Jukin' Bone - Whiskey Woman

1971

Good 70's hard rockin' like Grand Funk Railroad. There's also songs on here that you could mistake for the Black Crowes.

The Pretty Things - Get The Picture

1965

The Rolling Stones were supposed to be bad boys, but the Pretty Things sound way more grimey. They sound similar to the Stones, but better. I wonder if this was the best rock record released in 1965. They've got swagger. Good production. There's more originality going on here than so many other bands copying the blues at the time. The drummer gives a little extra sometimes, excellent guitar playing...and vocals from some guy you would not want anywhere near your daughter.

Here's a free bonus drawing I did of The Pretty Things.

Blue Magoos - Psychedelic Lollipop

1965

A good bunch of diverse songs. Way better than their name or the name of the album would lead you to believe. More of a garage rock band with lots of Farfisa organ and some psychedelic sounds you might expect and of course a bluesy influence as well.
-Something might remind you of the Animals.

The Misunderstood - The Goldstar Album

Blues rock. Good stuff. I'll say 8 out of 10. Not unlike the first Fleetwood Mac album that came a few years later. Nice roaring feedback thing going on on the last song. Not many albums this early with that kind of racket. It sounds like a train crashing through Blue Cheers' amps.

Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

1963

A guy and his guitar. Sometimes a guy his guitar and harmonica. Sometimes reminds me of old blues recordings. Super clever and witty lyrics. Anti-War Folk tunes. There are angry songs, funny songs, love songs, war songs...and they're all great and engaging.

Jan & Dean - Drag City

Sounds just like early Beach Boys. Maybe even more lighthearted. Other than "Popsicle" all the songs are about cars and racing.

Been waiting for this day
For such a long time
My engines tuned up
and she's runnin' real fine
There's my girl
Wow she looks pretty
She came to watch me race today
Here at Drag City

Dick Dale And The Del Tones - Surfers Choice

Bounces back and forth between live Doo-Wop and James Brown type songs (with vocals), but inbetween those are the instrumental surf songs with a bit of a Spanish flavor dashed in once and a while. The instrumentals are timeless. It all starts here. Surf!

Suicidal Angels - Sanctify The Darkness

2009

Keepin' the thrash flag burning in 2009! I must say these guys do an excellent job of thrashin' like it's 1989.

Them - Angry Young Them

Sounds almost just like early Rolling Stones. R&B. The casual listener could confuse this with the Stones. Once in a while they have a very slight garage type feel to them.

Killing Floor - Killing Floor

1969

Smokin' hot rockin' blues. Sounds like Jerry Lee Lewis jamming with the Yardbirds or something. Harmonica too. Aggressive power blues. One of my favorite blues rock albums. This thing smokes.

Atomic Rooster - Atomic Rooster

1970

When they're playing the blues and the Hammond takes off Atomic Rooster is at their best. Reminds me of Humble Pie, or maybe Blind Faith whatever Blind Faith sound like, I don't know. Some really good songs and some that are not so special. Above average overall, but not the best from Atomic Rooster.

Black Cat Bones - Barbed Wire Sandwich

1969

Some tasty blues with overdriven soaring guitar solos. Excellent blues rock.

Fun Facts: Rod Price who went on to start Foghat plays guitar on this. He replaced Paul Kossoff who went on to start Free with Black Cat Bones drummer Simon Kirke.
-Black Cat Bones also eventually morphed into Leaf Hound.

American Blues - American Blues Is Here

1968

Not the straight up blues that their name would leave you to believe. A diverse bunch of influences, but leaning towards psychedelic. This is an enjoyable listen.

Fun Facts: Dusty Hill and Frank Beard are in this band. They later teamed up with Billy Gibbons and formed ZZ Top.

Fear Itself - Fear Itself

Jefferson Airplane? With a more booming attempt at Janis Joplin type vocals though. Sort of grating bluesy rock.

Kind Of Like Spitting - Nothing Makes Sense Without It

2000

Whimpy indie rock like Pavement or Sebadoh. Not bad if you like whimp rock that rocks less than Weezer.Sad rock for boys that cry. The best thing about this CD is that every single song is totally depressing. Mostly stripped down music with cello and violin for the extra sadness.

Index - Index

Sounds like a boom box recording of high school band barely holding things together, but that's the charm. Reverby, garagey, and lot of repetitive single note guitar playing. Monotonous singing. I think they might be doing this on purpose. The songs are all mid tempo and a lot of covers. All these songs could be covers for all I know. The guitar playing get a bit more adventurous once in a while and by the time they get to the last song the guitar sounds like a raging Blur Cheer type of roar. This record makes me keep listening to it over and over to try to figure it out.

Bain Wolfkind - Music For Lovers And Gangsters

Twangy reverb guitar, slightly eerie songs with a drum machine. Sorta like if the Cramps were a 40 year old serial killer making songs on his computer in his bedroom behind the wall.

Fun Facts: I read somewhere this is Neo-Folk.

Alice Cooper - Pretties For You

1969

Early Who meets CSN type trippy 60's harmonies with psychedelic guitar solos. Did I mention the Who influence? And some Frank Zappa type oddness.

While Heaven Wept - Vast Oceans Lachrymose

2009

I think this is what Ingwie Malmsteens Rising Force aspired to be, but were never really any good. These guys seemed to have mastered the progressive power metal epic. This album was on manys peoples best of 2009. Not mine. Better than Queensryche. If your looking to get into melodic, classically influenced epic power metal this would be a really good place to start.

The Wounded Kings - The Shadow Over Atlantis

2010

Big heavy retro doom like a spacier Reverend Bizarre.

Fun Facts: This is good.

Apostle Of Solitude - Sincerest Misery

2008

Modern sounding retro doom with soulful young Gene Simmons like vocals. I like this one quite a bit. Mellow and easy to listen to. That's subjective though...a lot of stuff I listen to when I'm by myself ends up being much more abrasive when I play it with other people around.

Green and Wood - Green and Wood

2009

Sounds like Sabbath with the Melvins late model dual vocal harmonies. One of my favorites from 2009. Sounds like it was recorded in 1972. The vocals seem to be few and far between all the Sabbath worship. Good good stuff.

King Diamond - Fatal Portrait

1986

I love the first Merciful Fate, but I'm just not feeling this one.

Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care

1989

Awesome thrash. Really good. Mostly fast songs with exaggerated regular guy vocals.

Slough Feg - Ape Uprising

2009

I've read a lot of reviews that say Slough Feg is good, but the descriptions never make them sound very good. Slough Feg draws from early metal bands like Judas Priest, and the awesome dual leads are sure to remind you of Thin Lizzy. The songs are epic like Iron Maiden. The singer sounds like a wise man singing about something important that happened. Some really good guitar rockin' going on right here. There's also a minstrel thing going on where you may envision knights and princesses and kingdoms.

Moon - Without Earth & The Moon

1968/1969

Really good post Magical Mystery Tour, English sounding pop songs. Production is really good.
The second albums isn't so much straight up Beatles rip off's. More like the singer song writer thing. Still fancy production.

Fun Facts: These are two albums packaged together. The band is from L.A.

Black Market Ministry - Voices Of The Coming Plague

2009

Eyehategod type tunes with Bongzilla/Goatwhore type vocals.

Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

2008

The vocals are just plain silly. Breathy monster croaks. The music is pretty good though and has me trying to look past the vocals. Big heavy doomy metal that rocks. The vocals are not even in the realm of being judged as good or bad. They're just stupid.

Fun Facts: I guess the vocals are supposed to be stupid because this is "horrorcore" or something like that. Good luck.

Kreator - Pleasure To Kill

1986

All out chaotic beat down. Similar to early Slayer. Vocals lean towards the scary. Fast. It's not till the middle of the fourth song that there is a mid paced breakdown for the kids in the pit. One of the very best thrash albums out there. These guys mean business.

-The album flows very well from song to song introducing new elements as they progress through the album. The sum is greater than it's parts, or something like that.

Wastelander - Wastelander (Demo)

2007

Black Metal with a bit of thrash thrown in. Vocals teeter between regular guy Black Flag/Thrash type and screechy metal voice. The vocals are what takes this a bit above average. Samples too.

Freedom Hawk - Freedom Hawk

2009

Stoner rock like Dozer. Ozzy type vocals. Not bad, but about ten years too late.

Ol Scratch - The Sunless Citadel

2009

Big heavy doom like Bongzilla with a bit more variety.

Dark Angel - Darkness Descends

Quite a bit more complicated than your average thrash band circa 1986. Fast and tight. A thrash metal classic. Makes me think a little bit more than I want to. Vocals are regular guy with an edge. Relentless and awesome.

-One of the best Thrash albums of the 80's.

High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings

2005

The only drawback to this album is also it's greatest strength. All out abusive riffige that beats you to a pulp. Six or seven songs into this and I can hardly take it anymore. If you want variety you'll have to look elsewhere. Yes, this album rules.

Assorted Heap - Mindwaves

Wow! this is pretty darn good. The last gasp for thrash coming from Germany.

Astrosoniq -Quadrant

2009

Psychedeleic heavy rock. If you like Soundgarden you should like this quite a bit.

Bloodcum - Death By A...

Thrashy punk with Slayer guitar solos. Band is real loose. They hardly sound like they're in the same room together sometimes but everybody is going off so much it doesn't matter. Early Suicidal Tendencies meets Slayer. These guys go off. Good good stuff. They get better and better as the album goes on. I don't know if it's me getting warmed up or them. Black Flag.

Destruction - Infernal Overkill

Evil vocals. Thrash. Fast.