[Rick and Roll]

airing Sunday, September 28 from 8-11 PM EST and Monday, September 29 from 1-4 PM EST

This week is two instrumental fusion discs wrapped around a debut classic.

Kick The Cat - "Weirdo" (2002)

The Weirdo
Chip Monkey
Yo!
P.S. Sorry No Flowers This Time
Two Down
Right Side of the Bed
I'm Lovin' Life
Visogoth's Overture
Breakfast With the Visogoths
She's Beautiful
The Nine Lives of Thor
Hash House
Revenge of the Mongreals
The Weirdo (Reprise)

If you don't like jazz because it's too slow, and don't like fusion because it wanks too much, this disc is for you. The second of three records by this Chicago-area band, it's excellent. I hear the last one, "Scramble", is even better. "Two Down" has some amazing guitar - but most of the music is written by bassist Chris Clemente, who seems to have a knack for songwriting.

Mastermind - "Volume One" (1990)

Child of Technology
On The Wings of Mercury
The Enemy Within
Tidings of Battle
A Call to Arms
Long Distance Love Affair
Eye of the Storm
Fanfare
Reach for the Sky
One By One
War Machine

The debut by Bill and Rich Berends is a good dose of in your face prog. It's got a lot of guitar and much use of the midi by Bill, and some power drumming by Rich. Over the years, they went from full-blown prog to fusion to metal, and now the Berends are playing in the Jersey area doing 60's blues and related music. I used to see them often, playing places as diverse as Progscape and Nearfest to small local bars. Used to play havoc on the eardrums, but well worth it...there's some instrumentals and even some accessibility on some of this album's songs.

Pat Martino - "Joyous Lake" (1976)

Line Games
Pyramidial Vision
Mardi Gras
M'Wandishi
Song Bird
Joyous Lake

I never heard of guitarist Pat Martino until a few weeks ago at Progday. Someone suggested this to me as I was leafing through some discs. Reading up on some of his history, I found out that he had an aneurysm in 1980, causing him amnesia. It took him seven years to get everything back (including how to play the guitar), and now he is still going strong. Tasteful fusion with a nice supposting cast, including Kenwood Dennard and Will Lee.

and from "Starbright" (1976)

Deeda
Blue Macaw
Prelude

This is pacakaged with Joyous Lake in a two-disc set called "First Light". I thought I would throw some song on from this - "Epilogue" has some choice acoustic work.