It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Good Die Young"
Picture the dirtiest dive bar you know. Stale cigarette smoke loiters
in the air. Hockey or basketball plays on a TV over the bar, which has
signs everywhere advertising cheap beer specials. The bartenders always
look tired, their skin leathery, their fashion dated.
Usually, the dive bar has karaoke. But tonight, there's a band playing --
an out-of-town band from L.A. While there's a certain excitement that
a band from the big city is here, everyone knows that nobody with real
talent plays at
In honor of Morrissey's return to St. Louis tonight (review and photos tomorrow), please enjoy the 7 Shot Screamers' take on the Smiths' "Rusholme Ruffians." Vocalist Mike Leahy is an avowed Moz fan, and it's impressive how his vocals honor the man on track. This MP3 can be found on a new album called American Psychobilly Archive, Volume One, which the Seattle label Analog Arkives released. Buy it here!MP3: 7 Shot Screamers, "Rusholme Ruffians"
(This review is a co-write by me, Annie Zaleski, and my evangelical-Moz pal Kami, who is in town from New York for this show. Her qualifications include the lyrics "Trouble loves me/Trouble needs me" tattooed on her ankles and the fact that this is her fourth show of Morrissey's 2008 spring tour she's attended, among other things. All photos by Todd Owyoung.)
SLIDESHOW
Me: Morrissey's 2007 birthday show at the Pageant was amazing - but it was also unfortunate, because it set the bar really
Unreal gets liquored up and starts demanding tasteless jokes. And in unrelated news, we talk teen sex with a Seattle sexologist and check out the locker room at the new Busch.
