I Get Morningwood Daily
Capitol Records
10/10
As though they've crammed all of the Big Apple's energy into their pants, Morningwood may be one of the only real bands of new rock stars on the planet. Where the Yeah Yeah Yeahs wore down, Morningwood picks up with their self-titled debut album. Their lead singer, the lusty Chantal, doesn't just rock on vocals, but percolates to the beat. With songs like "Jetsetter," “Take Off Your Clothes,” and “Nu Rock,” Chantal gives hope to wild women across the globe that the Jessica Simpson porn-star-thing is nothing compared to a willful, balls-out rock goddess. The best thing about Morningwood – who's accurately self-described as "a monster truck having sex with a Bond girl" – is that their blow-to-the-soul energy is portable with the power to make its listener throw off doldrums and dance like a maniac anytime, anyplace.—Angela Lovell
Snowden – Anti-Anti
Jade Tree
6/10
Though Snowden’s moniker is a reference to a character in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, the Jade Tree artists’ first offering is a little less literary than the blisteringly witty novel. Not for lack of trying, that is, but with lines like “I can’t cut a rug without my fashion drug” in the title track, they haven’t quite reached the heights of effete erudition. Anti-Anti is kicked off by “Like Bullets,” which is built around a terse mantra repeated nearly ad-nauseam. Right when it starts to grate, though, the vocals break unexpectedly into subtle harmonies that make for a hypnotic listen. Snowden are kind of transparent in their stylish aloofness but nonetheless put their own spin on slightly ethereal, moderately danceable rock music, especially in the aggressive “Kill The Power” or the tightly wound, rigid “Black Eyes.” Often, though, they come off strikingly like a male-fronted version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, right down to the lassie-faire vocal delivery.—Matthew A. Stern
The Tomorrow Show: Tom Snyder’s Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show
(Shout Factory)
7/10
By the time the early-‘80s rolled around, the hippie movement, acid culture, and the burgeoning psychedelic rock scene of San Francisco had ceased to be at the center of the cultural landscape and had become some of the most discussed and controversial elements of recent history. And then there was Tom Snyder’s The Tomorrow Show, which featured Snyder interviewing the who’s who of the counterculture, past and present. The Tomorrow Show: Tom Snyder’s Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show features Snyder’s sometimes friendly, occasionally combative interviews with acid enthusiasts Ken Kesey, Jerry Garcia, and Dr. Timothy Leary, and ‘60s creative counterculture chronicler Tom Wolfe. This collection may just be a trip down memory lane for some, but it’s an indispensable compilation for cultural history buffs interested in how folks were seeing the late-‘60s more than a decade afterwards, when punk had long since become the country’s dominant countercultural force, and some of the hippest hippies had gone straight.
—Matthew A. Stern
