If Pearl Jam’s and the Drive By Truckers’ tour busses collided en route to a Neil Young show in New Orleans,  the result might sound like Mississippi Live and the Dirty Dirty’s CD “Going Down.”
I remember their last CD being an upbeat  CD that just made me want to drink heavily. That being said, the follow up “Going Down” is the morning after hangover.

There are a lot of slower, spooky blues and whiskey soaked, slower songs on the CD including the haunting swampy slide on “Bad , Bad Feeling.” “Country Boy” is equally haunted as is “Dead and Gone” which take away a little from upbeat rockers. It starts off slowly with “Trouble,” which could be a long lost Eagles track. It reminds me a little of “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”

 The title track “Going Down” is more along the lines of their last CD, so it is a highlight which has elements of Steppenwolf because of the piercing organ and frontman Robert Connely Farr’s vocals. He comes by the swamp/blues influence honestly as he grew up across the street from a cotton gin mill in Bolton Mississippi before relocating to Vancouver in 2009.

 another highlight is the straight ahead, power chord powered upbeat rocker “Hurtin’.”
“It’s So Easy” is one of the more Neil Young/ Drive By Truckers influenced tracks and another highlight because of the gritty solo and the sing along chorus.
Things start to get a little more menacing on  the sixth track “Mexico,” another Drive By Truckers influenced mid tempo rocker featuring tortured arpeggios and haunted vocals.
The overall effect is  alcohol fueled rock with the unapologetic hangover afterwards.

CD: Going Down
Band: Mississippi Live and the Dirty Dirty

Genre: rock

Hey, remember the ’90s?  Calgary based pop punk band the Ativans sure do on their  new CD “Landlocked.” The 10 track CD shows the band’s affinity for addictively catchy pop punk along the lines of Green Day, Blink -182, Teenage Bottle Rocket and fellow Calgarians Chixdiggit.

Frontman/ songwriter Billy Dixon’s adenoidal vocals are as much a blend of  Green Day as they are of classic punks the Buzzcocks and the Dickies.
 There is an abundance of up beat , crunchy guitar which will get the listener hopping, dancing and perhaps playfully moshing from the urgent “Bucket List”  right through the to last track “ From the Outside.”

There are many, many highlights which resonate with me, especially “ McFly,” which feature a guitar solo which could come right out of the ’70s and  the supremely catchy “Nostalgia Blues,” which features those snarling guitars and addictive whoah oh h background vocals which add a touch of pop polish.

 Those background vocals are also a highlight of “ Or Whatever.”
 The CD is short and sweet at 26 minutes so, if you love pop punk, it will leave you wanting more.

If you like baseball and you love the Ramones and the Hanson Brothers, you will love the Isotopes. Because what the Hanson brothers have done for hockey themed punk, the Istopes hope to do for baseball themed punk.
 Aptly named after Springfield’s baseball team from the Simpsons, the Isotopes Punk Rock Baseball club have a lot of fun playing with baseball. Their latest CD The Isotopes hit 11 home runs  on “Nuclear Strikezone” featuring a variety of Baseball related topics like steroid use , road games, baseball fans, magic loogies, mascots and playing baseball on acid.

Musicially, Nuclear Strikezone is straight ahead, fast paced, no holds barred,  fun,  pop punk with buzzsaw guitar and shout along lyrics.
They open up with an introduction of the players in the middle of  “ Never been Caught,” which draws the listener into it.

Some of my favourites are “ Situation No No,” “ Total Juicehead,” “Chicks Dig the Long Ball,” and “Bleacher Creature,” just to name a few.
It’s all good and actually kind of surprising nobody else  has previously decided to do baseball themed punk.

CD: Nuclear Strikezone
Band: The Isotopes

Genre: punk