Mr. Gillis is back and has created the official party album of Summer 2008. His last record, “Night Ripper” was the official Radlinski Family party album of Summer 2006. Upon first listen, I was concerned and wasn’t sure a lot of the stuff was really working for me, but after the “car test” this record is coming together for me. It feels more complete and flowing than Night Ripper did. When you heard Night Ripper for the first time there was a big “wow factor” and that held pretty strong for the next several listens. After a while, the last half of the old record didn’t really do much for me. There were a few highlights, but it seemed to just disintigrate near the end. FtA is a much more cohesive affair, maintaining a pretty constant tempo the entire time and ending with a fantastic, emotional finale (I won’t tell!). He’s got a whole mess of genre spanning samples in there including Lil Mama, Lil Wayne, Underworld, Rod Stewart, Air, Snap, The Cure, Temple of the Dog, Metallica (look out), and unfortunately Solja Boy Tell ‘Em. Party on.

I recently noticed that Wild Wood had been reissued last year with a “Deluxe” treatment and seeing as I’m a sucker for reissues, I rushed out and got it. I still listen to WW quite a bit and while it hasn’t aged all that well over the years, it still has a number of standout songs. This deluxe edition gets some remastering and some bonus tracks, most of which I’ve heard before. The second disc is full of demos for most of the songs off WW and for the most part they’re pretty rough and not worth listening to. Suprisingly, the highlight of the reissue is the remastering. I had always thought that WW sounded a bit muddy and often thought that was intentional (and maybe at the time it was…it was supposed to be a trippy, psychadelic record). The remastering is evident here from the start, with the lead guitar on Sunflower during the verses being more present in the mix. You can hear the intricacies of Weller’s strumming and muting of strings. Steve White’s drums are clearer and his ride cymbal is tinny, but not in a bad way.”Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)” feels a bit heavy handed now and indicates where Weller was about go with “Stanley Road”, but the mix is much improved. “Shadow of the Sun”, my favorite track on Wild Wood sounds replenished and fresh and the extended bridge/jam part is phenomenal. If you’re a big fan of this album, it’s worth picking up this edition simply for the remaster. The extras are a nice bonus, but not necessary.

Let it be known that I run screaming from anything remotely close to being called “Freak-Folk” so I approached this record with great trepidation. I was ready to hit stop when I heard the first chorus of sing-songy, reverb soaked voices, but I let it go. While not the critical juggernaut that it’s turning out to be, Fleet Foxes is a pleasant album. Reminds me a little of James Taylor at times, and it often gets bogged down in Beach Boys harmonics (which I also can’t stand), but the musicianship is solid and the vocals are harmonious and quite emotional at times. My favorites are “Ragged Wood” and “Blue Ridge Mountains”. Sequence-wise, I think the album wanders a bit in the middle, but picks back up. A good record to put on when sitting outside on a Fall afternoon. Too bad it’s Summer.

Just to confirm, I looked it up, and yes, last year a wrote a post about how hot the damn bus is. Well, nothing has changed. I nearly lost it yesterday and almost threw up on the woman next to me. This morning, in order to prep for what I knew would be a hot ride, I wore a long sleeve t-shirt and a very light jacket. It was about 15 degrees when I walked out to the bus stop, so I quickly became cold. Wouldn’t you know it…the bus was late. It finally arrives, full, with heat a’ blastin’. I push past all the pole hangers and spot sitters and move my way to the back in order to get out of the way. Within minutes, my frostbite had turned to sweat, the icicles in my ’stache melting into rivulets of sweat dripping off my nose (yum!!). By the time we got to Harvard I thought I was going to vomit again. Nobody else seemed to care, so apparently there’s something wrong with me.  Cool.

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np: Erykah Badu - My People

You may or may not have heard of Toscanini’s the famed, expensive ice cream chain that operates in Cambridge and the surrounding area. It turns out that their owners “messed up” and forgot to pay taxes. Now there’s a heartwarming outpouring of emotional gratitude from Bostonians, Cambridgdians, and Somervillians alike wanting to “save” Tosci’s and they’ve managed to solicit donations from the adoring ice cream loving public. They’ve raised enough money to open their stores back up!

So, since I feel that My Family, who consists of Me, my wife and daughters are in trouble, we need help. I was married, but my wife left me and the State of Massachusetts requires that I pay an extremely high amount of money to my ex as child support. Then my ex moved far away so I rarely get to see my daughter. That seems pretty unfair, just like poor Tosci’s getting asked to pay their back taxes owed. Wait, that sounds way more unfair. I guess I “messed up” and settled here in Mass instead of suggesting we move to Maryland after college. Anyway, we live check to check and I have a new wonderful family now, but life is hard because we can barely make ends meet. So, please, help the family. Send your PayPal donations to this email. We’ve done many things for the Watertown community, like, pick up dog poop, shovel the walk in front of our house whenever it snows, and bought ice cream at Toscanini’s. I don’t make a very good burnt caramel ice cream, but I’m sure I’ve touched your heart in one way or another. Maybe this quarter I can pay my property tax without feeling like I’m going to off myself.

Wonderful.