Do yourself a favour
Thought I’d write some quick recommendations about some music I’ve been listening to lately :
Ben Kweller is a young guy from Texas that I discovered a couple of years ago. His first album “Sha Sha” is a brilliant example of wonderful song-craft which in many places reminds me of the mid-period Beatles (aka Rubber Soul, Revolver) His new album “On My Way” evokes the same comparison. It’s probably a little less immediately catchy on first listen but after a couple of spins I appreciated it as a step in a slightly more mature direction, whilst retaining the youthful indy charm of it’s predecessor. Obviously Ben’s a little more well known now. To find the first album I had to look in every record store in Perth, before finally finding it tucked away in a corner at 78s. The second one I was able to locate straight away in my local neighbourhood Sanity store, a sure sign of a modicum of popular success.
The other album I want to mention is Contraband by Velvet Revolver. I hadn’t heard anything about this until I read a write up in The West last week. This is a collaboration between 3 of the members of Guns ‘n’ Roses (including lead guitarist “Slash”), and the singer from the Stone Temple Pilots. In my late teens in the early 90s as a budding young guitarist I lived on a steady diet of Guns n’ Roses (as well as Metallica, Hendrix, Led Zep, Nirvana etc.) and would have named Slash as one of my favourite guitar heroes. I viewed G’n'R as the super group that died young, before realising their full potential (but then again perhaps that’s the epitomy of what Rock and Roll is?) Haven’t got the album yet but I’ve listened to a couple of MP3 tracks and it’s got a familiar sound, hearkening back to Appetite for Destruction but placing it in the context of a new century. I look forward to having a listen to the whole thing and undergoing a bit of a rock revival 
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