WHEREFORE ART JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #240!

KMFDM – “Superpower” (Metropolis) :: What we need is a musical arms race!

Chromeo – Business Casual (Last Gang) :: The gleaming band logo and leggy album cover just reek of the late ’70s and early ’80s when syntho disco ruled the royal roost—and the septum-snortin’ music within follows white suit. If you’ve ever had an unhealthy hankering to hear Bryan Ferry produced by Giorgio Moroder, then whip out that coke spoon and dig deep ’cause this album is nothing to sniff at.

Ice T – Live In Montreux (MVD Visual) :: Remember when this guy used to be relevant?

Parliament Funkadelic – Live 1976 (Shout! Factory) :: Proof positive that, back in the ’70s, black folk dressed up just as silly as white folk did. File under: Space Riot.

Ice T – “Race Riot” (Priority) :: I do.

The Twisters – Come Out Swingin’ (Northern Blues) :: Twelve rounds of kidney-crushing belts to your flabby midsection that’ll leave you gasping for air. As your corner man, I advise you to pull a Liston and stay seated on your stool for the remainder of this jumpin’ jive.

Nick Tosches – The Devil And Sonny Liston (Little, Brown) :: The best sports book ever written by a rock writer, period.

Sonny Liston – World Heavyweight Champion (Big Bear) :: Dive, schmive. He’s on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and he slugs it out with Davy Jones in the Monkees’ Head. That’s good enough for me, Champ.

Tyler Kyte – Talking Pictures (Orange) :: Proficient pop songs performed by a Canadian who makes present day Burton Cummings sounds like latter day Lemmy Kilmister.

Tantric – Mind Control (Silent Majority Group) :: They may have a name that sounds like they’re some kinda sexdrone band, but they come across instead as a Mensa version of Metallideth—which is definitely saying something since both Hetfield and Mustaine are no slouches in the smarts department.

Public Enemy – Revolution Tour: Australia 2003 (MVD Visual) :: Remember when these guys used to be relevant?

Miles Davis – That’s What Happened: Live In Germany 1987 (Eagle Eye) :: How he had the appalling bad taste to think that tripe ballads like “Time After Time” and “Human Nature” were the modern equivalent of “My Funny Valentine” and “If I Were A Bell” I’ll never know.

Public Enemy – Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black (Def Jam) :: I do.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Kevin Eubanks – Zen Food (Mack Avenue) :: If all you know about Eubanks is his bandleader stint on the Tonight Show, then prepare to be very pleasantly surprised by this highly intelligent jazz album that starts out sounding like a cool classic cross between Stanley Clarke’s School Days and Jan Hammer’s Oh Yeah? before it veers into a vintage Prestige and Verve vein that alternates between being sensually spiritual and so seriously swingin’ with funk as to be borderline heavy.

Nine Inch Nails – “Hyperpower!” (Interscope) :: What we need is a musical arms race!

Be seeing you!