tracks

Meet Me in the Middle
Something's Got to Give
Who I Gotta Be
World Class Bullies
Cup Half Full
Don't Shine Me On
Three Bar Blues
DNA
Kick Back Relax
Hoodrat
Why Don't You Call?
Goodbye Elvis
Half a Mind
What Tomorrow Brings
Finger Lickin'
Living to Dream
Don't Kill the Messenger
One More Day Forever

notes

Like most people of a certain age, I grew up on FM radio. From the time I was able to tune in a rock and roll station I was listening to the standards of the 60's. They were not exactly the songs of my generation but rather those of my older siblings, but none the less these tunes were firmly cemented into my head as a foundation. The Beatles, the Stones, Beach Boys, Zeppelin , Clapton. The ear worms of an epoch. FM stations played them non stop until the unceasing march of time declared them actually "oldies". I went to college and began a questionable affair with new wave and punk but constantly was drawn to the now gracefully decaying songs that I had first heard in my rec room as a kid, coming from my brother's room. When no one was a round, in my car say, I would covertly turn up the radio on classic songs that would have made my mohawked friends cringe. Lets be honest: we have all heard that stuff too many times. It's like a popsicle being preserved at the smithsonian, easy to love for an afternoon but it is not necessarily an heirloom. What was fun about Robot Raven to me was that fact that it unabashedly echo the sound and harmonies of many of those songs. While not always reaching the heights, it does give comfort to those of us missing the novelty of that popsicle whose flavor we have tired of, from repeated licks. In Robot Raven I heard bits of the Byrds, some proto-psychadelia, British blues rockers of the 70's and beyond. Robot Raven was actually pretty good. Some cuts were really fun (Don’t Shine Me On, DNA, What Tomorrow Brings) and frankly some made me jump for the the fast forward, but what album hasn't had that effect on us. It wasn't exactly the real thing but it was comforting to hear something new that proved the original enjoyment of many years ago wasn't misspent. An injection of calming sedative to make the impending death of the music we once loved more palatable. Pallative Rock? "Greatest Hits" might be an ironic title but then again they did seem to study such things carefully. Good show lads.

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