Pink Martini follow the around-the-world-in-a-dozen-songs thrills of HEY EUGENE! with SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, a mellower, simpler set of small pleasures. These are relative terms, however; the group's music is still well-traveled, with China Forbes singing in five languages (English, Spanish, Neapolitan, French, and Italian) instead of the six or so on EUGENE!. Pink Martini opt for a more unified sound here, one that draws on the more straightforward lounge-pop of their debut, SYMPATHIQUE, and the mellowness of '60s and '70s pop. SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS' first half is especially smooth, opening with the beautifully soft Neapolitan ballad "Ninna Nanna" and the title track, on which Forbes sings "I think we should take it slow" over swooping strings, brass, and piano that resurrect the glory days of AM pop; that feeling is echoed by the cover of Joe Raposo's "Sing," the Sesame Street song that gained popularity when the Carpenters performed it (Emilio Delgado, aka Sesame Street's Luis, duets with Forbes here in Spanish and English).

The album's first few tracks are among its most playful, including the slinky yet winking "Ohayoo Ohio" and the French confection "Ou Est Ma Tete?" While Pink Martini gets almost too cute for their own good with "And Then You're Gone" and "But Now I'm Back," a pair of songs about a quarreling couple inspired by Franz Schubert's "Fantasy Piano for Four Hands" and featuring NPR justice correspondent Ari Shapiro on the latter's vocals, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS' second half is among their finest work.

Though it's a lower-key set of songs than those two albums, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS is charming in its own right.


  Save Me, San Francisco CD
  by Train
Our Price: $10.39 CD / $9.99 MP3
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San Francisco's Train hit the charts with a bang early in the 21st century with hits like "Calling All Angels" and "Drops of Jupiter." They began as a band that courted an alternative audience and quickly traded it -- without changing their sound much -- for a more adult fanbase with mixed results. SAVE ME, SAN FRANCISCO took four years to make -- remember there was Monahan's solo album in the interim -- and involved a slew of musicians (because only Monahan, guitarist Jimmy Stafford, and drummer Scott Underwood remain from the original group), four studios in the United States and England, songwriting collaborators, and even a handful of producers, though Martin Terefe gets the final credit. The truth is it's a very focused record, centering around the theme of a wandering young rocker who falls in love and wants to settle down.

Ultimately however, SAVE ME, SAN FRANCISCO is a love song to the band's hometown.


  Black Gives Way To Blue CD
  by Alice In Chains
Our Price: $12.59 CD / $9.99 MP3
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When Layne Staley died from a drug overdose in 2002, it had already been several years since most Alice in Chains fans stopped hoping for a new album. The singer had become a recluse since the late-`90s, and there was little indication that AIC would ever again produce much in the way of new music. As a result, when the remaining members reunited to release BLACK GIVES WAY TO BLUE in 2009, expectations were low. To the delight of all however, the album proved to be perhaps the Seattle combo's most energetic and consistent effort since its masterpiece DIRT. Perhaps the most surprising element of the new record was how much it sounded exactly like Alice in Chains.

While new singer William DuVall was not an exact Staley soundalike, he managed to evoke both the unique timbre and sense of deep angst that were the late vocalist's trademarks. Throughout, the sound is heavier and sturdier than ever before, with songs like the first single "A Looking In View" and "Check My Brain" borrowing a bit from the nu-metal bands Alice in Chains inspired, and beating the upstarts at their own game.

-- "[T]he quartet sound reborn, with new vocalist William DuVall's eerie melodies perfectly complimenting Jerry Cantrell's lead-bottomed riffs. A stunning return."


  Ocean Eyes CD
  by Owl City
Our Price: $12.59 CD / $9.99 MP3
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A surprising and unexpected indie success in 2007, garnering over a million plays on his Myspace page, Minnesota-based songwriter Adam Young is poised for major success with his project, Owl City. A follow-up to MAYBE I'M DREAMING, Young's critically acclaimed 2008 debut as Owl City, OCEAN EYES (2009) finely hones his already prodigious songwriting talents to a pleasing mix of sweetly lovelorn indie pop and electronica-influenced beats.

Alternative Press (p.111) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]here are some charming slices of pop. Young has a good chance of becoming a worthy replacement for the Postal Service..."


Live At Reading CD
  by Nirvana
Our Price: $11.16 CD / $10.89 mp3
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Certain concerts create a legend as soon as the final note ceases to ring. Nirvana's headlining appearance at the 1992 Reading Festival is one of these shows, a concert that arrived at precisely the right moment and stands as testament to a band at the peak of its powers...and right before things started to turn sour within the Nirvana camp. Despite the happy news of the birth of Frances Bean Cobain a mere 12 days before this August 30 festival, rumors swirled around Nirvana right up until the band hit the stage. Kurt Cobain took full advantage of these scurrilous stories, making his entrance in a hospital gown and wheelchair pushed by journalist Everett True. Cobain feebly reached for the microphone to croak out the opening lines of "The Rose," only to collapse onto the stage, milking the drama for a moment before leading Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl through a ferocious "Breed." This impish sense of humor has been obscured over the years, lost under the weight of the band's tragic legacy, along with the fact that Nirvana could actually be fun as well as furious.

Live at Reading brings all this roaring back. This is Nirvana's purest blast of rock & roll: there's a boundless, invigorating energy here and, just as importantly, there's a sense of joy to the performances, a joy that bubbles to the surface when Kurt laughs during the intro of "Sliver" but can be heard throughout the show, as the band rushes in tandem, pushing the tempos on "Aneurysm" and "Territorial Pissings," ebbing and flowing as one.

Hints of this could be heard on the live comp From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, but this is a complete document of Nirvana in full flight and one of the greatest live rock & roll albums ever. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine