“The Album: Let’s Just Look at Who’s Having Fun, Shall We?”

And that would be Helmet and Blitzen Trapper. There are those out there who say they can’t listen to albums, they don’t have the attention span, there are those who just download songs, listen to one song, then turn on the TV, then subject to advertising, and the overall coercive cultural monkey wrench we all live under, if we allow ourselves to be.

I guess I’m like an old man on the back porch, I just put music on. One time my friend made fun of me for just sitting there smoking weed in my room in my apartment, listening to Muddy Waters’ His Best: 1947 to 1955.

On the road it was Blitzen Trapper – Furr, and now, as it has been, it’s Helmet – Betty. A couple sophomore albums that really just exemplify the bands’ honing of testosterone-laden, hook-filled fightin’ power. On each, though, it’s individual tracks toward the end, and that’s what it is. You thought you had it with “Daisy,” the second to last song on the Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music: Songs for the Vatican Gift Shop, but you haven’t heard loose late-session high jinks ’til you’ve heard Blitzen Trapper’s “Echo/Always On/EZ Con” and Helmet’s “The Silver Hawaiian”. After a while, by 2008, as compared with 1994, there wasn’t as much to say, plus the West coast can’t really rip on the East coast as easily, apparently.