expert on this scandal and wonders why the rest of the family doesn’t like her after she has repeatedly, publicly trashed the males in her family. If you want information on this family, read the Vanity Fair article and skip this garbage.

IN MEMORY

Mark Lanegan (1964-2022)

Eric Riebling from the Gathering Field (1963-2022)

REVIEW:  MATT NATHANSON- BOSTON ACCENT  (October)

Boston Accent is Matt Nathanson’s first release of original material since 2018’s Sing His Sad Heart.  While 2013’s Last of the Great Pretenders is Nathanson’s love letter to his adopted home of San Francisco, Boston Accent is a nostalgic journey through Nathanson’s roots in New England.

The album opens with the lovely “German Cars”.  Nathanson fondly remembers an old flame “I’m never gonna forget your name, I’ll never see the world quite the same, I’ll always keep a part of your dreams with mine” while remembering summers in a costal town with people from wealthy families who drove German cars.  “Beginners” was written with and is a duet with country singer Hillary Lindsey (Lori McKenna is also a writer on this song).  Against a slow groove, “Beginners” reminiscences of a more innocent period of life “Before the brain got involved, when it was heart and that’s all, close your eyes and try to remember when we were beginners”.  “Pigeons” is about a woman Nathanson calls “the queen of chaos” and concludes “I’ve never met anyone less free”.  The title track is one of Nathanson’s best songs lyrically to date.  The opening lyric “I was born three thousand miles from where I came alive” takes the listener back to where Nathanson was born (New England) versus where he “came alive” in his adopted home of San Francisco.  Nathanson takes the listener on a journey through memories of family and a past love.  The song concluded with a Pogues, Irish inspired bar sing along.  “Soundtrack” is a sweet and romantic love song where Nathanson sings “Music used to be everything to me, now it’s just the soundtrack to you”.    “Soundtrack” is followed by another love song, “Sway”. In “Sway”, Nathanson praises his beloved for supporting him singing “I was lost and you knew it, tied in knots, you’d undo em, tried to drown, felt worthless but you were waiting for me at the surface”.  The album closes with “Blush”, where Nathanson cheekily sings to a past love (from Boston) “they ask you about a photograph from when you were young, well baby, you don’t have to tell em what you did when you were us but when you think about it, I hope you blush”.

Matt Nathanson has always been a talented lyricist.  I thought he had out done himself lyrically with his last album, Sings His Sad Heart.  Boston Accent is even better lyrically, showcasing Nathanson’s gift of storytelling.  With Boston Accent, Nathanson takes personal snapshots from his youth and makes these stories universally relatable to the listener.  

REVIEW: THE AFGHAN WHIGS- HOW DO YOU BURN?   (October)

It has been five years since The Afghan Whigs’ last release, 2017’s In Spades.  Since In Spades, front man, Greg Dulli released a solo album, Random Desire, in 2020.  Then the pandemic hit.  Amazingly, much of How Do You Burn?,  was recorded remotely with the band in three separate locations.  This unique approach to recording does not affect the quality of the song production.

The album opens with the blow the roof off rocker, “I’ll Make You See God”.  The hardest rock song the Whigs have done to date, Greg Dulli purrs “you make the body ache”.  “The Getaway” features an epic, sweeping strings arrangement.  “Catch a Colt” is an urgent rocker where Dulli almost frantically sings “don’t let your money, honey, steal you”.  “Catch a Colt” features backing vocals from Susan Marshall, who toured with the Whigs in 1998/1999 in support of their classic album, 1965.  “Jyja” is a brooding song featuring a creepy piano arrangement.  “Jyja” features backing vocals from Dulli’s Gutter Twins partner, the late Mark Lanegan, and could easily fit on that album.  “A Line of Shots” is an upbeat rocker that stylistically is similar to Dulli classic such as “Teenage Wristband” and “Going to Town”.  The Whigs 1993 release, Gentlemen, featured “My Curse”, the only song where Dulli gave the lead vocals over to another singer, in this case, Scrawl front woman, Marcy Mays.  On “My Curse”, Mays achingly sang of a masochistic relationship “slave is the word I used to describe the special way I feel for you”.  On “Domino and Jimmy”, Dulli revisits the couple from “My Curse” almost thirty years later as he and Marcy Mays banter back at each other “you’re lost inside my head”.  “Domino and Jimmy” brings closure to the toxic relationship in “My Curse”.  “Take Me There” sounds almost like a tribal chant where Dulli chants “take me there, whatcha waiting for” over a heavy percussion beat.

While many of the Afghan Whigs’ peers have faded away, when the Whigs regrouped in 2012, they proved that their music was as fresh and original as it was in the 1990’s when several of their classic albums were released.  How Do You Burn? overcomes production challenges from the pandemic.  The Afghan Whigs introduce new elements to their songwriting with How Do You Burn? while bringing in familiar players and themes from their past.