JAY MITCHELL - Love Streams

Jaye Mitchell. He is the reason I listen to this stuff. I first read of him in a blog called The Best of the Worst of Spotify. The author described his album "Love Streams" as "Possibly the worst thing I've ever heard." How can I let such a glowing review pass without checking it out? When I first heard it I understood why the Best of the Worst guy thought it was so terrible. But then I started thinking about late-70s post punk duo Suicide and I couldn't help but draw some connections, tenuous as they may have been. I think Jaye has a Lou Reed swagger to his voice at times. I'll probably get some grief for saying that but it's true. Not always, but enough times that I noticed. "Love Streams" is a catchy record that sticks in your head, whether you want it to or not (and most people would probably be in "or not" category). In his own unique way Jaye Mitchell has created something innovative and original. Something that sounds, for better or worse, like nothing else on the planet. Personally I think that's a great thing.

Words cannot describe the overwhelming glee I felt when I learned that Jaye Mitchell has a music video available. It's exactly what you'd expect from him. The only other bit of trivia I could glean from the Internet about Jaye is that he has authored 3 books, "The Kilo Connection", "Missing Angel" and "88 Ways to Die", all of which are available at Amazon.

File under: Mitchell, Jaye

RAJ SHANKAR - Sing Dance & Sweat (for Holiday Mood)

I think it's safe to assume that Raj is not Ravi Shankar's long lost son. He doesn't look like such a party animal in the photo on the CD cover, but this is one case where looks can deceive. But seriously, this is the kind of disc that, when I first listen to it, sounds like the work of someone who had some money to throw away and decided to cut some tracks, no matter that no talent is involved. But the more I hear it the more I'm certain that Shankar is a genius and the music really grows on me. I doubt there are many out there who would stand by me in this sentiment, but I am sincere. I know this: I'll take Raj Shankar over Skrillex any day.

File under: Shankar, Raj

FLAIRS - Sweat Symphony

A repetitive recitation of what the singer (and bassist, I suppose) of Flairs can do better than Prince. Prince who? Prince Harry? Prince Albert? Surely he doesn't mean Prince, as in Prince, as in The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, as in The Artist Once Again Letting Us Call Him Prince? Well, the dude's a halfway decent bass player but turns up lacking in every other boast.

You know the video itself isn't all that bad in a goofy way.

File under: Flairs

TOMMY G - MoneyStrong-Stay on that Cash Cow

As of 11:37 AM on Thursday, February 20, 2014 this is my favorite hip hop album. I'm dead serious. Kanye West? Jay-Z? Lil' Wayne? None of 'em sling fat stacks like T to the ommy Gizee. A veritable dictionary of Hip Hop hashtags, a few new entries for the Urban Dictionary and yet another creative sampling of Europe's "The Final Countdown". (Note - Actually it's a generous sample of Asia's "Only Time Will Tell"...don't know how I could have got the two songs mixed up)"I'm on it like old man Fred Flintstone." TOMMY!

File under: Tommy G

Catfish Gill

I've been afraid

Not of the truth

But of what it would do to you

I've wanted to slough the burden

Of which it weighs me down

Words have not been given

Me

That would shine a brighter light

Sufficient to reveal and yet

Dim enough so as not to blind

For it is not to you that I would send them

Neither do I expect you to listen to them

I would rather you didn't

But what comes around goes around

And I have lived vicariously through

You

For many, many years

Surely the truth will find it's way

It's own special way

I should embrace it, let it set me free

But I fear it

I fear death, too

There is something pushing against my back

Something heavy and forceful

The momentum of it's thrust

Finds a center in my chest

Where I can only imagine a heart rests

My secret room, my prayer closet

Storehouse for everything I've ever known

Wasteland of every forgotten thought and memory

Embryo of my spirit

Womb of my soul

The weight of all that follows me

Threatens to raze it all

All I ever was, pushed into nothing

I feel it strong, it doesn't stop

A vacant numbness envelopes my mind

Some kind of mental Novocaine

I see the beauty of the world

I hear the music of your voice

They crawl into open holes

And pass straight through, down the spiral

Until the spiral implodes

In upon itself

Disappearing, vanishing, out of this world

Unregistered by the attention span of a zombie

Still, there are moments of cognizance

That I would cherish fondly

If only memory would cooperate

I do not want to die

I want to disappear

I want to close my eyes and never have to open them again

I want to dissolve into nothing

I want to ride that spiral myself and find out

To where the visions travel

I want to float in an ocean of light

Millions of miles from land in any direction

I want to be able to give up everything

That makes me want to stay here

A list, by the way, which gets shorter by the year

I want to walk into the light

That condemns me on this side

I would give up heaven

To go back to the womb

To call this life a draw

Before I could get the chance to ruin so many lives

Then slice open that womb

And let the placenta drenched shell drop into a bucket

You'll never see me

The scalpel will never press cool surgical steel

Against anything I could be, would be

Into anything I am

And let my mother shed no tears

And grieve me not

I am where I always hoped to be

I am where I am

The light shows this heart of mine

That's where I want to be, too

And this may sound like something

But it's not

I will hold on to hope

Even as it dies to an ember

Invisible to the naked eye

I am a strong man

My soul has been beaten down

Many times

But I always pick it back up

Stuff it back in

Move on

Move on

Move on

And I know what love is

I just can't feel it

Which doesn't make it any less love

But it lives in a hollow place

Where it stings like a hornet

When touched

Like the poison of a catfish gill

That once slipped into the skin

Makes you never want to go fishing again

Love that can't be felt, is it worth living for?

Precious Lord, is it worth dying for?

These pills won't cure you

Hopefully they will keep the illness at bay

Bravo, pharmaceutical science

transition time

I never felt the tears
Hot, salty drops of joy or anguish
Rolling down your cheeks to meet
A smile so wide to bless the years to come
Or
A grimace of despair, all hope lost for a future
You wiped them away
Until all the only thing left was a stinging
Blush of red
That faded within moments

The only sounds I ever heard were muffled
A one-way communication through a thick wall
I didn't understand a single word
The sing-song inflections lost in translation
Barely disturbing the silence
I am content with
Darkness to float in, this is my world
Tethered not by gravity
But the love and nourishment provided
By Someone I will never know

My mind holds dreams
That are not my own
Visions I would just as soon
Not give up
Every name I have been given
By God and by Man
Is a lie
For my eyes are closed
I speak for an older soul
Unconcerned with a legacy

I have no need for air
I don't need your love
I don't want your compassion
At least, not now
Does it bring you sadness to think
I would ignore gifts you want to give me?
Does it break your heart to know
That I don't need anything?
Do you want so badly for me to want?
Do you want so badly for me to need?
I would never burden you
These things are for you

Go to sleep, mother
Find yourself in that space
Between sleep and dreams
Soon enough the dream will be over
Find me in that space
Between death and life
Soon enough the two will merge
And my dream will begin

You cannot kill me
I cannot die
I would be yours
But I would just as soon
Keep floating
Until the day you find yourself
In that space
Between death and life
Where we will merge
And our dreaming will have begun

I forgive you
Though you need no pardon,
If you need time to get there
I would only ask that you
Forgive yourself
You have done nothing wrong
Ignore the fools crying "foul"
The ones who never walked
From one side of the room to the other
In your shoes
They don't understand these things I tell you
They're blinded by reckless judgment and condemnation
I have no morals
I have no convictions
I have no beliefs
I have no thoughts
I cannot be murdered by the self-righteousness of men

But let our time together bring peace and enlightenment
Not guilt or shame
Let the tears shed for my memory
Be of joy
For I passed through unseen, unheard
Unknown by all
Except for you

In the Court of King Me

Got a message from my half
Mrs. Hypochondriac
Moody right, moody right
Tell your CC
Let everyone know
Beatnik shit, beatnik shit
Listen to that beaten sound
Keeps me running, keeps the engines hummin'
Listen to that beating sound
Tic Tac Tic Tac
Got a lookout for King Me
Watch your Q's and watch your P's
Dot your eyes and cross your tease
You're gonna see what you still won't believe
Birth your rumors of immortality
Pound them 'til I can't help but agree
But when the truth slays the light
Don't blame me
King Me King Me King Me King Me
I'm the King, I'm the King, I'm the King, I'm the King
Keep your filthy black stained hands off of my crown
Take up your own bleeding cross and ride it to town
I'm the King
Too good for my own good and don't give a fu ck
Hatching plans to freak out the Man
Got a meanness in me that I don't understand
A lie for a dollar, a life for a dime
There's a well, a deep, deep well I fell
Into once
Where in the tumbling I found
The true hidden meaning of falling down
The treasure at the bottom wasn't worth the minute
It took to get there
King Mad, King Mad, King Mad, King Mad
These songs for a King
King You and King Me
King Kong's a Ding Dong
Monkey Tales
Banana on a stick
Dipped in black chocolate
Rancid and arcane
Read in, read in
The main character wears a black tunic
His queen is the one with the brain
Better half, better half she tells him
It's best you stay quiet you'll give it away
You've done enough damage for one other day
What's done is done
Nothing but another bridge to burn
Another corner to turn
She says
You understand it less than I
And your understanding is void and dry
Quiet now, my loveless love
My misunderstood drug
My salt melted slug
Quiet now, before people believe
In the nonsense you write, the bullshit they read