Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

Jimmy Buffett - Buffet Hotel

So, I’ve avoided writing about- or hell, even listening to- this album for a while, after a cursory listen to a few tracks around release, not because the quality of those songs was bad, but Buffett’s latter day career has been so… not so much disappointing as inconsistent. 1999′s Beach House on the Moon had maybe 2 good songs on it. Other albums around that one were better, but his tendency to get cutesy-jokey was getting a bit outrageous. And I think I’ve logged maybe 2 complete listens to 2006′s Take the Weather With You. So, expecting disappointment, I queue up Buffet Hotel.

And you know what? It’s not that bad. Actually, it’s pretty good.

(more…)

OK, so this is a bit different for the site, but with the nice weather approaching/already here, and trips to beaches and things imminent, I figured it would be a good time to talk about great albums for the summer. What are some of your favorites for laid back afternoons in the sun?

A short list of mine:

• American Steel – Dear Friends & Gentle Hearts
• Mos Def – Mos Dub
• Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves – self-titled
• Jimmy Buffett – A1A
• Cheap Girls – My Roaring 20′s
• Harvey Danger – Little By Little
• Latterman – No Matter Where We Go!

That’s what I can think of off the top of my head. What about you?

Jimmy Buffett - A1A

OK, so this is gonna be a little different. So far here we’ve seen nothing but reviews of punk albums, with a bit of ska and one acoustic solo effort by a punk frontman to shake things up. But dammit, this is a blog about music of all sorts, and so we’re going to talk about this album.

So I think just about everyone on Earth knows who Jimmy Buffett is. He’s the guy who, as of 2008, makes a ridiculous amount of money playing songs about getting drunk on beaches to white, middle- and upper-class suburbanites while they sit on lawns at overpriced venues and pretend they’re the kind of wandering, carefree troubadours that Buffett sings about. You have probably heard “Margaritaville” at some point in your life, and every now and then you might see a new album on the “New Release” chart, probably with some silly, punny title. You scoffed, more likely than not.

Probably surprising to some of you, but this was not always the picture of Jimmy Buffett and his career.

[Editor's note: this is, I think, the longest entry thus far.]

(more…)