Viva Satellite

No Depression
The first sign of weak material is a useless cover of a song that was fairly useless to begin with, Steve Miller's "The Joker." Then again, when Snider and his band the Nervous Wrecks are on, they are really on, as with sublimely rocking tracks such as "Positively Negative."

Viva Satellite,Todd Snider,Mca,Alternative Country,Americana,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop,Roots Rock,Singer/Songwriter

Viva Satellite

Average customer rating:

really excellent rock recording.
The last of the Nervous Wrecks...
Don't let this one stop you from discovering Todd
Like, Groovy
The least satisfying of Todd's first five releases...

Viva Satellite
Todd Snider
Manufacturer: Mca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Roots Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Step Right Up
Songs for the Daily Planet
Happy to Be Here
New Connection
Peace, Love and Anarchy

ASIN: B0000062XL
Release Date: 1998-04-07

Tracks:

Rocket Fuel
Yesterdays And Used To Be's
The Joker
I Am Too
I Am Two
Out All Night
Guaranteed
Can't Complain
Positively Negative
Once He Finds Us
Godsend
Comin' Down
Never Let Me Down
Doublewide Blues

Customer Reviews:

really excellent rock recording........2007-02-13

i have seen todd snider live 5 times, and would recommend you see him if you get the chance. he is about as entertaining a live performer as they come. unlike his live performances, which are folk singer affairs (just him and an acoustic guitar), this is a rock and roll recording. and a really excellent one, at that. "rocket fuel," "i am too," I am two," the excellent psychedelic "guaranteed," and "godsend," are all fine pieces of rock and roll. the great, great song here, though, is "can't complain," which is one of my all-time favorite songs by anyone, period. every time i hear that song i have to hit the back button on my cd player and immediately play it again. it's a song so good you have to hear it twice in a row. kudos also should go to will kimbrough, who lays down tasty rock guitar all over this cd. highly, highly recommended.

The last of the Nervous Wrecks..........2006-07-28

and the last good Todd Snider album, in my opinion, before Todd became a full-time folk musician and a caricature of himself, surrendering completely to his current almost-too-spaced-out-to-perform persona. (Actually, I ran into him a few years ago at the Boonville Brew Pub during the Wild Iris Folk Festival, and it may be more than a persona.) Anyway, this album has some of Todd's most rockin' tunes, including "Rocket Fuel", "I Am Too", "Out All Night" and "Yesterdays and Used To Be's", the latter two reminiscent of Tom Petty's best work. I remember seeing Todd perform a couple of these songs on Late Night with Conan O'Brien back in '98 and thinking that he just might be ready to bust out as sort of an American version of Mick Jagger. The music rocked and he had that sort of charisma. Instead, after the MCA deal expired, he decided to go solo and began churning out a series of redundant, gimmicky folk songs ("Happy to be Here", for example, is just "Can't Complain" reincarnate). If you ever saw Todd perform with the Nervous Wrecks, you know that his current solo performances are just a tease and yearn for a reunion. The last thing the world needs is another folk musician - they're a dime a dozen. Now a good rocker, that's another story...

Don't let this one stop you from discovering Todd.......2005-06-25

I agree with several of the other reviews on here. This is Todd's weakest effort; although there are just enough outstanding songs to merit it's purchase. The overall tone of this album is too frantic and rocks too much to suit Todd's best musical stylings.

Having said that....... you should definitely discover Todd Snider if you haven't already, because he is a true genius at crafting words to invoke memories of both pleasant and unpleasant episodes in our daily lives.

So please do, go get a Todd Snider CD to enjoy, just maybe, start with one of his better efforts. I rate them in descending order of brilliance as follows:

1) Songs For The Daily Planet
2) Happy To Be Here
3) East Nashville Skyline
4) Step Right Up
5) New Connection
6) Viva Satellite

Like, Groovy.......2004-11-25

This is Todd Snider as I remember him - at the head of the Nervous Wrecks touring with the Bottlerockets on the stage at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis - where I first saw him and where I keep him in my mind's eye. He opened for the BRox there - local favorites got to close the show (which was cool enough by itself, but it gets better).

Now, I don't mean that this is a live recording - it isn't. It is smoothly recorded, and professional in every way (as it was his last major label release, btw). But the damn thing growls, like he used to do live - it has an immediacy that the others lack. The material is performed with real enthusiasm. Songs like "Rocket Fuel" and "I am Too" actually breathe fire, and "I am Too" features the best verse ever written in the United States, in any song, ever (you figure it out).

He has a song about Jesus on this cd that would make our Savior swell with pride. And you can't find the cd anywhere in stores - the only place I've ever seen it is used on Amazon. Buy it, and you will never be the same.

The least satisfying of Todd's first five releases..........2003-04-05

"Viva" was the finale of Todd's three-CD deal with MCA and is the most rockin' of all his albums. For my dough it is less interesting than any of the other four. I own them all, and saw Todd live one time, and I view him as a fine songwriter, guitarist and singer (skills in that order) who crosses several categories. To me, he is a witty guy with an appreciation for the tragedies of life that all great comedians have had. He is a storyteller who writes as if his grandfathers were Tom T. Hall and Buddy Holly, and he adopts almost a punkish persona at times which masks the great sensitivity which he isn't quite mature enough to reveal. He obviously loves rock, but I just can't see that the hard-rockin' aspects are nearly as successful as his songwriting/social commentator/joke telling abilities. If I wasn't right about this, perhaps his two CD's for the "Oh Boy" label would have sounded more like "Viva Satellite" than they do. If you are new to Todd, my advice is buy all the other discs first. "Viva" just does not work as well, overall, as the others, despite two or three good tunes.

Average customer rating:

Extra Eye

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000LKARN4
Release Date: 1999-08-12

Average customer rating:

Amazing.
addictive sensibilities

Nishma
Viva Satellite
Manufacturer: Teenbeat Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000008QIW
Release Date: 1996-01-23

Tracks:

The Legend Of How Salt Water Taffy Come To Be
Detente In Four Movements
Timebomb
Project Nishma
Supreme Courting
The Great Bird Of The Galaxy
Moses

Customer Reviews:

Amazing........2004-01-19

From "Detente in Four Movements", which sounds like garage band-meets-barbershop quartet(only it's nicely gender balanced) to "Moses", which sounds like a narrative of Exodus written by Joan Didion with jangly Byrds-ish guitar riffs it sounds so much like Suburban California, only it came from an Arlington, Virginia-based label.

It's a shame that songs can't tell stories like they used to, and albums tend to be so homogeneous that you can't tell one song from the other. This album corrects that problem in abundance. Remarkable production, remarkable writing, remarkable vocals, and remarkable riffs.

A must-buy for anyone with intelligent listening tastes.

addictive sensibilities.......2002-10-03

super-catchy storytellers rob (eggs), dan & lauren provide us teenbeat fans with an overture of obsiquesience. song topics cover the invention of salt water taffy, isreli/palestenian relations and an homage to gene roddenberry (star trek). i find myself turning this album up obscenely loud, and it seems like a guilty pleasure. it rocks, but in the sweetest (non-sacchrine) way possible. plain old off-off-off broadway genius.