I downloaded The Raconteurs' debut single, "Steady As She Goes." It's a cool song, and I couldn't figure out at first why I found it so striking. Then I realized, hey, that's an actual bass behind Jack White's vocals. I think it sounds great. My guess is that, since this is a side project, Jack isn't bringing his A material, but his B material is still damn good. And of course I am hometown proud that the Cincinnatians from the Greenhornes are in this band. I think they must now join Bootsy Collins atop the list of coolest Cincinnatians. (I am on a different list, along with Sarah Jessica Parker, of most glamorous former Cincinnatians.)
Also, inspired by the praise heaped upon them by the narrator of King Dork (check out the Chi-Mo playlist here),
I downloaded a few songs by Sweet, or possibly The Sweet. "ACDC" is brilliant, and the intro to "Ballroom Blitz" is just so incongruous in such a rockin' tune. It's got the whole Alvin and the Chipmunks "are you ready fellas?" thing. Weird. And what is a ballroom blitz anyway? Is it good or bad if the man in the back says everyone attack and it turns into a ballroom blitz? I mean, it sounds menacing--everybody stops breathing at one point--but could anything so rockin' possibly be bad?
And whoa Nelly did the folks who wrote the Rocky Horror songs rip off Sweet in an almost criminal fashion. It's too bad, because, coming late to the Sweet party, I listen to the songs and half expect to get hit with toast or have some drunken guy in fishnet hose yell "Where's your neck?!!" from a few rows behind me.
