Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

CD Review: 'Dirt Farmer' by Levon Helm

The Band recorded one of its seminal works in a house dubbed Big Pink, but singer and drummer Levon Helm relocated to the barn for his first solo album in 25 years.

It’s the same barn in upstate New York where for the past few years Helm has been holding Midnight Ramble Sessions: Live performances with his band and unpredictable cameos from the likes of Elvis Costello, Hubert Sumlin Emmylou Harris and Dr. John.

That rustic, all-for-one feeling spills over into “Dirt Farmer” (Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard), which features Helm’s family and friends (daughter Amy sings and co-produces with Larry Campbell, from Bob Dylan’s band) on tunes the elder Helm, 67, sang as a child growing up in Arkansas, and a few latter-day numbers.

Metromix clamps on the beer goggles

I wasn't planning to write about Metromix, the nightlife and entertainment website Tribune Co. launched in Connecticut earlier in October — my colleague Roger Catlin was acidic enough about it for the both of us.

It's not that I'm a big supporter: Tribune, owner of The Courant, could have poured all that money into expansive online versions of the CAL section or the Hartford Advocate, which it also owns, and built up established brands instead of introducing and marketing yet another website. It didn't, fair enough, national advertising platform, blah blah blah.

But now the company has thrown away even more money on a PR firm to plug Metromix (to me, among others) with a press release that begins:

CD Review: 'Blackout' by Britney Spears

Who knew Britney Spears was the funniest woman in America?

None of her comedy is intentional, of course, but shhhh — she needs this, the poor dear.

Britney is a mess, you see. She’s gone in just a few short years from pop mega-star lip-locking with Madonna, to telling Matt Lauer that she drives with her baby on her lap because she’s “country” (working over a couple pieces of Bubble Yum the whole time), to getting divorced, shaving her head, throwing down a cocktail or two for the paparazzi, forgetting her underwear and losing custody of her kids.

That’s a lot of drama. So naturally, it’s time to make a new album. And what better title than, say, “Blackout,” which doesn’t evoke her substance-fueled club binges at all?

So long Power 104, hello 104 One

Holy crap, Hartford finally has an alt-rock radio station again.

After several years playing second fiddle in the ratings to rap station Hot 93.7, also-ran rap station Power 104 seems to have switched formats this weekend to become 104 One (according to e-mailers — I'm in Denver until Monday, so I've only listened online so far).

This is excellent news for the Connecticut rock scene, for two reasons: First, at its most basic, it means we can actually hear this stuff on the radio again. Second, it means concert promoters will have a place to promote these kinds of shows, which has been sorely lacking since WMRQ switched to the rap format.

Whether the new station will gain any traction in a scene obsessed with Top 40 and metal remains to be seen, but we can sure hope.

Rockies fever: Rocky Mountain News claims credit where none is due

DENVER — In a letter to readers in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News, publisher John Temple chides the Colorado Rockies for attempting to trademark "Rocktober," claiming that RMN columnist Bernie Lincicome "invented the word back in 2005."

He's right, if by "invented" he means "appropriated from radio DJs who have been using the term for years in promotions and on the air."

Rockies madness is in full swing in Denver, with less than four hours to go before Colorado hosts its first World Series game against the Red Sox. The RMN has heralded the game as one of the "top events ever held in Colorado," which seems a tad hyperbolic. But what the hell: Go Rockies!

Clipse signs with Columbia

This bodes well: Rap duo the Clipse has signed a new deal with Columbia Records, Billboard.com reports, which hopefully means brothers Malice and Pusha T won't have to wait four years to release another album.

That's what happened with last year's brilliant "Hell Hath No Fury." The brothers blamed Jive for delaying the release of the record because of various arcane music industry machinations.

Although the new deal separates the duo from the Neptunes' Star-Trak Entertainment (which is now affiliated with Interscope. See? Arcane), the Clipse plans to work with the Neptunes, and Timbaland and others, on a new studio record due next year.

Dwight Yoakam's tribute to Buck Owens

One of my favorite things to listen to in the car on road trips is a live recording from 1993 of the band Coffee Creek playing a bunch of old country songs (and a few obscure, rootsy classic rockers) at Cicero's Basement in St. Louis.

It's a bootleg, of course — Coffee Creek was an ad-hoc Uncle Tupelo side project featuring Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy trading off on vocals with Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets. They played fast and loose, and songs like Doug Sahm's "Mendocino," George Jones' "A Good Year for the Roses" and Buck Owens' "Love's Gonna Live Here" are easy to sing along to, which is a key ingredient of excellent driving music.

The same goes for "Dwight Sings Buck" (New West), Dwight Yoakam's new collection of songs paying tribute to Owens, the Bakersfield-style country icon who died in March 2006.

CD Review: 'Chrome Dreams II' by Neil Young

When last we heard from Neil Young, he was busily excoriating the Bush administration on last year’s “Living With War,” an album both scathing and deeply poignant. Young changes direction some on his latest, the sequel to an album that never came out.

“Chrome Dreams” was slated for release in November 1976 and simply never appeared, though some of its songs, including “Like a Hurricane,” ended up elsewhere. Fittingly, “Chrome Dreams II” (Reprise) is a return of sorts to Young’s earliest approach to music, which grouped songs by feeling rather than a single subject. He’s interested in the human condition this time, singing about a rail-riding hobo on “Boxcar,” lecherous thoughts on “Dirty Old Man” and spirituality on several different songs. The centerpiece, though, is “Ordinary People,” a surprisingly focused 18-minute inventory of the ways in which people get lost in their own lives.

The song’s growling guitars and ramshackle vocal harmonies sit easily alongside the simple, rootsy acoustic guitar of “Beautiful Bluebird” or the subdued ’70s pop piano of “The Way,” which features a quietly buoyant choir on the chorus. With its varied sound and subtle optimism, “Chrome Dreams II” stands in marked contrast to Young’s more strident recent efforts, but at least he got around to sharing these dreams.

CD Review: 'Carnival Ride' by Carrie Underwood

Foundering American industries take note: No one knows how to manufacture success quite like the Nashville music machine. Just look at Carrie Underwood. After the 24-year-old Oklahoman won the fourth season of “American Idol” with unassuming charm and decent vocal chops, Nashville went to work stripping away anything that made her unique and re-casting her in the cookie-cutter country-diva mold, which translated to Big Profits on Underwood’s first album — 2005’s “Some Hearts,” a six-times platinum record, became the fastest-selling country debut in history.

The transformation is complete on Underwood’s second album, “Carnival Ride” (Arista Nashville), a record with stronger songs that somehow manages to sound just as banal as her first. She’s grown into a more confident singer who can send her voice soaring to the heavens with ringing force. But that’s a mixed blessing, because she doesn’t sound much different from forebears like Shania Twain and Faith Hill, who sing the same kinds of songs in the same way and helped land country at the top of the pop charts with crossover albums in the late ’90s.

Indeed, what country touches there are here — banjo at the start of “Flat on the Floor,” or fiddle on “All-American Girl” — are mostly window dressing for the smarmy pop tunes underneath, and the treacle is mighty thick on “I Told You So” and the string-soaked ballad “I Know You Won’t,” a why-are-you-so-mean/ but-you-have-a-great-smile song. Lady, it’s called doormat syndrome: Get out.

The Verve thaws after long freeze

After years spent dormant, acclaimed '90s Britpop band the Verve reconvened in June for the first time since  1999 and wasted no time getting down to recording.

"We all decided, that rather than meeting for a cup of coffee or a beer or whatever, we should meet in a studio where we can do what we do. Straight away," singer Richard Ashcroft tells NME.com.

Even better, the band, perhaps best known in the United States for the lush, orchestral song "Bittersweet Symphony" from its landmark 1997 album "Urban Hymns," has made available "The Thaw Session," which the members claim is the first 14 minutes of music they made after regrouping.

It's moody and atmospheric, with dense layers of guitar and keyboards held together by a looping bassline and steady drumming while Ashcroft croons, as if from a distance. If it's true that the band plugged in and immediately recorded something this promising, it's staggering to think what else they might have come up with after a little more time together in the studio.

Download "The Thaw Session" here, for free (though you'll have to enter your name and e-mail address).