Well, not strictly true as after the first listen to the disc I transfered it to a HD, that aside the album has been playing over and over from the moment it arrived in the post.

Why? Well that’s simple it’s damn good stuff, yeah I know I’m slightly biased but following on from “Air Show” & “Rodeo” of the Steel Guitar variety “Heart Attack” is another masterpiece from Jon Rauhouse.

Of course it’s not just steel guitar, there’s Hawaiin guitar, banjo, normal guitars as well as drums from the man himself, along with all the guitar work from Tommy Connell and everything from…well the usual suspects on a Rauhouse record, the guys from Calexico Joey Burns & John Convertino, Jacob Valenzuela, Will Lovell, Bill Herzog etc.

Included in that are the great female vocalists you associate with Jon, Sally Timms, Neko Case & Kelly Hogan with the addition this time round of Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard. Some male vocalists did come as a shock mind, didn’t expect to see Mr. Don (Windham) down as part of the “Idaho Choir”

Through the mix of great standards such as “I’ll Be Seeing You“, “Begin The Beguine” & “Big Iron” to classic TV tunes, Lalo Schifrin’s “Mannix” theme and the Andy Griffith Show “The Fishin’ Pole” to Jon’s own compositions – my fav is still “the Ballad Of The Black Chihuahua” (MP3 download – right click and save) it’s another cracking album from Orchid Fingers, that thanks to those doctors and medical intitutes it’s dedicated to we get to hear.

Out on March 13th, pre-order your copy now.

On the recomendation of Rutty I installed MediaMonkey to manage my music. Only added a few discs so far (Stooges, Ramones, New York Dolls & The Stranglers) to my collection of – legit – downloads.

So far the only band to be played and listed at my last.fm page is Calexico. Don’t think I’ll get down to see any of the 3 dates on the UK leg of their current tour (April 21st Academy Manchester, April 22nd Academy Bristol & April 23rd Forum London) so I’m giving a couple of their live show downloads a hammering.

Live at China Theater from 2003 and live at The Backyard from 2005 both available from Archive.org. Must get round to downloading the other 2 shows at some point, but those flacs take some time.

And as said hooked up to last.fm so expect to see a “Recent Tunes” box added to the sidebar with the upgrade to the site’s design, thanks to a nice plugin.

Around this time last year I posted about the average punter buying only 3 CDs a year, wondering whose quota I was taking up having bought about that much per month.

But so far in 2006 I ain’t bought a single one, absolutely zip.

Of course it’s not like I haven’t got stuff to listen to, which has mainly been The Stooges – Raw Power, Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum, Calexico – The Black Light & Masters Of Reality – Sunrise On The Sufferbus of late.

You can’t beat listening to Ginge complain about

the inability of Yanks to make a good cup of tea- Ginger Baker

And have I just heard “Spanish Fly” on Football Focus

Nah not the crushed beetles that causes irritation but the classic Eddie Van Halen acoustic solo from the album “Van Halen II”.

Well it beats watching the Chelsea goals fly in over the last 16 years of not being able to beat them at the Bridge

Yup got six spaces in the CD changer and these are those in it, (listed left pictured right), nice mix of soul, real punk, rock and blues…

• Otis Redding – Otis Blue (Otis Redding Sings Soul)
• Iggy and the Stooges – Raw Power
• New York Dolls – Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Queens Of The Stone Age – Lullabies To Paralyze
• Calexico – Hot Rail
• Rory Gallagher – Irish Tour

Finally got round to getting Iggy’s remix of “Raw Power”, previous version of course just highlights what a useless twat Bowie is.

Gotta have some Rory Gallagher in there to mark 10 years since his passing and it doesn’t get better than Rory playing live. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Channel 4′s tribute program to Rory, yes it was dumped in the late slot and not really promoted but I was expecting the usual crap they do in this situation – start playing a track then get a bunch of nobody talkingheads talk all over it pontificating about how much Rory meant to them. Shockingly it wasn’t, bit of chatter for a few minutes at the begining that didn’t raise my hopes, then they showed some good live footage from the Irish Tour of ’74 and the Cork show from 1990 without any banal chit-chat.

Only down sides it being only 1 hour (minus ad breaks) long and my tape crapping out.

Well nobody bidded on Jimi Hendrix’s Strat I posted about, been taken off eBay but still for sale at Maverick Music a snip at $750,000

You could always try and get Alvin Stardust’s first acoustic guitar which is only £600,000 but then it’s signed by some of the greats, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Bill Haley, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochrane, Billy Fury and Marty Wilde.

So Queen are now the most successful album chart band in the UK, finally overtaking The Beatles according to the Guinness Book OF World Records.

1. Queen (1,322 weeks)
2. The Beatles (1,293 weeks)
3. Elvis Presley (1,280 weeks)
4. U2 (1,150 weeks)
5. Dire Straits (1,136 weeks)
6. Simon and Garfunkel (1,114 weeks)
7. Madonna (1,032 weeks)
8. David Bowie (1,005 weeks)
9. Elton John (989 weeks)
10. Michael Jackson (966 weeks)

But they only ranked 50th in the updated RIAA list of album sales in the US. Christ there ain’t have some crap in this list…

1. Beatles 168.5 Million
2. Elvis Presley 116.5
3. Led Zeppelin 107.5
4. Garth Brooks 105.0
5. Eagles 89.0
6. Billy Joel 78.5
7. Pink Floyd 73.5
8. Barbra Streisand 70.5
9. Elton John 69.0
10. AC/DC 66.0
11. Aerosmith 65.5
12. The Rolling Stones 64.5
13. Bruce Springsteen 61.5
14. Madonna 60.0
15. Strait, George 60.0
16. Jackson, Michael 59.5
17. Carey, Mariah 57.5
18. Metallica 57.0
19. Van Halen 56.5
20. Houston, Whitney 54.0
21. U2 50.5
22. Rogers, Kenny 50.0
23. Fleetwood Mac 48.5
24. Kenny G 48.0
25. Diamond, Neil 47.5
26. Dion, Celine 47.0
27. Twain, Shania 47.0
28. Alabama 46.0
29. Santana 42.0
30. Journey 41.0
31. Jackson, Alan 39.5
32. Clapton, Eric 39.0
33. Prince 39.0
34. Simon & Garfunkel 38.5
35. Seger, Bob And The Silver Bullet Band 38.0
36. Chicago 38.0
37. Mc Entire, Reba 36.5
38. Guns ‘N Roses 36.5
39. 2 Pac 36.5
40. Foreigner 36.5
41. Backstreet Boys 36.0
42. Dylan, Bob 35.0
43. Stewart, Rod 34.5
44. Nelson, Willie 34.0
45. Def Leppard 33.0
46. Collins, Phil 33.0
47. Denver, John 32.5
48. Taylor, James 32.0
49. Bon Jovi 32.0
50. Queen 31.5
51. Spears, Britney 31.0
52. Kelly, R. 31.0
53. Boston 31.0
54. Ronstadt, Linda 30.0
55. Doors, The 30.0
56. Matthews, Dave Band 29.5
57. Pearl Jam 29.0
58. Dixie Chicks 28.5
59. Osbourne, Ozzy 28.3
60. ‘N Sync 28.0
61. Petty, Tom & The Heartbreakers 28.0
62. Bolton, Michael 28.0
63. Mellencamp, John 27.5
64. Mannheim Steamroller 27.0
65. Boyz II Men 27.0
66. Mc Graw, Tim 26.0
67. Lynyrd Skynyrd 26.0
68. Bee Gees 26.0
69. Sinatra, Frank 25.5
70. Jackson, Janet 25.0
71. Eminem 25.0
72. Nirvana 25.0
73. ZZ Top 25.0
74. Rush 24.5
75. Manilow, Barry 24.5
76. Carpenters, The 24.5
77. Miller, Steve Band 24.0
78. Creed 24.0
79. Brooks & Dunn 24.0
80. Vandross, Luther 23.5
81. Cars, The 23.5
82. Earth, Wind & Fire 23.5
83. Hill, Faith 23.0
84. Motley Crue 22.5
85. Gill, Vince 22.5
86. Sade 22.5
87. Enya 22.0
88. Creedence Clearwater Revival 22.0
89. Tlc 22.0
90. Doobie Brothers 22.0
91. Beastie Boys 22.0
92. Police, The 22.0
93. R.E.O. Speedwagon 21.5
94. Buffett, Jimmy 21.5
95. Genesis 21.5
96. Jay-Z 21.0
97. Richie, Lionel 21.0
98. Beach Boys, The 20.5
99. Meat Loaf 20.5
100. Morissette, Alanis 20.5

Otis Redding – Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul
Yes I know I should have had this soul classic already but it’s another case of not wanting to fork out full whack for an album older than myself. Though of course I knew all the tracks, from Redding’s compositions, “Ole Man Trouble”, “Respect” and the legendary “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” to his reworkings of soul classics, Sam Cooke’s – “A Change Is Gonna Come” & “Wonderful World”, B.B. Kings blues track “Rock Me Baby” and some British Invasion R&B with the Stones’ “Satisfaction”.
Backed by the legendary Stax house musicians Booker T & The MGs (is there a more soulful underrated guitarist than Steve Cropper), Issac Hayes & The Memphis Horns, this is a must have.

Calexico – Feast Of Wire
How to describe Calexico & this album, well it’s something I’ve tried and completely failed to do they/it have to be heard to be understood. Alt.Country, Americana, Mariachi Rock, American-Latin-Jazz-Rock you can’t pigeon hole these guys with a label except if it’s the word good. The fact that no 2 of the 16 tracks on this album really sound the same doesn’t help it’s description but does help the enjoyment of listening.
Casa De Calexico – Their official site has some good live track MP3 downloads.

Both of these were £5 from The Hut (postage free), my kind of price :D.

Queens Of The Stone Age – Lullabies To Paralyze
…has been playing non-stop since it’s arrival and it’s a cracking album, yup it maybe takes a few listens to get into, not as immediate as “Songs For The Deaf”, but well worth the effort.

“This Lullaby” is nice haunting opening, perfectly fitting Mark Lanegan, sadly his only lead vocal on the disc (but we have lasy years excellent Bubblegum to make up for that). From there it kicks off into that breakneck speed choppy guitar style of Josh Homme. Excpet for “Everone Knows You Are Insane” which starts off very much like Alice In Chains, slide guitar sounding like Jerry Cantrell and vocals not far off Layne Staley & “The Blood Is Love” has a real AiC sound to it. Billy Gibbons adds some top notch blues riffs to “Burn The Witch”.

It may have been different with Oliveri onboard & more from Lanegan, might even have been better who knows it’s still a damn fine album as it is and gonna be better than most releases this year that’s for sure.