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Welcome to the PCH eMusic Blog. This site is where I will post my personal download picks.

Best thing is you will be able to get these songs for free from eMusic! Signup today and you’ll get 35 downloads with your free 14 day trial. And if you choose to cancel your membership before that 14 day trial period is over, you’ll STILL GET TO KEEP those 35 downloads! But I think you’ll like eMusic. Check it out here!

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VALUE: The subscription model provides value to labels and subscribers.

• Because eMusic is a subscription-based service it is able to offer downloads at costs substantially lower than other major digital music services.

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DISCOVERY: eMusic is geared to avid music fans.

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Posted on March 10th, 2010 by admin
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“Major Lodge Victory” by THE GIN BLOSSOMS 

If you liked their classic hits, the old Gins are back at it with their patented blend of jangly pop goodness.

Exactly 14 summers ago Arizona’s Gin Blossoms released New Miserable Experience, eventually going multiplatinum on the strength of timeless powerpop anthems “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You.” A so-so follow-up (not to mention the alcohol- and depression-fueled exit of their principle songwriter), however, led to a subsequent split in ‘97. Now, after a 2002 reunion, comes Major Lodge Victory. Against all odds it’s a worthy successor to NME, evoking that album’s twinned vibe of ecstasy and melancholy.

Guitarist Jesse Valenzuela takes on the lion’s share of the writing — admittedly, he’s abetted by a song doctor, the Rembrandts’ Danny Wilde — in particular serving up the spirited, Beatlesque first single “Learning the Hard Way” and “Long Time Gone” (which contains striking “Found Out…” overtones). Vocalist Robin Wilson’s jangly thumper “Come On Hard” also joins the ranks of classic Blossoms compositions. And with Wilson’s honey-throated warble still as much a band trademark as the jangles, the album sounds familiar and fresh — the feel-good hit of the ‘06 summer.

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Posted on March 9th, 2010 by admin
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“Reaching for a Gun” by RICK HENRICKSON 

Slightly retro without that burnout of trying to be too cool. “Reacing For a Gun” is extremely hum-able with a very high replay factor.

Rick Henrickson is unapologetic about the influences that pervade his work. Frank Black, Jason Falkner, the Beatles: you can hear ghosts of their classics all over Reaching for a Gun, Henrickson’s debut album. That’s not a complaint, though. Henrickson’s truly talented in his ability to spin these internalized ideas into melodic gold. Quick, sharp and insanely catchy, these tunes (”Cool Dry Place,” “Surprise, Surprise” and “Two Hats” especially) are the sort of revivalism that’ll have you reaching back to the classics soon after Reaching for a Gun concludes. If you don’t find yourself playing it again, that is.

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Posted on March 8th, 2010 by admin
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“The Ultimate Jackie Wilson” by JACKIE WILSON 

Some music just lives on forever because it has that magic. Jackie Wilson transcended the worlds of pop and r&b and helped establish a bridge between the two that thrives today.

Like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, soul singing colossus Jackie Wilson stood astride two worlds, with one foot in pop music and the other planted firmly in r&b. He was dubbed “Mr. Excitement” for his electrifying shows, but Wilson was hardly a slouch in the studio either, delivering such r&b classics as “Baby Workout,” “Lonely Teardrops,” “To Be Loved” and “That’s Why (I Love You So),” all of which appear on this electrifying compilation.

A Detroit native, Wilson made his professional mark at 19 when he replaced Clyde McPhatter in Billy Ward and the Dominoes, scoring a hit with 19tk’s “You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.” Signing a solo deal with Brunswick Records in 19tk, Wilson was paired with another Detroit music man, songwriter and future Motown mogul Berry Gordy, Jr., who produced and co-wrote such signature Wilson soul hits as “Reet Petite” and “Lonely Teardrops.” Gifted with a tenor as sweet and clear as spring water, Wilson was soon enjoying two-sided hits such as “Night” backed with “Doggin’ Around,” with one side aimed at the pop market and the other toward r&b. Though the strategy at first paid off handsomely, making Wilson a star on both the r&b and nightclub circuits, by the mid ’60s many of his original r&b fans had all but abandoned him. Teaming with Chicago producer Carl Davis, Wilson regained his crown with such moving hits as “Whispers (Getting Louder)” and “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher.”

Cut down in 1975 by an onstage heart attack that left him bedridden until his death in 1984, Wilson remains one of the towering vocal stylists of his era, and this 44-song compilation — covering all of his soul and pop hits and also highlighting such unexpected tidbits as his covers of “Eleanor Rigby,” “For Once in My Life,” “Danny Boy” and “Georgia on My Mind” — is a mesmerizing reminder of a singer whose abilities and soul transcended boundaries.

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Posted on March 7th, 2010 by admin
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“Challengers” by THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS  

This indie supergroup puts together another collection of awesome tracks that’ll get a lot of play in your earbuds. “Mutiny, I Promise You” is just plain awesome.

Meet the new New Pornographers, same as the old New Pornographers. When Pete Townshend turned that phrase about bosses back in the Nixon era, it was a statement about complacency and spirit-crippling stasis. But where the New Pornographers are concerned, there’s little to rebel against; chief songwriter and singer Carl Newman is a benevolent leader, democratically doling out vocal parts to his almost-famous cast of indie-rock players: redheaded force of nature Neko Case, eccentric Destroyer bard Dan Bejar and Immaculate Machine’s Kathryn Calder (who also happens to be Newman’s niece). More important, the New Pornographers’ four-album reign — from 2000 debut Mass Romantic to the new Challengers — has been one of the fairest and most consistent 21st-century pop-album runs.

So it’s not like it’s incumbent upon Challengers to smash the system Newman has designed, a musical blueprint roughly inspired by Love’s orchestral-pop flourishes and choppy, Cars-like guitar. His songs are still constructed like rollercoasters, with multiple chorus peaks and melodic twists jammed into each three- or four-minute ride. It’s still thrilling to hear the mixed-and-matched vocalists; the best pairing this time out involves Calder and Bejar trading lines on the folk-rap shuffle “Myriad Harbour.” And when Case breaks into Latin on “Go Places,” it’s reminiscent of ABBA’s flight into “Fernando” territory, a fringed-outfit diva moment in the spotlight.

While it’s nice of the New Pornographers to show up once again with the musical goods, Challengers also addresses one of the band’s biggest problems: a perceived lack of unity. Part of this perception stems from the hired-hand stigma where Case and Bejar are concerned and part has to do with Newman’s lyrics. A student of the Robert Pollard school of abstract words that sound cool, Newman doesn’t do straight narratives, so nobody really knows what his songs are about. But great bands leave clues along the trail for their fans, so on Challengers, we get Newman singing “When John saw that number, he lied” — a nod to “John Saw That Number,” a track on Case’s 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. It’s a smart way to eliminate division, huddling the band members’ estimable solo careers under the New Pornographers’ umbrella.

There’s also the continuation of the Pornographers’ most famous conceit: a new girl-group-style nonsense syllable for each album. For Challengers, it’s the title track’s chorus of “oh-la”s; past albums have given us “hey-la” (on 2005’s Twin Cinema), “na-na-na” (2003’s Electric Version) and “woo-ooh” (Mass Romantic).

But that isn’t the extent of the inside jokes: In an era of indie-rock one-album wonders, titling this record Challengers is a fine bit of rope-a-dope, if not a total wind-up. The New Pornographers are clearly the champs.

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Posted on March 6th, 2010 by admin
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“Transatlantic Ping Pong” by GLENN TILBROOK 

A touch of the old Squeeze magic graces this album as Tilbrook takes a solo turn with “Transatlantic Ping Pong”.

As the frontman and half of Squeeze, Tilbrook is a master craftsman of the British pop/rock song. His melodies on this recent solo album are as strong as Squeeze’s quintessential 1980 hit “Pulling Mussels from a Shell” (check out the addictive “Untouchable” and the funky “Lost In Space”) and with well-orchestrated arrangements Tilbrook creates the classic drums-bass-guitar-organ-vocal sound that essentially defines the art of great British singer-songwriting handed down from Lennon and McCartney. Here, he’s comfortable enough to joke about somewhat pornographic references but also discusses more standard fare, like past lovers and present flames. It’s hard to create such fine performances and perfect melodies; Glen Tilbrook’s gift is that he makes great songwriting seem easy and effortless.

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Posted on March 5th, 2010 by admin
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Posted on March 4th, 2010 by admin
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“Come Dancing with The Kinks” by THE KINKS 

A great package containing all the essential hits by The Kinks. If you don’t already have an album by the brothers Davies, then start with this one.

A Kinks-sized collection of Carter-era essentials from this truly classic rock band.
When the Kinks signed with Arista Records in 1976, Ray Davies effectively abandoned the village greens of Britain for the basketball arenas of America. For the next decade, the band’s theatrical concept albums took a back seat to sleek, radio-friendly slabs of mainstream rock that won the Kinks a new generation of Stateside fans, even as they alienated rock critics everywhere. While it lacked the timeless charm of the Kinks’ late-’60s work, their Arista period still produced some of Davies’ finest (and most underappreciated) songs, as evidenced by Come Dancing With the Kinks, a compilation of hits from 1977 to 1984.

Dated production values aside, “Full Moon,” “Misfits,” “A Rock N’ Roll Fantasy” and “Good Day” (in which Davies muses on romantic strife, nuclear holocaust and the death of actress Diana Dors) are among the most heartbreaking ballads in the Ray Davies canon. “Sleepwalker,” “Destroyer” and “Do It Again” rock harder than anything the Who or the Stones released in the same era; ditto for “Father Christmas,” possibly the angriest holiday song ever waxed. Throw in the glorious “Better Things,” a live “Lola” and the disco goof “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman”, and you’ve got a collection no true Kinks fan should be without.

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Posted on March 1st, 2010 by admin
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“Karmacode” by LACUNA COIL

Lacuna Coil was Evanesense before Evanesence. Their exotic melodies and driving hard rock rhythms are truly hypnotic.

Many fans of prog metal would like to believe that once upon a time, the dramatic mood and operatic self-importance that define the genre came as a natural result of the music’s compositional influences, and only recently has the over-the-top tone taken priority over musical quality. Whether or not such a magical time ever really existed, Lacuna Coil hearkens back to those possibly imaginary days with their 2006 release Karmacode. The Italian sextet’s songwriting and instrumentation directly reflect the original naming of metal as a separate mineral from rock & roll, with a seamless blend of classical music and modern rock. As a result, the disc seems refreshingly self-possessed. The band doesn’t intentionally shy away from the stylistic qualifiers that have come to exemplify progressive metal, it just allows the theatrical elements to emerge on their own. The album’s goth voice, for instance, is readily apparent without desperate or forced attempts at spooky compositions, because it shines through in truly inspired melodies that just happen to be ethereal, exotic, and chilling. Likewise, Karmacode achieves communion with its power metal roots in songs written in an epic fashion, from the bottom up rather than through lyrics about dragons and elves. Karmacode seems immune to even the gloomier and more widespread trappings of metal, expressing emotion in ways that sound almost freakishly earnest and genuine. In addition to all of this potentially boring integrity, the disc is highly listenable. Though obviously unconcerned with finding a place in the mainstream, this release just as cool and catchy as anything by Evanescence, a band who took the causal switch between tone and musicality one step further, creating a pop version of an already diluted brand of metal. At least some generous chunk of the record’s compelling nature can be attributed to singer Cristina Scabbia’s enthralling timbre — her reverberating call over the repeating choruses toward the end of the group’s “Enjoy the Silence” cover makes this disc worth the price of purchase. The frontwoman was born with a strong, unique voice and would probably create bizarrely charismatic renditions of show tunes if that was her chosen art. Lucky for prog fans, her interests lie far from Broadway and with a style to which she brings dexterous technical skill, as well as a refreshing delivery. Despite Scabbia’s attention-grabbing sound and stage presence, the album still has each bandmember to thank for its success, not to mention producer Waldemar Sorychta; they have done their jobs so deftly that one could easily opt out of paying attention to the sophisticated and complex nature of their creation and just enjoy the ride.

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Posted on February 28th, 2010 by admin
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“X Tracks: Best of Andy Summers” by ANDY SUMMERS

Police guitarist extrordinaire, Andy Summers shows off his jazz leanings. Though I’m generally not a fan of “best of” collections, this album has a nice continuity to it and shows off a lot of serious chops.

X Tracks: Best of Andy Summers covers the years 1997-2002, essentially his stint at RCA. If you haven’t followed his post-Police career, you might be somewhat surprised at his jazz leanings. Texturally, he flirts with smooth jazz at times, but his penchant for dissonance keeps him out of that camp. There are a handful of original compositions alongside pieces by Monk, Mingus, and Wayne Shorter. Q-Tip’s reading from Mingus’ Beneath the Underdog on “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” does little to add to the tune, beyond differentiating it from Jeff Beck’s version, but the way Summers handles Mingus’ “Boogie Stop Shuffle” with an added horn section is great. Similarly, Sting’s turn on vocals on the overdone “‘Round Midnight” is serviceable, but the way Summers digs into Monk’s bag of dissonance and crazy intervals on “Think of One” shows a deep understanding and feel for Monk’s music. The Wayne Shorter tunes are beautifully done, and the album opens and closes with Summers in jazz power-trio mode, rocking things up just a bit (even quoting “White Room” in “Big Thing”). X Tracks: Best of Andy Summers is a good summary of his post-Private Music/Windham Hill years, and would make a fine starting place for someone interested in what Summers has been up to since the Police.

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Posted on February 27th, 2010 by admin
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