Catching up

I can't really do full reviews but here's a thought for some of what I've been listening to:

Clutch- Earth Rocker: Damn, it sure is good to live in Maryland, sometimes. These are my local guys. If you know Clutch, this new album is Clutch plus ( meaning it's what they do, only more so) but if you don't know- they play blues- based extremely heavy music, like Soundgarden or The Melvins, only with more blues than The Black Keys or Jack White. Oh, and they even dip into some Go Go this time.
David Bowie- The Next Day. Ok, it's Bowie, so there moments of Genius. But I really think this is about as backwards looking and nostalgic as he has ever sounded. He clearly is referencing his Berlin to "Ashes" periods, and for a guy who's always staked his claim on going into what's next, it's odd that the Next Day is so grounded in the past.
Son Volt- Honky Tonk. In Country music, The Bakersfield sound is pretty much the Stoner Rock of the genre. It's raw, but mellow, and built around substance abuse. Further, and more importantly to this thought- it's one of the major non-rockabilly influences of the rock sound of the early 1970's. So Son Volt have been doing Americana for years, and now, they're going for the Bakersfield sound, and I like it.
Swingin Utter$- Poorly Formed. Where in the hell did this come from? The Swingin' Utters always did a celtic informed version of the rock-n-punk ethos that Mike Ness has perfected. Now, the line change has produced a great New Wave band. This is the meeting of Fat/Epitaph pop punk with the spazz punk of the Rezillos and Spizzenergi. The end result is one of the best New Wave LP's I've heard since the Pixies' Tromp Le Monde.
Hex Machine- Fixator . Mathy Skronky, Metallic crunch bastards. What more do you want?
The Cribs- Payola - A great singles collection from the band that killed Britpop to save it.
Of course, there's more but this is just meant to catch me up a little bit.  I've got even bigger tech problems now, including a very serious threat to the hard drive that houses most of my music collection, so, Ta.....