(i always thought ccr's "travelin' band" was meant to be the beatles covering little richard. hearing jerry lee lewis's cover, on his new record (pre-order), w/ fogerty in tow--well, it sounds like he's just reclaiming something that's always belonged to him. (listen.) like fire, and passion. jesus christ, he sounds great. jesus? one suspects the devil's involved in this one, he sounds too good. the devil, though, will have to wait awhile for his quarry. what, you thought this would be another old-timer confronting his impending mortality? shit, son, they call him the "killer," not the "killed."

one of the perks at my bookstore gig is free cd promos. i noticed today that no one claimed herbert's album & so i went a-proselytizin'. prince writing for dr. buzzard's savannah band. w/ a name like that, you'd think it'd ring a few bells. "cherchez la femme"? um. "tommy mottola lives on the road." oh, right. (indulging me, i think.) then it occurred to me that scale sounds exactly like prince side-project the family, best-known for the original version of "nothing compares 2 u." but, really, they ring far fewer bells than august darnell et al. "the screams of passion" (listen) would have been the best song on matthew herbert's album, and that's no knock against his record. (naturally, the family's lp is out of print. but the girl 6 soundtrack (buy) may be the best single-disc prince primer out there; it's certainly got the most interesting tracklisting. "adore!" "girls & boys!" "nasty girl!" "how come u don't call me anymore!" "erotic fucking city!")

the album is still unclaimed.)