Customer Reviews

California Clam Chowder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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For those of you that are familiar with the Monster, don't hesitate. This album is their most fluid and diverse record to date. If you're already a fan of Thelonious Monster you will not be disappointed by this album!

If you have never heard Bob Forrest with Thelonious Monster or with Bicycle Thief you've been missing out. Thelonious Monster weaves a brand of bluesy rock with an amazing folk-like style of story-telling, overlaid with a punk sensibility. This newest release from the Monster, their first in over 10 years, and is their finest to date.

Wow, wow. Bob Forrest's back. Go get & check out his new ode to some classic rock bands. Although it's only released in the USA, try to get the album. Me personally, I'm from Belgium and I did find the import version. Astonishing music as you can expect from Thelonious Monster.

This record puts TM back where they were 7 years ago when they stopped playing together, on top.Possibliy one of the most underrated bands to come from this great country of ours(USA), theyve always put out solid records and performances. Although i am a fan of the bicycle thief, TM sound like a bunch of guys that should be playing together as much as possible. It shows on this record. I recommend this record to any music fan. It shall be the soundtrack to my summer!

The songs on this album say some of the most profound things i have ever head in a song. Definately the best album i have heard this year. I would recommened this album to anyone with half of a brain.

For the uninitiated, Thelonious Monster are a poorer mans version of the Replacements. The monster have always been a California tradition, a west coast Elvis Costello and the Attractions meets Joe Jackson. This new CD reaffirms that getting older does not mean you still do not feel the anxieties and fears, hopes and desires of everyday living. With Bob as the chef and Pete and the rest stirring this hobo stew of songs that reflect their influeneces (ingredients). The more you listen, the more you can hear the sound and style of the bands they are paying homage to.

Bob Forrest has the ultimate indie-rock voice. Pinched and perspiring sincerity, it isn't pretty or commercial, and it doesn't hide depths beneath its surface - it's all surface. His band formed 20 years ago, and after a 10-year hiatus, they've continued making swell punk rock, ragged and literate enough to bare the truth about Forrest: He's a great Southern California singer-songwriter (like the late Warren Zevon) in ripped clothing. Every song here makes reference to a musician in its title, usually because of a nicked musical cue: "The Curtis Mayfield Song" is a sweet, righteously soulful tune about the dangers of the music industry; "The Bob Dylan Song" is a bravely sincere post-Columbine hymn for high-school weirdos everywhere. No matter whose name is dropped, though, each song is unmistakably Forrest's, a teardrop hanging off his best lines.