THE
BEST OF JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #503!
Presented for your approval, in semi-strict order so as not to show any undue payola favoritism, is Jeffrey Morgan’s
2015 Top Ten List Of Records as they appear on my official ballot for this year’s Village Voice rock critics
poll, which I’ve been voting in annually ever since Robert Christgau was kind enough to give me the nod five decades
ago. In other words, and I’ve got a million of ’em, these are my Sizzling Platters Of The Year, all of which deserve
repeated spins on your Victrola.
01 :: Wendy James
– The Price Of The Ticket (Pledge Music) :: The greatest supersonic offering yet by America’s all-time
greatest femme fatale—and I do mean female!
02 :: Sarah
Jane Morris – Bloody Rain (Fallen Angel Records) :: The greatest supersonic offering yet by England’s
all-time greatest femme fatale—and I do mean fatal!
03
:: Room Full Of Strangers – Bad Vacation (self released) :: Perfectly primed
with enough percolating primo punk attitude to do you through, Room Full Of Strangers crank out the kind of dirty distorto
rock ’n’ roll that Mother used to hate—and on their new album Bad Vacation they effortlessly exude
enough verve and swerve to conjure up fond fun-filled fuzztone memories of Blue Cheer and The Amboy Dukes, all garnished with
a snappy snooty side order of two tub Dictators via the sardonic Boy Howdy! satire of CREEM: America’s Only Rock ’n’
Roll Magazine!
04 :: Marco Minnemann – Celebration
(Lazy Bones Recordings) :: Most regular readers of this column know who this dizbusting whizz kid is but I’ll reiterate
for ya: Marco Minnemann plays the drums like Jeff Beck plays the guitar, which pretty much tells you all you need to know
about this unreasonably hypersonic session that sounds like a kinetic cross between Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa performing
their most visionary and volatile audio pyrotechnics!
05 :: The
24th Street Wailers – Where Evil Grows (LBM Records) :: Four on the floor supercharged rock ’n’
roll fused with the power of the blues!
06 :: Leslie
West – Soundcheck (Provogue Records) :: Leslie West? Enough said!
07 :: Left Lane Cruiser – Dirty Spliff Blues (Alive Records) :: Don’t Bogart
that track, my friend, spin it over to me!
08 :: Gregg
Allman – Alive: Back To Macon, GA – January 14, 2014 (Rounder Records) :: Gregg Allman? More
than enough said!
09 :: Retrocity – Mixtape
(self released) :: If you missed their first album Totally 80s A Cappella back in 2006—or, for that matter,
if you missed the entire decade known as the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Eighties—now’s your chance to catch up
on both!
10 :: Various Artists – 24
Classic Blues Songs From The 1920s Volume 12 (Blues Images) :: For over a decade I’ve been bending your ear about
John Tefteller’s annual Blues Images calendars, each one of which is accompanied by a long player of vintage historical
78 rpm tracks. Well, consider this a friendly reminder that it’s high time you went to BluesImages.com and found out
for yourself why the 2015 edition made this Top Ten list. Better yet, go there now and start the new year right by buying
their 2016 wall calendar and getting a head start on hearing why the accompanying Volume 13 disc is bound to be glorified
on next year’s Top Ten list!
Be seeing you!
