JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #482.92!

Street To Nowhere – Charmingly Awkward (Capitol) :: Elton John meets Trent Reznor. Don’t shoot me, I’ll do it myself.

Daughters – Hell Songs (Hydra Head) :: Which song I should play first? “Boner X-Ray” or “Crotch Buffet”?

Xiu Xiu – The Air Force (5RC) :: Try the buffet, thailor.

The Receiver – Decades (Stunning Models on Display) :: A cascading waterfall or pure pop pianissimos merged with a heavenly host of angelic harmonies.

The Curtains – Calamity (Asthmatic Kitty) :: Sparse. Eno. Ethereal. Eno playing. Naive. Eno playing in. Ambient. Eno playing in Brian. Electric. Eno playing in Brian Wilson’s. Pop. Eno playing in Brian Wilson’s sandbox.

Lenny Gallant – When We Get There (Revenant) :: I spotted this guy walking out of a hotel elevator lugging two guitar cases, so I flashed my rock critic badge and confiscated one of his records. Well, I’m here to tell you that it was well worth the grab because Lenny’s heartfelt singing and songwriting skills are on a par with the great Johnny McLeod—and that’s no mean feat.

Magnolia Electric Co. – Fading Trails (Secretly Canadian) :: Strangely believe it, this is the long-awaited spiritual kin to Tonight’s The Night, right down to Neil Young’s rawcous (sic) guitar and primitive peeannie (very sic). But that’s not an indication of overt aping, it’s just a fluky residual result of them both hitchhiking along the same barren stretch of wavelength. Need a ride? Get in.

SIZZLING TELEVISION SHOW OF THE WEEK: Ted Nugent – Wanted: Ted Or Alive (Versus) :: What makes this feral cross between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Blair Witch Project the absolute greatest reality show ever is watching the omnipresent and omnipotent master of scaremonies—a cackling, wise-cracking Ted—gleefully relish every mishap that befalls the suffering kids under his tutelage as they desperately try to survive in the wild on his secluded Michigan farm. Who will survive and what will be left of them?

Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes – Survival Of The Fittest (Polydor) :: He’s consistent, you gotta give him that.

Be skinning you!