Most underrated Albums (in my opinion) Part 1

These Albums, flat out, should have gotten more attention than they did. Not just that I like them, but ones I believe could have been bigger if people heard it. There are others, but these are the most. In no order.


Chisel "Set You Free"
Ted Leo's riding pretty high these days, and deservedly so, but this record from his old band was absolutely ignored on it's release in '97. It was their last record, and it sounds like it. The theme seems to be heavy on the confusion of not knowing what to do or knowing where you belong. From the first song, "On Warmer Music"(with it's chilling foreshadowing"Get ready for the invasion/self satisfied smug rock nation" lyric) to the last, "The Last Good Time" the message seems to be, "What the fuck am I going to do now!" For Ted it was almost sign to a major label, break up the band instead and then become indie-rock royalty. Good for him. I modeled my cd "this is my pop", after this one.





MC5 "High Time"
Another final album. "Kick Out The Jams" is a lot more popular, but this is really where the Five hit their stride. Louder than "Back in The U.S.A", less chaotic than "Kick out...", "High Time" is what I thought the MC5 would sound like before I had heard them. The songs are almost across the board a minute too long and some of the lyrics are terrible, but it consistantly hits you where good rock and roll is suppost to. The band split up songwriting duties and Fred Smith shines brightest with the anti war "Over and Over" and the still astonishing "Skunk (sonically speaking)".






Jurassic 5 "Power in Numbers"
Often refered to as "Backpack" hop-hop, either because their bling-free are because they have a lot of fans in the Bonnaroo crowd. No matter, the amazing beats and verbal acrobatics have had wide appeal amungst the people I've played this for. All of J5 MCs are excellent, but the show stealer is the self described "verbal Herman Munster" Chali 2na. If you've heard them, even once, you know who I'm talking about. I pass over a lot of my all-time favorite artists on my i-pod shuffle, but when something from this album comes up, I'm always in the mood to hear it.










More later....

I'm on the Super Ninja Squad!

I'm writing and doing voices for the "Super Ninja Squad Show." We're overdubbing and adding "sound effects" to cheesy kung-fu movies to give it some funny comedic hilarity. It's pretty low budget, but it looks like it's going to a lot of fun and my middle name is "lot of fun". Also, I may an in-store show soon. Give you updates when I got 'em.

Signed Your Pal,
Pete lot of fun Wright

Back in the U.S.A. or my last Canada list.

Canadian things I love:
1. Poutine- I don't know if you're familiar with this delicacy: French fries topped with Gravy and Cheese curds. I don't expect anyone to share my excitement, since I've lost a lot of people to just Gravy Fries. You can get it topped with just about everything short of a marachino cherry, but plain Poutine is fantastic enough.
2. Tim Horton's- Kind of a high post Dunkin Donuts, with better coffee.
3. Posted alcohol levels on beer- You can by the same beer in different strengths, with the label having increasingly wild looking animals on the labels, with one 10%er going with the name "THE POWER!"
4. "The Simpsons" in French. I'm not losing the plot, since I've seen everyone a dozen times. But the accuracy of the voices is something else.
5. How nice everyone is- Most everyone speaks English, and the people who don't feel bad that they can't. I always say, if you can forgive me mangling your language, the least I can do is forgive your mangling of English.

In Quebec, it's the little differences...

1. No "royale avec frommage" at McDonalds it's just a quarter pounder in french,livre de quart.
2. They(english speaking Canadians)pronounce words like "Mazda" and "Pasta" like they were Brad Pitt's character in Snatch
3. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are available on broadcast TV, so I can get my much-needed dose of sardonic American humor.
4. Staples is called Bureau de grau.

6. Being the proud vulgarian that I am, I love that they say "Shit", "goddamn", and "blowjob" all the time on TV
7. There is a softcore TV show called "la maison de plaisir" that has female full frontal and male butt shots. Somehow Canada has not fallen into a moral vacuum , Hm.
8. There are musicians that are HUGE in Canada that I've never heard of. Jann Arden, anyone?
I'll be back in America on Saturday.

From Canada, with like.

For all the joking we do in the U.S. about Canada being laid back and bland, they do just as much joshing about it themselves. The canadian version of "Law and Order", called "Davinci's Inquest" is significantly less hard hitting. Stewart Margolin(who played Angel on the 'Rockford files") played a guy who stole the body of a guy who cheated him out of his life savings.
Stewart:"Well, they can't disperse his estate without his body, can they"
Davinci(the coroner):"They can actually"
Stewant:"I don't think so"
Davinci:"I know so, please just tell me where the body is."
Riveting stuff.
After cornering a tranny prostitute who had just admitted acidentally killing the person found dead at the beginning of the show, in self defense:
Tranny:"I'm sorry, am I in trouble now?"
Police:"No, just give a statement at the station."
Bonk,Bonk! Where's Sam Waterston when you need him?

Oh,well....

Went up to NYC for the World Series of pop culture,but our team didn't collectively pass our test. I'd like to say more, but I did have to sign a confidentiality agreement. That aspect of the story is far and away the most interesting part of the story, trust me. But I did spend sometime in one of the greatest cities in the world.
I figured out the "magic" of New York, it's a lot like taking ecstasy, It's easy to get caught up in the overwelming intoxication of it,hoping it never ends.But then you get a bit of distance from it and you come to your senses, realizing it's at best a once and a while thing.
For all it's redonkulous bullshit, DC is pretty great.