King's X - "Black Like Sunday"

King's X - Black Like Sunday

2003, Metal Blade

1. Black Like Sunday

2. Rock Pile

3. Danger Zone

4. Working Man

5. Dreams

6. Finished

7. Screamer

8. Bad Luck

9. Down

10. Won't Turn Back

11. Two

12. You're the Only One

13. Johnny

14. Save Us

I have a hard time looking at this one as an official release. Really, it's mostly old songs the band was doing back when they were called The Edge and Sneak Preview. Only they're all rerecorded with all the band's new gear. There's only a few stand out cuts here like "Danger Zone," "Finished" and the title track. The rest are merely adequate. You can definitely hear how much they were influenced by punk rock and The Police. This is more for fans to hear where the band came from, not really something to turn someone on to the band who'd never heard of them before.

Useless Fact: The track list on the back of the CD case is wrong. The one I've listed is correct. Also, the cover was chosen as part of a contest - fans were able to create covers and send them in and the band chose the one they liked the best. I think they made a good choice because I saw some of them... and man, were they funny!

King's X - "King's X"

King's X - King's X

1992, Atlantic

1. The World Around Me

2. Prisoner

3. The Big Picture

4. Lost in Germany

5. Chariot Song

6. Ooh Song

7. Not Just For the Dead

8. What I Know About Love

9. Black Flag

10. Dream In My Life

11. Silent Wind

Rack up another classic for King's X. Not quite as progressive as the last one I think, but still excellent. I don't know what else to say. If you don't already love these albums then nothing I say is going to change your mind. You have to hear the majesty for yourself.

Useless Fact: The band made a video for "Black Flag" and I remember seeing it on MTV a couple times as well as an episode of Beavis and Butthead.

King's X - "Faith, Hope, Love"

King's X - Faith, Hope, Love
1990, Megaforce

1. We Are Finding Who We Are
2. It's Love
3. I'll Never Get Tired of You
4. Fine Art of Friendship
5. Mr. Wilson
6. Moanjam
7. Six Broken Soldiers
8. I Can't Help It
9. Talk to You
10. Everywhere I Go
11. We Were Born To Be Loved
12. Faith Hope Love
13. Legal Kill

This was King's X's most epic and progressive disc up to this point. This is also the one that got them the most media attention. "It's Love" got some radio airplay and the band itself was getting a lot of attention, mainly from the Christian market. I don't like this one quite as much as Gretchen but that's to say this isn't a textbook example of great music.

Useless Fact: "Legal Kill" is an anti-abortion song that wasn't actually supposed to be on the album. Producer Sam Taylor took only Ty Tabor into the studio and it was on the album despite the fact that both Doug Pinnick and Jerry Gaskill objected. Taylor also put the Ist Corinthians quote in the liner notes against the band's wishes.

King's X - "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska"

King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
1989, Megaforce

1. Out of the Silent Planet
2. Over My Head
3. Summerland
4. Everybody Knows a Little Bit of Something
5. The Difference (In the Garden of St. Anne's-on-the-Hill)
6. I'll Never Be the Same
7. Mission
8. Fall On Me
9. Pleiades
10. Don't Believe It (It's Easier Said Than Done)
11. Send a Message
12. The Burning Down

How do I communicate how awesome this album is with mere words? This is my favorite King's X CD. If you don't like this album, then you don't like music. There, I've said it and I'll stand by it.

Useless Fact: "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska" is the title of a short story written by Jerry Gaskill which is included in the liner notes of the CD. Gaskill tries his best to channel C.S. Lewis and it might have worked if I hadn't read any C.S. Lewis before.

King's X - "Out of the Silent Planet"

King's X - Out of the Silent Planet

1988, Megaforce

1. In the New Age

2. Goldilox

3. Power of Love

4. Wonder

5. Sometimes

6. King

7. What is This?

8. Far, Far Away

9. Shot of Love

10. Visions

How these guys never got popular I'll never know. This debut is an amazing piece of hard rock and metal. Taking equally from the Beatles and Metallica, King's X creates a sound that is full of harmonies and cool metal riffs. There's nothing like them out on the market today and there never will be. If I was teaching a class in rock music I'd hold up any King's X CD and go, "Here. This is how you do music." This disc isn't quite as progressive as the later releases but there are songs on here that I listen to them and my jaw just drops. The only knock against this album is the drawn out intro... could have done without that.

Useless Fact: Even though this album is called Out of the Silent Planet their song of the same name appears on their next album. Also, while the title is from the C.S. Lewis book of the same name, none of the songs here have anything to do with Lewis' Space Trilogy.

Johnny Q Public - "Extra Ordinary"

Johnny Q. Public - Extra Ordinary

1995, Gotee

1. Preacher's Kid

2. Body Be

3. Black Ice

4. As I Pray

5. Know

6. Women of Zion

7. Reader's Digest

8. Secret Trees

9. Violet

10. Big Top

11. Why

12. Scream

13. Serve Somebody

In the pulsating sea of sucky Christian alternative rock bands that were coming out in the mid-to-late 90's, Johnny Q. Public was a little bright spot. They weren't anything fantastic or unique, but they played decent catchy songs with a good hook and seemed to have something more interesting to say than the depressing nonsense that most alt-rock bands were fond of (even the Christian ones). In fact, songs like "Women of Zion" showed that the band could say something important but have fun while doing it. I find myself singing the chorus occasionally - "Bald women/ You should have been humble/ Bald women/ You should have been smarter..." I saw them at Kingdom Bound a few times and they put on a good show. If you find this for somewhere cheap, go ahead and pick it up. It's worth a listen or two.

Useless Fact: "Reader's Digest" is a Larry Norman cover and "Serve Somebody" is a Bob Dylan cover. I think this band put out one more album before this kind of music was drown out by emo, screamo, and hard core.

The Jelly Jam - "2"

The Jelly Jam - 2
2004, Inside Out

1. Not Today
2. Coming Round
3. Empty
4. Drop the Gun
5. Allison
6. Maybe
7. She Was Alone
8. Angel or Devil
9. You Don't Need Me Anymore
10. Runaway
11. War Is...
12. Message

I really thought I'd like The Jelly Jam a lot more than I actually did. How could a band made up of Ty Tabor (King's X) and John Myung (Dream Theater) not do something for me? I just think a lot of these songs are pretty forgettable - kind of King's X-lite, if you will. The only track I love is "Allison." Something about the groove of that song just gets in my head and makes me want to rock out! Everything else is okay, but as I said, largely forgettable. Too bad.

Useless Fact: The Jelly Jam was previously known as Platypus back when they had Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater) on keyboards.