CCCLIII? JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #353!

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter – Super Bowl Live! (NFL Records & Tapes) :: I don't know which is worse: the lousy album title or the fact that she actually had the nerve to release a 12 minute set on an 80 minute disc.

Mark Lanegan – Black Pudding (Ipecac) :: Where’s Tipper Gore and the PMRC when we really need them?

Ralph “Spammer” Stoltz – I Wanna Offer You Such A Fair Deal (SPAM Email) :: “Three hundred was Monks. laurel reassureed in the conical bassist up the stairs set him, and Mr. Immediately, the choice this slippery narwhale came up to invoke at the pit of the appeal, exception was perpetrateed into its lungs like gruel into the incomprehensible cylinders of a 2,000-horsepower emotion..”

And you thought I overwrote.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Art Decade – Western Sunrise (Eldest Only) :: A lesser league of leeches woulda called themselves “Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family” or “Homo From Aldebaran” but, the way I see it, if you’re gonna name your band after an obscure ’70s David Bowie instrumental, then choosing the atmospherically arch decadent “Art Decade” is definitely the way to go—and, boy howdy, does this excellent album ever live up to that makeshift moniker and go go go!

The first two seconds sound like a James Brown intro before everything suddenly switches into a string-soaked Beatlesque art rock escapade which owes more than a lush nod to Queen Mercury in the vocal arrangement and songwriting department. There’s also an admirable element of ’80s symphonic synthesizer pop in place to spice up the proceedings—but don’t think they’re not capable of breaking out the big audio dynamite because the longer you listen, the louder things get.

Bonus points for including a glossy full color twelve page booklet that contains nothing but twelve full bleed paintings which are completely devoid of text—and that’s an extreme visual treat that even Eno and Peter Schmidt never attempted to do at their Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) and Before And After Science art rock peak of perfection.

Be seeing you!