Satan's Luau

Katy Rose: Because I Can REVIEW: B/B+

Here we go again, we sure grow em young now-a-days

The debut CD from sixteen (16!!!) year old, Katy Rose has drawn comparisons to Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, and Fiona Apple -- and also her nearer to age counterpart, Avril LaVigne

The music has a mature swagger and jaded quality that is a bit precocious and sometimes puzzling -- the voice however is fine burnt angst at times, and angelically clean -- but at all times, emotional

The lyrics are honest, but at the same time old for her age -- however this set of power pop rock is very strong and compelling -- and in our estimation, a cut above Avril

There have been barbs directed at this CD due to the collaboration with her father ex-of POCO -- however, there is a channelling that occurs from the collaboration that makes the effort mostly stronger -- though it does bow at times to the cliched scream teen genre ("Overdrive", "Vacation"), noting that these tracks are pretty good

Two big highlights are the moody ballad "Snowflakes" and the well-crafted alt rockers "I Like" and "Glow" -- "Teaching myself to dream" is well crafted power pop -- and "Because I Can" and "Original Skin" are really great ballads

We must remember that she is only a teen (and all those trappings) -- so there is an honesty about being at that point in life -- and there is a great potential here for her to evolve into something spectacular

the START - Death by Satellite EP REVIEW: B+/A-

Out from the rubble of two of LA's cult fave bands, Human Waste Project (now out of print-- classic, if you can get it) and Snot comes a force to be reckoned with -- theSTART

The influence of late 80s new wave Siouxsie, Missing Persons, and Aimee Mann of Til Tuesday-- combined with heavy metal guitar and power poppy punk -- it rocks and is fun to listen to -- some have grumbled that it sounds too much like Gwen or really doesn't take the female vox alt rock band genre in any new direction -- all those concerns seem fairly academic to us, we like this disc a lot because of the great music

Aimee Echo -- that's next voice that one can put up in the distinctive indy femme vocalist pantheon

All this for $5.99, you certainly can't go wrong with this one -- a nice splash into the mainstream for this indy band from LA

Kanye West - College Dropout REVIEW: A

The Luau does HIP-HOP, surely you must be kidding?!?!?!?!

With very little to recommend lately in the genre, as it caters more to poorly put together crappy ass dance music for MTV -- things have changed with the game changing efforts of Outkast this past year

Now, don't get me wrong, hip hop is seriously beat driven, and with no groove--why bother, right? -- Well, you've seen him on the Dave Chappelle Show with Common performing the hard-to-find track FOOD

Kanye West is bringing it back for the old school hip hop fans (like the owner here) -- excellent beats, intelligent lyrics, and social commentary -- yes there is the nods to the pursuit of skeet skeet, but it's the exception rather than norm -- and well put together grooves-- this CD is truly MUSICAL-- good stuff

So if you don't mind some language, this one has me optimistic about the future of hip-hop -- back to the basics and then two steps forward