JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #475.85!

The Damnwells – Air Stereo (Zoë) :: Which is funnier: a) that they open their album singing: “I’ve got you, babe. Diamonds and pearls, babe. More than a feeling, babe. Radar love, babe. I want you to want me, babe. Kick start my heart, babe. Sweet child of mine, babe. Wanna be starting something, babe,” or b) that they have a major recording contract and you don’t?

Throttlerod – Nail (Small Stone) :: Ten over-amped distorto guitar-driven scream screeds that reek with the distinctive raw power patina of early Iggzapoppin’.

Trent Reznor – Quake (id Software) :: Say, didja know that if you take the original installation disc from id’s first Quake game and slot it in a standard audio player you can hear NIN’s greatest album in its full-length instrumental entirety?

Kraftwerk – “The Robots” (Kling Klang) :: And speaking of slotting it in, I betcha Rosie screws Bender to this.

Edgewater – We’re Not Robots (Forevergreen) :: On “Caught in the Moment” they prove that they can excel at dumb rock as well as anyone else. On “Rock Is Dead” they just excel at being dumb.

Xrayok – Like Life (self-released) :: A dash of jangling guitar here, a pinch of lush synth texture there, the kind of arch Euromantic tunes that “Street Life” Ferry and “Quiet Life” Sylvian used to croon to make ’em swoon.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Amps for Christ – Every Eleven Seconds (5RC) :: Trust these holy amplifiers to come up with their most eclectic album yet. Where to begin? With the Velvets distorto of “Augmented Demented”? The skilled Oldfield meets Hendrix of “Out on the Moon (slight return)”? The gonzo spoken word tribute “Thompson Hunter”? The country pickin’ of “El Corazon de San Vicente”? The dental drill diatribe “I Hate This Dumpster”? The bagpipe pneumatics of “Scotland the Brave”? The Ravioli Shankar sitar of “Proof Man”? The trans-orbital shock treatment of “The Crossing”? The banjo pickin’ “Sweet Dove”? The Neil Young & Crazy Horse parody “WIB”? The psycho Prince prototype “Monkeys Gone Wild”? You tell me, babe.

Be seeing you!