Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

i need those mott shows. i need all live mott. damn, i'm poor though. well, it'll be around. i have a great vinyl boot of a mott show from 73. i think it's 73. live in amerikkka somewhere. when i'm drunk i want mott the hoople tattoos. although i could totally dig a free tattoo too.

Yeah, those Mott shows sound like they'd be awesome.

I got that ZZ Top DVD in the mail, too, but given my history of never getting around to watching promising music DVDs that came in the mail even five years ago, I'm not sure when I'll actually see it.

To bring this thread more up to date, here are some hard-rockish albums I've liked this year that I don't think anybody has mentioned; good chance I'll get around to writing about lots of them somewhere eventually; if not, maybe I'll say more sometime:

Legless – Finding Mr. Perfect (leglesstheband.com)
The Tonic Rays – The Tonic Rays (thetonicrays.com ’07)
Teacher’s Pet – Teacher’s Pet (Smog Veil)
Crash Street Kids – Transatlantic Suicide (Hot City Recording Company)
Black Diamond Heavies – A Touch Of Someone Else’s Class (Alive)
Other Fools – 12 More Lies (Of)
Home Blitz – Home Blitz (Gulcher ’07)
Killola – I Am The Messer (Killola/Our)
Jet Fuel – Give It Hell/Straight For 88/Dynamite Rock Machine (unlabeled CD-R)
The Donnas – Bitchin’ (Purple Feather/Redeye Incorporated ’07)
The Backsliders – You’re Welcome (backsliders.com)
Reckless Kelly – Bulletproof (Yep Roc)
The Mother Truckers – Let’s All Go To Bed (Funzao)
Montgomery Gentry – Back When I Knew It All (Columbia)
Legless – 13 Killer Tracks (leglesstheband.com ’06)
The Jacknives – Cobra Combat Boots (myspace.com/thejacknives ‘07)
The Architects – Vice (Anodyne)
6 FtHick -- On The Rocks (Spooky)
Night After Night – Unreleased Album (unlabeled CD-R)

reissues
The A’s – The Best Of The A’s (Young Philadelphians Music) [mentioned by George above, actually)
Skafish – What’s This?: 1976-1979 (289)
Silver Apples – Silver Apples (Phoenix)
Donnie Iris – Back On The Streets/King Cool (American Beat ’07)
Demian – Demian (Fallout)
Continental Crawler – The Anthology 1977-79: Cars, Cards And Questionable Women (Not Aloud)

(Actually, that Teacher's Pet album is older stuff too -- late '70s Ohio punk rock -- but only a couple songs on it ever actually got released before.)

And here's what I wrote about the new LOcal H album in Spin (before any editing that might've happened):

Local H
12 Angry Months
Shout! Factory
3 stars

A dozen years and one drummer removed from their copacetic Nirvanabee nugget “Bound For The Floor,” Scott Lucas’s Illinois-bred bubblegrunge duo are still loudest and prettiest when hitching powerchords to powerpop. This time, though, there’s a concept: One title per month, all revolving around an ugly breakup. The song cycle kicks off spaghetti Zepstern and winds down to eight grandiose minutes under the milky way. You start out rooting for Lucas when his ex keeps his Pretenders album. But the more mean-spirited he gets, the more his melodies fail him.

(Siver Apples -- late '60s proto-Suicide synth duo -- not really hard-rockish; didn't mean to include them. Still kinda like it though. And it's on vinyl!)

And the Backsliders' website (hard-pop Pretenders-like Dallas band w/ girl who used to be in Vibrolux, who I never heard, is actually at the link below):

http://thebacksliders.com/

The only one on your list I've heard is the Donnas album. The publicist for Local H kept trying to get me to put them in Metal Edge, without success.

"i need those mott shows. i need all live mott. damn, i'm poor though."

I'm more than happy to burn.

Excellent reissue of Mahogany Rush's IV and World Anthem LPs on double-CD. Frank Marino was like Robin Trower, only somewhat less successful. Sold less records but had bigger clout in management -- Leber/Krebs -- which put MR on all the mid-70's big arena tours with Ted Nugent and Aerosmith.

Trower's more of a straight blues and R&B man. Marino was slightly more psychedelic, spacey and hippie. He had a thing about peace and love, writing World Anthem to be sung at the Olympic Games in different languages, a bunch of which the lyrics are printed in.

The funk raises its head on IV. "Jive Baby" sounds like Graham Central Station (so do a couple other tunes on this, namely "Moonwalk") but "The Answer" sounds like a song left off Trower's For Earth Below and that's a compliment. "Dragonfly" is also sinuous and hard at the same time. "Little Sexy Annie," a guitar explosion and double speed sounds like the basis for Rick Derringer's "Across the Universe." They were in the arenas at the same time, so it's a possibility. Frank Marino was never much of a singer, though, often sounding like the "cool cats" you heard on the tracks selected for blaxploitation B-movies. However, then the heavy wah-wah guitar would come down, hence the big Hendrix comparisons.

Not much of a pop songwriter, to the regret of his bandmates who wish in liner notes he would have written more glitzy material.

Mahogany Rush now almost always an acquired taste although lots knew who they were in the mid-Seventies.

Before the live album, which came after these two, IV was probably Mahogany Rush's best LP.

Ya gotta hear the guy shouting "Moonwalk! Funky!" -- all the lyrics apparently thought necessary for the tune of the same. Plus a mini-opera, "IV (The Emperor)" is included.

Weed's [i]Weed</>! This is one I'm sure skott has on old Brain vinyl. SPV reissue, part of "revisiting Krautrock" part of catalog.

Ken Hensley stiffening up a Kraut four-piece and lo if it doesn't sound a bit like the first Uriah Heep LP, even down to David Byron-esque vocals. "Slowin' Down" is Uriah Heep-shuffle boogie, only a hair slower with Hensley on slide.

"Weed" is seven minute instrumental spazz-out (even includes loving cop from "Moby Dick"), the kind every band had to have in 70 or so. The band's name doesn't get over how hard it sounds, crashing and crunching on half the tunes, including one Heep-ish ballad and a more glossy piece, "Before I Die," to show they weren't entirely cavemen.

If you'd just bought Heep's first album and you snagged this because of the cover, you wouldn't be disappointed by your spec buy once you got home. But that would've been in 1970. All bets off now.

I like that Donnas album! But then, I've liked all their albums. I wholeheartedly support their desire to become Def Leppard, though.

Speaking of Def Leppard, the Man Raze album (Phil Collen w/ his former bandmate in early '80s NWOBHM glamsters Girl Simon Laffey plus Pistol Paul Cook on drums) is way better than I expected it to be. (I'd say more, but I've got an assignment to review it. I still never heard this year's actual Def Lep album, but judging from George's comments above, I can't imagine that this thing isn't a whole lot better.)

New Night Ranger still rocking me too, by the way.

If there's one thing I want from Def Leppard, its sparkle.

"Demian – Demian (Fallout)"

why does the only label in the world that i am actively boycotting have to friggin' put this out!!! still want a vinyl copy though. i'm just too cheap to pay the 100+ ebay price for it.

i could go for a demian/bubble puppy tattoo too.

here is a picture of two of my favorite hard rock bands together in the same room:

http://home.austin.rr.com/david709/parlament.jpg

http://www.dickdestiny.com/bitchinsmall.JPG
Still on my list of 2008 plays. Better than Goddo, even. (Obscure joke for the old-timers.)

http://www.dickdestiny.com/weedsmall.JPG

Actually, an even better album than I indicated upthread. A good amount of thud and when they have nothing to sing, they don't. Better'n Head Over Heels, Bull Angus, Black Pearl. Maybe about even with Bang's first album. Not really ahead of its time, just right on time. If you remember Heavy Equipment or Leaf Hound or Toad from the old thud rock threads, and liked them, you'd probably like Weed.

Saw Heavy Load doc on IMC. If you don't have cable this may mean nothing to you. Unless you're from England.

Heavy Load = punk rock quintet with three mentally handicapped members. They do covers. At the beginning of the doc, they sounded like Half Japanese. By the end of ninety minutes, a span that covered the filmmaker's two years with the band, they put on a steady performance where one could actually recognize the songs. Covered Kylie Minogue for a B-side of their "Stay Up Late" single/campaign combo. Background: Single made to change the habit of support workers for the handicapped who leave duty early in the evening mandating that the handicapped always have to go home and to bed at 9:30. Disruptive of Heavy Load gigs in which half the audience would leave mid-set because the support care said it was time to go home.

Recommended by Wreckless Eric who thought their lead singer had charisma. True, to an extent which is an acquired taste. You have to have an enthusiasm for senseless random cursing as a vocal style.

A charming film, with everybody very warm-hearted and sincere.

Picked up recent Japanese paper sleeve mini-double LP reissue of John Lennon's Sometime in New York City from '72. Didn't much like it in '72 when I bought the vinyl expecting something middle of the road. I was listening to Foghat's debut and, well...

Anyway, it's a decent old-timey hard rock record. Studio side has Lennon and Yoko Ono singing songs of socialism to backing by Elephant's Memory, who were kind of retro in a classic Sha-Na-Na's backing band type of way, complete with a sax player. Yoko One sings a couple solo cuts, easily skippable. She does actually try to sing on the studio side.

She does backing on Lennon's track which are rock 'n' roll. "New York City" and "Attica State" are fair examples. The former is the best with Lennon going on about his local view of Manhattan with John Peel singing about the Pope smoking dope. Must have been about the time Lennon had something to do with Peel's "The Pope Smoke Dope" record, too. "John Sinclair" is country blues on national steel, demanding the subject be set free. Plus there's a really boring tune about Angela Davis.

Live side is from two gigs, one at the Lyceum and at one at the Fillmore East. Lyceum date includes eight great minutes of "Cold Turkey" and 16 horrible ones of Ono screaming on "Don't Worry Kyoko."

For the Fillmore East tunes, Lennon and Ono are joined by Frank Zappa and the Mothers. According to one of my Zappa biographies, Lennon and Zappa had made a gentlemen's agreement over dinner to get together for this, record it and have equal claim to the royalties. Lennon put it out as "Live Jam" -- the second "free" LP with "Sometime." It starts with the Mothers backing him on "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" which is advertised as raw rock and roll, ala Cavern Club Beatles. Ono starts screaming during it but it's mixed a bit low so it sounds sort of like a nutty fan. Zappa delivers a great solo.

Then the Mothers go into the instrumental meat of "King Kong." Lennon and Ono renamed this as "Jamrag" and "Scumbag" for the NYC album. The playing is par for the course Mothers, pretty fierce hard jazzy R&B rock fusion. Ono screams through all of it. Only now it sounds like an insane fan more than the savage annoyance most took it for decades ago. It's amusing and even Zappa must have thought so during the performance as he intrpoduces "Scumbag" as a song which the audience can sing along to. What's on the record is Lennon singing "Scumbag" while the Mothers trade licks. It rocks OK. Phil Spector, who produced "Sometime" for Lennon mixed out the Mothers singing "Put Yoko in the scumbag" during the performance. Zappa restored it in 1992 for his "Playground Psychotics" regard, when he finally took the opportunity to re-release the Fillmore East performance.

Then there's eight minutes of Yoko screaming again at the end, which can be skipped, being what Zappa puckishly called "A Small Eternity with Yoko Ono."

The Apple remaster from a couple years ago remove "Scumbag" and "Jamrag," probably out of courtesy to the Zappa estate. If you see this on vinyl cheap, it's worth a spec buy. I'm more than happy with it.

The other thing I've been listening to a lot is Illimite by Telephone, a thirty year retrospec issue of the best of the band with one live disc. Telephone was France's best-selling rock 'n' roll band from the late Seventies to the mid-Eighties. The band sang everything in France and never made a dent anywhere but in their home country. The live work is crushing, taken from a variety of gigs. Two very good, very Stone-sy guitar players and a hot rhythm section who definitely could lay down the backbeat. Maybe more later, definitely a high point of summer listening ...

Actually, Telephone sang everything in French -- haw (?!) --rather than just in France, which they did, too. And Frank Zappa did a funny song called "In France," featuring his standard mix of toilet and sex humor.

Teachers Pet review:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Teachers-Pet-Teachers-Pet-MP3-Download/11213172.html

Issue #1 (June 08) of Blurt magazine downloadable at link; I have a bunch of reviews starting on page 58, including these two:

http://www.blurt-online.com/

LEGLESS Finding Mr. Perfect (leglesstheband.com)

Life isn’t pretty, so Schoolgirl Amanda, Policewoman Shazza, Nurse Ra, and Virgin Bride Imaj dress up like zombies while offering their tonic for the Aussie Army troops: a heavily accented, glam-rumbling, Girlschool-reminiscent concoction that jokes and drinks as hard as it rocks. They invent a dance called the “Hip Thrust” that sounds more like “the head butt” but which they promise is nothing like the Y.M.C.A. or chicken dance or twist or Monster Mash (which rhymes with the Clash); they tell you to look at their eyes not their chest while they steal fake Asian notes from the Vapors’ “Turning Japanese”; they celebrate foolish nutters and falling knickers; they rap like rockabillies and goth like hippies and close with a speedy marsupial folk madrigal. And though on their earlier 13 Killer Tracks they were already begging to be bitten while initiating fights between Freddy and Jason, this one’s got the riffs to bring old stiff Bon Scott back from the dead.

OTHER FOOLS 12 More Lies (Of)

Titles like “Asshole City” and “Guns Down Or Go Down” betray an obligatory Turbonegro influence, but where these Swiss blisterers truly earn their leather is “Cruisin’” and the unexpectedly moving ballad “How To Forget You,” steeped in the sleazily Eurotrashed homoerotic passion of Turbonegro’s unjustly forgotten ’80s Swede forebears, Leather Nun. Opening balls-to-the-wall biker blasts “Too Late” and “Baby Radio” – the former about missing the bus, the latter about scoring a hit – are closer to bubblegum Motörhead; closing theme tune “Other Fools” quotes both “Whole Lotta Rosie” and “Highway To Hell” outright.

Hmmm, that first one sounds like charity case crap. I'm out-of-gas on the zombie rockabilly shtick/fetish. What's the root of that, anyway? It's an image that needs to be taken behind the shed and put down.

Astonishingly, Yoko Ono's "We're All Water" does not totally suck on Sometime in New York City -- probably because Lennon and Elephant's Memory are doing a pub rock vamp behind the "singing".

Nah, Legless not a charity case. I could do without the Halloween costumes, sure, but they don't really impinge on the music much. George, I suspect you'd at least like their most Girlschoolish tunes "G.I.A. (Girls In Action)" and maybe "Drinking Tonight" -- Aussie accents make the rowdiness even catchier, not unlike Leanne Kingwell. Other favorites are probably "Pet Hate" (the one with the stolen Vapors hook, despite the song having nothing to do being Japanese, plus the amusing line "Stare at my eyes, not at my tits/You know that gives me the shits") and the closing folk-dance-rhythmed thing "Advance Australian Fair." (Sounds Irish jiggy to me; not sure if there are actual Australian fair bands who play that kinda stuff or not.) They could probably benefit from the Donnas' production budget (or, okay, the Donnas' guitar player too), and two slow songs is probably at least one too many, but the whole thing only lasts 28 minutes for 10 songs, about right in my book. So, one of my favorite albums of the year so far; definitely prefer it to Other Fools (who I need to relisten to, regardless.)

zombie rockabilly shtick/fetish. What's the root of that, anyway?

Good question. Never had any use for that idiotic shtick, not 30 years ago when the Cramps (I assume) invented it and not now, but strangely enough, it often seems to come (even now) with energetic music attached. (The "good question," though, is how rockabilly first became associated with zombies and monster movies -- where did the Cramps get that from in the first place? It's not like early rockabilly was especially horror-obsessed, was it? Hasil Adkins, maybe? Screamin' Jay Hawkins never rockabillied, right? How 'bout Screaming Lord Sutch?)

Also know very little about marsupial military culture, though there's something amusing about Aussie soldiers apparently being Legless's primary audience. They even link to the "Department of Defence media room" from their website. And at least one of their other fans sure does look a lot like Angry Anderson from Rose Tattoo, if you ask me:

http://www.leglesstheband.com/fanpic14.htm

By the way, Martin Popoff seems to be a fan of that Weed album, too; in his '70s book, he gave it a "5" for heaviness, and an "8" for overall quality.

Other hard rock stuff I've been liking in recent weeks: Rags Rags (Dolls-like '70s NYC unknowns; eight songs, actually released on CD in 2006); Archer Doom$day Profit$ (closest thing to a metal album I've remotely given a shit about lately); Boss Martians Pressure In the Sodo.

I always thought the Cramps got their look from the Munsters TV show which I don't recall featuring zombies. They also had someone who looked a little like Lurch from the Addams Family. I never thought Lurch was a zombie. The Cramps did not have the irritating speed-addict jitterbugging quality that most of them bring now.

Screaming Lord Sutch was copying Hawkins but that was only for part of his second record and may have actually been recorded at a Halloween show, so I'd have to check. Since he was backed up by members of Deep Purple and Mott the Hoople on that record, there was no rockabilly. With Blackmore on guitar, it sounded like DP, like the first Sutch record sounded like Zeppelin was the backing band, which it was -- sort of.

The reality TV show that featured the American band run-off last year had at least two acts of zombie rockabilly. Both of 'em were bounced quick as they were identical: paint-on make-up and play like there are ants in your pants. In some 'burgs there must now be a way to make barband money off the novelty of looking like zombie rockbillies

Yep, that's Angry Anderson.

about Aussie soldiers apparently being Legless's primary audience

Deprived men drink until paralyzation while girls/dames perform a rock show. Seems logical to me.

Relicking guitars Will that be one or two Rory Gallaghers, sir?

Recommended: the new Stephen Pearcy album, out in two weeks or so. Eleven songs in 33 minutes, including only one ballad and a closing redo of "Round & Round" with the Donnas as backing band, including Brett "Donna A." Anderson duetting on lead vocals. Guitar solos possibly better than the original. A stripped-down hard rock record reminiscent (to me anyway) of the last two Nugent offerings, with a little less lyrical Neanderthal-ism. Pearcy's voice is so shot and sneery he almost sounds like he's imitating Johnny Thunders sometimes, but the band kicks.

Gorge-

Great stuff on your blog. The article about Liz Phair and nerds is priceless, I agree with you completely

I finally heard Live Peace In Toronto, which was sooo fucking boring and snoozin to the oldies (were Claptone and Lennon more on junk or carbs), until Yoko finally CUT OOOOSE and I was so glad (mind you, it was much shorter than Sometime in New York City, which I still haven't heard)(although I've heard a fair amount of her later stuff, which christgau.com does a pretty good job of sorting out, although I don't know that he's gotten to the remakes/remixes of the past few years, like "Death Of Samantha" with Porcupine Tree, which made my P&J/J' P Top Ten) This week I've been watching the DVD of The Gits doc, real unusual talk/music balance, and Mia's awesome; wish they'd talked to the guitarists about how they got their sound (the mysteries of punk minimalism, how does playing the same stuff fit so well with diff words and melodies, although the melodies are *seemingly* all coming from the voice). of course like almost all music docs it leaves out more stuff than most book editors would stand for. (Joan Jett's shown performing with Evil Stig briefly; I think I remember only liking the unlisted bonus stuff on their CD; she just didn't seem to fit, although wasn't Kathleen Hanna on there too, seems like she was better)

"...leaves out more stuff than most book editors would stand for leaving out," I meant.

Clapton and Harrison play guitar on "Cold Turkey" recorded at the Lyceum, the cuts that kicks off the "Live Jam" freebie from Sometime in NYC. Course, it's no longer free but the guitars are pretty gouging on the signature riff. "Don't Worry Kyoko" builds off a simple vamp for about half its duration, the rest is feedback. Actually, pretty mild feedback. "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" is the best straight cut on the side. It's FZ and the Mothers who snap to attention after the first verse/chorus and they "get" the changes. Don Preston (?) is on drums and between him and the bass player, the turnarounds are pretty hot in a terse R&B rock way. The Jamrag/Scumbag cop off "King Kong" is good, as said upstream. Then there's a bit of feedback and Yoko screaming for eight minutes, which is where I usually hit the eject. Usually. For feedback and screaming, it's not really alienating. More just a snooze.

Yoko singing on "We're All Water" from the studio part is like a pub rock song. Probably because of Elephant's Memory, the backing band.

I received a ton of promo e-mail crap on the Gits doc. Of course, no review copy, par for the course. Consequently, the blurbs and hype were utterly wasted. Never was interested in the Evil Stig record.

Hotcha, two more deluxe UFO reissues -- Lights Out and Obsession picked up at BestBuy. The Hold Steady's newest was getting the push on the front table at reduced price, reviewed favorably in the LAT. But I passed right on by. Maybe next week.

Both albums produced by Ron Nevison who was ascending to big name hard rock producer at the same time. Albums are about equivalent -- classy hard rock built solidly on catchy tunes and riffs, all anchored by killing guitar from Schenker. All the solos on Lights Out were cut through a Pignose, the mini-amp that everyone who's played guitar has bought at least once. Nevison had string arrangements added to some of the more introspective numbers giving UFO a big deal well-arranged sound. The solo in "Gettin' Ready" sounds like it was taken lock, stock and barrel from a Pink Floyd session.

Obsession is my favorite UFO record. Regal in parts, it projects superiority. "Only You Can Rock Me" was custom-made for American audiences, meant to have a stadium riff to compete with Kiss and Ted Nugent. UFO never made that kind of draw, though. Lights Out charted to the high twenties but Obsession didn't do the same business although more was hoped for it. Schenker sticks in pretty interludes -- "Arbory Hill," "Looking Out for No. 1" used as a thematic reminder through the record. "Cherry" fiddles around with the Bruce Springsteen-love singer Phil Mogg occasionally brought to the band. It would come out even more on the next studio album -- Nowhere to Run -- produced by George Martin.

Make no mistake, though, these aren't mellow records at all. No way when Schenker's in the guitar chair, someone who always recognized that if you're going to play a memorable guitar solo, instead of thinking about shred, compose it so the audience finds it easy to hum. ("Only You Can Rock Me's" middle break really illustrates it.)

The two albums contain UFO signatures: "Lights Out," "Too Hot to Handle," "Rock Me" and a Love cover, "Along Again Or..."

Schenker left after Obsession. UFO then tossed in their live ace-in-the-hole Strangers In the Night, put Paul Chapman in at guitar and went to Montserrat to record with George Martin.

Both UFO records are about at the state-of-the-art of mid-Seventies hard rock/metal. Heck, they are state-of-the-art. You could legitimately pick AC/DC -- Let there Be Rock and Powerage.
They were coming into power. Kiss Love Gun and
Alive II?? The latter don't compare. They're just crappy records.

The reissues benefit from packaging, clippings and history organized by Oliver of Jasper & Oliver's Encyclopedia fame.

New Foreigner two-disc anthology, No End in Sight, is a Foreigner two-disc anthology.

I got a UFO best-of not long ago that I haven't made it all the way through yet, but I like what I've managed to listen to so far.

The place to start with UFO is one of the reissues of Strangers In the Night. There's a new one in stores with Obsession and Lights Out. Its their live album from '78 and acts as a best of from the strongest part of the catalog, the LPs done with Schenker.

It crunches from start to finish and has the anthems -- "Too Hot To Handle," "Only You Can Rock Me," "Doctor Doctor" and Schenker's showpiece number, "Rock Bottom." Biographical booklet that comes with the new edition exaggerates their draw in the US a bit, imagining they were an arena headliner. Well, only if they were on the bill with an actual headliner, which they were in '78 with BOC and Molly Hatchet. I saw them at the time on a double with the Outlaws. They were better than the Outlaws by a few leagues, very tight, powerful as well as melodic, things the former didn't have much of onstage. The Outlaws were drunks and live they dragged numbers out into twenty minute jams. I remember their set closer, "Green Grass and High Tides" seeming to last about a half hour as bikers threw bottles of Jack Daniels up in the air.

However, UFO never had a number that broke through at AOR FM and as a consequence their LPs would only last a few weeks in the charts, never getting much above the forties. The music never let them down. The albums are very strong; Chrysalis just couldn't break them. The music on the live record is regal and powerful. Live, they were at full power, oozing superiority. Problem with Schenker when he left after this album was that he was never in a band that wrote with him as well again.

The Hold Steady's Stay Positive -- sounds sort of like something from the Jersey shore in the Eighties, only with lots louder guitar. So I guess I get were Springsteen comparisons come from. Makes me think of Wilco in some parts, too. Title cut sounds like the high point with "wo-ho-ho's" and breathless Finn doing a Springsteen chant over a single crunching guitar before the organ and band crashes back in. Makes 'em sound like they wanna be big in the arenas. Are they?

"Lord, I'm Discouraged" has the achetypal big and emotionally crushing lead guitar solo in the middle of the introspective tune. Great playing, break out the glow sticks and the arms moving from side to side in waves.

"Sequestered in Memphis" has the laugh out loud chorus lyric, "Subpoenaed in Texas" to handclaps. UFO's Phil Mogg could never have thought of that. After Strangers In the Night Mogg, like Finn, appeared to have a big admiration for Springsteen, too.

Ha ha, I just blogged about the Hold Steady album, and heard way less Springsteen (and hard rock in general) than George (who, as I recall, didn't like their previous albums much) did. Weird. I'll go back and relisten, of course, but here's what I wrote:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/chuck_it_all_in/index.html

Actually, this is a better link to that particular post:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/07/the-hold-steady.html

As critic-aprroved hard rock goes, bizarrely enough, I'm actually preferring the new album by Alejandro Escovedo, who I've never had much use for before.

("Critic-approved hard Bruce-rock," I guess I meant.)

Struck me as the only nerd rock album I'll be able to stand this year. And when you drag it in as a current rock critic fave, certified in Salon (next is NPR, right ?) -- then I'm 100 percent OTM.

If I'd have gone longer, I would have said Eighties Jersey with the dynamics taken out of the song/story operettas, obliterated by the blasting muddy pro forma (although very good-sounding) rhythm guitar that's the trademark tone. I suppose The Hold Steady furnish dynamic on the album with the two or three softer tunes but I had no use for "One for the Cutters" which is one, making Finn sound like Van Morrison, if VM was a chant in conversational cadence more than a voice (and if there were no songs like "Into the Mystic" or "Brown-Eyed Girl").

No way it sounds like Cheap Trick. Finn's no Robin Zander, not by a long shot (not a putdown, just fact) and there's no one in the band who comes close to Rick Nielsen on guitar. Plus, where's the harmony vocals? (United-we-stand wo-wo's don't count.) Plus Cheap Trick's main and often fairly glaring touchstone is the Beatles/John Lennon (heck, they're performing Sgt. Pepper's at the Hollywood Bowl for the second time). And the Boston comparison is equally flabbergasting.

What sets The Hold Steady apart from the classic arena rock they seem to love is the erasure of much of its dynamic. Finn and company just go on for most of the numbers until it's decided the song is over. "Lord, I'm Discouraged" stands out because, all of sudden, you get the guitar hero, something that doesn't show up anywhere on the rest of the record except at the very end -- the unexpected riff where the player really bites down on the talkbox effect. And it sounds great but in the context of the tune, by a time I was zoning out, it's a non sequitur.

In case it's not obvious, it's a likeable record. But it's also obviously still nerd rock, dressed-up good.

I'm actually preferring the new album by Alejandro Escovedo

I saw this in the store. I'm guessing your liking the Tony Visconti magic, he probably having carved it into something it wasn't. I have some stuff to trade in and there was a copy at the used store on Colorado, so maybe I'll pick one up this weekend.

Alejandro Escovedo's Real Animal -- It's a Miami Steve album, no ... it's a Nils Lofgren solo album, no ... it's a memoir of Escovedo's life from the punk rock Nuns to the present. "Always a Friend" sounds like the E Street Band which, it turns out, is about right, the song being big in Austin or Houston where Escovedo sang it in some arena with Bruce and the guys backing him. Or that's how I understand the story.

"Chelsea" is next. A sawing riff and chanting vocal about being in the Chelsea when the Sid and Nancy thing went down.

"Nuns Song" is about Jennifer Miro, mostly, the frontwoman for the Nuns, one of SF's first punk bands. Had their album, which on Poshboy, and this seems to work in one of the Nuns' declining riffs, maybe "Wild Child." The idea of it is more arresting than the execution.

"Chip & Tony" is aboutt the Kinman brothers, Rank & File times, and is the most jolting rock 'n' roll on the album with a stop-and-start Bo Diddley beat. If you keep waiting for the big deal rock guitar to show up (based on the cover photo in which Escovedo looks like Link Wray), this is where it happens. (Also on "Smoke" which is built on Keef-style riffs and a nice swinging shake.)

"People (We're Only Live So Long)" -- Hey, it's Dylan. Not bad, he's got it down.

Escovedo mentions "Louie Louie" twice but paradoxically never quite gets around to playing anything quite as catchy. I would have thought he'd have tried to sneak it in at least once.

The album's fairly pulled back for a guitarist's record. Makes up for it in the arrangements, courtesy of Visconti prob'ly, which add energy. A surprising amount of lugubrious material, Escovedo raking over the coals of memory, maybe having a good sentimental cry on a few of them. Lyrics occasionally to laugh at they're such pure corn, especially on "Sensitive Boys," a waterfall wrung from a wet dishrag. (Similarly, with fiddle -- "The Swallows of San Juan.") Tunes played like hymns.

"Hollywood Hills" sounds like something Ian Hunter solo/acoustic would do. And that's intentional, I think.

Just the thing for rock critics in their late fifties/early sixties. Even after it gets on NPR it won't sell much and they'll be disappointed.

As alleged "rock critic's" hard rock, I like it a lot more than The Hold Steady's new one. Part of it because Escovedo's a genuine rock 'n' roll hard luck case.

Gorgeous tone if you like that kind of thing.

Amusing and extremely well written site devoted to classic hard rock and metal guitarists.

Excerpts:

Michael Schenker:

Infamous for: Questionable business and life decisions, terrible bouts of alcoholism resulting in other flaky behavior, including last-minute show cancellations, walking off stage during performances, onstage arguments, offstage fights, disappearing for weeks at a time. Sadly, Michael's life often seems to be in crisis. In 2002, Michael had to auction off a few of his trademark black-and-white Flying Vs to help alleviate his financial problems. That was a sad day for a lot of us.

http://www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/bios/Schenker.shtml

Ted Nugent:

Ted will not play the UK* I have not been able to catch "The Nuge" in real live action, but his stage show antics include Tarzan impressions and bow and arrow displays. Ted is a madman live and it is quite obviously a strength.

* Quote: "I make $5,000,000+ a year from my hunting trips alone, why would I want to make a couple of hundred dollars playing to an undernourished English crowd?"

Ted drinks a carton of chocolate milk before a gig and is crazier sober than most rockers are wasted.

http://www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/bios/Nugent.shtml

That's a pretty good site.

Yeah, an incredible amount of work must have been put into it.

Right-very detailed stuff, real in depth musical discussion, a lot of which goes over my head! But a fun read just the same

If you actually play guitar, the analytical stuff on the techniques, styles and solo/scales is spot on, as far as I can tell. Really handy, if you want to cop a slice of someone's style.

For example, re Ted Nugent. Those guys correctly note Ted's solos aren't spectacular. However, it's his talent for honky-tonk, and R&B rhythm that made his riffs so special. His rhythmic sense has always been impeccable. Couple that to a percussive style, with lots of clever muting so the chords have a good thump to them, and that's a lot of the Ted sound. That and the big Byrdland guitar and stacks of amps.

Gorge-you mentioned the Bridge of Sighs remaster in an earlier post on this thread. I saw it cheap and got it-it's shit-hot, and the BBC sessions at the end are great.

Happy to hear you like it, Bill. When Trower tromps the wah-wah in sync with the rhythm on that live stuff, it indeed kills.

I wasn't too familiar with it before. A simplistic description would be the Jimi Hendrix Experience fronted by Paul Rodgers. Really nice.

That Dinosaurockguitar site is indeed extremely informative, entertaining, and well-written. (Even though, as a non-guitarist, I don't speak the language all that much.) Interesting how sparse the Triassic and Cretaceous selections are, though; I wonder if he plans to beef those up in the future.

I've got a few reviews of recent obscure hard rock albums (Continental Crawler, Skafish, 6Ft Hick, Jacknives, etc) at this link, on the left hand page:

http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?magid=90716#/page21/

Also been listening to Eddy Current Suppression Ring (on Goner, from Australia, remind me of Screaming Blue Messiahs with better guitars) and a 30+ year retrospective CD by the Banastre Tarleton Band, one of the most popular local bar bands in mid-Missouri when I went to college there in the '80s.) Here are myspace links; Banastre Tarleton have a pretty amazing "influences" list if you ask me, though I can't say I necessarily hear all those on their CD:

http://www.myspace.com/eddycurrentsuppressionring

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=191917617

Influences The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Atomic Rooster, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mott The Hoople, Ian Hunter, Rolling Stones, Blue Oyster Cult, KISS, Procol Harum, REM, The Romantics, Pete Droge, Bang, Dave Clark 5, Crack The Sky, Deep Purple, The Babys, Uriah Heep, Beatles, Steppenwolf, Yardbirds, Animals, Johnny Cash, etc.

And oh yeah, also been liking Pressure in the Sodo, by the Boss Martians, who are from Seattle:

http://www.myspace.com/thebossmartians