James Montgomery of MTV News posted his annual mid-year best of the albums that have been released so far this year. He has a pretty good list with a top ten and some honorable mentions.

A couple of the choices in his top ten include:

• Lily Allen, It’s Not Me, It’s You
• Wilco, Wilco (The Album)
• Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted

Some of his honorable mentions include:

You can listen to the review on the latest episode of the Rock and Roll Geek Show in the player below. Read the review after the break.

Here is my review condensed down for this blog.

I played it about 5 times and unlike their last record “Rockford” which I loved at first listen, this one is kind of a grower. One thing interesting thing to note is the amount of songs Robin Zander wrote.

1. SLEEP FOREVER (1:37)
NIELSEN, ZANDER, PETERSSON, & CARLOS
This track is a memorial piece dedicated to the band’s old chum and merchandise overlord John Candas. Beautiful but way too short with huge pipes from Robin Zander

2. WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE OUT (3:26)
HOLDER & LEA
This is a recording left over from the 70s of a Slade song. They wanted to re record it but producer Julian Raymond insisted they use the original recording. Classic sounding CT and I love this one. Note the ‘Elo Kiddies’ riff.

3. MISS TOMORROW (4:11)
ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, CARLOS, STEWART, & RAYMOND
Written by Robin and Dave Stewart in the 90s but was omitted from Robin’s solo album. I could do without the vocoder sounding instrument at the beginning but the chorus is nice and Robin’s vocals are great.

4. SICK MAN OF EUROPE (2:08)
RAYMOND, ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, & CARLOS
Probably the closest thing to garage rock CT has done. The title comes from the name of an early incarnation of Cheap Trick with a different singer I love the fuzzed out bass from one of the most underrated bass players in rock, Tom Peterson.

5. THESE DAYS (2:44)
RAYMOND, ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, & CARLOS
I love the melody throughout this song. I could do without the lovey dovey lyrics but other than that, this is one of my favorite songs on the record.

6. MIRACLE (3:47)
ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, CARLOS, MARVIN, & RAYMOND
Another Robin Zander penned song. I love the Ahh Ahh vocal intro. Then it goes into a total John Lennon ‘Mind Games’ lift. To me this is a bit of cheating but since Rick and Robin both appeared on his last album and the fact that I love Cheap Trick, I forgive them.

7. EVERYDAY YOU MAKE ME CRAZY (1:17)
NIELSEN, ZANDER, PETERSSON, & CARLOS
Originally recorded as a Pepsi commercial but I don’t think it was ever released. This is reworked a bit with different lyrics. I love this one but I wish it had another verse or 2. CLASSIC CHEAP TRICK song though.

8. CALIFORNIA GIRL (2:47)
ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, CARLOS, CAMPBELL, & RAYMOND
Decent enough song but a little to bar bandy for my tastes. Sounds like Cheap Trick covering the Beatles covering Little Richard.

9. EVERYBODY KNOWS (4:16)
ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, CARLOS, & LEONARD
Another Robin Zander song. More John Lennon lifting but I like the song ok. It sounds like something that would have fit well on Robin’s solo record or one of the mediocre CT records from the 80s. I would probably fast forward through this one. Kudos for the reference to Next Position Please in the 2nd verse.

10. ALIVE (3:36)
NIELSEN, ZANDER, PETERSSON, CARLOS, & RAYMOND
One of my favorite songs on the record. It would have fit well on ROCKFORD. Written by Rick Nielson and is a Classic Cheap Trick sounding tune. Great guitars on this one and great melodies too.

11. TIMES OF OUR LIVES (3:59)
PETERSSON, ZANDER, NIELSEN, & CARLOS
Tom Peterson’s songs always to seem like this one. Kind of Dreamy. Nice tune though not one of my favorites.

12. CLOSER, THE BALLAD OF BURT AND LINDA (3:00)
RAYMOND, ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, & CARLOS
At first listen this reminded me very much of Oasis then I realized that Oasis ripped off the Beatles. It still reminds me of Oasis. But Robin Zander sounds great on this. Rick does a nice wah guitar lick after the chorus.

13. SMILE (4:12)
ZANDER, PETERSSON, NIELSEN, & CARLOS
The album closes with a ballad but I really like this song a lot. Robin’s voice is brilliant on this track! This is one of my favorites on the record and I could listen to this song over and over. I’m a sucker for a sappy pop melody.

Album Liner notes:

Julian Raymond – Arrangements
Roger Joseph Manning Jr – Keyboards
Bon Harris – Programming
George Doering – Acoustic Guitar
Luis Conte – Percussion
Additional Musicians: Gannin Arnold, Justin Berger-Davis, Zoe Berger-Davis, Jacob Brawer,
Crestview Kids Choir, Mike Dimkish, Linus Dotson, Jason Falkner, Noah Herdon, Wayne Kramer,
Sydney Perkins, Westy Perkins, Ava Raymond, Julian Raymond, Max Raymond, Eric Skodis, Todd
Youth, & Robin Taylor Zander
Orchestration Arranged And Conducted By Bennett Salvay
Produced By Cheap Trick, Julian Raymond & Howard Willing For The Record Company, Inc.,
Engineered By Howard Willing, Mixed By Chris Lord-Alge At Resonate, Assisted By Nik Karpen
And Keith Armstrong
Recorded At The Record Company Studios Assisted By Rafael Serrano
Additional Recording At Henson Recording Studios Assisted By Kevin Mills & Tom Syrowski And At
Panda Studios Assisted By George Harris
Mastered By: Brian “Big Bass” Gardner At Bernie Grundman Mastering

Long time fans of Mike Watt know him as an uber road dog. Often performing more shows in a tour than there are days. On this latest tour he took it easy and only did 32 shows in 37 days. 3 of those days off were spend recording his upcoming album to be released later this year.
With all that stage time you’d figure Watt and his Missingmen would have displayed serious signs of wear and tear by the time they reached Portland (show #29 for those keeping count), but you’d be wrong. This night the band was on fire. Blazing through their 45 minute set. Songs began before the last note of  the previous song had a chance to fade.
Fans of Watt’s solo releases might have been taken aback, by the absence of any of his spacey / jammy tunes. In fact, other than “Big Bang Theory” (an outtake from “Ball Hog or Tug Boat”) and a handful of Minutemen gems, the set was all covers. It makes one wonder what this upcoming album has in store for us fans.
Recently, Watt was quoted as saying that the Missingmen are the closest he has come to playing with his original band the Minutemen. Drummer Raul Morales & guitarist Tom Watson, do a great job following the trail started by Boon & Hurley, but they add layers to the sound that is unique and all their own. When they rip through Roky Erickson’s “Sweet Honey Pie” or ride the groove of “Funhouse”, you realize that they aren’t just playing supporting roles in the Mike Watt show. They are lead actors. Rather than just play the notes as heard from the original artists, they deconstruct the songs to their core and rebuild them into new images. However, always mindful that the song is the priority and stretching out to jam only to fill in the pockets where needed. no noodling in this tasty dish.
The three also appear to have bonded in a playfulness that I don’t recall having seen on any of Watt’s past solo outings. Like Watson and Watt doing synchronized pirouettes while playing “Black Sheep”. It’s easy to assume that at 51 Watt is having the time of his life on stage.

Setlist (w/ Youtube clips from this show)
1. Surfin’ with the Shah (The Urinals)
2. She Don’t Know Why I’m Here (The Last)
3. Sweet Honey Pie (Roky Erickson) video
4. Big Bang Theory video
5. Forever… One Reporter’s Opinion (Minutemen)
6. Conspirator’s Oath (The Red Crayola)
7. Amnesty Report (The Pop Group)
8. Toadies (Minutemen) video
9. Black Sheep (Minutemen) video
10. The Glory of Man (Minutemen)
11. Anxious Mo-Fo (Minutemen)
12. Three Girl Rhumba (Wire)
13. Ex Lion Tamer (Wire)
14. Funhouse (Stooges) video
15. The Red & The Black (Blue Oyster Cult)
16. We Are Time (The Pop Group)
Encore: Little Johnny Jewel (Television)

Mike Watt’s webpage
Diaries from this tour