Love is Slow/Remix
Christopher Leyva, et al

Christopher Leyva raps every possible reference to pop culture in his "Love is Slow" remix with Red Flag and Thomas the Franchise, which I take to be one man's search for a musical identity.

Leyva the artist has changed music (and hair) styles many times over the years, from John Cougar-esque ballads to edgy rockish pop.

Leyva's Summer of Life is now out and his Central Park 5 sound nothing like the remix. Summer in fact finds Leyva very in touch with his inner John Lennon. The record was written and produced when Leyva still lived in Ocean Beach. (He has since moved to Hollywood.) Leyva says he likewise recorded Summer of Life at home in OB with a fat naked John Belushi-type running around he says, and "drugs and girls and alcohol everywhere." Electro indie pop.

You Must Be This Tall
Mike Keneally

Whatever Keneally records generally ends up being my favorite disc of that year. In the spirit of full disclosure, I still haven't finished listening to Beer for Dolphins, but no matter. When You Must Be This Tall arrives I start at the end with track #12 - "Glop."

It's the first time I've used the disc drive in my new laptop and at first I think that somehow I have made two audio sources run simultaneously. I hunt for a way to turn one of them off and then I realize that oh shit, it's Mike Keneally, and he's a genius.

"Glop," as unhinged as it may sound at first, is actually seamless perfection.

In his liner notes Keneally, who once toured with Frank Zappa, explains that the bulk of the tracks for This Tall were recorded in 2010-2011, and that some of them were actually written during idle moments while on tour with Joe Satriani. Rock? Jazz? Defies description.

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/17/53298/