Your Similar Album Covers of the Week - Joyrides Gone Awry

These seemingly random album covers share similar themes, though who knows what/if there's any real meaning behind them. Little Feat was always known for their irreverent/cartoony album art by illustrator Neon Park which often had nothing to do with the music therein (some say they severely detracted from the music). Lord knows what this illustration of George Washington and Marilyn Monroe out for a joyride about to get hit by lightning means. There's no denying, though, that it is brilliant in its randomness.

The Ry Cooder album features another joyride gone awry, this time in a '39 Buick convertible. Again, the cover art has little to do with the music inside, but it certainly tells a story which we can only guess the details of. There's a great little article on the making of this cover over at sleevage.com. And there you have it -- two fantastic albums featuring slide guitar virtuosos, brought together forever by vintage cars in a storm.

Treasure Island Music Festival Review - Jambase.com

This fifth year of the Treasure Island Music Festival sported some of the most eclectic and forward-thinking music in the festival's history. And while there were some great acts whose sound just didn't fill the massive setting, there were plenty of highlights. Check them out over at Jambase:

Treasure Island Music Festival :: 10.15-16.11 :: Treasure Island :: San Francisco, CA

YACHT proved to be the best band I've never heard of, and this version of "Psychic Ciy" shows why:



The Head and the Heart was a refreshing change up from all the synth-heavy bands, getting the crowd riled up with some good old folksy rave-ups:


Beach House also delivered with some glorious sunset bliss-out music:


And Dizzee Rascal was surprisingly awesome, showing off some real MC skills with some deep electronica to get the crowd bumpin' hard:

Your Similar Album Covers of the Week - Special Toast Edition

Hey kids, remember After Dark? You know, that awesome screen saver program that we used on our old Macintoshes back during the dawn of the 90's? Of course you do. They were the ones who brought us the most iconic of all screen savers, The Flying Toasters:



















This little piece of randomness tickled the public's fancy in just the right ways, helping After Dark software to skyrocket in popularity throughout the 90s. But few know that the idea to put wings on toasters did not originate with screen savers. Case in point, Jefferson Airplane's 1973 live album, Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (which proved to be their final album):
























The similarities here were so blatant (down to the 1950's style toaster) that in 1994, Bay Area band Jefferson Airplane sued Bay Area company Berkeley Systems (the company that released After Dark) for stealing their iconic imagery, originally illustrated by Bruce Steinberg. The judge eventually dismissed the case due to the fact that the album art was not copyrighted by the time that Flying Toasters was released by Berkeley Systems in 1989.

In case you were wondering, After Dark screen savers are not currently available for use with your new MacBook. Berkeley Systems is long gone as a company, and it is unclear who holds the rights to Flying Toasters at this point. I'm sure I'm not the first to say that a re-release is sorely overdue....

Return To Forever & Zappa Plays Zappa Review - Jambase.com

Fusion Geeks unite! What is probably the greatest assemblage of pure musicianship on a tour in many, many years just passed through the West Coast, and I was there. That's right, a set of Frank Zappa music followed by a set of Return To Forever, the greatest Jazz Fusion band of their generation. The icing on the cake was that RTF was joined by Jean-Luc Ponty for this tour, the most rockingest jazz violin player to ever pick up the instrument.

Though everyone amazed, it was Stanley Clarke that stole the show with his mastery of the acoustic and electric basses. The man can really do whatever he wants -- he possesses complete precision and control of his musical universe. Here's my coverage of this momentous concert event over at Jambase:

Return To Forever w/ Zappa Plays Zappa :: 09.22.11 :: The Warfield :: San Francisco, CA

Frank Gamble from RTF sat in with Dweezil Zappa and Co. for some guitar pyrotechnics on Zappa's "Willie the Pimp," and it was good:



Return To Forever then proceeded to take the stage and rip us all a new one with their instruments, which was also good. Here they blaze their way through "Señor Mouse:"

Your Similar Album Covers of the Week - Cock Rock

This week we feature two classic, provocative album covers. These two albums were released ten years apart, and not much needs to be said about how much sleazy rock music changed between 1971 and 1981 -- these crotchy albums say it all in a nutshell. In ten years we went from bulging denim to studded leather and chanis: the Stones paved the way for scandal and shock-rock (don't even get me started with their banned 1973 EP), and the Crüe ran it into the ground with their own shallow, over-the top brand, inventing Hair Metal in the process.

It's hard to imagine that Mötley Crüe didn't deliberately conceptualize their cover without thinking of the Sticky Fingers LP (photo by Andy Warhol, vinyl packaging complete with a working zipper which unzips to reveal Mick's skivvies), it's too similar to not be an homage. Whatever their motivation, these two bands were the leading beacons of Cock Rock for their respective generations, and these albums effectively exemplify this in an oh-not-so-subtle way.

Your Similar Album Covers of the Week - Smoking Angels

Ah, innocence lost. What a great theme for a hard rock/metal band album cover. A smoking angel is a hilarious contradiction, working with the fallen angel idea on a number of different levels. Dio-era Black Sabbath devised of this idea first for their 1980 album, appropriately titled Heaven and Hell. This was the first album they released after Ozzy was booted from the band, and was a re-birth for them in a number of ways. With Dio's huge, epic pipes blowing Ozzy's nasal whine out of the water, the band speeds their trademark sludgy riffs into a faster, more energized metal that just kills it. Highly recommended.

It couldn't be a coincidence that Van Halen used this idea only four years later for their last David Lee Roth-era album. They do improve upon the concept with a fantastic smirking, impish Cupid-cherub illustration (a play on the classic Raphael painting), though the concept couldn't have been original after Sabbath used it. Regardless, 1984 sold 10 million copies, so most of you reading this knows this cover well, and have probably never seen the Sabbath one.

Your Similar Album Covers of the Week - Sky Fire

This one is pretty self-explanatory. While the past few posts have been more thematically similar, this one couldn't be any more literal: asteroids falling to earth near a lake at twilight, leaving a brilliant trail in their wake. Bam! 70's album cover gold. The image just has a certain je ne sais quoi that whispers class in just the right way...

These albums were released within two years of each other in the mid-70s. Many are familiar with Weather Report, the hugely successful and ground-breaking jazz fusion group, but the band Firefall has been lost to time, probably for good reason. They're the ones who contributed this little ditty to civilization:



You know you've heard it, the melody is definitely back there in your subconscious somewhere. Most likely it was playing while you were shopping for groceries, or browsing the aisles for slacks at Marshalls. The song fits the department store soundtrack criteria perfectly: non-threatening, bland, unobtrusive, and pleasantly innocuous. Firefall has found a lasting place in society right next to Sade's "Smooth Operator," serenading shoppers around the world into a relaxed anesthesia. I wonder if they get royalties for it.

Your Similar Album Covers of the Week - Cowboy Hippies

The gorgeous Old West/Norman Rockwell theme of a bonneted, skirt-billowing dame gazing longingly in the distance isn't the only similarity in these two excellent albums. Both these bands emerged out of Bill Graham's ballroom-circuit San Francisco in the late 60s, which produced more than its fair share of amazing music.

While many know of Quicksilver and their virtuoso lead guitarist John Cipollina, fewer have heard of the progressive rock band It's A Beautiful Day, which was a Bay Area staple for a number of years during those halcyon days. During the late 60s, those crazy Frisco hippies developed a widespread cultural obsession with the Old West that permeated their fashion, art, and music. It also made for some righteous album covers. Thanks, hippies, for your awesome contribution to pop culture.