JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #663.325!

Pantera – Official Live: 101 Proof: Pure Against The Grain American Metal (Elektra) :: I never stop being a rock critic, even when I’m asleep. That’s why I dreamt the other night that Pantera had released a reunion album with a new recruit to replace their late guitarist. Whereupon, after listening to it, I opined to some faceless dream denizen: “I love Pantera, but an album without Dimebag Darrell just isn’t a Pantera album.” So if you never saw them perform live—and have the added pleasure of hearing Phil Anselmo’s boozy between song Lizard King pontifications on the sorry state of the art—this is the perfect vein to tap. Oh, and you can take that exhaustive album title to heart because Pantera don’t fool around; if you could distill this record into a flask it’d make a bottle of 5 Hour Energy look like an industrial strength dose of sleeping pills. Heart monitor not included.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Bill Nelson And The Gentlemen Rocketeers – Recorded Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios, London (Convexe) :: Some would tell you that the music business is dead and buried in a pauper’s grave somewhere, but I’m here to tell ya it ain’t necessarily so ’cause Convexe Records is here to save the day with a new series of high-end; primo packaged; double audio and single video disc sets which’ll make you a true believer once again!

First up to the plate to blast one outta the park is none other than Mr. Magnetism Himself, everybody’s favorite futurist, that supersonic scourge of the airwaves, Bill “Mr. Deluxe” Nelson. The last time I spoke with Bill was during Be-Bop Deluxe’s final Drastic Plastic tour, wherein he confided to me that what he really wanted to do next was ditch the big arenas; put a speaker cabinet on some faraway beach; and then record the sound as the incoming waves deconstructed it. Eventually that plan evolved into Red Noise and the more aurally astute Sound-On-Sound album, which subsequently led to literally dozens of other electro-ambient air age adventures.

Now Bill is back with this new three disc set of modern music performed in Metropolis—seen the cover to Live! In The Air Age recently?—that clocks in at 95 minutes on the auditory scale and weighs in at a respectable 110 on the visual meter. It’s an eclectic eighteen track time trip that spans his days as a deluxe be-bopper (“Ships In The Night” and “Panic In The World”) to his solo spasms (“Do You Dream In Color” and “Furniture Music”).

But listening to tracks like “Sister Seagull” and “Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape” is only part of the package; to get the full futurama effect, you have to fire up the video and watch Bill work his axe victim magic ’cause his voice is as distinctively strong as ever and he can still play a guitar just like a rocket blasting off.

Be seeing you!