meow meow meow meow

First thing’s first here:  this cover sucks.  I seriously think it might be one of the worst album covers ever made, mainly because it makes Dean Martin look like a douche, and in real life he never looked that goofy.  They’ve got him dressed up in some lame outfit and on top of it whoever created this is making look like he’s dancing a jig.  It’s just horrible.  I keep wondering if Dean had to sign off on this cover or if it was just something the record company pushed through.  The thing is I’m convinced that if they had used a photograph instead of a drawing he could have pulled it off.  Don’t believe me?  Check out how cool the guy looks for his country album:

Okay so enough about the cover.  The concept of Swingin’ Down Yonder is that Dean is doing songs associated with the American south.  It’s such a bizarre release from someone associated with Italian love songs, but the guy absolutely nails it.  The songs are lighthearted without being silly and it doesn’t contain a single moment where you roll your eyes in embarassment.  The music is created by traditional instruments instead of Dino’s usual orchestral music and his voice blends with it perfectly.  The only complaint I have is with the bonus tracks included on the re-release that I have; they don’t fit in with the concept and it’s a little jarring when they start, but really that’s a small quibble.

There are a lot of good Dean Martin albums but I would rank this among my top two or three studio albums.  Despite the terrible cover and the odd concept this is a great display of his talent.

I have a fair share of live albums featuring Ronnie James Dio (both solo and with Black Sabbath and Rainbow), but the 1983 performance documented on the first disc of Dio at Donington UK beats them all hands down.  The band plays with an intensity and urgency that you typically don’t hear on live albums.  If you compare the songs from Holy Diver here with 2006′s Holy Diver Live, the difference is night and day.  “Stand Up and Shout”, the set’s opener is the real highlight here with an energy that continues through the rest of the set.

In 1983 Ronnie James Dio had just broken off from Black Sabbath and the first Dio album had been released.  From the sound of it they really had something to prove.  Everyone’s playing is phenominal, but Vivian Campbell’s playing really shines here.  As time goes on you forget what a great guitarist he is, but this reminds you of how much is playing really contributed to the first few Dio albums.

The second disc has his 1987 set.  The band was touring behind Dream Evil and performs a lot of now-classic songs like “The Last in Line” and “Rock and Roll Children”.  The performance is not as good as the 1983 one, but to be fair it set a pretty high bar.  It’s still great to hear and the appearance of “Neon Nights” is a bonus.

It’s been a while since a release I was looking forward to actually lived up to expectations.  Not only are there two great shows on here, but the price is a deal for what you get. This is easily one of Ronnie James Dio’s best.

One of the things about the Sprint Center in Kansas City is that it shows me how out of touch I am about how popular acts are that go there.  I saw today that Linkin Park is going to play there in January and I had no idea they were popular enough to play a 18,000+ capacity arena.  This is nothing against them, I just never hear anything new from them on the radio so I figured they would play something like the Uptown Theatre (just checked, 1,700 capacity which is smaller than I thought).  I had the same feeling when Muse played there – I know they’re popular but I didn’t think they were a headlining act.  Kid Rock is playing there also, but I would chalk that up to a Kansas City thing like Jackyl’s popularity here.

No real point, it just seems like a good third of the rock acts that play the Sprint Center make me scratch my head in disbelief.  For all I know they’re only selling a third of the place or they barricade certain sections off like when smaller acts play Starlight but it seems like whoever books them would have a good idea of how much they would sell.

Well you can certainly see that the Christmas season is coming with the holiday albums and compilations being released.

Jimi Hendrix, West Coast Seattle Boy

This is the sort of thing I would have been all over a few years back.  It sounds like a great box set, containing some of the session work he did along with some alternate takes and rarities.  Unfortunately I’m not into box sets that much any more.  The session work sounds interesting but it’s the sort of thing that I would listen to once and never have any interest in again.  I’ve never been a huge fan of alternate takes either unless they’re drastically different.  I would rather just stick with the studio albums.

I also saw that new editions of the BBC Sessions and the Blues compilation are being released today.  I own both of these in previous incarnations and while the BBC Sessions is really good, I’m not sure what the motivation was for re-releasing Blues (other than the obvious answer – money).

Billy Joel, The Hits

I checked out the track listing for this and I hate the last four songs on this (“A Matter of Trust”, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, “I Go to Extremes”, “The River of Dreams”) so much that I literally got angry when I just saw the titles.

Kid Rock, Born Free

I’ll wait until I find it used.  His albums are a mixed bag for me so I’ll wait and see on this.  Is this being played on the radio? I have no idea.

Pink Martini, Joy to the World

Just when I think I’ll never buy another Christmas album, this comes out.  I’m going to end up getting this because I know it’s going to be great.  Featuring guest star Ari Shapiro?  Even better.

Amazon recommended Annie Lennox’ Christmas Cornucopia along with this and I can’t imagine anything that would make me hate Christmas more than this would.

Kansas City has two upcoming Christmas shows – the Rockettes show and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  From what I’ve heard about last year’s and this year’s show, the Rockettes’ Christmas is supposed to be a great time.  The problem is the date, November 19th.  I might end up enjoying it but I’m ot really interested in dropping the cash for a Christmas show a week before Thanksgiving.  I’m barely in the mood for Christmas after then, but a week before?  Forget about it.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra has the opposite problem.  They’re coming to Kansas City December 29th.  By then I’m already sick of Christmas and I’m disgusted by the news stories showing people exchanging their gifts so it’s not something I’m up for.  In this case at least the whole show isn’t based on Christmas so I could see myself going to this before I would go to the Rockettes’ show too early.

I realize that these shows need to make money and that they wouldn’t be coming to Kansas City after Christmas unless there was a good chance they would turn a profit.  I would just be curious about how many people attend these two shows this year especially compared to last year.