Bloggerhythms

Los Lobos has always been one of the best bands of the post-classic rock era and they are one of my personal all time favorite bands from any era. The consistency of their work over their twenty-four year recording career has been astounding and their latest, The Town And The City , is another critically acclaimed batch of songs. Some reviewers even rank it alongside their universally agreed upon masterwork, Kiko . However, despite its seriousness and worthy subject matter I find The Town And The City to be one of the band's more disappointing efforts. While I like this disc, I don't grant it the exalted status that almost everyone else who writes about music has assigned to it. The thirteen songs form a loosely based concept album about the Mexican-American experience including the travails of the ultra-controversial illegal Mexicans that are becoming more and more a part of American society. You can guess that the band is sympathetic towards their brethren but that isn'...

The Shins newest CD Wincing The Night Away, debuted nationally at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release in January. The album is The Shins first new music since two of their songs appeared in the movie Garden State in 2004 and made them stars. After that unusual boost you would have thought the band would have struck while the iron is hot but instead leader James Mercer and company waited three years to release the band's third CD. It was worth the wait. Paste Magazine , who featured the band on the cover of its latest issue, suggested that The Shins are really nothing more than a vehicle for Mercer's songs. He is the lead singer, composer, and guitarist but the quartet has been happily playing together since before the release of their first CD Oh, Inverted World in 2001 and they function as a well-oiled, cohesive unit. Mercer likes the idea of having a band instead of being just a singer-songwriter. I agree that the format suits him well. What a pleasure it i...