AARON JOY'S ROMAN MIDNIGHT MUSIC ROCK & METAL CD & DVD REVIEWS BLOG

Diablo Royale ~ Greedy Dogs

2012-01-27T13:31:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: hard rock, heavy metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: New York City

Members: Adrian Barrios ~ vcoals
Gerard "G-Man" Steixner, Eric Choy ~ guitars
Mike Sankari ~ drums
Pete Connors ~ bass

Three year old hard rockers DR ... Flipt-Up 'Band of the Year' in 2008 after being named best Filipino-American band in the U.S. though the band actually has members from the other far away lands of NJ & Hong Kong ... play the growling hip-grinding unpretentious hard rock that NYC has propagated since its earliest rock days but when it comes to national movements often gets discouragingly stuck on the back burner. DR's second release Greedy Dogs, named after the title track that rants on hypocrites, liars, thieves, war mongers, crooked leaders & other greedy dogs, was composed & written in the wake of economic depression. But, Greedy Dogs doesn't look at our collapsing society from the expected point of view of daily woes & broken hearts & no money or work but instead takes quite a descriptive poetic approach that adds up to a lyrical search for a moral path of righteousness, fairness & hope through themes of bullies & resistance, true self awareness & giving up, materialism & evil. The goal of the album's mood can almost be summed up in "Promised Land" with: "Wonderin’ if the lights will lead me to my doom/Open the gates of gold & sweet perfumes/I’ve been waiting for the turn of tides/Wings so I can fly so high/No more afflictions/No more pain to bear/Take to me to the Promised Land/Oh, please take me, take me now". To match such heavy tomes of woe DR rip out some metal with a strong rhythm section & thick riffing guitars, conjuring up bands like Rage Against The Machine, early Metallica, Danzig & Dee Snider's Widowmaker. DR creates music that is animalistic & even a little bit sleazy glam in that NYC way where solos don't slide smoothly in & out of the mix but come out almost awkwardly as if they're trying to squeeze into the party uninvited. DR keep up a steady chunky guitar rhythm on all their songs, but the rhythms never get carried away or too wild nor do the guitars distract from the singing. Though, sometimes one does wish the guitars were a bit less rhythmically dense & a bit more individually prominent at times taking advantage of having two of them which allows for interplaying dynamics more than just shadowing each other. It should be mentioned some great bass playing which gets a lot of moments to come out of the mix & uniquely shine on it own (i.e. "Remedy") carrying the whole song into some nice contrasting softer moments. Filipino Adrian Barrios is a strong voiced frontman that keeps a bit of a growl in his tenor, who also puts in a strong presence on stage for those lucky enough to see the band, though the live show lacks the backing vocal chorus punch the studio offers that gives a nice added dimension.

Rob Nelson ~ Street Music (EP)

2012-01-25T13:25:00.002-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: instrumental, experimental, rock, progressive
Label: Laga Music
Year: 2011
Home: Chicago, Illinois

Members: Rob Nelson ~ guitars/bass/keyboards/percussion

Additional: Mike Milenkovic ~ guitar

This little four song EP opens up with a bubbling bass & a shaker that sounds more like the dark side of Tubeway Army than what one might first expect seeing the title Street Music. The idea of 'street music' probably brings to mind hip hop or gangsta rap or maybe rhythmically searing metal or it might even be some ethereal Jon Anderson-esque worldbeat new age. RN presents something different for his definition of 'street music.' Except for hip-hop there is plenty of searing metal guitars here, though not the the riffing into monotony style, & there is some worldbeat in the use of tuned percussion in the opening title track. But, the guitars & percussion are stewed in a pot of keyboards & sound effects to create a 'street music' that is defined by an ethereal largely instrumental prog-styled rock mix of multiple layers that sneak by like subway noise. 'Street music' is earthy percussion mixed with cold drum beats, synth backgrounds & dancing keyboard sound effects. It's odd sounding meters & constant changes against traditional rock rhythms. It's a bassline that sounds more like a crawling snake in the gutter than marking time or chord changes, while guitars wail nearly chaotically in brief spurts like passing trucks (i.e. "Street Music"). It's also trance like futurific flashes of lasers against distorted guitars that have the alienating feel of some modern architecture where buildings tower in star-studded gaudiness (i.e. "The Hunt"). It's also a tap dance of keyboards against a traditional rock rhythm like a thief in a darkened alley (i.e. "Money Grab"). Closing track "Nebula Sounds (Part 2)" brings all the little bubbles of sound together from the lasers to the guitars but interestingly enough, considering it's the longest song, it lacks the most 'street music' personality. But, it does live to its name as it is more akin to sounds in a nebula all floating around bumping into each other. The only real disappointment in this EP is "Money Grab" which has the smallest feel of instrumentation & a mood that lurks instead of pounds, but is all brought down by uninteresting singing. It would have been better to leave off the singing & keep Street Music entirely instrumental, or completely synthesize the vocals so they completely change shape such as whispers or a heavily robotic voice or something that is less intrustive. In the end, Street Music is nothing less than one man's musical kaleidoscope. Ironically, I'm under the impression RN lives in the suburbs & spends a lot of time in the less than crowded outdoors!

Kelly Keeling ~ Giving Sight To The Eye

2012-01-22T14:15:00.001-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: hard rock, pop rock
Label: Mascot Records
Year: 2005
Home: Louisiana

Members: Kelly Keeling ~ vocals/guitar/bass/keyboards/flute

Guests: Carmine Appice ~ drums/b. vocals
Vinnie Appice, John Perrine, Shane Gaalaas, Richard Mann ~ drums
Tony Franklin ~ bass
Roger Daltrey, Don Dokken ~ b. vocals
Kerry Livgren, Wayne Hammerly, Pat Regan ~ keyboards
John Norum, Danny Johnson, Wayne Findlay, Drake Bell, Danny Johnson ~ guitar
Bernie Smith ~ trombone
Denny Laine ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals

You may not be familiar with AOR/hard rock singer/songwriter & multi-instrumentalist KK, though his career has included frontman or session guest with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Alice Cooper, Dokken, John Norum's Blue Murder, all three Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus albums, O'2L with Megadeth's Al Pitrelli, Erik Norlander, Lana Lane, Paris Keeling, George Lynch, Michael Schenker Group, Baton Rouge & King Kobra with the array of superstar musicians gracing these projects being a mind-numbingly impressive list. Some of these all star players of the past were called in to add some salt & pepper to KK's his first & so far only solo album, the Who-esque titled Giving Sight To The Eye, including mixing by Yes's Billy Sherwood & work at prog-keyboardist Erik Norlander's studio. It all adds up to quite an impressive resume for a guy you may not be familiar with even if Baton Rouge graced MTV so long ago. Which obviously begs the question ... should you make the effort to dig into the under-rated world of KK? Absolutely! Giving Sight To The Eye might be the best starting point for his career as KK pulls out all the different aspects of his varied efforts for examination & revisiting including varied musical & vocal styles. But, first the problems with this revisit. No, it's not top-heavy with guest stars, which is often the problem with solo albums, as none of them dominate the songs but instead become another dash of pepper in the salad. Some might even feel that the guests have been under-utilized being relegated to just another layer in the mix. Certainly one doesn't want to hear The Who's Roger Daltrey as a backing vocalist but considering how much KK feels & sings like him on so many tracks its enjoyable hearing him honoring his student by not dominating. No, the main problem is that the album, both with a wide & small critical lense, feels more like a compilation, such as a greates hits collection, than a cohesive whole. Like the linear notes that look like a scrapbook the album feels much the same. Considering many songs were written during KK's previous efforts in some ways it might actually be a greatest hits collection. While, on the other hand, that there's no dominant feeling allows KK to stretch himself far beyond what he could ever do with any band proving his worth not just as a singer-songwriter but also as a pianist & a really great & adventuresome guitarist. Thus comes one of the important things a band does - it allows one's individual quirks & excesses to be tempered by one's bandmates or one's limitations to not be a hurdle. For example, Jimmy Page is a great guitarist but it's the arranging skills of bassist John Paul Jones that focused Page's meanderings in Led Zeppelin ... the lack of focus being a noticeable problem Page & Robert Plant's Walking Into Clarksdale plus Page's own generally weak solo output. KK stretches himself but Giving Sight To The Eye needs a producer to reign in & focus. Not just do the tracks feel disjointed from each other, jumping between differing styles & moods with little obvious flow, but the individual arrangements themselves could do with a bit of 'less is more' philosophy as many of them suffer from internal disjunction. KK is trying to throw out every Trump card he has. He wants to prove himself, it's obvious, but is so intent on it that he overworks when he should step back & the output fails when it should succeed. Opener "Rising Of The Snake" is the best example of this problem as KK takes all the guitar duties & puts in a flight of fancy that would make Yngmie freakout ... but there are so many overdubs, particularly within the solo, that it sounds like a tribe of guitarists in a guitar battle trading licks. It ends up sounding more like a Jeff Beck in a crazy nose dive ... if not a Spinal Tap moment ... taking a great riff & song in too many places instead of letting the riff sink in first & then accentuating it versus riding over it & loosing the feeling. This is a common problem with many songs. At first listen one just hears an onslaught of powerful music ... but without an identity to remember. Later listens actually bring out how great so many of the songs are. KK has a strong classic rock approach & shines as he pulls out some prog & hard rock & lots of ballads. As a songwriter he suffers from vagueness & abstract ideas not always easy to decipher, somewhat typical of rock music, but his arrangements make up for the vagueness. But, then, as one begins to feel just how great the songs groove one also feels how cluttered & lost in the shuffle the groove is. A refrain on some of the instrumentation would make this nothing less than a collection of potential AOR radio singles yearning to be heard. But, it should be noted that the cluttering isn't necessarily a detriment in the long run as it forces one to want to go back & relisten & relisten ... demonstrating how one should never judge an album on a single listen. It also makes one want to see KK do an album with less ornamentation & instrumentation, such as just him & a piano or small band like his live work with Paris Keeling that dots youtube. This theoretical future release with Giving Sight To The Eye would make perfect bookends to the KK experience truly showing all of his potential & creativity. "Parasite" has the crawl of later day Steve Morse Deep Purple, making up where "Rising Of The Snake" flies wrong, while there's the funky organ of "Broken", some modest prog-rock with "Ground Zero" & unexpected country on the too brief closer "Jesse". To truly hear how great these songs are it might take listening of others covering KK's songs. The quasi-ballad "Perfect Day" is one example where it's strengths are in full blossom & one is singing along in a newly recorded & released version featuring former KK bandmates legendary drummer Carmine Appice & former Firm bassist Tony Franklin from the forthcoming KK tribute album Tune In To Mind Radio. Considering KK has spent his career along the sides of others it's almost ironic that his songs might be best handled by others. This doesn't mean one shouldn't check out Giving Sight To The Eye ... much to the contrary, as no matter how others handle a song only the songwriter can give it the true personal touch. KK is just trying to hard when he doesn't have to & needs to let the music bubble to a boil without helping it at every step. Listening to this collection one knows that the music can & will. I almost feel sad writing something bad about the album as after numerous listens I can clearly hear its potential. But, it should be mentioned that not all the blame for its faults should be laid at KK's door. His original mixes were not liked by the label so the album was remixed by an outsider before pressing. A good mix would certainly be a step towards cleaning up a lot of the internal disjunction as it would turn the parts that dominate into parts that mearly accentuate. In the meantime Giving Sight To The Eye should inspire one to hunt up KK's under-rated music.

DVD: Bobby Vee ~ Bobby Vee (aka self-titled)

2012-01-21T00:13:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: classic rock, pop rock
Label: MVD Visual
Year: 2005
Home: n/a

Concert location: Little Darlin's, Rock'N'Roll Palace, Orlando, Florida
Year Recorded: 1989
Length: 45 minutes
Bonus Features:

Members: Bobby Vee ~ vocals/rhythm guitar
band n/a

Guests: The Original Juniors ~ n/a

There's a whole world of music seemingly gone ... because it doesn't rock hard enough & may not even be considered rock by 2012 standards, the lyrics are kindergarten innocent or about such uninteresting topics as Betty Lou getting a new pair of shoes, the style of music is no longer played such as rockabilly, was hip before the Beatles were the big fad, the musicians in question are all retired or performing on the nostalgia or casino circuit & largely forgotten by anyone younger than 50. 46 year old singer BV falls into all the above unable to ride his teen idol status into a new generation of listeners but as long as his original fans are alive he continues to tour the old songs with pleasure. In the 1960's he had thirty-eight Hot 100 chart hits, ten of which hit the top 20 ... but his feel good bubblegum pop music has largely been lost to history & a new generation of fans alongside such peers as Fabian, Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Sherman amongst others. There's something fascinating & hypnotic walking these folks today well beyond middle aged singing songs of rubber balls, doing the twist & having an audience the same age enjoying every minute of it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this music & on one hand it's easy to wish it back for a moment ... a breath of fresh air against an onslaught of music which has to have a hard beat, guitar solos & a flashy stage show. In all in white BV sings a small selection of his early hits from the 1989 tv show "Live At The Palace" bouncing on his heals & picking up a guitar to strum away. If it wasn't for the full view of the audience dancing away & obviously having a good time the audience would be less than entertaining. If one isn't familiar with BV's teen idol days the later day performer doesn't passions or understanding of what the attraction is. The biggest problem with this video is that BV's act is only about 20 minutes long & passes by as it's just getting started. BV started his career at age 15 in a band called The Shadows who were called from down the block to fill the sudden opening left in the 'Winter Dance Party Tour' by the death earlier that day of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & the Big Bopper. Thoughout his career BV would often pay tribute to Holly & has since performed with singer Jay Richardson, the Big Bopper's son. Bonus features include a performance at the same venue by the Original Juniors also with a 20 minute set, BV not included, making this DVD more a split with BV than a solo video as it advertises itself as. The Original Juniors were originally the doo-wop group Danny & The Juniors, frontman Danny Rapp found dead in 1983, famous for their songs "At The Hop" & "Twistin' USA". Their performance is just as interesting as BV & its ashame they don't get double billing.

Track listing: Rubber Ball
Devil Or Angel
The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
Walking With My Angel
Take Good Care Of My Baby

The Original Juniors set-list: Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Stay
Twistin' USA
Sometimes When I'm All Alone
Pony Express
At The Hop

Queensryche ~ Queensryche (aka debut) (EP)

2012-01-18T22:02:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: heavy metal
Label: 206 Records
Year: 1982
Home: Seattle

Members: Geoff Tate ~ vocals
Chris DeGarmo, Michael Wilton - guitar
Eddie Jackson ~ bass
Scott Rockenfield ~ drums

Seattle's pre-grunge Queensyrche has become known, if not stereotyped, for their prog-metal 90's efforts based around their break-through 1990 hit "Silent Lucidity" & the earlier success Operation: Mindcrime ... but they didn't start their career sounding like this, in an 80's music scene where grunge & prog-metal were not descriptive terms. In 1983 the two year old band released a four song self-titled debut album, reissued a year later under EMI with an unnecessary bonus track as the band worked on a more formal full-length debut, that was as far from prog-metal or anything that would become prog-metal as one could probably get at the time. Actually, it's seeped in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to suprising levels. There's Iron Maiden/Judas Priest tribute bands that don't sound this British & hardcore. If one wants to compare Queensryche to America, perhaps early, also pre-prog, Savatage might come to mind with similarities between frontmen's vocal styles, lyrics & even the steady rhythm sections though it's a far from perfect comparison. "Queen Of The Reich" is particularly Savatage in feeling but without the blistering Criss Oliva dominating riffing that characterizes early Savatage. "Nightrider" has a definite Iron Maiden flavor to it while "Blinded" could very well be out of the Dio catalog with its epic lyrics. The closing track "The Lady Wore Black" is the only song that hints of what would follow a decade later with its re-occuring slow sections that allows Geoff Tate to croon in the open spaces. Listening to this early album, even considering the arrangement of "The Lady Wore Black", it's hard to imagine Queensryche becoming the success they did with the musical style they did. Much in the same way it would have been impossible to eventually see Savatage touring Xmas metal songs as the family friendly Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Queensryche's debut was largely ignored by American audiences at the time of its release, though it found audiences in Europe, & even continues to be a highligh for collectors, though it really should be listened to more as there's nothing niave or demo-ish about it & Tate is using his voice as fully as ever. Considering it was this EP that got Queenryche a major label deal there's obviously something special & good about it ... let alone its just intersting to hear where the band came from. Though, thankfully, like Savatage, they chose to go into deeper musical directions as, also like Savatage, a few albums in they soon discovered the limitations of this particular metal template to dire critical results forcing a change. For a bit of interesting history when this debut EP was recorded Queensryche technically didn't exist. The band was known as The Mob with Tate, who was also in the band Myth, primarily involved for recording & a few live gigs. It was only after the release of the album & a great review in Kerrang! magazine that Tate joined full-time & Queensyrche was truly born.

John Schneider (John Nicole) ~ Happy Life

2012-01-12T22:45:00.001-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: experimental, country
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Virginia

Members: John Schneider ~ vocals/guitar/harmonica/keyboards/various sound effects

Additional: Tom Walker ~ guitar
Scott Harlan ~ bass/strings
Seth Kibel ~ sax/clarinet
Laura Baron ~ vocals
Karen Oliver ~ b. vocals

Think the solo albums of Queen's Roger Taylor but subtract his hopelessly cliche social commentary & put in its place some country twang, a dance beat & some downhome love songs & you'll get a close approximation of JS's musically surprisingly Happy Life. Or, this very well could be a hip new Tom Jones album. A mix of ambiatic electric backgrounds, from synthetic strings to odd sounds, & a slight laid back country twang that brings one through a collection of songs of love & everyday life. Laid back being the key word. One critic has called JS "sophisticated pop" due to the dominance of a light dance beat for an intimate dancing moment (i.e. "Feel You In My Arms", "Everything Will Be Okay"). Though, that dancing moment changes through the hour into a bit of calypso (i.e. "This Is The Time"), funk ("Dig That Bone") & some spirited dixieland feeling with playful horns, cowbell & handclaps (i.e. "Do I Love You (Go Away)"). Happy Life opens on a high & then slowly melts away as the songs progress into a somber emotional reminiscence that ends the album ... but it's too late to turn back when you realize JS has pulled you from a dancing mood to a pondering one. Hypnotic jazzy ballads (i.e. "I'm Not Too Old", "Peace Of Mind", "You Are My Woman") punctuate the second half of the album bringing the evening's dance to a slow waltz. The dance floor allows itself one final pop with "Dance With Me" that includes a horn line against a disco beat sequewaying to the closing sober acoustic title track, a duet with Laura Baron, with the line "happy new year for the last time, my dear" that brings the dance to the close suddenly waking you up to the story that you were dancing to. Laid off after numerous decades serving as a marketing executive in the wake of a national economic crisis 60 year old JS decided, like many in his shoes, to make the most of his free time while looking for more work & do something that he wanted & not just what others wanted out of him. Happy Life is the catharsis. Happy Life is his first solo album, though it's title is deceptive as it was created in the shadow of losing his job & not finding another in the face of mounting debt, losing his long-time girlfriend & even having his cat die. The project started with the funky bass heavy poem-turned-song "Can't Get A Job" as a personal protest of his situation & then turned into a full length album. But, as JS sings ... "Everything will be okay." Highlights include "It Ain't All Up To You", "Feel You In My Arms" & the particularly Roger Taylor-esque "Remember". A definite must hear is "Together Forever", which opens with the line "I'm doing the laundry" & is filled with an array of odd sounds against a dark bass line in a moody song recounting doing the laundry, cleaning the house, putting away the dishes, making soup & sitting on the couch before going into a church organ chorus about being together forever in a song that needs to be heard for it's use of non-musical sounds coming together. If you're wondering ... this is the not the same JS that had a country-western career outside of acting on The Dukes Of Hazzard. This one is far more creative. Also, it should be noted that JS has continued music under the name John Nicole.

Sixx:A.M. ~ This Is Gonna Hurt

2012-01-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: hard rock, glam rock
Label: Eleven Seven Music
Year: 2010
Home: California

Members: Nikki Sixx ~ bass
James Michael ~ vocals/guitar/keyboards/drums
DJ Ashba ~ guitar

Additional: Shahnaz ~ backing vocals

When Motley Crue bassist/songwriter Nikki Sixx released The Heroin Diaries album to put his 2006 autobiography of the same name into a musical form all ears were turned with interest. Partly it was the creation of a book soundtrack, for lack of a better description, but also here was the guy that had penned so many great hits in a band that basically set the bar for L.A. hair metal & all the partying that went with it. The Heroin Diaries soundtrack was an interesting tour through Sixx's life with the highlights being some emotional ballads that never would have found a home in Motley Crue. The album was slick & commercial but was emotionally awkward enough to be an uncomfortable listen at times & was so far away from Motley Crue it was fascinating for that fact alone. Sixx returned with his ad-hoc group Sixx:A.M. to record this follow-up. Also a companion to a book, seemingly the only purpose behind this side band, the first album basically followed Sixx's autobiography but This Is Gonna Hurt is based on a 2011 photo essay with the music being inspired by the photographs in the book. This means that Sixx isn't forced to bare his soul to give his book a musical form nor does one have to be a soundtrack for the other. There is still hurt here & pretty much pain is the primary thematic device, but the album lacks the punch & rawness of its predeccessor & the result is thus less than a climactic high listeners might hope for. The songs have a tendency to draw on cliched lyrical emotions while the band has a sound that decries exploratory ballads of the first album for a sound that might easily be mistaken for countless number of bands that have blossomed over the last couple years of the modern glam rock mold. It's almost hard to believe that this is by a former member of Motley Crue as one expects things different from this fountain of years of entertainment ... though it's easy to forget frontman Vince Neil's solo career was anything but generic hard rock. Sixx:A.M. features vocalist & multi-instrumentalist James Michael & Guns'N'Roses guitarist DJ Ashba. One of the problems is that even though Sixx is the songwriter he's stuck on the bass so much of the music is in the hands of James Michael. This is one of those albums where a few songs may end up in rotation on the ipod but it's not necessarily a return listen as the songs are essentially flashy & forgetable. The best songs are the L.A. glam/goth styled "Live Forever" & "Deadlihood" that comes out of nowhere & isn't any more original but rock out harder. The best tracks are the acoustic & string orchestrated "Smile" & piano only "Skins" that sound more like The Heroin Diaires ... but they only make one wish the rest of the album was more like this.

Seizure Crypt ~ Under The Gun

2012-01-09T11:31:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: punk, hardcore, speedcore
Label: Bad Elephant productions
Year: 2008
Home: New York

Members: Thomas "The Madness" Reardon,
Michael "Sos" ~ vocals
Darryl Deranged ~ bass
Doug Williamson ~ drums
n/a ~ guitar

A cacophonic deluge of socially relevant musical madness now into their third album. This is slam your head against the wall mosh pit music ... though these guys sound so outta control they're smashing their heads to save you the headache. Music is often thought of being smooth ... flowing from one riff or break to another, vocals that echo each other to make a choir, instruments that work off each other to form a lead/rhythm melodic experience ... SC is anything but. There's a jagged guitar line slamming into a wall at the same time as a couple vocal lines are shouted out with no sense of melodic counterpoint, while a rhythm section attempts to destroy its instruments with every beat & once in a while everyone has to take a breathe before the next slam with a momentary guitar or bass run to fill the space. Slamming into the wall at the same time, while all playing the same song of course, & seeing how the result sounds from this chaotically charged experience is an apt visual for the energy of SC. It's not that every instrument is playing something different or aiming for odd counterpoint creativity in some prog-metal exstatic moment. This is hardcore & speed metal where everything sounds like it's going to fall apart but actually it's far from a bunch of punks not knowing how to play their instruments or trying to just make noise but rather tight arrangements that sound deceptively out of control. It's speed mixed with a lot of changes & sounds like a pain to rehearse but makes for a high energy live show of showering surprises. At barely over 20 minutes the album hits a perfect mark of tearing through an array of songs, though sometimes its hard to disguinguish when one starts & another begins, without ever getting tedious in its onslaught & leaves a listener satisfied that they've got SC growling in their best moonlight madness. Not for every metalhead but those who enjoy the chaotic nature of hardcore & speed will probably enjoy checking out SC, if for no other reason than their multiple vocals attack that's a highlight of the experience.

Diamond Claw - No Hate In Paradise (EP)

2012-01-08T00:40:00.000-05:00

(No official website.)
Style: hard rock
Label: Black Jack/Ironworks
Year: 1987
Home: California (disbanded)

Members: Mary Go Godges ~ bass
Pam Reene Galloway ~ drums
Jenny Thornburg ~ guitars
Debra Lynn Billingsley ~ vocals

It's an undeniable fact that there is & was a lack of female only bands in the hard rock/metal world. It's no reflection on women musicians & their ability to rock out or play instruments ... however much the absence might speak such. It's also an undeniable fact that hard rock is essentially masculine in his raw sexual energy. But, surprise surprise, women can 'cock rock' as much as any guy & often do with just as much excitement & gusto. They don't have to always look pretty or innocent or on the other end sluttish to play the rock game. There's many women in music that have gained acclaim, both with & without the added bonus of being pretty to look at or taking advantage of their God gifted curves, but as for all girl bands they are few & little known on the mainstream. Girlschool & the Runaways might be two of the bigger ones, but if it wasn't for a series of movies the later would have probably fallen off the radar like the former even given the continued performance of some of its alumni. The next runner-up in general popularity, let alone being around in the 70's, would probably be the Slits ... but they were actually three fourths female often leaving their token male out of photoshoots. While many girl groups tended to be on the more commercial pop end of things, like the Bangles or Go-Go's, or are more contemporary like the grrl riot movement, which isn't hard rock, or of another fringe genre of rock, such as the retro garage rockers the Brood, or just aren't generally as well known as their male peers. It's actually ashame. With so few female groups well known it makes it appear that there aren't any & girls can't rock out when there is a plethora of them, past & present. DC is one of a handful of all girl rock bands from the 1980's that could have been a contributor to changing the reputation of girl rockers everywhere had they gained some popularity. Black Sabbath moody riffs with a hard edge reminiscent of W.A.S.P., Judas Priest & Slayer more so than the L.A. glam metal scene then in vogue. On one hand there's nothing feminine about DC, whether in the vocals which don't reach any highs particular to the female voice with many 80's vocalists reacher far greater heights with male falsetto or in the music itself which is straight ahead driving hard rock & cliched meandering lyrics to match. But, on the other hand that a group of women can rock on par with men, even identical to men, is what makes DC interesting. They're breaking the stereotype by not being different ... in a strange twist on things. Though, original or not, this little rarity will be a delight to hear if for no other reason than it's a throwback to pre-Guns'N'Roses hard rock untinged by glam/hair metal. Around since 1984 DC released only this EP outside of a 1989 one-track demo of "Sex Thing". They broke up soon after with current whereabouts unknown for any of the members & their name living on amongst collector's of 80's rock & bootleggers.

Raymond Bally & The Renegades ~ Faker

2012-01-06T23:15:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: folk rock, experimental
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: New Jersey

Members: Raymond Bally ~ guitars/vocals/keyboards
Dennis Young ~ guitars/b. vocals/marimba/percussion
70 ~ bass/guitar/drums
Andrew Platt ~ drums
Bern Nix ~ guitar
Raymond Bally III ~ bass

This reviews blog now enters its third year which means I've had the chance to review a handful of bands more than once as they've created successive albums. It's been enjoyable to hear bands change & develop & an honor to be kept in the loop of their ongoing output. Singer-songwriter-guitarist RB stands out in the group as he was the first artist to submit an album to me after I decided to open my blog up beyond my own collection, further he's also been interviewed by me for my other media outlets. But, talking about how RB has changed & developed between releasing Nature Of Love & his newest album Faker isn't exactly the right approach. Nature Of Love started as a collection of modest acoustic tunes, previously described by me as having a "folksy but gritty" & an "ambiatic" feeling, that were given an array of overdubs by the unrelated Hans Bally of Sweden lifting them to new levels & helping usher RB's return to the music scene. A few friends were also brought in to accentuate a handful of songs. Those additional musicians, with the addition of a guitarist & drummer & sans Hans Bally, have since been dubbed the Renegades. The line-up no longer just accentuates the RB/Hans Bally songs but contribute fully weaving their ideas into RB's compositions from the beginning making this the group effort that Nature Of Love wasn't. Thus, it's hard to look at RB's two albums in terms of growth & change. Growth perhaps in terms of going from a modest self-conscious return to music after years away to a jump in personal confidence to create a second album. Confidence is a better word to pair up with growth not just because they describe RB's music career of the last few years but also the music itself. For those expecting the songs of longing & love in the vein of Nature Of Love ... well, there are love songs here (i.e. "Hear Me God", "Mystery Play", "Good Night Boys") but now they stand alongside songs of personal discovery or maybe questioning, (i.e. "Heroes & Fools", "Faker") & loss (i.e. "Can't Blame It All On You", "Vampire Song", "Bitter Love", "Dead Soldier" & the instrumental "Good Bye James") with a stunning perspective of a full life now put into perspective beyond a single emotion. Perhaps the real faker is the man who only sings love songs? "Dead Soldier" is a particular lyrical highlight calling out simply to a fallen brother in anything but a single emotion with its simplicity as it dances from one emotion to the next haunting, though ironically the music is not depressing giving the song a strange sobriety in the contrast. Actually, Faker is not the moody jaunt that might be expected whatever the song. The lyrics belay the mood while the music is more an unemotional canvas that takes the colors & mixes them rhythmically together. The music has a tendency to wander almost non-melodically with dueling guitars filling every space, sounding like they're playing atonally or in unusual keys, not exactly playing solos but just lines around RB's talking/singing vocal style. In the background a strummed electric rhythm stays low in the mix helping lay the foundation with the rhythm section for the guitars to trickle around it. It's more akin vocally & musically akin to some of Lou Reed's 80's work, such as parts of Magic & Loss, sans the jagged angry rhythms or earlier Robert Quine soaring solos or the little 50's-inspired backbeat. Though, like the late Quine the solos on Faker are not your obvious melodic rushes but ramble in a loose experimental way that is about sounds over riffs. A further comparison musically might be Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart's bands but without the quirckiness. The strongest songs & tightest musicially are those where the lyrics are short & sparse & more time is given to the music (i.e. "Vampire Song", "Heros & Fools" "Bitter Love" "Mystery Play"). The essential problem musically is that for many of the songs there's a rhythm with a soloing guitar or two on top of it not accentuating the melody but either working against or around it seemingly without direction except in terms of winding around the lyrics. It draws the ear in different directions & pulling away from the cohesiveness of the songs, particularly with the bass so low in the mix where its important role as the bridge between the parts is nullified. But, this is one of those albums that may at first sound jarring but on repeated listens one gets into the lyrics, the real highlight, & it becomes obvious that the inner workings of RB isn't about presenting what you know or expect. "Mystery Play" is the most interesting track where RB actually does his best singing in a deeper softer voice. Also of note the album is the first I've received blatantly citing recycled paper with the brown recycled digipack & rough print being a nice improvement over the modest packaging of Nature Of Love.

(featured on the Roman Midnight Music CD Reviews & Interviews podcast: episode 14 - Interview: Raymond Bally, March 2011)

DVD: Marty Balin ~ Live At The Boston Esplanade, June 14, 2008

2012-01-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: classic rock
Label: MVD Entertainment
Year: 2009
Home: California

Concert location: Boston, Massachusetts
Year Recorded: 2008
Length: n/a

Bonus Features: interviews with Marty Balin, Signe Anderson, Craig Fenton, Jeff Tamarkin; live tracks: "Do It For Love", "Somebody To Love", "Summer Of Love", "Today", "Shaping The Night", "Somehow The Tired Reach Home", "Count On Me", "Later On"

Members: Marty Balin ~ lead vocals/rhythm guitar/percussion
Mark "Slick" Aguilar ~ lead guitar/b. vocals
Didi Stewart ~ vocals
Donnie Baldwin ~ drums
Gordon Gebert ~ keyboards/b. vocals
David Trupia ~ bass

In order to discuss MB's first solo DVD it's necessary to give a little history lesson. In 1965 a San Francisco folksy-hippie band was formed by 23 year old pop singer MB that would be known as Jefferson Airplane. With him was folk musician Paul Kantner & singer Signe Anderson, who would leave after one album to be replaced by Grace Slick. In 1971 MB left the band feeling isolated from their new & changing musical directions & wanting to pursue a non-drug/alcohol laden lifestyle, the opposite of his bandmates, which was beginning to take the lives of his friends such as Janis Joplin. Jefferson Airplane continued until 1972 ... though by then it was a shadow of itself & solo projects abounded including the Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra that debuted a year earlier with Airplane members Kantner, Slick & bassist Jack Casady performing with David Crosby, Graham Nash & members of the Gradeful Dead. In 1973 Kantner & Slick turned the Orchestra into Jefferson Starship with later Airplane members filling out the line-up. MB would join the band during their commercially successful years. Slick would leave only to return in 1981 for their final three albums & help bring the band visibility on MTV even after the commercial hits were few. They have the distinction of being one of the first bands to utilize online technology to gather a large fanbase. Kantner left in 1984, the only remaining founding member of Airplane, suing his ex-bandmates for the name & thus one word Starship was born. They'd churn out the often quoted hit "We Built This City" amongst others. Slick left in 1988 for an Airplane reunion before retiring permanently from music. At this point, with a young & essentially new line-up, Starship came under the control of Slick's Jefferson Starship replacement Mickey Thomas who continues to tour the group as Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas. In 1992 Kantner formed Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation which regularly featured past members, even vocalist Signe Anderson, before removing the second part of the Star Trek inspired name. MB joined them for a decade before going full time into a solo career in 2003. Jefferson Starship continues to tour with Kantner at its helm with some members from earlier line-ups & some new faces. Having delved into all that this MB solo DVD is marketed as the "ultimate fan package". It's definetly for hardcore fans as few others will be interested in suffering through low production values & a small collection of rock classics by a 66 year old MB who is far more enjoyable heard versus seen. But, the question must be asked - fans of who? Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Starship, Kantner's reunited Jefferson Starship or MB solo? It doesn't help that the set-list is light on MB solo tracks aiming for the more well known catalogs of his past bands. It should be mentioned that drummer Donnie Baldwin was in Jefferson Starship in the 80's rejoining in 2005 alongside guitarist Mark "Slick" Aquilar who joined in the 90's. One would be hardpressed to possibly consider this a partial Jefferson Starship reunion as MB is given the full spotlight. Its obvious the band is holding back some energy to not offset their charasmatic-less frontman who looks ready for retirement & spends too much energy pushing back his not so long gray hair & looking a bit intimidated at the large audience before him but who is, after all, the founding member of Airplane that has given them all jobs. MB was always the short guy in the background who took second billing to the female singers only to step up occasionally with a few self-penned love ballads. Fronting a rock band is not really his forte. It doesn't help that the production is of low quality with sloppy camera movements, including moving from a stable camera to a jerking one, with none in a great location & never giving a full view of the band. The poor recording becames quite obvious during the chorus of the lost classic country ballad "Count On Me", one of the best songs for MB's voice, when the band stops but the audience is so far away to be inaudible & the result is a band with no music. Essentially, this is nostalgia through the roof with one of the originators of past music doing what he's always done while the band know exactly that nobody is coming to see them & they are in essence a tribute band. You can see bands like this at every community fair across the country & sadly MB isn't turning in any interesting versions of these songs to stand out nor, while he is in good voice, MB never really soars or gives the songs a personal touch. Though, "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by Canadian songwriter/guitarist Bruce Cockburn is an interesting encore & doesn't just show that MB still clings to the protest hippie ideology but its also of the best songs of the concert given a very different feeling than Cockburn. It's also a common inclusion in his solo concerts. Other highlights include "Volunteers" even if it doesn't exactly have the same social impact that it once did the audience still enjoys dancing to it. Bonus tracks, generally of even worse camera quality, include MB singing "Somebody To Love" ... the first time on a commercial release he's sang lead to this classic. There's also an interview with Signe Anderson & two historians of the Jefferson Airplane legacy. MB is also interviewed in a hotel room & talks about Satya Sai Baba & California falling into the ocean & is everything but what one might expect to hear or want to hear on a music DVD. It's a rambling dialogue of one who appears a bit friend from drugs. Its far from necessary viewing though in some ways the bonus songs, largely acoustic, are at times more interesting than the main concert.

Track listing: 3/5th Of A Mile In 10 Seconds
Runaway
Count On Me
Somebody To Love
Miracles
Hearts
White Rabbit
Volunteers
If I Had A Rocket Launcher
2006 bonus track: Do It For Love
2007 bonus track: Somebody to Love
Summer Of Love
Today
2008 bonus track: Shaping The Night
Somehow The Tired Reach Home
Count On Me
1995 bonus track: Later On

Shrapnel ~ The Devastation To Come (EP)

2012-01-03T19:55:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: thrash, heavy metal, speed metal british
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: England

Members:Jim Hadley ~ vocals
Nathan Sadd ~ guitars
Chris Martin ~ rhythm guita
Chris Williams ~ drums
Adam Read ~ bass

British quintet Shrapnel have put out a killer four song thrash attack of the Slayer-Anthrax & early Metallica variety. It's amazing, let alone at times nearly unbelievable considering how music changes styles every decade, to hear this style of early thrash, aka pre-black album Metallica, still being saluted through imitation almost three decades after it debuted. I mean, for example, except for some small circles disco & rockabilly have both gone extinct on the mainstream. But, yet, the fierce speed metal/thrash spearheaded by the San Francisco Big Four lives on through multiple generations of followers with as much relevance, fierceness & energy as ever & a modern edge as relevant as Jay Z or the Arctic Monkeys. What's also amazing is not just how the music still thrives in a pure form but also how it's gone international. Shrapnel from Norwich, England are like the Rolling Stones in the 60's ... listening to the music coming over the ocean & wanting to play what they hear with little interpretation. If one listens to the first five Rolling Stones albums its all imitation of the American blues. Shrapnel is at that point in their musical career. "Eternal War", "Toxic Slaughter", "Comatose" & "Hammer Blow" are all heavy stompers with hypnotic rhythms & a powerful low-end. The slower "Comatose", my favorite in the line-up, sounds like a mass of marching evil robots with each foot pounding the ground in haunting sync. The Big Four don't even sound this pure when they rock & thus its shocking to hear Shrapnel & be suddenly reminded how far thrash has moved in the hands of the Big Four & how it once sounded so fierce ... a fierceness now in the hands of a new generation of metalheads. Keep rocking boys.

Nashville Pussy ~ Get Some!

2012-01-02T13:12:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: southern rock, hard rock
Label: Spitfire Records
Year: 2005
Home: Atlanta, Georgia

Members: Blaine Cartwright ~ guitar/vocals
Karen Cuda ~ bass/b. vocals
Ruyter Suys ~ lead guitar/b. vocals
Jeremy Thompson ~ drums

Additional: Rob Bertola ~ sound effects
Rick Richards ~ slide guitar

If for no other reason I'm tempted to review this band, as many have probably been tempted to listen to them, because of their name ... and no, it's not because I'm into the 'deep south' ... or maybe I shouldn't say that... Obviously the expectation is sex plus with NP & its certainly here with raunchy sex & party-laced songs (for example, "Pussy Time", "Raisin' Hell Again", "Good Night For A Heartattack" & the AC/DC feeling "Come On Come On", "Going Down Swinging" & "One Way Down") with a southern rock country boy whiskey swiggin' flavor (for example, the highlight "Hate And Whiskey", the theme song-esque "Lazy White Boy", "Atlanta's Still Burnin'", "Meaner Than My Mama"). Though, on audio the live performance of two female guitarists stomping around in their bras is lost, but essentially the audio puts things into correct perception & lets the expectations down easily. There are performers that put on a more sexually overt show, any female R&B singer for example, & while NP is certainly playing up the sex there's more to them than just girls to oggle. Sleaze rock in general might drool sex but this is also good bar band pouring out sweat inducing rock for a late night party of some drunken misfits who like their music raw & uninhibited. NP debuted in 1998 with Let Them Eat Pussy that, for obvious reasons besides the music, became a underground favorite with a major label reissue leading to a Grammy nomination for Best Heavy Metal Performance. The band has seen a few line-up chances with the female bass slot with Karen Cuda making her debut here, though on audio the gender of the player in this often ignored slot doesn't mean much. Get Some! doesn't brave new territories & NP seem content to continue writing songs about fucking & raising hell, or in their words from 2002's Say Something Nasty to "keep on fuckin'!" Though, in many ways, for a band relying on female sexuality as a major draw the music is quite masculine in its rough sex appeal. This is stagger home sex not romantic candlelight dinner. The band called Get Some! a refocus on the sleave of the band's early days. Though at the same time the songwriting, however limited its theme, has gotten better over the years. NP is trying to keep the musical attack high even when they're hitting below the belt. This is music for those that like a firm swagger to their tunes, potentially those that love the raunch of Motley Crue & W.A.S.P., the stomp of Motorhead & the rawness of New York bands like Tired Wings.

Eddie Vedder ~ Ukulele Songs

2012-01-01T16:35:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website of Pearl Jam.)
Style: folk rock, pop
Label: Universal Republic
Year: 2011
Home: Seattle, Washington

Members: Eddie Vedder ~ vocals
Chris Worswick ~ ukulele

Guests: Glen Hansard, Chan Marshall "Cat Power" ~ vocals

Some say that there's no more new music out there as it's all been done, let alone no more suprises ... but the lead singer of one of the father groups of grunge doing a vocal & ukulele albums? That certainly has got to get an award for suprises. & as for being new music ... this is not your father's ukulele album ... nor is it a rock album or a grungle album. Pearl Jam is anything but easy-listening. Classic rock influenced, yes ... though many grunge fans may decry the fact that their movement was helped by a band that drew from Mountain as much as the Sex Pistols. But, if anyone had predicted that frontman EV had a solo album up his sleave surely the easy-listening emotive acoustic outcome leaves any follow-up predictions in the dust. But, it shouldn't be surprising, really, considering that Pearl Jam has had its share of ballads & pondering moments, albeit against an agitated plugged in background. The thing that's unbelievable here obviously is the choice of instrumentation. There's not an electric instrument in sight nor even any studio tweaking or overdubs. It's a strange yet refreshing moment ... even in comparison to all the great music that has been put out over 2011. One voice, one ukulele. So simple & so powerful. Clicking of plectrum & all. It may not rock but its as intense as anything EV put out with Pearl Jam ... & on that level may rock out even more ... in the deep seated gutteral way. Of course, as everyone whose ever listened to Pearl Jam knows & it remains true here on Ukulele Songs, the real secret is EV's deep masculine baritone. In his 40's he may not have the crazy energy or intentions of youth but his voice still retains the same texture that the world fell in love with two decades ago & it's here in pure stark form unencombered by layers of sound. This is the EV girls dreamed of singing to them alone from the edge of the bed ... or something like that. EV is intimate with this collection of mostly original love songs in a way he could never be with Pearl Jam. Further, it's obvious that he's not trying to show of his singing prowess but just sing a collection of songs that reach into the soul that one might expect coming from Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson versus a grunge rocker. Also deserving mention is Chris Worswick who is a premiere ukulele player showing that the instrument is everything but the toy Tiny Tim might have made us believe. Ukulele Songs will haunt you & you'll be going back numerous times to discover more & more. A masterpiece no doubt on every level. It's hard to make a masterpiece these days.

DVD: Buckethead (Deli Creeps) ~ Young Buckethead Volume 1

2011-12-27T12:54:00.001-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: hard rock, heavy metal, experimental
Label: Avabella Productions
Year: 2006
Home: San Francisco, California

Concert location: Cactus Club; Basement; family reunion
Year Recorded: 1990; 1991
Length: 13+18+16 minutes
Bonus Features: none

Members: Brian Caroll "Buckethead" ~ guitar/keyboards
Maximum Bob ~ vocals
Pinchface ~ Drums/b. vocals
Tony Black ~ bass

This two volume set of 8 mm archival recordings looks back at the early days of avant-garde/metal guitarist extradinaire Buckethead when the gimmick of being a non-speaking guitarist wearing a face mask & upside down KFC box was even stranger than it has since become on the national stage. It's the early underground work of Buckethead on his own & with the avant-garde band the Deli Creeps that really built him into an innovator with a reputation as a stellar guitar player long before the almost anti-climactic gig with Guns'N'Roses as Slash's successor. & Tame is the keyword when watching this collection ... anything Buckethead has done since will seem tame. Buckethead, aka Brian Carroll, is zany in a niave & youthful way where he can make lots of mistakes in discovering his alter-ego as there's no constant spotlight on him, unlike today where the pressure is on. This first volume opens with a complete concert by the Deli Creeps from 1990 at a small bar creating loud & meandering rock with strange talkative vocals of the Primus sort by a strange freaking out frontman Maximum Bob ... a sight to behold. Buckethead plays a otherworldly robotic creature that comes & goes. It's not the stiltedness of Devo but something out of a fantasy film. The underground music scene has a lot of characters & it's not hard to see how Buckethead pulled out of the mesh, though it's sad that the Deli Creeps didn't last long enough to do so as a group as their jello Biafro freak out would easily find fans. Buckethead is certainly a good & technically skilled guitarist but a lot of his playing is just noise against an awkward but strangely addicting performance that culls from the Plasmatics art rock & Alice Cooper shock theater school of thought. They disbanded before releasing anything though the audio recordings would have given them little justice & they really must be seen, preseved here but a few months old. Includes a great solo done leaning against the wall while Maximum Bob rambles & belittles everything & the drummer giggles like a fool, later followed by a guitar solo just done by swinging the guitar around the body with the fingers never touching the fingerboard. It's Buckethead at his show off best & the character is mature at an early age. Though, it's hard to say if one will be converted to a fan of Buckethead but seeing his roots will certainly bring a new understanding of his charisma ... along with what has kept him on the outside of the guitar hero club. Also included is the soundcheck of the show. Like most soundchecks its a twelve minutes that wavers between exciting & not depending on what one is watching for. Buckethead, sans mask but face fuzzed out with the cameraman saying he won't film his face, leans against the wall running Yngwie-esque scales & showing off his prowess in a way he doesn't do live. A third clip is a home movie from a year later of Buckethead with facemask only in the basement putting in an improvisational cosmic sounding keyboard performance while a guys talks & screams about getting out of a cage ... a cage that is actually a milk crate over his head. Eventually he takes the crate off & reacts to the music flipping out. Buckethead eventually appears in teh background in full robototic moves moves under a transparent facemask, t-shirt & shorts. The character is being developed. The problem is that they are obviously looking in a mirror or something while the direction goes nowhere & the characters do too. But, this is what every kid sets out to do who wants to be a filmmaker. A little barely watchable movie that starts off strong but ends muddy. The last clip is one of the earliest performances of Buckethead as he performs for his family at a 1991 family gathering in the home backyard. He lets out a solo with the family making fun of him as Buckethead at first only to gravitate to cheers. It's a technical fest as he mixes together everything from Joe Satriani to Chet Atkins. Though the flannel shirt & shorts definetly don't work for the image ... guys don't look good in shorts & neither do robots, but the kid has his chops & creativity down & it's obvious from day one. No bonus features on this DVD but the fact that these movies exist & Buckethead has chosen to share them is a bonus in itself.

Track listing: n/a

Abnormal Thought Patterns ~ Abnormal Thought Patterns (aka debut) (EP)

2011-12-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: heavy metal, prog-rock, instrumental
Label: Cynnormal Lab Recordings
Year: 2011
Home: California

Members: Jasun Tipon ~ guitars/keyboards
Troy Tipton ~ bass
Mike Guy ~ drums

An in instrumental heavy prog-metal onslaught of the Dream Theater & Dragonforce variety comes out of the self-titled debut from ATP, a side project of all but the vocalist of the prog band Zero Hour. Blistering playing of the highest caliber with the highlight being that this isn't your traditional dominating lead guitar over a rhythm section set-up but a give & take of sounds, instruments, leads & rhythms right down to the bass only "Ulnar Nerve Damage". So often a lead instrument dominates an instrumental group while the rest of the band chug away at a dry rhythm but highly textured layers & changes are the key words at play here. Everyone gets a chance to shine & push the band forward for a moment in the same way that Dream Theater or even the Grateful Dead work. Take notice, stereo speakes are absolutely necessary. The one problem is that the music is, obviously, wandering & though the peaks are obvious it sometimes feels like a vocal or some other kick is needed to up the notch before the peak fades away into a rhythmic cycle losing the climax. Also, with instrumental music comes the typical problem that it's easy to find your attention wandering with the songs tending to blend together losing their distinctiveness.

Goin' Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino (comp)

2011-12-17T00:31:00.110-05:00

(No official website.)
Style: tribute, blues-rock, pop rock, classic rock
Label: Vanguard Records
Year: 2007
Home: n/a

Members: Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Robbie Robertson ~ guitar/vocals
Taj Mahal ~ guitar/harmonica/vocals
Robert Plant, Ben Harper, Joss Stone, Theresa Andersson, Walter "Wolfman" Washington ~ vocals
Olu Dara ~ trumpet/vocals
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux ~ tambourine/vocals
Marcia Ball, Bruce Hornsby, Jon Cleary, Art Neville ~ piano/vocals
Herbie Hancock, Allen Toussaint ~ piano
Renard Poche ~ guitar
Sam Bush ~ mandolin
Zigaboo Modesliste ~ drums
George Porter, Jr. ~ bass
Soweto Gospel Choir, Jubilee Singers Of Fisk University ~ b. vocals
Maceo Parker, Donald Harrison, Jr, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis ~ horns
John Lennon & band, Paul McCartney & band, Elton John & band, Neil Young & band, Lenny Kravitz & band, Norah Jones & band, Willie Nelson & band, Irma Thomas & band, Lucinda Williams & band, Bonnie Raitt & band, Dr. John & band, Randy Newman & band, Marc Broussard & band, Corinne Bailey Rae & band, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Los Lobos, Toots & The Maytals, Skatalites, Natchezippi Band, New Orleans Social Club, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Rebirth Brass Band, Lil' Band O' Gold, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Galactic ~ n/a

This 2 CD 30 track tribute came about after legendary R&B/boogie-woogie pianist Fats Domino had his home damaged in Hurricane Katrina. Many folks didn't even know he was still alive as at 79 as he'd become as reclusive as his music, i.e. seemingly non-existent. Unquestionably a legend that has inspired many the music community pooled their talents to create a tribute album of his songs giving his compositions a modern edge while also encompassing rock, jazz, R&B, country, folk & blues stylings. Money raised from this tribute went towards rebuilding Domino's home along with creating a community center in New Orleans. Some listeners enjoyed this result but others, myself included, have mixed reviews. I respect unquestionably the movement to honor Domino as he is a legend but so many tribute albums have flooded the markets over the years that its hard to judge them just in terms of being a gift to a past musician. Honestly ... some gifts are great but others are okay, while the gift says just as much about the buyer as it does the receiver which can sometimes be a problem. Further, tribute albums if done well can make you want to dig up the musician they are about not just the musicians involved. It's not about the artists today, it's about the artist of the past. There's two problems with this tribute. One is the length. It's a laborous listen & as every track, except for two by Robert Plant, being different the ebb & flow is tenuous. Though it should be mentioned that there's no heavy rock on this album so every songs stays pretty commercial friendly. These are musicians & interpretations that the mass is going to like, not just a minority. That leads into the second problem. Domino has a particular boogie-woogie sound long since gone from the music scene. It would be one thing if contemporaries like Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry were included, but this is second, third & forth generation of artists that are anything but boogie-woogie. A perfect tribute album, for me, is one where the artist reinterprets the source material with their own personality brining a new & distinct life to the old song. But, largely this album is about musicians trying to sound like Domino. I find the results less than spectacular as these artists aren't boogie-woogie or early R&B & trying to be him is an odd study in oppositions with mixed results, even if many of the artists have bluesy roots. The best artists are those that try to sound like themselves just performing great old songs. When this happens the results shine ... which might make the others seem worse than they really are. The blues folks are the most successful, who are more familiar with boogie-woogie then, let's say, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Taj Mahal turns in a highlights with "My Girl Josephine" as the sound is his as he lifts the old song to a new place, versus giving a modern touch to something out of his comfort zone. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band with the soultry voice of Joss Stones & the always vibrant guitar of Buddy Guy send in a highlight in one of the most emotional gut-wrenchers on the album, "Every Night About This Time". It's so distinct that you don't even know the song is anything but written yesterday. It's a timeless rendition. That's the key to the best of this tribute. Robert Plant with Lil' Band O' Gold turns in a haunting "It Keeps Rockin'" that opens moodily before going into an accordian chug. Plant is sultry & superb in a way that previews his later work with Alison Krauss. He returns with the Soweto Gospel Choir & a little drum for "Valley Of Tears" in one of the most suprising tracks of the album that is hypnotic & Plant at his best. Without doubt one can hear the movement from his worldly tinged work with Jimmy Page in the Led Zeppelin unplugged reunion to his work on Mighty Rearranger & with Krauss. Corinne Bailey Rae turns in the only live track "One Night (Of Sin)" that soars. She not just will make you a fan of her voice but you'll also want to know about the material she's working with. Neil Young might put in one of the most interesting songs of his career with "Walking In New Orleans" that does away with his guitar, harmonica remains though, as he croons against a small symphony & choir. Haunting in a way Neil Young rarely lets himself be. Norah Jones's "My Blue Heaven" is delightful. It works perfect for her with a guitar gently in the background over the piano. Marc Broussard with mandolin great Sam Bush put in a great folk flavored "Rising Sun" showing how far Domino's music can be taken. There's even some ska courtesy of Ben Harper & the Skatalites via "Be My Guest". Elton John works through "Blueberry Hill" & sounds like he's just come from the Leon Russell sessions ... or is about to go to them. For many of the songs in this collection one wishes it was the Elton John/Leon Russell album The Union. It has a similiar boogie-woogie blues sound as Domino but a far greater emotional quality then all but those artists given mention so far. There is some cheating. John Lennon covers "Ain't That Ashame" throwing out his less fantastic skiffle honkytonk side ith the Plastic Ono Band going full throttle on the horns ... the only old song in the collection & an odd inclusion. It's only becuase he's famous that the album opens with him as its by far the best track.

Circus Of Power ~ Circus Of Power (aka debut)

2011-12-16T01:08:00.001-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: hard rock, heavy metal
Label: RCA
Year: 1988
Home: New York City

Members: Alex Mitchel ~ vocals
Ryan Maher ~ drums
Rickey Beck Maler ~ guitars
Gary Sunshine ~ bass

Gritty NYC sleaze rock with the vocals of Glenn Danzig & a little salt & pepper from the New York Dolls & Heartbreakers as only a NYC bar band can. There's no pretty boy glam make-up anywhere around these boys ... or, maybe tough guys is a better descriptor ... as this is raunchy rhythmic cock rock of the best degree. COP never reached the commercial breakthrough that many of their contemporaries did but hunting them up will be well worth the effort. Though one is soon to realize that commercial success is sometimes solely based on luck because COP didn't have much success but the the excellent songcraft of these guys is undoubtedly a few tiers above many of their more famous contemporaries. There's a lot of bands far more famous with a lot less interesting sound. All you need is a listen to the hard rockin' power ballad "In The Wind" to be converted to the circus's swagger. COP's secret is all in the voice of frontman Alex Mitchell who takes to a Danzig-esque brogue rather than the typical falsetto screech so many hair bands of the day gravitated to. Some critics have also compared him to Ian Astbury but the Cult don't swagger this macho ... if one can even describe music as macho. But, at the same time COP were creating a style of music shared by too many other bands making their individual traits a needle in a haystack with many critics not able to see past the typical shallow sex lyrics, while the hard rock bubble would bust a few years after their 1988 debut. Line-up changes would also work against their long term success & stability. They broke up in the mid-1990's, though reunited in 2002. While many of their songs are reminiscent of Danzig both vocally & musically but without the horror/esoteric elements (i.e. "Motor", "Call Of The Wild", "Needles", "Machine", "Turn Up The Jams"), one will also find a bit of AC/DC blues stomp (i.e. "Crazy") & even country influences seeping in ("Letters Home"). It's quite an addictive listen ... though there's no acoustic slow power ballad here, a requirement of many hair metal 80's releases, as it's all in your face gutter rock. There's ballads, yes, but ballads that rock like Quiet Riot not Poison. There's a whole slew of bands of this caliber that were on the scene in NYC in the late 80's trying to fight an uphill battle against the L.A. dominated scene ... a list that includes Dee Snider's Widowmaker with Alice Cooper guitarist Al Pitrelli, D Generation & Skid Row ... that by far are grittier than any L.A. band could dream of being but the world just wasn't buying anything less than pretty boy image. Today the movement continues with such bands as Tired Wings, who I've reviewed numerous times, that try to keep the guts in the music instead of just bigger flash. NYC is a gutter. It's the land that bred the drugged out music of Velvet Underground. L.A. has never even come close. COP is proof that there really was a NYC rock scene in the late 80's/90's deserving of attention.

Anthony J. Foti ~ Fourword (EP)

2011-12-12T21:29:00.001-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: pop rock
Label: Wreckord Records
Year: 1996
Home: Brooklyn, New York

Members: Anthony J. Foti ~ vocals/percussion
Eric Blackwood ~ guitar/b. vocals

Additional: Mike Deluca ~ guitars/keyboard/bass/b. vocals
Joe Giarraffa, Robert J. Kelly ~ drums
Mike Marchetta ~ guitars
Brian Christian Giarraffa ~ keyboards
Keith Ringo ~ harmonica
Russ Morisi, Mike Hoffman ~ bass
David Greenberg, Steve Goodwin ~ b. vocals

Guests: Screamin' Steve Barlotta ~ sax
Vinny Conigliaro ~ drums
Al Pitrelli, Jeff Munzert ~ guitar

This obscure EP marked a career crossroads for vocalist/songwriter AJF ... or more properly a moment to reflect & develop a few tunes in between bigger releases. His previous band Blackwood & Foti had disbanded ... fellow songwriter/vocalist & guitarist Eric Blackwood going on to create with Marillion bassist Pete Trewavas Edison's Children ... while AJF had yet to create the hard rock band Closenuf that would bring him five Grammy nominations. This four song EP, the only released under his own name, includes two of his penned tracks pulled from Blackwood & Foti's only release 1992's Haunted Memories & remastered & set beside two new tracks ... all of which would get re-recorded by Closenuf. Where Foti may not be the strongest singer, though with an instantly recognizable tenor, he makes up for it as a songwriter. "Music Man" is an upbeat pop tune that sounds like an opening to an 80's screwball comedy movie with its poppy bassline, keyboards & horns courtesy of Screamin' Steve of Gary U.S. Bonds. One can see Tom Hanks walking down a crowded street with "Music Man" playing over the falling titles & setting the stage to be faded out by a predictable dash of dialogue between Hanks & an inconspicuous street vender. This is not to say that the song sounds like it came out of the 80's as it actually sounds like something that is just as much influenced by Motown but it is incredibly visual as it is "travelling the road from a smokehouse to a bar". "Alive Forever", which along with "Music Man" features full instrumentation by Mike DeLuca, is an old-fashioned heartfelt love song with rhytmic piano that comes out of the Neil Diamond or Boz Skaggs catalog that's not about sex or raunchiness but the old fashioned heart tug. "In The Eyes Of The Rose" became a suprise single in the AJF catalog after being debuted live & receiving a teary-eyed response. At the last minute it was tagged onto Blackwood & Foti's Haunted Memories with guest guitar by Jim Messina Band's Jeff Munzert & produced by John Abbott who worked with Dionne Warwick & Steve Jerome of Neil Diamond & Simon & Garfunkel. Given a remaster here this is essentially the Blackwood & Foti band, unlike the previous tunes that are really solo AJF, but the personality difference will not be noticeable even if the instrumentation is. It's a hauntingly soft piece of acoustic guitars against a synthesizer in typical AJF fashion, but featuring probably some of his best singing on record. He can sing the pop tunes but its this slow comtemplative moment that allows him more vocal control & thus expression. The final track "At Night" is the hidden powerhouse & one might even say collector's item. It features on rhythm guitar & in one of the best solos of his career future Megadeth/Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist Al Pitrelli rocking out against a seemingly simple acoustic folk tune. Pitrelli has also gone on to call it one of his favorite recordings. He's never sounded so relaxed. It also features drummer Vinny Conigliaro of Joe Lynn Turner & Joe Satriani & was produced by Dave Greenberg who later worked with Method Man & original Foreigner keyboardist Al Greenwood. Now out of print Fourword would be included by Closenuf on their 2009 compilation ...to a new beginning". Hunt up the later release & enjoy both these older versions & harder rocking new versions by the band, plus a whole lot of other great tunes by AJF & friends.

Asia ~ Axioms (hits comp)

2011-12-08T22:26:00.003-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website of Asia Featuring John Payne.)
Style: prog-rock, greatest hits
Label: Snapper Music
Year: 1999
Home: California

Members: John Payne ~ vocals/bass/guitar
Geoff Downes ~ keyboards
Steve Howe, Al Pitrelli, Aziz Ibrahim, Elliott Randall ~ guitar
Carl Palmer, Michael Sturgis ~ drums

Additional: Anthony Glynne ~ guitar
Simon Phillips, Nigel Clockler ~ drums

Guests: Hotei Tomayasu ~ lead guitar
Luis Jardim ~ percussion

In the early 80's a joining of prog-rock illuminaries guitarist Steve Howe of Yes, keyboardist Geoff Downes of Yes/Buggles, drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer & bassist/singer John Wetton of King Crimson/Roxy Music created a band that honed in some of the indulgent wanderings of prog-rock for a more radio friendly sound that was better suited to changing national music scenes. They had a few MTV hits with "Heat Of The Moment", "Don't Go" & "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" before falling apart while touring the second album with Wetton. Downes & Wetton kept the band going as a side touring project before Downes created a new line-up in 1992. This new line-up featured Downes with new bassist/singer/songwriter John Wetton, Alice Cooper guitarist Al Pitrelli & A-Ha drummer Michael Sturgis. Howe & Palmer would guest on the first of the two releases of this new Asia, often called the beginning of the Payne era. Aqua & Aria would rekindle the Asia flame while bringing a new sound to the band that was both proggish but with a harder edge thanks to guitarist Pitrelli. But, Wetton & Payne are two different songwriters & quite different singers & the fanbase was divided. Pitrelli would soon leave replaced by a series of guitarists, while Downes would take his due, replaced by keyboardist extradinaire Erik Norlander, leaving handing the torch officially to Payne. Eventually the original line-up of Howe, Downes, Palmer & Wetton would reunite to record & tour spurring two groups to officially hold the Asia name known as Asia, with the original 80's line-up, & Asia Featuring John Payne. Asia FJP continues to be plagued with fans that want to hear the early 80's hits, seeing this as the direct descendent, while the reunited Asia focuses only on its own compositions. Ironically neither groups sounds like the Asia of the 80's, so theoretically one might even say there's three bands: the original, the John Payne led version & the reunited band. This makes for an interesting history but also poses a problem as there's been no Asia greatest hits compilation that's been able to bridge all three groups. Payne has tried to bridge the gap. The Anthology compilation included both the 80's hits & Payne era favorites, the reunited line-up not yet in existance, but contractual problems required Payne & his then bandmates to re-record the early hits. For those accustomed to Wetton's tenor on "Don't Cry" Payne's baritone is a bit of a shock, while nobody can truly replicate Howe's weaving guitar though the effort is commendable & far from disappointing. There will probably never be a good Asia compilation released & a box set seems unlikely. This is ashame as the Payne era might not be the selling point for the casual Asia listener but it's got a far more friendly sound with more interesting & personalized lyrics & deserves due attention which it may not get without being lumped with the early familiar hits. For those who have the first couple Asia albums but want an introduction to the bigger picture Axioms is one's best bet as it focuses entirely on Payne era. The only thing missing is the current Norlander line-up to make this complete. Axioms might be a bit lengthy with 2 CDs for the casual listener, while longtime fans will already have all the tracks, but it includes both fan favorites (i.e. "Who Will Stop The Rain," "Military Man," "Desire," "Sad Situation," "Feels Like Love") & lesser known tunes plus highlighting some of the line-ups of the Payne era including the cuts with Steve Howe & Carl Palmer including a few instrumentals. The majority of fan & critical favorites come from Aqua & Aria with the Pitrelli/Sturgis/Downes/Payne line-up but Axioms offers more the later Arena & even Payne's take on the Downes song "The Hunter" from the pre-Asia Downes produced GTR, that featured Howe, guitarist Steve Hackett of Genesis & drummer Jonathan Mover who would ironically go on to join Alice Cooper with Pitrelli. For those that like the pop-prog & commercial sheen of early Asia but want some more personal lyrics & more experimental musical forays Asia FJP via Axioms shouldn't be ignored. In terms of greatest hits collections the songs are pulled solely from Arena, Aqua, Aria & the earlier compilation Anthology which isn't necessarily enough albums or certified hits to form a traditional hits collection & on two CDs a majority of the albums, particularly Arena, are duplicated. There's also nothing new on the collection for older fans. But, it's definetly cheaper to buy one album than all four while this is no cheap product but care was put into choosing the best of Asia WJP. An interesting experiment of how musicians change when in the company of different musicians is to compare the songwriting on Axioms, all Downes/Payne songs, with the songwriting on the Wetton Downes Icon releases. Downes shines through as always with his classically tinged keyboard playing but the difference between Wetton & Payne becomes quite obvious. Further, it shows why many fans once upon a time encouraged Payne to step away from the Asia franchise to do his own thing as Asia FJP truly is, in everything but name, his own thing that deserves much more attention with the 80's hits sometimes a heavy & sometimes a light albatross around his neck.

A Ghost Like Me ~ The New Paradigm

2011-12-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: instrumental, progressive, space rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: North Carolina

Members: Brad Rogers ~ guitar/loops
Key Andrew ~ bass/flute
Eric Ernst ~ drums
Dave Milan ~ keyboards/guitar

A few minor line-up changes & a lot of hard work sees instrumental space rock/prog-rockers AGLM completing their first full length album. I reviewed AGLM a year ago & was honest in my thoughts about the difficulty of instrumental rock albums. I also described their EP as a missing Hawkwind instrumental album with Bill Laswell in the producer's chair. I noted how AGLM tackled the difficulties of instrumental prog-rock by aiming for under-playing rather than focusing on heavy flashy guitar solos. At the time they were also in the midst of discovering new musical directions with a new line-up, since changed, so I was reviewing a band in change. It's interesting to now return to their side & see how the trek through the time tunnel was. The outcome is an unexpected musical walk through the soul of the world with cosmically inspired songs as "lucis ressurectio", "The Cleansing", "Japan", "Duality", "omnimadus divinus navitas", "Threshold", "Song For Gaia" & "Awakening". The New Paradigm is more than a catchy title as the paradigm in question is the state of the Earth on a spiritual level ... not just social which is the common focus of bands these days. Of course, being instrumental the details are left to the listener to ponder. Is there such a thing as space rock left, particularly space rock with a cosmic message? If so, what is space rock three decades on since prog-rock ceased to rule the airwaves? It's a welcome mix of groove rock, alt rock, funk, dub, jazz & electronica ... it's also the experience of a band that started as a recording project & moved to a live band. It's a tight funky affair that gets rid of wandering moments. AGLM have grown up since the last time we all met. They've honed in their sound & also pushed themselves musically into new directions & audio experiments. If my description of a socially conscious space rock band puts you off I can only blame myself for not having the vocabulary suitable to properly describe the AGLM experience. They still under-play but have also put more guts into their music. There's lots of guitar solos (for example "Bridging The Gap", "Hi Phi", "Japan") but they are more a part of the bigger musical collage than a fanfare of notes with a boring rhythm to play over. Also, don't expect to music to be a wierd esoteric mix. They may call themselves space rock & they are without a doubt modern prog-rock but this is grooving space rock, think Hawkwind not the moody wanderings of Yes or Pink Floyd. AGLM create a hypnotic atmosphere without sounding too technical or forcing the mood which is often what happens with prog-rock while the songs meander & change never getting boring or pointless, with the dub influences as backgrounds not the focus. While there's also bits of world rhythms in here (i.e. "Song For Gaia", "lucis ressurectio", "omnimodus divinus navitas") & an array of sounds tinkling away that will take lots of listens to fully discover.

Henry Lee Summer ~ Slamdunk

2011-12-05T11:47:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: Americana
Label: Sony
Year: 1993
Home: Indiana

Members: Henry Lee Summer ~ vocals/keyboards/guitars
Anthony Krizan, Dale Oliver, Peter Denenberg ~ guitars
Jack Daley, Kirk Eberhard ~ bass
Frankie La Rocka, Mike Organ ~ drums
Kim Fleming, Vicki Hampton, Robert Bailey ~ b. vocals
Kevin Bents ~ keyboards

Additional: Rory Young ~ keyboards
Vaneese Thomas ~ b. vocals
Stan Lynch ~ drums

Guest: Earl Slick ~ lead guitar

Slamdunk is a far better album than critics claim or maybe want to claim. The problem is that the albums that came before went from addictively great to overnight really bad going off in the wrong direction, so the shadow of the later misstep is still on the radar when listening to HLS's fourth major label release & thus its similiarities with the bad are exaggerated while the good is downplayed. If HLS's self-titled debut & its follow-up I've Got Everything were 80's down home Indiana Mellencamp-esque rockers that shouldn't be ignored by anyone who likes Americana rock while his third release Way Past Midnight was a commercially slick affair overstuffed with the wrong material for his voice that was obviously aiming for a bigger audience ... the oddly titled Slamdunk is somewhere in between. It's so much in between that it feels like it was recorded before Way Past Midnight & is a natural musical progression that would end up going too far to the commercial side ... not the jump back from the mistake that it really is. It's not the folksy acoustic Americana rock of the early albums but it doesn't ditch Mellencamp for Michael Bolton like Way Past Midnight attempted. Working as both producer & lyricist HLS obviously knows what went wrong & is trying hard to fix what went wrong. He sort of does. His song-writing is as strong as ever & the songs will seep into your skin with ease while the two outside written songs (i.e. "Wherever Would I Be" & "The Boys & Girls Are Doin' It") are great inclusions. "Why Me", "Wherever Would I be", "Forever Just Ain't What It Used To Be" or "Cry Little Sister" to name a few should be right up there on the reqest list with his break-through debut "Wish I Had A Girl". HLS may be a rocker but he's actually a crooner in disguise and when he slows things down it's like a watching a sad scene in a movie. But, as much as he has great songs that could fall alongside his first albums he's also kept the slick polish of "Way Past Midnight" that at some times works but other times overpowers. He's pulled in the slick guitars a lot ... another step would have made this is a perfect release. The problem is that the electric guitars often provide a cold & sterile counterpoint against HLS's warm voice. Dropping them in the mix might actually be the best solution as HLS did bring in former David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick for many solos & there's nothing bad in his playing. That being said it's actually hard to pinpoint bad songs on the album & what is bad is usually due to the arrangements ... which means essentially given a second life these may not be bad songs after all. Those who read these reviews know I'm a fan of HLS. He's a crooner. He's an AM rocker. He's got a soulful voice that's the everyman's voice. When you listen to HLS you imagine yourself singing these songs at Live Aid or a country festival & having the time of your life. This is a guy that should have acoustic guitars which he can just cry out over to his heart's content with that scratchy voice of his. HLS is best when singing about the long-haried girl next door in her tight jeans that's nothing like a big city girl. He needs soulful songs of the heart not later-day Bon Jovi. When he hits the mark it's addictive, when he doesn't its a what if scenario. The music on Slamdunk does indeed get a slam dunk ... and giving it this title he obviously felt the same ... but audiences are fickle & careers go up & down like the weather so I end up asking what if after all even though he's scored. Sadly, no matter how good Slamdunk is the damage was done to HLS career & he wouldn't get another chance to try again until it was nearly too late. He wouldn't make another studio album until 1999's Smoke & Mirrors & than fall into a well publicised drug addiction before finding his footing again in local Indiana clubs.

Ozzy Osbourne ~ Blizzard Of Ozz

2011-12-03T01:06:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: heavy metal
Label: Jet Records
Year: 1981 (reissued/re-recorded 1992)
Home: England

Members: Band on 1980 recording:
Ozzy Osbourne ~ vocals
Randy Rhoads ~ guitars
Bob Daisely ~ bass/gong/b. vocals
Lee Kerslake ~ drums/tubular bells

Additional: Don Airey ~ keyboards

Band on 1992 reissue:
Ozzy Osbourne ~ vocals
Randy Rhoads ~ guitars
Robert Trujillo ~ bass
Mike Bordin ~ drums/gong

Additional: tubular bells
John Shanks, Mark Lennon ~ b. vocals

It's often forgotten today that Ozzy's last few albums with Black Sabbath were not the ground-breaking moments that Paranoid was, while without the saving voice of Ronnie James Dio Black Sabbath might have faded away as they largely did after Dio left. Ozzy too might have faded away or at least not become the Prince Of Darkness overnight if he hadn't blasted out into a solo career with such a stellar debut that not just gave him a new career but also influenced heavy metal as much as Paranoid a decade earlier. Blizzard Of Ozz could easily be renamed a blizzard of great guitar playing, great songs, great singing & great heavy metal. It's some of Ozzy's best song in years that decades later are still fan favorites. "Crazy Train", "Goodbye To Romance", "Suicide Solution", "Mr. Crowley" are the four singles that remain concert standards, out of a meager nine songs which is a good balance. The rest of the album (i.e. "I Don't Know", "No Bone Movies", "Revelation (Mother Earth)", "Steal Away (The Night)" & the fifty second Rhoads classically sounding acoustic instrumental "Dee" ) may not be so familiar to the casual fan but have only faded away because the chorus might not be as memorable. They burn with great riffs that may even eclipse the singles at times. The secret of success is really no secret as the album was as much under the creative control of guitarist Randy Rhoads as it was Ozzy ... some say the balance might even be tipped away from Ozzy. Ozzy came from Black Sabbath that featured ground-breaking guitar hero Tony Iommi. How do you follow that gig? You get a young kid, in this case a 23 year old guitar teacher & stand-in for a pre-MTV favorite Quiet Riot, who rips the house down with as much power but yet has a very different style & technique so the comparisons are a minimum. Considering Ozzy initially wasn't interested in hearing Rhoads' audition after a heavy day of drinking ... there's a little bit of luck thrown in. You really can't get two more different guitarists in style than Iommi versus Rhoads. Though, really, it's two different styles. Iommi was drawing from the 60's blues & prog-rock scene while Rhoads, in the same vein as Eddie Van Halen, was drawing on what was layed down in the 70's by such folks as Richie Blackmore & Iommi himself. & if one doesn't think that Rhoads is the key to the success of kicking Blizzard Of Ozz up an extra head-banging notch one only has to look at the legacy he left - every guitarist Ozzy has employed since has been under the shadow of Rhoads with comparisons happening regularly. Actually, many guitarists face comparisons with Rhoads, but few have come close to his magic. The only one I can think of the late Criss Oliva of Savatage but he's Rhoads in the raw ... vocalist brother Jon Olivia has more than a little Ozzy in him, too. No Ozzy solo album other than the 1981 follow-up also with Rhoads before his tragic death, Diary Of A Madman, has achieved such high accolades by both fans & critics & remained a favorite as Blizzard Of Ozz. There's been some good albums, such as the mid-career moment No More Tears, but none have had the impact of this initial debut. Note the remaster includes partial re-recordings of all the songs with only Ozzy & Rhoads remaining from the original recording due to original members Bob Daisley & Lee Kerslake suing Ozzy for non-payment of royalties. Linear notes don't say if Don Airey's keyboard parts have been retained, replaced or just ignored. For casual fans the difference may or may not mean anything or even be that important. For those who have picked up Ozzy's later greatest hits collections they will have already heard the re-recorded versions. It is it important, though. There is a difference in overall feeling & tone, though for some it'll be like the experience of hearing a remaster where a producer's attempted to turn an old mono recording into stereo or some other feat that makes big changes.

Broken Bones ~ Fuck You & All You Stand For!

2011-12-02T13:23:00.000-05:00

(Click on heading to visit official website.)
Style: heavy metal, punk, British
Label: Xtreem Music
Year: 2010
Home: England

Members: Bones ~ guitar
Oddy ~ bass
Quiv ~ vocals
Dave ~ drums

BB reminds me of the first couple albums by Savatage before Paul O'Neill took them out of the black Florida swamps & turned them from a heavy metal band into a prog rock symphony. Credited as having one of the earliest black metal albums with Sirens & guitarist Criss Oliva following the line of Randy Rhoads Savatage built up a fanbase with it's aggression & powerful guitar riffs. BB has a lot in common with them. Though one lost the aggression & disbanded while the other is going on over two decades with seven albums & might just be fiercer than ever. BB's sole remaining founding member Bones churns out riff after riff ... & when I say riffs I mean the melodic type of head-banging riff that has lots of sections & rhythmic patterns drawing from the Steve Vai palette not the current three chord chomp stomp that's a pale imitation. Against this onslught the rhythm section pounds out fierce beats that one can imagine bouncing off the walls of a small club to headache levels, check out "Torture" for example. Vocalist Quiv who shouts with a snarl doesn't have much of a range but is a lot better vocalist than a lot of singers out there. The only problem is some poor production where the low end is sometimes weak & the vocals & guitar solos sometimes are a bit too low. It should be obvious from the title that BB has a punk slant throwing out socially-minded lyrics with such songs as "Persecution", "Hell Is For Heroes", "Minimum Wage", "House Of Frauds", "Stop Em Now", "Torture", "Downfall", "Brainwashed" & the bonus track, one of four re-recorded classic songs, "Wealth Rules" covering 9/11, senseless death, Nazis, corporations & obviously the government. Formed in 1983 BB has often been called a punk band but honestly it's more Sex Pistols meets Slayer, though the bonus tracks have a much more furious punk sound. It's the perfect balance for us metalheads who aren't too much into punk ... they've been cited as an influence by Metallica so that should turn the eyebrows up. BB broke up in 1989 but in 1998 Bones reunited with later members Quiv & Oddy, also a former vocalist, with new drummer Dave. Some have called this latest release their angriest & most intense ... no doubt there that this is a band not to mess with. These aren't young boys anymore but they're a lot more fierce than the generation that has followed them.

Andrea True ~ War Machine

2011-11-27T17:07:00.003-05:00

(No official website.)
Style: dance, hard rock
Label: Ricordi International
Year: 1980
Home: New York

Members: Andrea True ~ vocals
n/a ~ instruments

My co-worker Joey Barbosa (the following told to my by him) was in a NYC band with a drummer who he took along to a new cover band to be called Paradise that included a singer, bassist, keyboardist & a guitarist named Bruce Kulick. Soon Kulick connected up with a manager he'd recorded with before who had a new disco hit "More, More, More" & a porn star turned singer AT he was promoting & organizing a debut tour for. Her debut album was all sessions musicians so a band was needed for the live gig. Kulick was asked to join & said he was already in a band but maybe the promotor could use Paradise instead of putting a group together from scratch. After a studio audition - playing their songs as they didn't know AT - the result was that Paradise became the Andrea True Connection. After a rough tour of army bases in Texas, an anti-climax after touring the world, the group disbanded & Kulick went on to join Meat Loaf on his infamous Bat Out Of Hell tour & later Blackjack, a hard rock band fronted by a singer/songwriter named Michael Bolton. Eventually Blackjack would morph into a solo album by Bolton, Fool's Game, though Kulick would quit during the ensuing tour to be replaced by Al Pitrelli in his first major gig. 4 shows later the tour was prematurely cancelled & eventually Bolton would get a make-over into a soul crooner; Pitrelli would show up next to Alice Cooper & in Megadeth & Trans-Siberian Orchestra while Kulick would join Kiss. Kulick's role in the Connection became a footnote in his resume, not even mentioned on his website today. AT would go on to two more albums & two more tours before throat problems & general lack of sustainable music talent brought her brief music career to a fast close, though not before "More, More, More" was considered one of the top disco hits followed by a few other smaller hits ... today primarily heard in tv commericials. My friend was asked to return for the third tour. Today at the record store I work in Joey recalls Paradise's audiences including brother Bob Kulick & Paul "Ace" Frehley. He also talks about how AT, though coming from porn, had horrible moves onstage & refused to deliberately act sexy no matter how much the band prompted her ... requiring a quartet of dancers to compensate ... while Paradise's vocalist sang backing vocals & was stuck behind a conga as he was a far better singer than AT & it wasn't fair to sack him. Today he's married to one of the dancers ... making the connection literal. Like many disco musicians, or those who bounced into disco briefly to stay popular such as Rod Stewart & Irma Thomas & even the Rolling Stones, 1980 was an odd moment as disco died overnight with no dance music prominently replacing it, while punk was too different for most bands to make a move in that direction, while hard rock/heavy metal was still in the underground. Musicians struggled to keep themselves in sync with current trends & relevant. In what could be seen as either great or coincidental foresight AT chose to move her third & what would end up being final album War Machine away from dance & into the quasi-punk & hard rock world. Quasi in the sense that there were hard rock guitar solos (i.e. "Open Up Baby", "Hootchie Kootchie Floozies"), less emphasis on the dance beat & lyrics that would aiming for something deeper than "More, More, More" though not much deeper. But, as for hard rock ... it's not particularly hard & it's trying to be rock when AT & her production team are totally geared into dance where their definition of hard rock is a guitar groove. The result didn't exactly win any battles considering it was only released in Italy & to no fanfare either from critics or fans ... though my friend recalls that the band went over well in Italy during a brief tour there. Today, if one can find a vinyl copy, it stands as an interesting oddity. Her first two releases More, More, More & White Witch aren't bad & typical disco albums of limited listens with a few singles. If anything War Machine shows AT's weakness as a singer & musician as though she stretches her singing she doesn't have a strong voice to compensate for the weak material. It's the catchy chorus of "More, More, More" that turned a knock-off B level song into an unexpected hit. War Machine doesn't have any riffs or memorable lines. Punk is often a label used on the few reviews for this album & is a label that's been much repeated. I believe this isn't quite right. This isn't punk ... unless you consider Blondie as a punk band as a non-quirky Blondie is a better description of such cuts as "Open Up Baby" & "The Unkindest Cut" with their little guitar patterns & strong rhythms. "Open Up Baby" even has a hard rock guitar solo that is anything but punk. The album's highlight is "Hootchie Kootchie Floozies" that is a duet with an unknown male singer in one of AT's strongest singing moment which could be much better with a stronger arrangement & might have been a hit a few years earlier. It's ashame the guest singer's name is lost due to poor info in general on the album. "Still Goin' Down" & the title track are rockin' little guitar pieces with a good early 80's groove that both could be something better with the right band & would sit quite well with some Danger Danger-esque 80's rock. Actually, a better arranger & producer would have been good overall to save the songs that fall flat which is a majority of them (i.e. "Whatever Happened To Love?", "Makin' Music For Money", "But Is That Love?", "Rock 'N Roll-Let It Go"). This past month AT died at age 68 never returning to the spotlight. War Machine is considered by many to be a holy grail of vinyl collectors & has yet to be reissued on CD.