PROGROCKSTICATING JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #313!

Styx – The Grand Illusion / Pieces Of Eight: Live (Eagle) :: Wherein two compact discs; one video disc; and two classic progressive rock albums performed live in their entirety add up to one enjoyable exercise in endless nostalgia, all expertly played with peerless note perfect precision, as befitting these master progrocksticators!

SIZZLING VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Queen – Days Of Our Lives: The Definitive Documentary Of The World’s Greatest Rock Band (Eagle) :: Like sand through the hourglass, so are the number of music videos that I have to watch each week about beat combos that are supposedly “The World’s Greatest Rock Band.” Well, as it so happens, I’ve seen The World’s Greatest Rock Band perform live in concert and these guys ain’t it; they’re The World’s Second Greatest Rock Band and they prove it all night in spades on this exhaustively titled officially authorized and sonically sanctioned audio-visual documentary that’s, well, about as nigh-on definitive as you’re likely to get.

It don’t matter none whether you go ga ga for clean shaven long haired Freddie or go goo goo for mustachioed short haired Freddie ’cause no matter which way you swing you’ll wind up on the receiving end of a bevy of dynamic live footage; an ace accounting of archival interviews; a cool cadre of contemporary interviews; and more bonus Queen rock videos than you can shake a stick at—and if that’s your idea of a good time, then bring your dog along and I’ll give him a bonus too.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Lords Of Acid – Deep Chills (Metropolis) :: What Rob Zombie’s White Zombie are to satirical B movie horror movies and what Sascha Konietzko’s KMFDM are to satirical socio-political agendas, Pragha Khan’s Lords Of Acid are to satirical suburban sex-soaked soirées—and with sinsational song titles like “The Crab Louse” and “Young Boys” and “Drink My Honey” and the ever-popular “I Must Increase My Bust,” you’d best believe that Lords know whereof they shriek, all backed by a percolating cauldron of techno-syntho beats that’s so pulchritudinously persuasive it can pop a primed pudenda at thirty feet.

Now, after a self-imposed hiatus of 12—count ’em—12 long years spent brain tripping in parts unknown, the carnal cult responsible for such semenal (sic) sexamples of forbidden sexcess as 1994’s VooDoo U and 2000’s Farstucker (really sic) is back in the stirrups again with this brand new spread-eagled sextravaganza that’ll teach you more then a couple of new tricks about what’s still habitually going on hot ’n’ heavy behind every green door.

Aided and ably abetted by a lush new lineup of rockin’ reprobaters that includes new femme fatale vocalist DJ Mea, this one sounds like a kooky retrophonic cross between a Casio keyboard orgy gone feral and a technophonic USB meltdown. Even better, “The Love Bus” sounds like Lee Hazlewood come back from the Great Beyond to have one final fling with Nancy Sinatra. Bonus points for sheathing this throbbing monster in a Charles Addams meets R. Crumb raincoat.

Big Brother & The Holding Company – Cheap Thrills (Columbia) :: Exactly!

Be seeing you!