TRUE BLOOD VOL. 3 (THE MUSIC)

First off, I'll say that as a big fan of the True Blood series, I thought this past season (season 4) was bad.  Really bad.  Embarrassingly bad. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I'm more likely to like things than to not like them.  And I'm much more likely to write about things that I like than things that I don't like.  But from the awful season premiere (when they went to fairy land, I thought that sleestaks were going to start running around) to the finale ("can you let us down, we're getting a bit crispy," Sookie breaking up with both vampire dudes in one of the cheesiest scenes I've ever sat through on any show), it was just bad. And taking Lafayette - one of the show's best characters, mainly because of his dislike/distrust of anything supernatural, and making him into a conduit for the ghost of an evil spirit... well, I guess it could have been a cool idea, but it came off corny as hell. 

Of course, this is not a TV blog, it's a music blog, and right now, as I'm giving out candy to trick or treaters, I'm listening to the latest installment of the True Blood compilation series. And as annoyed as I am at the show's producer Alan Ball, I have to give it up  -- again -- to music supervisor Gary Calamar. Last year, I wrote about the second CD in the series, and expressed serious admiration for True Blood's music team, and I still feel the same way. They come up with songs that fit the mood, regardless of era and genre (it's the same reason why I love the greatest radio station in the world, the Underground Garage).

The album has a number of new tracks, which I imagine were recorded specifically for the show. I don't know if you could say that being on True Blood is the adult equivalent of being on a Twilight soundtrack, but I guess it is comparable.  Regardless, there are some really great tracks here. The opener combines stuff I love with stuff I don't:  Karen Elson (whose debut, The Ghost Who Walks, was one of my favorite albums of 2010) covers Donovan (who I've never been a fan of) with "Season Of The Witch."  Karen's ex-, Jack White produces and Donovan himself sings on the track.

The late Gil Scott-Heron covered Robert Johnson's "Me and The Devil."  Obviously a classic, and Mr. Scott-Heron brought his own thing to it. I guess this is one of the last things he ever recorded. 

Hipsters must be melting over the union of Neko Case and Nick Cave covering The Zombies' "She's Not There." But they should, it's pretty great, and I remember thinking that as it aired over the credits of one of this season's episodes. 

PJ Harvey and Gordon Gano of The Violent Femmes' "Hittin' The Ground" is the title track from Gano's debut solo album from 2002. It's a really fun song, and PJ sounds like she's really getting her Patti Smith on. It's not a new song, but it's new to me, and probably is to a lot of other people.

And in a combo made in Americana heaven, Jakob Dylan and The Jayhawks' Gary Louris do "Gonna Be A Darkness," which they co-wrote.  There are so many good songs here!  A group called The Heavy cover Larua Nyro's "And When I Die," and there's a cool Blackroc song (Blackroc is The Black Keys in hip-hop mode) called "What You Do To Me."  Then, there's some older songs, like Slim Harpo's "Te Ni Nee Ni Nu," Massive Attack featuring Hope Sandoval "Paradise Circus," and Siouxie & The Banshees' "Spellbound."

Here's hoping that the next season of True Blood makes up for this one, but I know that the music will always be on point.

TODAY'S NEWS: TRENT, RHCP, DIO, WATERS, MASSIVE ATTACK AND MORE

So, as I've mentioned, No Expiration is now on Twitter! I'll be posting all sorts of news and using the blog as more of a place to recommend stuff.

Here's what I tweeted about today, in case you missed it. Trent Reznor's new group is called How To Destroy Angels, and an update to my tweet: you can download their song "A Drowning," at Amazon.

I also link to stories about Massive Attack's upcoming tour, Roger Waters' upcoming tour, Heaven & Hell cancelling their tour due to Ronnie James Dio's health, a comic book about Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig and more.

Follow me on twitter!

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: MASSIVE ATTACK, GORILLAZ, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. We talk about - surprise! - music. I missed last week due to my vacation, but now I'm back! The last time I was on the show, some folks didn't like the Johnny Cash album that I brought, American VI: Ain't No Grave. I stand behind my choice, it's a great album! But hopefully people will like my choices better this week.

First off is Massive Attack, who just released Heligoland, their first real album in seven years. There's a few guests on the album, including Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio and Damon Albarn. There are definitely some cool songs. The "problem" with Massive Attack is like the "problem" with The Violent Femmes. They made a debut album that was so classic (1991's Blue Lines) that it was nearly impossible to follow up. It is such an influencial album. They've done good stuff since then, but Blue Lines towers above all of it. That said, there are definitely some good songs on the new album. The one with Hope, "Paradise Circus," is my favorite.

Gorillaz is fun and a great idea. Their new album, Plastic Beach, is a concept albums and kind of sinks under its own weight. Still there are some cool moments, especially the title track, which reunites Clash bandmates Mick Jones and Paul Simonon for the first time since Combat Rock. Paul played with Gorillas frontman Damon Albarn in The Good, The Bad and The Queen. "Stylo," which features Mos Def and Bobby Womack, is the first single and probably the best song on the album.

LCD Soundsystem has a new album coming out, This Is Happening. I don't flip out over LCD the way some people do, but I like some LCD Soundsystem songs. I don't think it's really a band, it's really this guy James Murphy. "Drunk Girls" is a party jam from the album, and is a cool party jam (albeit one David Bowie could probably sue for, since it sounds so much like "Boys Keep Swinging"). On the other hand, "Oh You (Christmas Blues)," from the Ben Stiller film, Greenberg, recalls solo John Lennon at his most angst ridden.

I wrote about singer Daniel Merriweather a while back. I think he has a great voice, and while I hear that the release of his new album Love & War has been troubled, I love the duet with Adele, "Water and a Flame." More than that: the iTunes bonus track: a cover of The White Stripes classic "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told)." Larry won't like this one!

Finally, Big Audio Dynamite, Mick Jones' post-Clash band. Their debut, 1985's This Is Big Audio Dynamite, is being reissued as a 2 CD set April 27. A lot of their music sounds a bit quaint and dated, since dance music production is so different now from what it sounded like 25 years ago. But it was really trailblazing the way Mick combined rock, hip-hop, reggae and dance music. It was sort of what he started doing with "This Is Radio Clash." Definitely worth a listen.

MASSIVE ATTACK'S LATEST

Massive Attack has a new album out, Heligoland. I don't think I've written about them often in No Expiration, but I think that their 1991 album Blue Lines and the followup, 1995's Protection, are two of the best albums of the '90s.  I don't have the new album, but I did buy the single, "Paradise Circus," off of iTunes.  It features guest vocals (as many Massive Attack songs do) by Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. It's a great song, and I'll have to check this album out soon (I plan to discuss it on The Morning Jolt in the next few weeks). It also reminds me that Mazzy Star supposedly have a new album on the way.  I would love to hear that also.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: HEAR THE DRUM MACHINE GET WICKED

I never mentioned that last week I didn't go on OutQ, because host Larry Flick and co-host Keith Price were on vacation. They're back this week, and I'll be on tomorrow talking about... I guess "dance music" sort of explains it. I'm not the expert that Larry is in dance music, but that's what I want to talk about this week.

First, Massive Attack. Rumors have been going around that they are going to be putting out a new album in the fall. I know that the members of the group hate the term "trip-hop," but I think that they sort of founded the genre. Don't blame them for elevator music with beats - that's like blaming Van Halen for Winger and Warrant! Anyway, Massive Attack's first two albums -- Blue Lines and Protection -- are both great, you should check them out.

Black Eyed Peas are the object of so much hate, especially since Fergie joined the band. As I've mentioned before, I don't hate them: I liked them before she joined and I liked their first album with her (but not much that they've done since). It's weird that they aren't considered legitimate hip-hop: check out the song "Like That" (which also features Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Cee-Lo and John Legend), that's real hip-hop. Anyway, I don't like their new songs, but I think they are worth talking about - they actually sound more "dance" than hip-hop.

U2 just released a bunch of "Magnificent" remixes and I choose one to bring in. I'm not usually a big remixes fan, and I think sometimes U2 is trying to hard with all the dance remixes, but the one I choose (by Dave Aude) is not bad. "Magnificent" lends itself to remixing I think (although the original is better).

Passion Pit is a new indie/electronic band, I don't really like them. But they have such a huge "buzz," I also think it is worth talking about.

The Prodigy looked like they were going to be massive stars when the "electronica" thing was the "next big thing" in the '90s after grunge. Of course, it didn't happen, Prodigy had one huge album and that was kind of it. I like thier first two albums (their debut, Music For The Jilted Generation was great). I like their new song "The Warrior's Dance." I read that Dave Grohl plays drums on another song on their album.

Finally, Crystal Method was another band from the "electronica" era, and it looked like they were going to be big. They had some great songs, but no image, and it's hard to be stars with no image. I almost forgot about them. Their new album has some interesting collabs, including two with Peter Hook from Joy Division/New Order, Matisyahu and Meiko.