Gillum - Way That I Am (1992)

Guilty pleasure time... I really like this album. I don't know why. It's cheesy, the music isn't all that good and the rhymes are even worse. It's a total DC Talk rip-off. I'm trying to convince myself not to like this. It's not working. Sorry to disappoint some of you out there. A few highlights though... it looks like Gillum might not have gotten clearance for using Public Enemy, Eric B And Rakim and others he samples. There's nothing Noting it in the insert. Also...Brentwood Music?????

Gillum

Way That I Am

1992 Brentwood Music

1 Way That I Am

2 Just Turn Your Love Around

3 Bassline

4 Is It Gonna Getcha?

5 My Jam Is Hittin' Hard

6 Invincible

7 Makeshift Studio

8 This World Is A Trip

9 All Across The Nation

10 Time

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Lost Dogs - The Best Of The Lost Dogs (1999)

While this is definitely not comprehensive list of amazing songs that the Dogs have put out and some of the selections are kinda questionable here and there, overall, this is a great disc. If you're not wanting to shell out the $$ for the whole Lost Dogs collection, this is a pretty good place to start. Some of the band's best do appear here like Scenic Routes, Pray Where You Are, No Ship Coming In and Breathe Deep. The others are good but not quite up to the amazing standing that those songs imply. Don't get me wrong, the whole collection is full of great songs but, wow, those songs are some of the best ever written. What else do you expect with Terry Taylor, Gene Eugene, Mike Roe and Derri Daugherty?

Lost Dogs

The Best Of The Lost Dogs

1999 KMG Records

1 Imagine That

2 Rocky Mountain Mines

3 Scenic Routes

4 Pray Where You Are

5 The New Physics

6 Eleanor, It's Raining Now

7 No Ship Coming In

8 I Can't Say Goodbye

9 You Satisfy

10 Bullet Train

11 Up In The Morning

12 Amber Waves Goodbye

13 Bad Indigestion

14 Jimmy

15 Built For Glory (Live)

16 Dunce Cap

17 Make Believe

18 Breathe Deep (The Breath Of God)

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Michael Knott - Screaming Brittle Siren (1992)

This is one of my favorite Knott releases. So many great song on this disc. No Knotthead should be without this album in their collection.

Michael Knott

Screaming Brittle Siren

1992 Blonde Vinyl Records

1 Miles From Shame

2 Crash And Burn

3 Apocalypse Lips

4 Brittle Body

5 Blood On My Hands

6 Liar

7 Hang Me High

8 Draw The Line

9 Gold Silver Soup And Silk

10 I Am No Christ

11 What You Know Now

12 Barnacle

13 Shine A Light

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Kenny Marks - Another Friday Night (1989)

This is a great album by John Mellencamp... I mean Bruce Springsteen... sorry I mean Kenny Marks. If you like those two guys you love this. The first track is right out of Cougar's songbook. I actually like a lot of this album even though the rockers are few and far between. Check it out.

Kenny Marks

Another Friday Night

1989 Dayspring Records

1 Running On Love

2 Whisperin' A Prayer

3 Hope For A Broken Heart

4 I'l Be A Friend To You

5 Next Time You See Johnny

6 Nobody Else But Jesus

7 Graduation Day

8 Threshold Of Regret

9 Somebody Loves You

10 You Made A Difference For Me

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SFC - Listen Up (1989)

This is another one of those classic Christian hip hop albums. I remember the first time I heard these guys. It was on WAY FM in Ft Myers, FL just before the album came out. They played No Stoppin' and I was completely sold. I kept checking the local Christian bookstore almost daily until it came out. I was not disappointed when I finally got it. I think the beauty of the album is that there's not a lot going on musically, it's simple and to the point. My favorites are No Stoppin', It's Like That, Plain And Simple and Fully Armed.

SFC

Listen Up

1989 Broken Records

1 Listen Up

2 Drugs

3 No Stoppin'

4 Say Ya

5 Transformed

6 You Are Worthy

7 Dope Dealer

8 It's Like That

9 Mr Brain

10 This Is What He Went Through

11 Plain And Simple

12 Brothers And Sisters

13 Fully Armed

14 I Don't Know

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Chatterbox - Despite (1994)

There are a few industrial releases that are just brilliant. Klank's Still Suffering, Argyle Park's Misguided, Circle Of Dust's first two, Deitiphobia's Fear Of God and Chatterbox's Despite. This is a classic record that everyone who's into heavy music should own. Just plain awesome. Not to mention that Jeff Bellew (The Crucified, Stavesacre among others) is the main man behind this. Plus there's help from Scott Albert, Mark Salomon and Pigeon John (I didn't even realize that one till just now). Awesome, awesome album. **This was previously on this blog but ripped at 192 so here's the 320 version of it.**

Chatterbox

Despite

1994 Tooth And Nail Records

1 Torque

2 Empty

3 Fallen

4 Spine

5 Internal

6 Soulscum

7 Divide

8 External

9 Epignosis

10 Sunshine

11

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Riki Michele - One Moment Please (1993)

I haven't heard Riki's debut solo album in forever so I can't say how it's any different from this but as far as the departure from her band's output, it's a fairly big one. This album doesn't have the poetry and feel of any of the Adam Again records but you can definitely see slight hints here and there. This is a little more pop influenced (even a little dancable at times) than what I expected from her. My favorite track on the album isn't even hers, it's a Steve Miller Band cover. It's got a great subtle dance beat behind it and has a little jazz flavor in there too. Overall, it's a pretty solid record, just not up to the standards that her day job has set for alternative music in general.

Riki Michele

One Moment Please

1993 WAL / Brainstorm Artists International

1 Moon

2 Fly Like An Eagle

3 One Moment Please

4 Far, Far

5 Big Machine

6 Mind To Mind

7 Light Of The World

8 Love Life And Dance

9 Love You Now

10 Daniel's Eyes

11 In The Calling

Download HERE

Scott Blackwell - The Real Thing (1994)

This is a bit of a departure from Scott's prior albums. There's very little vocals and a little bit of experimenting with different styles of house, club and techno. In my opinion, it's one of Mr Blackwell's stronger albums. After this one, though, I kinda lost interest in his releases.

Scott Blackwell

The Real Thing

1994 Myx Records

1 One To The Power Of One

2 There But For The...

3 When I Was A Child

4 Day By Day (Rhythm Saints vs Blackwell Reconstruction Myx)

5 X Factor

6 Pathfinder

7 Ensoul

8 Ambient Theology 101

9 Bwana Bwana

10 Real

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D-Boy - Plantin' A Seed (1989)

This is a classic! While not perfect, this album is a testament to what this young rapper could have been if he hadn't been taken away so soon. One of the greatest Christian hip hop tracks ever is on this album, "GODS Possee In Effect." Once again like D's next album Tim miner got in there a little too much to make some of the tracks a little cheesy. This though was also the beginnings of real Christian hip hop and the scene was still a little unstable and hadn't found it's overall voice. We all miss you D.

D-Boy

Plantin' A Seed

1989 Frontline Records

1 Plantin' A Seed

2 Church Hoppers

3 Pick Yourself Up

4 When I Strut

5 Doggin' The Devil

6 King David

7 It's A Disease

8 GODS Possee In Effect

9 Stompin' Satan

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Galactic Cowboys - At The End Of The Day (1998)

This is in no way the band's best album but overall, it's a great disc. If you think of this as a band other than GC then this is an outstanding album. The band had this sound that no one else could duplicate on their first three or four releases. This has a glimmer of that sound but just doesn't end up getting to that point that those prior albums reached. I love Galactic Cowboys and will never say anything bad about them. They are and always will be one of my favorites.

Galactic Cowboys

At The End Of The Day

1998 Metal Blade Records

1 Nothing To Say

2 Ants

3 Just Like Me

The Machine Fish Suite

4 Where Do I Sign?

5 Bright Horizons

6 Puppet Show

7 Mr Magnet

8 Never Understand

9 Ranch On Mars Part 2 (Set Me Free)

10 How Does It Feel

11 Young Man's Dreams

12 Shine

13 The Shape

14 It's Not Over

15 Through

16 At The End Of The Day

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Rhythm Saints - Golden (1995)

My first introduction to electronic music came from Scott Blackwell. From there I was hooked on the more exciting and original acts like Raving Loonatics, Prodigal Sons, Joy Electric, Paradigm Shift, etc. Then there was a few albums that I found a little boring. Mr Blackwell and Co started putting out stuff from Virus, Prophecy Of PANIC and Rhythm Saints. I'm not a big Chicago house fan. This is a little more than just Chicago house -- there's some jazz and hip hop influences here and there too. I just can't help but want to fall asleep listening to this stuff. Although, for what it is, it's very good.

Rhythm Saints

Golden

1995 N-Soul Records

1 Forever

2 Love Will See Us Through

3 (Possible) Dream

4 World

5 Spatial Anomaly

6 Living Joy

7 Now That I'm Here

8 Goldenstate

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Busy, busy...

Thank you for hanging in there with me. Sorry I took so much time off from the blog. It's still gonna be a little sparatic until I get my next gig over with. I am one of the DJs for Guess and G By Guess. Yeah, the clothing company. One of the gigs I have every year is on Black Friday. So now I'm getting some new songs together for that gig and trying to work as much as possible at the same time. Not a lot of free time. Anyway, I'm not going anywhere and I'll try to keep the music coming as much as possible. Unfortunately I can't get Party In The USA out of my head right now....uuuugh!

One Bad Pig - The Quintessential One Bad Pig Volume 1 (1994)

This is a weird album. I'm not really sure why it exists. It's not really a greatest hits albums because it only has 6 previously released songs. There's 3 new songs (Lust, I Am The Chief and Be Not Alarmed -- which is not even listed) that are pretty good. I would have loved to see the band put out a new album if that's the kind of stuff they were writing. Then there's 2 songs that were originally on A Christian Banned. (Life's A Bomb and Sleepin' With The World). I think they should have just re-released the extremely rare demo with the new songs as bonus tracks. Oh well. It looks like the One Bad Pig website lists a CD release of A Christian Banned but the site looks like a dead site. I can't tell. I'd love to get my hands on that disc.

One Bad Pig

The Quintessential One Bad Pig Volume 1

1994 Star Song

1 People Cry Out

2 Lust

3 I Am The Chief

4 Let's Be Frank

5 I'm Not Getting Any Older

6 The Man In Black

7 Life's A Bomb

8 Sleepin' With The World

9 Isaiah 6

10 Red River

11 Be Not Alarmed

Download HERE

Pep Squad - No Doy (1998)

I specifically remember hating this album back in the day. I really do remember only buying this because I think it was less than $1 (does anyone see a tred within the last few posts?). While uploading it I was listening to it and I actually like it. I know it didn't get any better. I've always wondered why some people really loved this band. I think I see it now. It's kind of adorable pop music. Not sure what happened but I'm glad I listened to this again. "Jamie's kisses are like candycane on Christmas"... how could I not like that?

Pep Squad

No Doy

1998 BEC Recordings

1 Angel

2 Barbapoppa

3 Bug-Nug

4 Hot

5 Jamie's Kisses

6 Never Netherlands

7 Soopertrooper

8 Fish Eyes

9 Bored Out Of My Gourd / Paper Doll

10 Open

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Between Thieves - Between Thieves (1997)

This is a pretty good release. It's one of those albums I don't really love but I don't really hate it either. It's actually some solid 90's radio-friendly alternative rock. Another one of those albums I picked up for $1.

Between Thieves

Between Thieves

1997 Tattoo Records

1 Despite The Rain

2 Seen In Me

3 Kindle

4 Two Pennies

5 Now

6 To The End

7 Slings And Arrows

8 Take My Hand

9 Lay It Down

10 No More

11 Privately

Download HERE