Wednesday, May 20, 2009

New Music and An Oldie But Goodie

One of the first music websites that I ever followed was called 'Wall of Sound,' in tribute to the style of music popular in the 1960's. Wall of Sound specialized in reviewing obscure albums without being too pretentious. Unfortunately the website folded in the early 2000's but not before I was introduced to many classic albums such as Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams and also tonight's selection, the self titled debut album from Mishka.

Mishka was released in 1999 and after reading the stellar review I purchased it without even giving it a listen. One part in particular from the review sticks out in my mind where the author said something along the lines of, "This is an album you can turn on at a bbq in 20 years and not be embarrassed..." Now a decade later, just as the reviewer predicted, this album still holds up. Songs like Give You All the Love, Lonely, Happy, and Bring A Man Down are fantastic. In reality there is not one bad song on this album. Definitely one you can put on while working, relaxing, or as perfect background music for a party. An oldie but goodie indeed.




I listened to Mishka's debut so many times that I am actually on my second copy of the CD. However, news, tours and information about him were very hard to find and he basically dropped out of the scene for several years. Finally in 2007 I was reading the SL Weekly and stumbled across a notice that Mishka was opening up for a few other bands at a small club in Park City the next night. Big Al and myself headed up and loved every minute of his brief set and didn't mind the $30 we had spent to only see him play for 25 min. We stalked him afterwards and asked him where in the world he had been for the past 7 years and his reply was, "I be trying to raise me a family..."


Apparently Big Al, Brohammas and myself are not the only Mishka fans in the world. In 2006, Matthew McConaughey decided to create his own label and the first act that he signed was our boy Mishka. He finally released a new album this year, Above the Bones, which is solid but not as spectacular as his debut. I'm not sure anything would have been able to live up to the hype from waiting but regardless it's good to have him back.


3 comments:

Corbie said...

Let me get this straight? Country isn't a good fit for the beach playlist (ignoring, of course, Jimmy Buffett's 'Margaritaville', Blake Shelton's 'Some Beach', and anything by Kenny Chesney) but now you don't even go with country for the BBQ playlist? BBQ's are like church for cowboys!

I know you are a card-carrying member of the anti-country union but it's starting to really chap my chaps.

kg said...

And I need to go back to 'burn' school because the last two attempts at busting people's chops have failed miserably. Mocking Brohammas' spelling skills while mistyping 'off' and then joking about Corbie's redneckedness and typing 'mystical' instead of 'mythical' - if only I was married to a proofreader/documentation specialist...

brohammas said...

you are quite the Custanza.
Mishka is great. What Corbie probably meant to give you a hard time about was... AH, I promised to be nice. You thought I was going to mess that up didn't ya?

Corbie, just wait for confessionals. I have a newfound musical vice that will shake my very foundation.
(no, Bob is still the greatest so don't go there).