Jeffrey Morgan’s Media Blackout

MB54 comes from the land of the ice and snow! • Cold — A Different Kind of Pain (Flip) :: Coldplay. Coldpain. Coldpause. Coldeject. Coldreject. • Yip-Yap — Pro-Twelve Thinker (Strictly Amateur Films) :: If the names Korg, Roland, Casio and Stylophone mean anything to you, then you just might enjoy the primitive electronics krafted on this sparse sampling of snatches. • Brian Blain — Overqualified for the Blues (Northern Blues) :: Now here’s something you don’t hear every day: a bluesman singin’ the blues about how lousy the blues singin’ business is these days, and that’s a twist worthy of Ron Mael, who was a crotchety old bluesman himself in his own wry way. • Boris with Merzbow — Sun Baked Snow Cave (Hydra Head) :: One track, one hour long. An electro acoustic environmental excursion that makes Eno’s early ambient albums sound like Motörhead on speed — if that’s not too oxymoronic for ya. • Lilitu — The Delores Lesion (The End) :: They sound like they’ve been watching David Fincher’s Se7en a touch too much, but this just may be screamo prog rock at its best. • Conjure One — Extraordinary Ways (Nettwerk) :: MainMan touted Dana Gillespie as the female David Bowie, but the way this dish phrases comes a lot closer. • The Myriad — You Can’t Trust a Ladder (Floodgate) :: But you can trust the singer to shamelessly ape Bono. • Agents of the Sun — Monarchs of a Fallen Society (DCide) :: OK, so maybe shamelessly aping Bono isn’t such a grievous sin after all. • SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Rogue Wave — Descended Like Vultures (Sub Pop) :: Paul McCartney? Todd Rundgren? Brian Wilson? No, it’s the return of Zach Rogue, whose new pop album is every bit as good as last year’s Out of the Shadows. • Be seeing you!