So, it’s good news & bad news again, both related to CD release dates now.

The bad news first, this time: Billboard has announced that Interscope will be dumping more Guns ‘n’ Roses on us in late November when, after fourteen years and $13,000,000, Chinese Democracy becomes available, exclusively at Best Buy. Bad as it sound, there are two things I’m looking forward to: (1) the best possible review being “It’s an okay album but it really wasn’t worth the wait,” and (2) my free Dr. Pepper. Aside from that, I’m fine if we never post another word about it.

The good news involves the incomparable MC Frontalot’s new album Final Boss, which is released on November 4, but if you preorder it now, as I did, you can download it immediately and listen to it all the time until your physical copy is delivered unto you. Really, there isn’t a reason not to, unless you don’t like Front and are not interested in his new collection of recorded songs.

I’ve been enjoying it a lot, though. The beats are even tighter and more varied than last year’s Secrets from the Future, which could sound a little same-y in places. “Wallflowers”, the first single, and “Tongue-Clucking Grammarian” both have a dancefloor groove designed to get you hopping (”Wallflowers” even gives you instructions on how to dance the “Margaret Thatcher”). “Shame of Otaku” features a very chilled beat, like AM radio lounge meets G-Funk, and a Japanese hook. “Canadia” makes a fat beat out of “Oh Canada” and features Jesse Dangerously and Wordburglar rebutting Front’s accusation that Canadia is unpatriotic. At this point I will stop going song by song and encourage you to do it yourself.

MC Frontalot Official | On Myspace | On Facebook | On Twitter

So, being on the Kage’s music committee, I get the opportunity to sample some of the hundreds of CDs that we get sent.  This proves that looks can be deceiving.  Toast’s (Site no longer available) All In, for example, has cover art that kind of reminded me of Hatebreed’s Supremacy.    However, everything else about this album brings to mind the word amateur.  It seriously sounds like something I would’ve picked up for 97¢ back in high school.  You can tell that they’ve heard things work well in songs, and have made an attempt at doing it themselves.  It really doesn’t work.  “Bird” is an excersise in cliché.  Samply lyric:

 Watched a bird in a cage/she can’t fly
Locked up from her flight/she will die
She can’t escape/these chains she has to break…to be free.

Okay, that’s about enough of that.  If you noticed the lack of links, it’s because the internet is thankfully devoid of information about this band.  They don’t even have songs up on MySpazz.  So you don’t get to hear the shady Everlast vocals, the attempt at a sexual song [à la Nickelback] in “Party Girl,” their crappy Beatles reference in “Judgement Day,” or any of it.  Which is just as well.  Consider this a warning.

Final Verdict: On the off chance that this CD ends up anywhere near you, leave it alone.