The Rock Doctors Go Shopping

Paging the Rock Doctors! Jim and Greg help a listener in musical critical care.

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For the third time defendant Jammie Thomas-Rasset has been ordered by a jury to pay damages for making 24 songs illegally available on her computer. First, the RIAA offered Thomas-Rasset the option to settle for a couple thousand dollars. Then it went up to $222,000, $1.9 million and now $1.5 million. The recording industry has wanted to make an example out of the Minnesota mom, and it has succeeded.

The music industry has been eyeing video games as a potential source of revenue for the past couple of years. But since exploding onto the gaming scene, titles like Rock Band and Guitar Hero have actually declined in sales and popularity. They can't count on marketing tie-ins with the Beatles forever, and so they turn to where it all began: music. The new Rock Band 3 can actually begin to teach you to play guitar, bass and keyboards with real instruments. This is great news to Jim and Greg who have long feared that thumbing controls would surpass strumming guitars for today's kid.

Cassie

Whenever Jim and Greg become the Rock Doctors a different challenge is presented. They've had to consult with couples, families and have even staged an intervention. Now they enter the business world. Cassie is a store owner in Chicago who reached out to the Rock Doctors earlier this year. Cassie's problem: What to play in the shop? She tends to return to the same well of old pop and funk over and over again, and her employees are ready to strike. She wants a dose of new music that will keep customers happy and won't cause any eyerolls from the staff.

Jim's prescription is The Budos Band III. The Budos Band is an instrumental band recording on the Daptone Records label, which is also home to Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse's backing band The Dap-Kings. Jim is confident that Cassie will appreciate their sound, which fuses old-school soul with afro-beat.

Greg prescribes Jim by British singer Jamie Lidell. Greg praises Lidell's vocal style and live performances and thinks that this album will give Cassie the retro R&B she loves, while keeping it fresh.

After playing both albums in her store for a couple of weeks Cassie returns to the show for a follow-up appointment. She has nothing but good things to say about Jim by Jamie Lidell. It's upbeat, feel-good music that impressed her staff and got customers tapping their feet. She also really liked The Budos Band III, and fancied herself in a British spy film. But, Cassie admits it did get repetitive, so she'll be mixing it in a playlist rather than putting the record on beginning to end. All in all, a healthy, happy patient.

The Lady Killer Cee Lo Green

The Lady Killer (Deluxe Version)

Cee Lo Green has evolved from hip hop front man to soul crooner to "Crazy" guy, and his latest solo effort is called The Lady Killer. Many listeners will already be familiar with his angry viral hit "F@*k You". And, the album is packed with even more oddball tracks. Jim  loves the diversity of sounds and can't get enough of Cee Lo's voice. Greg  agrees, praising the more eccentric songs that don't follow the standard R&B formula. The Lady Killer gets a double Buy It.

Small Craft on a Milk Sea Brian Eno

Small Craft On a Milk Sea (Bonus Track Version)

In the Sound Opinions drinking game, "Brian Eno" is the key word. Perhaps no name in rock gets dropped more than the pioneering producer. But, for good reason-especially this week since he has a new album called Small Craft on a Milk Sea. Jim's "hero" has produced albums for the Talking Heads and U2, he's collaborated with John Cale and Robert Fripp, and he's been extremely influential in the worlds of experimental and ambient music. His new album is another instrumental effort. Jim wouldn't put it up there with Eno's best, but thinks it's a big step up from other recent recordings-especially if considered in the ambient context. He gives the record a Buy It rating. Greg  heard moments of undeniable beauty, but he wasn't wowed. He says Burn It.

Greg

Bruce Springsteen has a new box set out, and while this is of no interest to our own Jersey native (and Bruce-hater) Jim DeRogatis, Greg dove right in. It has numerous cuts from the Darkness on the Edge of Town era that didn't make the album, and as Greg explains, one of the recipients of Springsteen's prolific writing was the group Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Like Springsteen, they defined the horns-filled, R&B-influenced Jersey Shore sound-not to be confused with the Shore of today. It's a sound Greg wants with him in the Desert Island Jukebox, so he adds "Talk to Me" by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.

Dear Listeners,

For more than 15 years, Sound Opinions was a production of WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Now that the show is independent, we're inviting you to join the band and lend a hand! We need your support more than ever because now we have to do all the behind-the-scenes work that WBEZ handled before (like buying insurance and paying for podcast hosting, ugh). Plus, we have some exciting ideas we'd like to try now that there's no one to tell us no!