The College Crowd Digs Me

The Sandman Overture (Deluxe Edition) by Neil Gaiman (writer), J.H.Williams III (artist)  DC Vertigo  2015 Hardcover, 224 pages NO SPOILERS:      When I was introduced to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, it felt like I was almost getting a glimpse behind the curtain.  The mystical hidden machine.  The story was just too smart, too magical, too dangerous.  And still, to this day, I've yet to meet a more beautifully dysfunctional family than the Endless Family.  Dream and his six siblings...Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delight/Delirium are each a mind-blow and a conundrum.  The other characters that populate this epic telling are a puzzle, too.  The ten-volume graphic novel is this and much more.  Each panel meant to be read and relished.  Mythology dipped in sci-fi and heavily dusted from the brittle pages of ancient folklore.  It's all a mental treat. The Sandman Overture  (inside)   ...

"Kingdom Come" - Kingdom Come (1988)      Well, I'll just go ahead and point at the elephant in the room.  Kingdom Come is a band from Hamburg, Germany whose eponymous debut album sounds more than just a little bit like Led Zeppelin.  Many Zeppelin fans were offended and hated it.  Others dug the novelty of some of the band's Zeppelin vibes.  As for me, I fall in with the camp of "I'll take all of this you got." It's a fun album.  The mix is perfect.  Quiet and punchy.  The band is workin' it out.  Outstanding musicianship, though not nearly as thunderous as LZ.   And the Lenny Wolfe vocals...  Gimme some candy!  Delightful is all I can say.  Throw comparisons out the window.  If judged simply by what they brought to the table, Kingdom Come's  first square is an entertaining ten-track crank-fest that never bores. I had not heard of Kingdom Come until listening to an older KSHE playlist I set up...

"What we gotta do is we gotta snag that tall dude and stomp the shit out of him..." ~ Reggie ~ (Reggie Bannister)      Okay, David Lee and Tom Waits may sing of being one, but actor Reggie Bannister is the real ice cream man.  Since the very first "Phantasm"  movie, Reggie has been a working-class hero of the most anomalous and determined means.  Helping to battle the Tall Man and the many spheres of death, this year marks the 45th Anniversary of one of the strangest, coolest, and craziest of horror films.   Reggie Bannister has represented in all five of the “Phantasm” films and, along with his multi-talented wife Gigi , has recently released an exciting book that picks up where the series left off.  Like Michael J. Fox and many others, Reggie has been dancing with Parkinson's with a two-step forward, one-step back determination, continuing to stay active meeting fans, and working on his memoirs.  Thanks to our favorite ice cream m...

"Grand Funk" - Grand Funk Railroad (1969)      When I crank the volume on any  Grand Funk album, I can get shit done!  Luv the vibe.  Luv the snapshot of the times.  I can't explain it.  The band gives me exactly what I need.  Turn this puppy up and I'm all in.  This  Grand Funk  trio can jam and sing just fine.  Better than haters would have you believe.  So just leave that hoity-toity, rock-n-roll snobbery in a blue barrel of a Waste Connections dropoff facility.  Drop the needle on this square...set it and forget it.    I own every Grand Funk album from "On Time" to "Shinin' On" .  They're in my blood.  You know what you're gonna get.   Schacher plays bass like a lead guitar.  Brewer hits drums like he's killing rats.  And Farner riffs and sings like he's waving down an emergency vehicle.  The band was a bulldozer and a wrecking ball and played like their live...

"Octopus" - Gentle Giant (1973)      "I may not be a smart man, Jenny, but I know what prog is."   I am by no means an expert, I just like what I like.  Gentle Giant leans much closer to Genesis and Yes than King Crimson, whom I love equally, but Gentle Giant sounds like neither.  Their fourth album, "Octopus" , is an ambitous wonderful conundrum of musical ideas and tempos bantering and mixing in unexpected flights of fancy.  The musicianship is outstanding! No long epic prog panache is found here; only one track is over five minutes.  Songs are shorter vignettes like visitors dropping off a homemade pie.  Every song is different, but not out of place.  It's a smattering of prog folk, hard prog, prog jazz, prog pretty, and prog dangerous with nothing overstaying its welcome.  Tricky-cool ideas, without being overblown.  The band's fourth album,  "Octopus" is fun, trippy, and entertaining.  As with most prog sp...

"Down The Road" - Manassas (1973)      "Down The Road" (1973) was Manassas' second and final album.  Not quite as strong as their debut, but it piggybacks very nicely on the first.  The best part for vinyl lovers is that this album can be found in record bins for less than a buck or two all day long—a lot of bang for your zing-zang.  The cover may look lame…or not...but be assured, much goodness lies within. The band sounds like the album looks...rootsy, funky, and confident.  Led by Stephen Stills, but everyone contributes.  The band is top-notch with solid cred everywhere.  A primo guestlist, as well.  Manassas wasn't the greatest band or the last coming.  Nothing like that.  But the two albums the band left us are very good and the oft-ignored  "Down The Road" is an especially underappreciated gem.  Ain't nothing better than picking one up for a dollar and finding yourself spinning the square way more often th...