Coldplay has been in heavy rotation here- its a strong album.

Dave Gahan "Paper Monsters"

Yeah, that's right, Mr. Sycamore. ;)

Buddy Guy Live at the Checkerboard Lounge 1979
followed by some of his old stuff, nasty.

Saw Buddy Guy live at the Bluesfest a coupla years ago, along with John Lee Hooker and Susan Tedeschi. I think Ray Charles was the headliner last year, but I didn't get to make it. Bummer...

Frank Zappa - Mike Douglas show appearance, November 1976, playing "Black Napkins."

Cake - Comfort Eagle This is so cool! Is it popular?

mm, you bastard! Is it any good?

Miles Davis + 19--Miles Ahead: Miles' first Columbia recording, done with a 19-piece orchestra. Good stuff.

I've created a couple of CDs while here at the Sycamore Palatial Estate: one with a hard edge (Adema, Korn, Static X), one on a mellower tip (Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, Thicke).

http://www.lasvegas-nv.com/vh1b.jpg

Alan Thicke?? I didn't know his music career was big. I guess he and Hasselhoff could tour Germany together this summer.

He's also a star hockey player.

Not Alan Thicke...his son Robin. Album just finally came out this month, I believe, called Cherry Blue Skies...he's on Babyface's new label. You may be familiar with his music in either the Sprite commercial that features him or the Gateway commercial where the guy's business partner gets him a laptop so he can work from home. Good stuff.

I likes cake. Is it the bass? that voice? or maybe that horn? D. all of the above.

(Shakes head of cobwebs) That Gateway ad says "Thicke" right on it in a caption. I was so intrigued by it that I looked up the website. Then I thought maybe it was really terrible to get interested in a band through 8 bars in a commercial, and I lost interest.

I didn't know it was a related Thicke -- that's really weird, because "Thicke" sorta rings as a band name, so that's what I assumed it was.

Martin L. Gore--Counterfeit2: His first solo effort in over a decade...another CD of covers, though this one is a full-length release. Not bad...particularly since I don't know the songs he is covering (he likes obscure stuff).

Dave Gahan--Paper Monsters: Thanks to matt for the hook-up. Not bad...the backing band could be better, and most of the album is too mellow. But at least Dave proves that he can write songs (something he has never done in his 23 years with Depeche Mode).

The biggest problem that both these CDs suffer from is that they sound too much like something DM would put out. I was hoping for a different direction from each of them, but that's just me.

Res--How I Do: Another Philadelphia artist making waves nationally. The best description I can come up with is to call her the black Sheryl Crow. Rho picked this up a few months ago...not bad.

You can see all the CDs I took on my recent road trip here, and I believe I listened to every single one of them.

No sense in starting a new thread on this, but I have to talk about MTV Icon: Metallica, which aired last night. Obviously, I was stoked, given that Metallica is one my favorite bands of all time. Yeah, it's MTV and all, but overall, it was a pretty decent show. Anyone else watch it?

Some highlights:

The funniest performance of the night: Snoop Dogg singing "Sad But True." Yes...he sang it.

Best performance of the night: Limp Bizkit performing "(Welcome Home) Sanitarium." Korn also did a decent cover of "One."

I believe the last song Metallica performed was the upcoming single from their new album, St. Anger, which comes out June 10th. If it is anything indicative of the album as a whole, it is going to rock the fuck out, and will be the album of the year.

Recently, Ozzy and Metallica traded bassists, with Robert Trujillo (formerly of Suicidal Tendencies/Infectious Grooves) joining Metallica, and Jason Newsted (who left Metallica 2 years ago) joining Ozzy's band to replace Trujillo. Man, Trujillo is a fucking beast...we kinda look alike. And he just wails away on the bass, looking like he is in pain and shit. Crazy...you have to see the performance to see what I'm talking about.

I'm sure it'll be on repeat on MTV 9 million times, so if you get a chance, check it out.