Okonokos
MY MORNING JACKET
ATO/RCA
A couple, three years ago, Kentucky's My Morning Jacket was playing punk clubs; these days, the band is a festival highlight with a reputation for incandescent live sets and a fanbase that includes everyone from roots-rock purists to jam-band heads and indie kids. It's one of the few modern-rock scenarios in which a band on the cusp of a mainstream breakthrough releasing a sprawling live double-disc actually sounds like a good idea. And the often hypnotic Okonokos doesn't disappoint; it more than lives up to My Morning Jacket's rep as a quality concert attraction, downplaying everything but the oceanic push-and-pull of the band's twangy, alternately yearning and celebratory classic-rock-informed tunes. It may be a little heavy on material from last year's major-label debut Z for longtime fans (only one song from the '99 introductory full-length The Tennessee Fire, "I Think I'm Going to Hell," is played), and a block of comparatively down-tempo selections eats up a bit too much of the middle of disc two. But Okonokos gambles on letting the music — and frontman Jim James' mesmerizing high tenor — do the talking and wins. It's as accurate, consistently on the mark and satisfying an extended live document as we're likely to get from the current crop of truly alternative acts walking the line between below-the-radar superstardom and something much, much bigger. 4.5 stars —Scott Harrell
High & Mighty
GOV'T MULE
ATO Records
Rooted in '70s riff-based power rock and AC/DC-flavored blues, the Mule's second studio release with its current lineup is bold, aggressive and politically charged without being overly preachy. Warren Haynes' rough, soulful vocals and crunchy licks are accompanied by thundering bass drum and dramatic organ beginning with the album's opening track, "Mr. High & Mighty," and continuing through the cowbell-tinged, almost alt-rockin' intensity of "Brand New Angel" to the Zepplin-inspired "Streamline Woman." The band truly shines, however, when its members casually depart from the established tone of the album to produce songs like the loose, reggae-infused "Unring the Bell," which bumps along into a tidy little wah-wah-heavy jam, and the sinister "Like Flies" with its rolling tempo, fuzzy basslines, and heated, contemplative lyrics ("Art has no place in this world of supersize/ Follow the leader to the latest pile of shit/ Like flies"). The obligatory power ballads — "So Weak, So Strong," "Nothing Again" — come off as a bit forced, and the gospel-tinged "Million Miles from Yesterday" is borderline cheesy, but overall, High & Mighty is a satisfying, enjoyable listen that closes with a cherry-on-top bonus track: the fun, funkified, "3 String George." 3.5 stars —Leilani Polk
Waters of Nazareth
JUSTICE
Vice
This 30-minute EP sounds like a thudding club buried alive inside a nightmarish cave, with hip-hop and house beats mixed up with atonal digital boops and bleeps. Justice — the Parisian duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay — rocks the fuck out on the opening title track, with shrill noise baked into a floor-stomping beat. The release isn't uniformly excellent, though. The duo hands the remixing reigns over to DJ Funk on one track and the song promptly becomes a 69 Boyz-styled thumper, complete with obnoxious repeated chants instructing you to "bounce dat ass" and girls moaning in the background. 3 stars —Cooper Levey-Baker
Live In: Nerd Rage
BRIAN POSEHN
Relapse
Metal-loving stand-up/actor Posehn (Mr. Show, Just Shoot Me) puts out a live set, culled from stops during the alt-comic Comedians of Comedy Tour, on the appropriately metallicious Relapse Records label. Most of his inordinately filthy true-story material is above average, and a lot of it is milk-through-your-nose hilarious; delivered with stoned, self-deprecating casualness, Posehn's tales of nerd-dom, marriage and puppy-rearing are simultaneously engaging and repellent. A tacked-on update sketch about Mr. Show's sexually confused fake band Titannica and a clichéd metal tune about clichéd metal tunes damage the disc's integrity — compared to the strength of the live bits, both come off as needless pandering — but discerning fans of edgy stand-up should find the majority of Live In: Nerd Rage is well worth the price of admission. 3.5 stars —SH
The Battle to Save Music Has Begun … Savor the Flavor
GRAVY
The latest project from veteran local singer/sax-man Ronnie Dee focuses primarily on the polished, populist white-boy funk that's been a facet, to one degree or another, of every band he's fronted (DeeForce, Swingin' Mooks, Saturn 5). The tunes are instantly familiar, and the production is, as usual, spotless. Dee's vocal persona is reliably overdone, the lyrics are mostly cheesy, and the whole outing could use a bit of grit, but Savor the Flavor gets over — albeit at times just barely — on its immaculate musicianship, particularly the airtight rhythm section and infectious horn lines. 2.5 stars —SH
You Fat B**stards: Live at Brixton Academy/Who Cares A Lot: Greatest Videos
FAITH NO MORE
Rhino
The more-or-less straight-up live document You Fat B**stards captures the fivesome at the height of its '91 "Epic"-wrought fame, and frontman Mike Patton at his pre-avant garde goofy best; it's a rewarding, if nostalgic, hour. The music-video compilation is more of a mixed bag. After a couple of low-budget pre-Patton clips and a host of humorously dated '90s visuals, it serves mostly as a reminder of just how good Angel Dust is, and as a showcase of the band's descent into novelty covers and mediocre metal following that album. 3.5 stars —SH
This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2006.