Close your eyes forever...no wait, keep'em open!

One of two solo stars to spring from the ashes of the '70s all-girl hard rock band the Runaways, Lita Ford has long been a more frustrating, contradictory proposition for critics than former colleague Joan Jett. Ford is subtly feminist in her musical approach, displaying guitar heroics on the level of any male metal hero; the mere fact of her existence in the otherwise testosterone-driven heavy metal genre has made her a hero to some, but her persona has often been criticized as calculated to appeal to male adolescent sexual fantasies, simply embodying the standard wild-girl stereotypes of many male metal artists' lyrics. When she has the material to back her up, though, Ford is inarguably capable of rocking out aggressively and assertively.

Despite the fact that her success was brief, Lita Ford continues to be one of the more memorable icons of the hair metal scene. Most will argue that this is because of her gender rather than her music; the fact that she was female indeed made her a unique novelty in a genre dominated by men. True, Lita Ford's shelf life was short-lived, and her music itself is far less original than, say, her ex-bandmate Joan Jett. Not to say that what's on the Best of Lita Ford disc is bad -- like many of her peers, Ford sure knew how to produce a few catchy guilty pleasures. Her most well-known singles, "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Close My Eyes Forever," are included, along with a handful of unknowns that are certainly worth hearing, such as "Larger Than Life," "What Do You Know About Love," "Gotta Let Go," and a cover of Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed." There are numerous Lita Ford compilations out there, but this original best-of collection remains the most ideal buy.

Lita Ford - The Best of Lita Ford
password: mcboozo

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Music Lita Ford Runaways Joan Jett Ozzy Metal Guitar Michael Jackson McBoozo

Don't Look Directly Into...The Sun!

Update!
Here's a couple more albums from the Sun that you can download as well.


"1999"- The Sun - Released locally in Columbus- Jan 2003
1st incarnation of the band made in 1999-2002, recorded in Chicago and Columbus with Chris Burney, Leroy Bach (Wilco) on bass, Jay Bennet
(Wilco), Justin Crooks. Carlos Avendano, Bryan Arendt, Brad Forslblom. Sam Brown and Brad Caulkins.


"Ohio Tigers"- The Sun- Released as a tour album- Oct 2005
This record was recorded during the "Blame It On The Youth" sessions.
Included alternate versions of songs from that album among others.

Ohio garage rock outfit the Sun pick up where they left off from their previous two EPs for their polished debut album, Blame It on the Youth. Both Love & Death and Did Your Mother Tell You? highlighted taut guitar riffs and catchy, playful rock songs. This 14-song set is nothing more and nothing less than what the Sun has previously released. From the rollicking pop sounds of "Lost at Home" and album opener "Must Be You" to the more punk-inspired moments of "2B4" and "Taking the Lord's Name in Vein," the Sun offer an infectious, genuine kind of energy. Vocalist Chris Burney seems fidgety and self-aware throughout, and it's a solid impression for the kind of rock music the Sun is offering here. Even the more melancholic, sappy ballads highlight a confident band in the making. Songs such as "Lose Your Money" and "Say Goodbye" are a nice mix in the Sun's hungry disposition. A few songs could have been tightened up just a bit, but album closer "Valentine" shows the most promise for a band that seems intent on making original music.

The strangest thing about this album is that The Sun decided to release this as a DVD, therefore you will need to have a DVD-compatible cd drive on your home computer to play this.
[Note that the download I'm offering is in .mp3 format so don't worry about this!]
Audio files are also provided in .wav format for you to extract, convert , and basically burn your own disc if you want to listen to this album in any standard cd player. While this choice inherently limits the album it also provides the band with an opportunity to showcase videos for every song, albeit some are much more polished than others. Overall, the music is pretty good and makes the album worth adding to your collection, despite the issues with it's format.

The Sun - Blame It On The Youth
password: mcboozo


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Music Garage Rock Indie Warner Bros The Sun DVD Ohio Debut Videos McBoozo

Deja Voodoo...wait, Deja Voodoo

Gov't Mule's Déjà Voodoo is the record guitarist Warren Haynes and drummer Matt Abts have been looking to make for a long time. Since the death of Allen Woody in August 2000, after the landmark Life Before Insanity, the Mule has been making records with guest bass players, most of them jam-oriented albums in live settings. With the permanent addition of bassist Andy Hess and keyboardist Danny Louis, Gov't Mule takes a giant step forward while retaining the gritty, powerful blues-rock base that is the hallmark of the band's sound. Moving out form the power trio format is a solid thing. Haynes' songwriting is focused, anchored in the additional textures Louis' B-3 and Rhodes can provide, while losing none of its rootsy, overdriven charm. The tunes here, all 12 of them, are anchored in that gloriously greasy riffing that Haynes does better than anyone, but there is a wonderful funkiness added to the mix. Déjà Voodoo is the album Gov't Mule's promised to make since its inception; this is a new chapter in the life of a truly inspiring rock & roll band.

Gov't Mule - Deja Voodoo
password: mcboozo


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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Creepin' on tha Come Up

Here's an album that I've been dying to post for quite a while now but had misplaced the cd for a bit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have and support these guys by seeing a show or buying an album/dvd!!!

As minimal two-man blues-rock bands go, this has to be near the top of the heap. The problem with minimal two-man blues-rock outfits (and there have been more of them than you think) is that they're, well, usually too minimal, with thin garage sound and a shortage of variety. The Black Keys' sound, impressively, is not too thin (though it is garage-ish), and there's enough deft incorporation of funk, soul, and hard rock into the harsh juke joint-ish core to avoid monotony. Most importantly, Dan Auerbach has a genuinely fine, powerful blues voice, sometimes approximating a white, slightly smoother Howlin' Wolf (particularly on the opener, "Busted"). Auerbach's a good guitarist, too, conjuring suitably harsh and busy (and sometimes heavily reverbed) riffs out of what sounds like a cheap but effectively harsh amp. Patrick Carney's drums might be the cruder component of this two-man band, but they keep the sound earthy without sounding sloppily punkish for the hell of it, as too many such groups searching for the blues-punk fusion do. The very occasional insertion of hip-hop snippets seems neither here nor there, and the cover of the Beatles' "She Said, She Said" seems like an odd choice. But overall it's quite cool raunchy electric blues with more vigor and imagination than similarly raw, elderly Southern juke joint artists who came into vogue starting in the 1990s. And it's way fresher than the standard bar band blues-rockers with slicker execution and more reverence for blues clichés.

The Black Keys - The Big Come Up
password: mcboozo

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Music Blues Garage Punk Fat Possum Beatles Black Keys McBoozo

Euphoria before the "slave" trade

With Down on the Upside, it was clear that Soundgarden, while still strong, was no longer the ideal vehicle for its frontman Chris Cornell. He sounded much more comfortable on Superunknown, the first Soundgarden album that broke free from the Sab-Zep restraints, allowing him to indulge in psychedelia. That, along with his stellar contribution to the Singles soundtrack, suggested that Cornell had aspirations of being a singer/songwriter, so it's not a surprise at all that he decided to tie those two loose ends together to provide the foundation for his solo debut album, Euphoria Morning. Those expecting a slab of metal from Euphoria Morning will be disappointed, but it's hard to feel sorry for them, since they were evidently not really listening to the last few Soundgarden records. There's no question that it's a rock album, but it's a shaded, textured rock album, lacking the grinding sludge and furious rock that were his previous band's stock-in-trade, yet it's undeniably of a piece with Superunknown. Thankfully, Euphoria Morning doesn't have the shiny arena rock gloss that Michael Beinhorn gave Soundgarden's masterpiece. True, it is a clean, big production, but it's organic, which means that it doesn't sound unnatural when Cornell dives into blues ("When I'm Down") or when he suggests Radiohead with the beginning of "Preaching the End of the World." That kind of flexibility is what was missing from Down on the Upside, and it keeps Euphoria Morning fascinating, since it's unclear what's coming next, even if it all sounds of a piece. It's a mature album without being overly somber. It could be argued that it sounds a little too mature and possibly a little self-conscious, but that just emphasizes the real craft behind Euphoria Morning. Cornell knew exactly where he wanted to go as a solo artist, and he's achieved it. If it doesn't satisfy some dyed-in-the-wool Soundgarden fans, that's too bad, since it will undoubtedly win the affections of open-minded listeners who haven't before considered him a serious songwriter or musician.

Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning
password: mcboozo

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Music Chris Cornell Soundgarden Audioslave Temple of the Dog Seattle Grunge AcousticSongwriter McBoozo

Thank You!

Hi all,
I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone for visiting the site. I hit 30,000 visitors yesterday after about 11 months of running the site and I thought it was worthwhile to take a second to reflect back to last December when I started this thing. It all originally began as a combination of ideas based on a couple of friends of mine. The McBoozo character came about from a drunken night with friends, one of which happened to be eating McDonald's fries late at night in a drunken stupor. He was stumbling around in a t-shirt dripping ketchup on himself and his girlfriend made the comment that his drunken alter-ego was as McBoozo the Clown. For whatever reason the comment stuck in my head and I started thinking how funny it would be to draw a drunken clown. The overall look of McBoozo closely resembles my buddy and the idea of a clown with a beard sounded even funnier yet to me. So anyway, I made a couple sketches and the character of McBoozo was brought to life.

Now for the second part of the equation...I had another friend that would write poems about his drunken adventures and I would write ones back on occasion. Somewhere along the way I had to idea to merge the McBoozo character along with the drunken poetry and start a website for our friends to enjoy. If you look back through the archives the first few months of posts pretty much consisted of some of the poetry from around that time. As life progressed and the drunken adventures became more spread out I started posting random interesting things that I came across on the 'net just to keep the site updated. The last couple of months I have really been posting more music downloads than anything else just because that's what I've been spending a lot of my time doing.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the site and will continue to do so. I'll keep posting more of the music that I'm listening to along with anything else that intrigues me. One of these days I'll get around to posting some more poetry along with a wealth of artwork that's been stashed away as I've been working on some remodeling at home since April. As always if anyone has suggestions go ahead and leave'em in the comments. If you've got some music that you think everyone would enjoy you're more than welcome to forward links or leave'em in the comments as well.

Thanks again for supporting the site! (now buy a t-shirt or something)

42 - 36 - 22-20's, hut, hut, hike!

On their self-titled full-length debut, the 22-20s craft a more traditional, and more British, take on blues-inflected rock than Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or the White Stripes, two of the bands most often mentioned when describing this young, prolifically touring band. 22-20s reveals a group far less trippy than BRMC and not nearly as fiery and arty as the Stripes; they're actually more like the British equivalent of blues-rock standard-bearers such as the Black Keys. Shades of the Yardbirds color the revved-up guitars and harmonicas on "Devil in Me," while the band's first single, "Such a Fool," updates the dour, spare sound of Eric Burdon & the Animals only slightly.

The 22-20's - Self Titled
password: mcboozo

Part 1

Part 2

Music Indie Rock Blues 22-20's BRMC White Stripes McBoozo