LAist CD Reviews: Jeff Beck Sells Out; Also: Stooges, Black Flag, Old Man Mose

Wretches like us like to pretend that our hearing can still differentiate between downloaded MP3s & a CD burntripped to the hard drive. So the CD Mailbag seems aimed directly at us.

The original (By Mr. David. Only his hairdresser knows for sure.) mix of Raw Power is available again. Never had a problem w/ Mr. David's mix ourself. Could've been different, but it worked, didn't it? Close enough for rock & roll.

Iggy And The Stooges - Raw Power: Legacy Edition (2 CD) and Deluxe Edition (3 CD, DVD and 7-inch single) - Sony Legacy Editions - April 13 (Legacy) / April 27 (Deluxe)

Probably sold out (our moral compass won't allow shelling out over maybe $35.00 max. for live music anyway) but Jeff Beck performs at the Nokia Theater on Saturday, April 17 with special guest Zappa Plays Zappa. Tickets at Ticketmaster, (in support of this: Jeff Beck - Emotion and Commotion - Rhino Records - April 13) would be worth effort, maybe. Though,

Beck’s pulled a Wes Montgomery: hired an orchestra and a couple of dynamite female singers, started covering familiar songs, and produced what might be the most accessible record he’s ever made. Finally, here’s a Jeff Beck album for people who enjoy good guitar playing without acrobatics, with the emphasis on melody, tone and coloration rather than fast finger picking. The orchestral pieces are suitably grandiose, Beck playing the melodies of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” like the featured soloist at Carnegie Hall.

Pulled more of a Rod Stewart (whom we saw rasping w/ J.B. in 1969 at Seattle's Eagles' Auditorium) we'd say. Maybe not.

This we'd like to hear:

 Keith Morris declines to do a Flag song at all, instead honky-tonking his way through Jimmie Rodgers’ “In The Jailhouse Now” with a band that includes SST vets Mike Watt and Joe Baiza.
Various Artists - Gimme Gimme Gimme: Reinterpreting Black Flag - The Secret Life Of Records - April 20

Good song. Mr. Morris is a decent human being & has a sense of humor, unlike some other former B.F. vocalists, & apparently taste as good as ours.

Oh, bugger: (Available on Itunes April 20.) iTunes?

Isn't the point of CD reviews old person's music, presented in a way that old people (including those who run what's left of the recording cos.) get. Just one of the recordings reviewed is by a new act. For example:

Eternally hip at a ripe old eighty-one, Mose Allison returns to the studio for the first time in over a decade and finds himself with a good amount left to say.
Mose Allison - The Way Of The World - Anti-Records - Available Now

Also in the old folks at their pianos vein: A Tom Lehrer collection.