This compilation starts off on a high (no pun intended) note with Sinead O’Connor’s “Fire On Babylon.” In case you’ve forgotten like I had, Sinead’s voice can cut right through you. As this song closes the band breaks into a killer groove as Sinead breaks what’s left of your eardrums.

Up next is the jazzy, funky, worldly “Never Know” by Angelique Kidjo. In my ignorance I had never heard of her before but I can guarantee she will end up on my wish list this holiday season. Even before the smooth, effective “Life” by Queen Latifah I couldn’t help but wish I could hear a little more of each set. That is the weakness of this compilation. It really isn’t a complete product in itself. The one song per artist concept may leave you feeling a bit cold. It definitely doesn’t do Morcheeba or Tracey Bonham justice. Other great tracks on this CD include Shawn Colvin’s “New Thing Now”, “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan, which is effectively beautified by Emmylou Harris, and a warm “Miles From Our Home” by the Cowboy Junkies. Margot Timmins voice wraps you up like big mama’s hugs.

Does A Shot In The Dark ring a bell ? It was the Munsters theme song written by Henry Mancini. Johnny Richards’ fresh arrangement gives it new life. It’s a wonderful opener and a showcase for the Tim Hesla Big Band horn section, with superb solos by Peter Anastos on trumpet and David Slusser on tenor sax.

Ledisi gives a heart-rending vocal to the classic Stormy Weather. She is more than ably supported by the Rob Rhodes Trio. The piano solo is, well, it’s what makes jazz music great. It’s full of expression, not too cluttered, and has plenty of space and nuance. Close your eyes and let your ears take you to your favourite jazz club.

The quality of music on this CD will satisfy most music lovers. The performances have an energy that is difficult to capture. There’s a wide range of music styles. You’ll find freestyle progressive jazz on 3Ply., a laid-back minimal approach on Delta Bound., a ragtime swing on I Wonder Who’s Boogin My Woogie., a rockabilly boogie on The Bachelor Boogie and a foray into the world of Latin music with the mambo Baila Mi Guaganco.

There’s a quirky version of Night And Day that is sure to raise a smile at the very least. The phrasing is quite comical and the timing an interesting choice. To add to the variety there’s a spoken word performance by Beth Lisick called Monkey Girl which is quite arresting.

Café Du Nord’s live compilation is a great idea and I’m sure this won’t be their last offering.

MOM #3 is the third installment of a compilation project which raises money for the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve the world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Yup, it’s for charity, all the better reason to buy it!

But besides helping save oceans you get the best summertime CD in years (Why didn’t this come out in June????) and it’s jam packed (I ain’t kidding) with 21 songs by a virtual who’s who of the rock world. To top it all off some of the artists tackle cover versions of “summer” type songs. Brian Setzer and Brian Wilson team up to do “Little Deuce Coupe”, Everclear does a rippin’ version of the old 60′s surf instrumental “Walk Don’t Run” and the Butthole Surfers cover “Summer In The City”.

Sprung Monkey does an ultra 90′s version of “Coconut” complete with rappin’, scratchin’ and nearly metal guitars. But Beck steals the show with the super campy 60′s sounding original named appropriately “Electric Music And The Summer People” The name says it all: FUN,_FUN,_FUN!!!!!!!!!!

There’s truly something for everyone here, this baby’s stuffed with 100% summer fun, from the Beasties to Snoop w/ Rage Against The Machine to Jane’s Addiction, Paul McCartney, Lisa Loeb and so on and so on…………..

So buy it already!!!! It’s for a good cause, trust me, even if you live in Nebraska and you’ve never seen an ocean, because just owning this collection makes for a brighter summer!

Dig it.

If you’re over 18 like yours truly, you probably have no clue whatsoever what the fuss is about. But if you’re a youngin’ you probably DO know what the heck it’s about and you’ll probably love the soundtrack as well. Albeit TEEN popdom, the Pokemon CD is chock full of the newest and fabest young stars out there today.

As an old man I can’t help but laughing at such lyrics as “Pokemon, our hearts so true” (Billy Crawford – Pokemon Theme) But I better stop thinking as an adult here and try to put myself in the small shoes of a Pokemon fan. Would I like this CD, yeah, probably.

M2M’s “Don’t Say You Love Me” is likable enough. “It Was You” by Ashley Ballard with So Plush is a nice pretty ballad touting the values of friendship. Christina Aguilera continues this admirable theme with “We’re A Miracle”.

Mega kiddie pop sensation Britney Spears gives us the funky, rasta vibe of the extremely catchy “Soda Pop” and *NSYNC gives us a dose of white boy soul with “Somewhere Someday”. B*Witched delights us with some fun house music on “Get Happy” sure its pure Spice pop, but youngin’s will adore it.

Speaking of Spices, Ms. Baby Spice sings a predictable Spice anthem with “(Hey You) Free Up Your Mind”, no surprises here. By now you’ve guessed what these 16 tracks sound like: sweet, sugary disco, R&B and pop that you’re kids will love. It’s also filled with positive messages about friendship that parents will appreciate. The music aint bad either, I suppose, but be warned this is the bubblegummiest of bubblegum!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And for anyone over 18, very difficult to listen to, unless accompanied by a youngin’. Now we’ve just got to have them explain Pokemon to us!

As stated earlier this CD is chock full of punk rock fun from the speedy anthemic “Fight It” by Pennywise (unreleased track only available here) to the funny “Hopeless Romantic” by the Bouncing Souls.” I’m a hopeless romantic and you’re just hopeless” Ten Foot Pole gives us some catchy, punchy punk that is way poppy at the same time. Bombshell Rocks gives a similar styled frantic punk/pop song with searing piano chops with their “The Will The Message” song.

But alas, it’s not all punk here as The Voodoo Glow Skulls present us with some ska-punk craziness with “They Always Come Back” and Tom Waits even shows up with the raspy (suprised?) “Big In Japan” (not the Alphaville song!)

Basically “Punk-O-Rama” is what it says, lotsa, lotsa fun punk rock and even if you can’t make it to the Warped Tour, this baby will get you through the summer. With bands like NOFX, Agnostic Front, Bad Religion, ALL, Rancid, H20 and Pulley how can you NOT have a fun?

The Governors have definitely impressed me with their performance at the Elbow Room, NYC, on December 30th. I didn’t really know what to expect, being that I wasn’t very familiar with the band before that night. All I can say is that they have true talent- between the mix of the jazzy keyboard, startling drumming, and infectious guitar playing, the Governors know what they’re doing. Lead vocalist Vito Barbiera has the ability to intricately weave his keyboard and voice through Oscar Bautista’s Stones/Jamiroquai-style (odd combo, but worked) guitar playing quite well.

Barbiera, being trained in jazz performance at NYU, has the talent to back up his classy act. He plays as if Elton John and the Police got together for a jam session; the band even pulled off a great Police cover of “Oh My God,” from the album ‘Synchronicity.’ Guitarist Bautista plays amazing funk-rock on his strings; it seemed as if he had no limit to his style. With Rob Cantwell on drums and Tim Kealey on bass guitar, the band was tight right from the opening chord to the end of the last song.

The band was so into their music that they forgot to have a little fun on stage, but they easily drew the crowd in – I was so engrossed in their sound that I totally lost track of the time. Their one hour set seemed to be a mere twenty minutes. I’d definitely spend the time seeing them play again.

Reggae On The Rocks is a festival that takes place every year at Red Rocks and this CD is a document of year number 3. All in all the fest looks like a freakin’ blast to put it mildly. Reggae, dub, dancehall & ska are all the cause celebre and rightfully so. We get the older chaps like Justin Hinds and young folks like the Long Beach Dub All Stars (members of Sublime). Those Long Beach Dub All Stars get the ball rolling with the smooth. breezy “Astro-Dub”. Justin Hinds treats us to the ska-steady “Teach The Youth”.

Boukman Eksperyans gives us the wonderful world beat, dancy, crowd pleasing “Tip, Tipa”. Former Bad Brains leader HR gives us a subdued slow reggae version of the BB classic “I And I Survive”. Justin Hinds also give us the spiritual, uplifting “Let Jah Rise” while Majek Fashek treats us to the spirited, hip shakin, “African Unity”. Reggae On The Rocks is a must have for the reggae veteran or novice. It’s jam packed with all the variations that this genre has to offer. Reggae is a many splendid things, it has many styles, sounds and voices and this festival is a testament to that!

Maximum respect!

Dig it: They use porn chick Jenna Jameson on the front cover, print a full 9 paragraph biography / resume about her life on the inside, and say not one word about the funk music genre that porn music spawned in its 1970s heyday. There’s nothing about the musicians who got no respect then (or now), who had to actually write music to the image of people fucking – It was strange cool music.

It would make a wild book, or worthy Rhino box set! I’ve got no problem using sexy chicks to sell the CD; after all this is PORN! But if this disc is supposed to be about the music, how about a couple of liner notes written by somebody who was there? In fact, how about some MUSIC that was actually used in a porn film?! This is NEW music or as the last 2 lines in the jacket say: “This CD represents the classic porn sound of the ’70s. This music was recorded in 1998 inspired by the infamous sound that helped define the era of adult film.”

That era had nothing to do with these musicians or Jenna Jameson. In case you do care about this stuff, there is a label called Motel which at least released some classic 70s German porn-horror music a while ago under the title Vampyros Lesbos. Also check out The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra which is science fiction / sex / spy film music.

Better yet, find some of the classic 70s hardcore porn stuff yourself, and put it out on your own label. I’ll give you 10 smiley faces for it. There is some classic American music on those old films in danger of being totally lost, and I hope someone eventually puts together a good collection of it.

The band with the second best name on the album, Boy Sets Fire, jump into the fray with “Waiting for the Punchline”, which, with the right promoter could make them stars. There are a few disappointments, though, like J Church, where the guy who programmed the drum machine is clearly better at his job then the guy singing the lyrics.

My biggest gripe though is the total lack of female perspective. It would have been nice to have heard the other side of the story, so to speak. I mean, yeah Teen Heroes have a girl playing the guitar, but that’s as close as the album gets to taking into account the women’s opinions on the subject of life after breaking up. Even so, it’s still an album I recommend for those of you who don’t still want to experience more than what MTV can offer.

This sucker covers every base imaginable on its’ 26 CDs. The box also includes a 300+ page book with essays galore by the top writters in music journalism, along with awesome photos, annotations and graphics galore, like old LP center-label designs on the discs themselves. If you grew up with vinyl, you’ll think this is especially cool. I did find a couple of errors in the annotations, as in what label particular singles and albums appeared on, and some boo-boos in Billboard info and artist info, but that was miniscule compared to the other wealth of info in the box set.

It’s good the way they divide the set up by genre, with 2 CDs per section: early pop (1890 to 1950), classical (4 CDs), jazz, folk, gospel and blues, country, movie music, Broadway golden age pop (1951 to 1975), rock, R&B, international, and modern pop (1976 to 1999). Most of it was quite educational and a real eye and ear opener. I heard and got to appreciate what I wouldn’t have heard anywhere else. Sure, there were a handful of artists I didn’t and still don’t like, Michael Bolton for instance, but that’s beside the point. It’s what’s on there that is truly artistic that counts, including Bob Dylan, Springsteen, Iggy Pop, Elvis Costello, Public Enemy, Aretha, Charlie Rich, Fleetwood Mac, Robert Johnson, Duke Elington, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, etc. You name the artist, they’re in the box set in one form or another.

Plus, if you just want certain parts, you can buy seperatley sold 2 CD sets. The nicest surprise is the international set, with stuff from 36 countries, from Poland to Puerto Rico. Even though most artists included could only have 1 song apiece, it’s either a key song (their biggest or most influential hit) or it enables you to discover or re-evaluate others. Overall, an incredible collection.