The Interpreter: Live at Largo, Rhett Miller

The Interpreter: Live at Largo, Rhett Miller, 2011, :45

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Affable singer-songwriter Rhett Miller does an acoustic live set of his favorite songs, mostly solo.  After the live material comes some studio cuts, including another version of "Wave of Mutilation" with Joey Santiago.  There's nothing earth-shaking here, and the songs aren't exactly transformed and made his own, but everyone has a lot of fun.  Favorite tracks: "Homeward Bound," "The Birth of the True" (a song I'd never heard), "Cynthia Mask" (with Jon Brion on drums).

Have a Ball, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes

Have a Ball, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, 1997, :28

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Fast punk-pop versions of classic songs.  That's what this group does, to the exclusion of all else.  So they're sort of a one-note joke band.  Now, I love punk covers, and I love fast songs.  But a little bit of this goes a long way.  And listening to this, I rarely got the sense that the band felt they were making the song their own, just doing a punk version.  When Lars Fredericksen covers Billy Bragg's "To Have And To Have Not," it's because they're coming from the same working-class hunger and resentment.  This album is not that.  So it leaves me unmoved for the most part.  And to top it all off, while I'm no expert, I thought audio-wise it had a very muddy mix.  Favorite tracks: "Leaving On a Jet Plane," "Mandy," "One Tin Soldier."