Customer Reviews

Summer Of Love

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I too was at this concert with my friends and it was a blast! I've known Will, the guitarist, for quite a while and decided to join this recording when the band first started playing at 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. My friends and I were right up in the front against the stage (side note: my two friends are on the inside cover), and as previously mentioned, this recording still will never capture the intensity and just plain rock-n-roll hedonism of one of Love Seed's concerts. However, the recording is awesome! This is Love Seed at their best, given the fact that it's only single disc. If you truly wanted their best, there'd have to be a double live album. I love every cover they do and their original songs always take my mind off a bad day. It's music you can listen to and simply want to dance or sing along, and before you know it, your worries are gone. I do wish they had put "Sympathy for the Devil" (which I've had the pleasure of singing with them), "Devil Went Down to Georgia," and "Just What I Needed" on, but they more than made up for it by putting on an original that I've longed for them to record ever since I first heard it at the Stone Balloon. It's called "Gasoline" and it's one of the best written rock songs I've heard in a while, with mixes of rock, funk, and punk.
Get this album!!! No more questions. JUST GET IT!!!!

I got this CD in December, and it hasn't left my CD changer since! The songs on Summer of Love are great and a lot of fun. Love Seed's originals are lively and energetic songs that you will find yourself singing along to in no time, and the covers on the CD are done "Love Seed Style." I would summarize this CD in one word, FUN. Buy it and you'll always be reminded of summertime no matter what season it is.

All of Love Seed's albums are addicting. Their live shows are incredible. This disc captures them both. If you've never been to a Love Seed show, you cannot imagine the intensity of this band. They play hard and always seem to have fun. You can't help but to jump around with the rest of the crowd. This album may not make you jump, but it has a collection of songs(covers and originals) that you will surely tap your toes and sing along to. The disc has no lulls, just energetic tunes. With two guitars, two percussionists, harmonicas, smooth bass lines and fantastic and often funny lyrics, this album will whip you into a good mood after a bad day. For a live album the quality is suprisingly good, as far as the recording and musicianship. Far better than on "Drunk at the Stone Ballon", their previous live album. This album was what got me into this band, and I will forever think of it as a classic.

I was actually at the show at which this disc was recorded, and my first comment is this: the disc does not capture the intensity of the performance. The show was great, especially the early and primarily original songs.

The disc sounds good, with the band in fine form. With a few notable sound quality exceptions (the kazoo being flat in Paul Simon's "Late in the Evening", the generally inaudible backup vocals), the music sounds great - especially drummer Paul Voshell and Percussionist David James. The backup vocals (primarily bassist Pete Wiedmann), when they can be heard, sound great as well, especially on the LSMJ original "Clear to Find" and Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer".

The biggest problem with the disc is in the selection of songs. With the exception of "Clear to Find", "Bored", "Blink", "Ordinary Song", and "Rona", this is not the best collection of LSMJ originals. Love Seed's self released "Baked Fresh Daily" and "Seven Stories High" are more consistent collections, and the Plump/Artemis self-titled release (their first national release) is head and shoulders above their previous recordings. Even a catchy song like "Rona" keeps with the theme of frivolity that is consistent throughout the disc. "Rocky Top" and Camper Van Beethoven's "Take the Skinheads Bowling" are great fun live, but many of the other covers on the album could have been avoided, while more (and better) originals could have been chosen. Even Love Seed's cover songs, usually juiced up and rearranged, are sometimes stale (the straight up cover of the Doors "Break on Through" comes to mind).

Bottom line: it's a fun listen, but I'm not in Love with it.