JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #529.160!

Jane Vain & The Dark Matter – Love Is Where The Smoke Is (Rectangle) :: Ponderously portentous primo percolating Portisheadish paeans of passion and penance.

SIZZLING ELECTRIC PLATTER OF THE WEEK: The Wagon — Match Made In Hell (Las Conchas) :: The Beach Boys meet Grand Funk meets Cheap Trick meets The Who on this heavier than Hebben crunge-rock extravagonzo that’s too unfit to quit. If you don’t like this record, then I’m afraid that you just don’t like rock ’n’ roll, son.

SIZZLING ACOUSTIC PLATTER OF THE WEEK -- LATE SHOW: The Kingston Trio – Once Upon A Time (Collectors’ Choice) :: Thems that’s in the know sure as heck know that the Kingston Trio are as big a slice of Americana pie as you can find this side of the Rat Pack. And on this long-overdue reissue, which was originally a double album recorded in July 1966 at the Sahara-Tahoe gamblin’ den in Nevada, the perennially short-sleeved K3 ride again with their trademark style of good pickin’ and good playin’ in tow. Everything you want to hear is here, from the hang-’em-high melodrama of “Tom Dooley” to “Silicone Bust,” which predated the Faces’ own “Silicone Grown” by almost a decade.

Even better are the song introductions, which are liberally peppered with the Trio’s own unique brand of humorous generation-gap rap: “There’s a lot of great rock ’n’ roll groups around now that we like very much. There’s one group in L.A. in fact that is so wild, they make Hells Angels look like Robert Goulet. [audience laughter] This song is written by rock ’n’ roll’s pretender to the throne, Bob Dylan. [audience laughter]”

SIZZLING ACOUSTIC PLATTER OF THE WEEK -- EARLY SHOW: The Kingston Trio – Twice Upon A Time (Collectors’ Choice) :: You’ll want to go out and get this previously unreleased companion live album right now just to watch the bonus promo video of the Trio singing “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” by pretender to the throne Bob Dylan.

Be seeing you!