Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick

Listen to Cheap Trick's self titled debut in full on Grooveshark.

If you need a reason to hear this damn fine pop record, check out Stephen Thomas Erlewine's album review at Allmusic.com.

You may already be hooked in from Friday's jukebox pick, "Oh Candy", or from your own memories of listening to this now-classic album. Either way, pull up a seat and press play. Enjoy.

Melvins - Houdini

Well. Here's an album that should require no introduction for those of you who grew up, or reached prime headbanging age, during the grunge '90s.

Houdini was The Melvins' first album for major label, Atlantic, and came out at a time when many "alternative" rock bands were riding the crest of the post-Nirvana wave. In fact, long-time friend of The Melvins and scene prince, Kurt Cobain shares a producer credit on the album and even lends instrumentation on two of its tracks.

Amazing how these things work out, considering The Melvins were one of the originators of the heavy metal-punk hybrid that came to be known as "the Seattle Sound". First to wail, and among the last to get a big record deal.

I listened to this album on Grooveshark the other night for what had to be the first time in over 10-12 years. Just as awesome as I remembered it, and I was surprised to find that I remembered most of the songs (I never owned a copy and was usually pulling this one out of my friends' collections). This 14 song version seems to be pulled from a Japanese CD release which includes the MC5 cover, "Rocket Reducer No. 62" .

Rather than wade through a track-by-track highlight reel, let me just assure you that this album rocks heavily and should have you banging your head in no time. You may run out of steam by the time you get to the latter part of the record, with its more difficult, noisy percussion tracks. Still, the surprising catchiness and monster riffs of Houdini's earlier tunes, along with the faithfully executed MC5 closer, may leave you wondering if it's actually legal for one band to kick so much ass.

Mother Love Bone - Mother Love Bone

When people talk about Mother Love Bone (the subject of tonight's "album spotlight"), the first thing that's usually mentioned is the group's place in the storied Pearl Jam lineage.

Since the days of the post-1991 grunge explosion, Mother Love Bone have often been mentioned as a mere stepping stone for MLB founders Stone Gossard's & Jeff Ament's eventual success with their current (and long-lived), multi-platinum selling group.

This name dropping is fortunate, as it has led many fans (myself included) to seek out Mother Love Bone's work; it's also unfortunate in that it tends to cast the band in a trivial light, rather than acknowledging them for the uniquely talented act they were.

I can still remember the first time I heard Mother Love Bone's self-titled musical retrospective. Sitting on the floor of my friend Matt's bedroom at 13, rifling through pictures and liner notes of the group's then recently issued 2 disc collection. It was just another day of hanging out, and broadening our musical education with an exciting new album.

Hearing many of the tracks that had filled the Shine EP and their sole full-length, Apple, for the first time, along with the story of the band's place in the still-developing picture of the "Seattle Scene", I was both converted and sad. Here was another amazing group felled by tragedy: in this case, the death of lead singer Andrew Wood from a heroin overdose.

And what a lead singer. Some adjectives that come to mind when describing MLB frontman, Andy Wood: talented, charismatic, brilliant, showman. All words that have been used many times before by his contemporaries, fans, and friends.

Seattle recording engineer Jack Endino famously called Andy, "the only stand-up comedian frontman in Seattle". As playful and amusing as Wood could be on record, I can only imagine what it would have been like to see MLB live on a night when both the band and singer were truly on. Wood's out-front glam rock posturing and channeling of musical heroes like Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan were worlds away from the sounds and style of MLB's darker, grunge contemporaries, but everyone seemed to love the band anyway.

Amazingly, for a group that had come together less than two years earlier (in 1988), the songs on Mother Love Bone's (posthumously issued) Apple LP sound as though they come from a group whose vision is almost fully formed.

While not all of the tracks are standouts, and some more or less standard period rock stomps populate Apple and the band's self-titled 2 disc set, there are also some incredible highlights within. Arena-ready cuts like opener, "This is Shangri-La", coincide with gentle ballads and the introspective beauty of "Bone China", and "Crown of Thorns". This was a band ready for, and worthy of, their shot at the big time.

Enough said: let's listen and hear what Mother Love Bone has to offer. Love rock awaits you people!

Def Leppard - High N' Dry

We're starting a new feature here at Trader Rock, one that I am currently referring to (in my head, anyway) as the "Album Spotlight".

Here's what's involved: I'll pick a different album to highlight every couple of weeks or so, play the record in its entirety, and drop a few tidbits about what went into the making of each album and why I think it's so great (or otherwise interesting).

For no good reason, other than that I've been listening to it quite a bit lately, our first LP in the spotlight is Def Leppard's excellent 1981 sophomore effort, High N' Dry. Here are the vitals from Wikipedia:

"High 'n' Dry is the second studio album by British heavy metal band Def Leppard, released on July 11, 1981 (see 1981 in music) and the last studio album by the band to feature original co-lead guitarist Pete Willis, who was fired in 1982 for excessive alcohol consumption (all parts except the solos were recorded by Willis do appear on the next album, Pyromania.) Its title song "High 'n' Dry" made #33 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs ^[1]. "

High N' Dry also marks the group's first collaboration with producer, Robert "Mutt" Lange, and the results fairly show. The group's second outing featured a new, radio-friendly gloss and a sharp, focused sound. Hit power ballads like "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" work nicely alongside of snotty drinking anthems ("High N' Dry (Saturday Night)") and fierce album tracks like, "Another Hit and Run".

This is an album that you can rock out to all alone, or use as your soundtrack to a night of partying and wild abandon. Start the Grooveshark playlist below to hear it for yourself.