Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

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

No one is influenced by Bang. That's a dirty lie. Especially right next to Pete Droge.

For me, BGO in Suffolk has the best deluxe issue remasters of stuff coined in America. Today I picked up REO Speedwagon's Ridin' the Storm Out/Lost In a Dream two-fer. For most, REO's just the band that sold a gazillion on the basis of the sappy Hi Infidelity in the mid Eighties. It went to #1, spawned one or two #1 hits, made Kevin Cronin's voice immediately recognizable to anyone who listens to classic rock radio. I couldn't stand that stuff.

But these two albums were not Kevin Cronin-ized. They came after REO T.W.O -- the only one of the early records the company elects to keep in print in the US -- but well before any commercial success. T.W.O. was their first uniformly good hard rock record and is really one of the archetype slices of Midwest slash & burn party boogie, spawned at U. of Illinois frats and bars.

Cronin left or was replaced after doing all the demos and guide vocals for the next record. And a guy named Michael Murphy, who had a much more dusty and manly voice took over for the next three. They're barely represented on the first REO box, which was devoted to the band's first ten years prior to megasales.

And I listened to them a lot at the time, saw the band share a bill with Kiss in '74 which would have been the time of Hotter than Hell.

REO were a little mixed up. They'd turned up the amps on REO T.W.O. but apparently forgot they could turn them up even louder the further they pushed into the decade. As a result, they levelled out as a very chopsy boogie band, sounding like a heavier version of Jo Jo Gunne. There was a lot of boogie in them but they wouldn't do fuse the floor and walls of the arena overkill of a Foghat or Aerosmith.

In terms of playing with Kiss, they had their lunch eaten by the pyro and fire-breathing.

But the two records are good. "Ridin' the Storm Out" has an immediately recognizable riff, punctuated by a siren wail synth line. "Son of a Poor Man" is still in their set, even with the hacks playing it. Nice cover of a Terry Reid tune closes Storm, "Without Expression." As a style, it predates Tom Petty's jangle rock. It's not something they did often, but they could.

The rest, particularly Lost in a Dream, is meat and potatoes midwest rock (meant to go along with Joe Walsh's Barnstorm or early southern rock) and it made them a big draw regionally, enough to keep them signed even though the LPs were barely charting. Their label cut them an immense quantity of slack for little ROE. No band would last that long now.

Definitely not for everyone's taste. However, if you were there, these are solid LPs.

Yeah, definitely no Bang in Banastre Tarelton Band's sound. (Maybe a pinch of Crack the Sky, though. I haven't decided yet.) In general, I wish they rocked harder. They may the only band I've heard who do songs in favor in invading both Grenada and Iraq, though. (Which makes them distinctive, if not smart.)

And REO were, obviously, way more huge in Missouri in those days. Kids these days have no idea. They were pretty big in Michigan, too. And yeah, REO T.W.O. killed, especially "Golden Country." I don't know the era without Cronin very well, but I got curious about it again (and also curious about the Head East albums I don't own) while paging through Popoff's '70s metal book a few months ago. Midwestern '70s prairie bonfire rock, definitely a subject worthy of intense research.

"Ridin' the Storm Out" was actually one of REO's biggest '70s hits, though maybe the live You Get What You Play For version with Cronin is the one that got most of the AOR play? I'm not sure. Just checked my copy of The Essential REO Speedwagon (two discs, Sony Legacy, 2004), and that's the one that's on there, along with the Cronin-sung demo of "Son of a Poor Man." Here he is in the liner notes: "During the recording of Ridin' the Storm Out I accidentally spilled some red wine on producer Bill Halverson's white carpet...bad move by the new kid." So "the band decided they needed some new blood. They fired me, so I showed them - I quit!"

I hated Hi Infidelity at the time (trashed both that LP and a live show in the Mizzou student paper, in a couple of the first music reviews I ever wrote), but it grew on me over time, especially the songs that sound kind of like Bo Diddley ("Don't Let Him Go") and Music Machine turning into psychedelic metal ("Follow My Heart"), and the doo-woppy "In Your Letter," plus He-Man Woman Hater's Club jokes.

Or maybe "Follow My Heart" is more Troggs than Music Machine, who knows. (Cool dubby part toward the end, too.) (And hell, why be ashamed? I'm a sucker for "Keep On Lovin You" and "Take It On The Run" by now, too. If they'd come out in 2008 not 1980, they'd rank among my favorite singles of the year.)

And yeah, REO T.W.O. killed, especially "Golden Country."

I dragged it out again to A/B it with the Murphy stuff. REO TWO definitely turned up the amperage. And then the band went sideways. "Let It Ride" and "Lay Me Down" absolutely killed me in '72. Had been listening to all the Brit rock and all of a sudden this comes out of the heartland.

Then they backed up a couple degrees, not majorly, but in a way that I thought was a move to make them fit in with the Joe Walsh crowd. Incidentally, Walsh played slide on a song from Ridin' the Storm Out. You listen to the album, you can immediately pick him out.

I don't know the era without Cronin very well, but I got curious about it again (and also curious about the Head East albums I don't own) while paging through Popoff's '70s metal book a few months ago.

Popoff doesn't really get REO. They were a lot harder early than he makes them out. Ridin' the Storm Out is an album with some songs that are better than everything on REO TWO, although the total impact of the record is less. It was their first to chart, but only barely.

Lost In a Dream is also an album of surprising guitars and songs. They're just not the over the top delivery that was starting to grease the kids, like me and my brother. It seemed to me they could've gone balls out, but didn't.

REO weren't on late Friday night TV. Kiss was. And that made a big difference.

Alice Cooper was into Welcome To My Nightmare at the time -- crap, as far as I'm concerned -- compared to the REO records which are crafted, unphony and working to get something on the radio that's a lot harder than the Eagles or the Doobies and not a ballad. I saw both acts in 74. Alice was a waste of time of ear damage. Even then he was aiming at being the Lawrence Welk (or maybe Jerry Lewis, or a combination of the two) of hard rock. There was a dancing toothbrush in the show, perfect for kids and parents who might like an AC lunchpail for their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

For something you've heard, I'd say think The Rockets shortly after the minor success they had with "Oh Well." Maybe the LP "No Ballads." Of course, by the time The Rockets came along, Kevin Cronin had gotten in touch with his inner sissy and REO were all over radio.

Here's the thing. REO was kind of a secret true believer's band in '74. We used to play them on eight track, to putting in a drop ceiling at the swimming pool bath house over the summer. My workmate went to see Seals & Crofts in Hershey, because that's what his girlfriend wanted to go to. I took my brother to REO at the Harrisburg Farm Show. Guess who rued their decision?

At Albright, my girlfriend hated me playing REO. UNTIL You Can't Tuna Piano... which was the preface to them breaking big. They began devoting records to a sound the chicks really liked. Everything with Murphy was total guy's guitar band rock, not something women would buy but something they'd suffer through with their dates and after a few slo gin fizzes.

The Head East records are more fizzy than REO. Pancake flops on me after the first side. I had two other of their studio records but forgot them for the live omnibus. Not the case with REO. I found them warmer-sounding, their keyboard player did more barrelhouse boogie figures. And REO had Gary Richrath, a non-shredding total guitar hero. He also wrote almost all their early material.

"Ridin' the Storm Out" was actually one of REO's biggest '70s hits, though maybe the live You Get What You Play For version with Cronin is the one that got most of the AOR play?

Maybe. That would have had to have been after the live album. I remember it from 74, which was the Murphy version. I'm assuming that when it gets played on radio now, if it does, it's either mostly from the live record or a 50/50 split, at best.

I'm not sure. Just checked my copy of The Essential REO Speedwagon (two discs, Sony Legacy, 2004), and that's the one that's on there, along with the Cronin-sung demo of "Son of a Poor Man."

His guide vocal and the version of this on that stinks compared to the studio original. Perhaps it was a demo. The live version is OK. But Murphy sings the best one even though he muffs the vocal on the last stanza. Originally, it was "A son of a poor man will bring you home." He sings, "A son of a poor man will bring you down," which is unintentionally funny. Most probably missed that. Can you tell I listened to this a lot?

Plus, if you were into Les Pauls played aggressive and well, REO couldn't be beat. You had to see 'em for that, but still... I was a guitar player so that made an impression.

Trying to see Pagey in Led Zeppelin was like trying to win a lottery. REO ya could get tickets for. Peter Frampton? You kidding me? I still can't figure out why Frampton Comes Alive is one of the best selling guitar rock albums of all time. Actually, I can. Pete and his black Les Paul didn't frighten girls. They even liked the songs. A lot.

Yeah, I compared Slippery When Wet to Frampton Comes Alive in Stairway -- pretty rock by pretty boys, for pretty girls.

My older brother had that Frampton LP (who didn't?), but he had two copies of REO's live album. And that was back when we were putting in a drop ceiling in our own basement, weirdly enough -- or at least I guess that's what you'd call it; those insulated, removable ceiling tiles separated by metal runner bars (or whatever you call those.) A neat place for hiding stuff from parents, once it was all installed. We were also building retaining walls out of railroad ties on the backyard hill (w/ swimming pool) around that time, but I don't think we ever actually played REO albums while doing it.

Btw, if you think Welcome To My Nightmare is shit (which it was, for the most part), you should hear Alice's new one. I actually liked some stuff on 2005's Dirty Diamonds (purty cover of the Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina," for one), but I couldn't find a single track to like on his new one. Totally tuneless. Somebody please correct me if I missed something, but I actually found the mostly worthless new Motley Crue album more bearable -- "White Trash Circus" even sounds like an okay glam rock song, and "Down At The Whiskey" is a fair to passable stab at Mott the Hoople-type band's-early-daze nostalgia (not that it much sounds like them.)

The Welcome to My Nightmare show was really for children. Warmed up by the James Gang long after Joe Walsh had left ... and the James Gang was marginally better.

I occasionally get curious about Coop's output just after Nightmare. And then I stifle it. My brother had Go to Hell and his live one from the same show on eight-track. Go to Hell had one decent song on it, the title cut. After that, the only time I checked again was for Special Forces which was advertised as a return to old Alice (something subsequently promised many times and never delivered upon) with Nitzinger on guitar. That was another dead skunk, memorable for an embarrassingly rancid cover of "7 and 7 is..."

I'm faintly curious about From the Inside because it's supposed to be about his sanitarium rescue from raging drunkard. And while I think the anonymous review of Flush the Fashion I posted into the AC: C or D thread is hilarious, I have no interest in actually hearing the record. An old friend who was a die-hard fan had a copy and I remember him playing it for me one Friday night. I detested "Clones" the couple of times it made the radio.

I love Flush The Fashion, actually -- the only post-Greatest Hits Alice album I'd say that about. But then, I was totally new wave in 1980. And it is a total new wave album, Gary Numan imitation and Music Machine cover and everything. Got plenty of airplay in Detroit; not sure about elsewhere. (Joel Whitburn says it only went to No. 44 nationally, so apparently not so much. "Clones" actually sqeaked into the Top 40 at 40 for a week.)

Just checked REO's early chart standings, too; looks like the first two LPs didn't even chart, which surprises me. Then the two Murphy LPs went to #171 for Ridin the Storm Out and #98 for Lost In A Dream. None of their albums even came close to the Top 30 until You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tune A Fish, which went #29 in 1978.

Early REO albums were favorably reviewed in Creem, dunno about Hi-Fidelity (think it was Jeffrey Morgan who did like Flush The Fashion), but for inst the very first was in the same review with maybe Sir Lord Baltimore, or more likey the Rationals I guess (who have a retropective coming out, and also a comp of other bands on A-Squared, according to Fricke's Picks; he hasn't heard the Rationals, at least on the latest issue with Obama being modestly benevolent on the cover, but has heard the label comp and does like it though he does like most stuff he reviews duh--but did have *some* not too many qualms about that Sonic's RB box last year, which I never saw much about anywhere else)

hey hard rock dudes,

should i buy the Nitzinger album at my local record store? it's $13.

(cover is plain black w/nitzinger logo)

Great LP. (Second one, the blue one, is good, too.) But I can't imagine paying $13 for anything these days (at least anything I can't have for dinner), Louisiana cock fights and girl drummers or no.

But I can't imagine paying I3 for anything these days

Then you certainly wouldn't enjoy my shopping trips.

The comp is titled A-Square (Of Course), and it's on Big Beat. Fricke says it's got Scot Richard Case doing "snarling Pretty Things covers"; Prime Movers, "featuring a teenage Iggy pn drums"; MC5's "Looking At You"; The Up,"Just Like An Aborigine"; and Half-Life, "Get Down." He doesn't have tracks listed for the Rationals collection yet (not in that print issue, anyway).

Revisited three of the Replacements 2008 reissues: Sorry Ma, Stink, Let It Be.

In '81-'83, enjoyed the first two very much in original. Was doing a fanzine at the time and probably reviewed them although I no longer have copies. Liner notes for the new ones are pleasant reminisces, often gushing, suggesting they were a big success a lot faster than I seem to remember it happening. Saw them a bunch of times and they were always laughably bad, often inexplicably so, even when they were opening for Tom Petty. They ended up one Petty tour in Allentown and the best thing one can say about their performance at the Fairgrounds was they broke their instruments at the end of the set.

Sorry Ma still sounds great. The adds all could have made the original 'cept maybe for the Bob Stinson thing, "A Toe Needs a Shoe."

Let it Be -- echh, no longer does anything for me. An album for girls. Apropos, a lady does the liner notes, weeping upon it in the same way critics wept over Liz Phair's reissue earlier this summer.

The hard rock stinks -- one bad cover of Kiss song; "Gary's Got a Boner" -- this is the same band that did "Shiftless When Idle"?

Some dweeb started a thread a week or so ago on ILM asking what effect Paul Westerberg used on his guitar for "Answering Machine."

Standard stereo chorus. Hot stuff.

Adds -- cover of "20th Century Boy," played ploddingly, improves the odds only slightly. I guess this might have seemed special if you got it on the flip side of an obscure single.

Grass Roots' "Temptation Eyes" -- stinks, everything's off and struggling.

DeFranco Family's "Heartbeat -- It's a Love Beat" -- another tune unintentionally/intenionally rendered into joke tune status.

Stink still loaded with backbone and energy, a quality missing even on the uptempo stuff on Let it Be. "Gimme Noise," "Stuck In the Middle" hammer.

The covers as adds on this work a little better than on "Let it Be." "Hey Good Lookin'" isn't awkward like "Temptation Eyes." "Rock Around the Clock" -- they can play it but it goes on too long. If you were drunk when they did it probably sounded hilarious.

Yeah, Replacements were pretty clearly one of those bands that got lamer, more bland, less rocking with each subsequent release they put out. Peaked with the debut; I can bear them maybe through Tim, but they were heading downhill long before then.

From today's email:

SOUTH TEXAS ROCKFEST photos of Helix, Jetboy, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Xyz, Bang Tango and more are posted at www.myspace.com/rocknationtv
in the picture album section.

Doubt I'll check those out, but maybe somebody should.

From now until the end of human civilization as we know, music blog nerds will find everything ever done by anyone 25-years earlier and rip it to the net. The Gift of Noise -- quarter century-old noise band compilation, made in France, with me on it. I suspect the admirers of it must have only one eye in the middle of the forehead.

Meanwhile, found a copy of The Road Hammers' Blood Sweat and Steal. Could have put it in Rolling Country but it's just as much hard rock. Canadians who love truckers, called road hammers, ergo their name.

"I'm a Road Hammer" kicks off album. The next song is about hammering their girlfriends in bed and the third is called "The Hammer Going Down." They have a message. It's uncomplicated and they won't be budged from it. They write about what they know. I guarantee ya, though, that if they hump their ladies to the beat of the song about hammering and working their love, the Road Hammers wake up to empty beds a lot.

"I've Got the Scars to Prove It" is my favorite because it lets up on the hammer, bringing in a slow burn arena ballad, the kind Trace Adkins likes. A cover of Little Feat's "Willin'" is more than righteous and honorific enough. "Keep On Truckin'" does not have anything to do with R. Crumb and the Grateful Dead; it sounds like the Georgia Satellites' "Open All Night."

The album grows on me the more I hear it. The first three cuts on the road and hammering are a little stodgy but after that it turns into something warm and sincere fast. I'm guessing this would have sounded better without the overwhelming Nashville sonic candy stuck on it -- the banjo so you know it's from "Deliverance" land, the jaw harps. Little Caesar used to do this kind of thing a decade and a half ago.

Actually, it's Blood Sweat & Steel although Blood Sweat and Steal's a good title for an LP, too.

Rick Springfield reprises "Jessie's Girl" theme in "What's Victoria's Secret?", kickoff tune on Venus in Overdrive. He does it but good in a song that doesn't sound like his old hit, it's a golden signifier telling you what he thinks his album's going to be. Old school! This isn't the all out Drop-D guitar chomp that was the last one he penned himself although the title cut delivers some of it.

"Warning Shots" is Beatles-loving pop metal with riff from "I Am the Walrus" as intro. He'll give someone three warning shots "to the head," more like kill shots.

"God Blinked (Swing It Sister)" tries to be funky and just kind of ties itself in a knot. Dud. No idea what he was trying to do with this.

"Mr. PC" is off and running, his Eighties fast pop rock with axes, done so girls like it. Springfield basically invented bands like Tsar and the Jonas Brothers. 'Course, the Jonas Brothers wouldn't write a song with a title like "Mr. PC;" they stick with things like "Play My Music" and "Year 3000," good songs but compelled for Disney approvable.

"She" is more John Lennon channeling, much better than "Warning Shots."
One of the record's high points along with the first tune.

"Saint Sahara" -- old-fashioned Eighties arena wave the glowsticks and wet the panties waltzing power ballad.

Cover version of "My Generation." Springfield can certainly do The Who.

Acoustic cover of "Jessie's Girl" closes it.

Overall first impression: starts great -- sags in middle -- finishes strong.

Yeah, I've been listening to the Springfield, too. Potentially one of the year's best albums, actually (as was his last one, but I wasn't expecting him to pull it off twice in a row.) My copy doesn't have the two bonus tracks that end George's, but I'm really loving "What's Victoria Secret" (which I swear has as much Eddie Money "Take Me Home Tonight" as "Jessie's Girl" in it) and the perfect hard pop of "Time Stand Still." George also didn't mention the reggae-tinged hard rock title track (like Lenny Kravitz or Living Colour done right), or the stellar Stones rip "God Blinked (Swing It Sister)." I actually like the middle of the album more than George does, I guess. And track 11 is more late '60s Brit style cups-and-cakes castle-pop to go with the two blatant Lennon rips (i.e., "She," which I hear as late Beatles sifted through ELO sifted through Cheap Trick at their most ornate). No idea what the message of "Mr. PC" suppposed to be, but I like its Stone Temple Pilots riff and crosstalk from old cartoons. (Stinkers for me are maybe "I'll Miss This Someday" -- pop-punk emo, almost -- and "Oblivious," which could almost pass for Coldplay or something. But the latter is growing on me. And hey, that's pop rock too, right? And like George say, Rick was decades ahead of the pack as far as that stuff goes.)

(Track 11 = "Nothing Is Ever Lost," btw)

(And actually, George did mention "God Blinked"; I just like it more. I hear it more as "Stones" than "funk," which I assume was Rick's intention.)

I did refer the title cut, "Venus in Overdrive." That's the one with the Drop-D guitar through Recto amp chomps. In between, while singing the verses, it's reggae. I thought it was the one tune that stylistically was most like the stuff on his last one. (Excluding the covers album which I passed on).

"One Passenger" is one of mediocre tunes, saggy for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. Aimlessness, maybe, or the Edge/U2 guitar thing. "Oblivious" also delivers into the oblivion.

"My Generation"/"Jessie's Girl" editions were exclusive to BestBuy, sez the sticker.

And it would seem "Mr. PC" is about the Internet, the wonder of the world of information brought to Mr. Springfield through his computer. "Share it Mr. PC!"

And the Lennon rock is fairly superb.

"My Generation" is Rick's excuse to go hot shit on guitar. He really bites down it.

Supergrass' Diamond Hoo Ha Man Long-in-the-tooth Brit band, fifteen years after or so still look like they could open for the Jonas Bros. Were they twelve when they started?

Title cut starts with cool octafuzz bass riff. It pounds but Gaz has that fruity nerd rock voice, one which always argues with the muscularity of tune even when shouting "Bite me!" "Bad Blood," right after it mines the same vein. And so does "Rebel In You," again starting on an introductory riff which uses octafuzz to provocative effect, a repeating theme. That makes the first ten minutes good enough not to skate through.

"345" has some Pete Townshend slash chords. Explosive and crashing, the more the guy's voice is buried the better the album works. But like most of the stuff that's loud on this album it has only a minimal melody. Might sound good in a pub if you remember the Motors.

"Whiskey & Green Tea" A higgledy-piggledy smash-up of vague Oriental movie theme, blaring sax and a crashing power chorded descending riff.
Gaz sings "Being chased by William Burroughs" which sounds more truthful than they know. Best tune on record because it gets the attention mixing almost tuneless hard rock with Bonzo Dog Band style. Very English, almost has entirely and accidentally redeemed what's a solidly mediocre record up to it.

"Butterfly" sounds like you could sell it to a movie production if the script is a boy-meets-girl, boy-lose-girl, boy-get-girl in Barcelona or some similar environ type tale.

Supergrass has sold about ten albums in the US. This probably made eleven. The more you listen to it, the better it sounds. So your enjoyment is going to be directly proportional to the amount of time you're willing to front load.

Were they twelve when they started?

They sure looked it. I always liked the debut, I Should Coco, for its Buzzcockian proclivities; stopped paying attention soon after, as they slowed down and blanded out. May check the new one, though.

Album I played the most the last couple days: Robin Trower – Day Of The Eagle: The Best Of (Chrysalis/ Capitol). Which is great. If I was a guitar player, I bet I'd have more to say about it. In general, I love the sad beautiful stuff and the heavy boogie stuff about equally; only cut that seems to approach Blues Hammer schtick is the live "Rock Me Baby," which still has killer playing.

May attempt Return To Forever -- The Anthology (Concord) next. So far, haven't had the mettle for it. Their reunion gets a page in the Sunday NY Times; the paragraph that says they inspired jam bands kinda scares me a little, I have to admit.

I passed on the Trower comp. It's a good selection. Have all of it. Trower was influenced by Hendrix but made the style something uniquely his own.

You have to listen to an original of Bridge of Sighs. A strongly charting record without a single, all on the back of his guitar and the astonishing voice of Jimmy Dewar. Mentioned Trower's facility with funky lines up above, particularly on "Alethea," "Gonna Be More Suspicious," and "Confessin' Midnight." Some of this is prob'ly from For Earth Below, the one after Bridge. Anyway, he works the wah-wah in time with the riffs, something almost no one white ever thinks to do.
It locks greasy syncopation into them and provides a cross-talk with the rhythm section. Now people try that with sequencing. At one point, he went a little too far into it, became frictionless and movie theme-y, losing the rock 'n' roll thread. Victim of the Fury is a fair to good one if you get it cheap. You don't see it much, or Long Misty Days which, at the time, was thought of highly.

I'd give Diamond Hoo Ha a B- or B. Every time I play it, I "get" more of it. Has enough concussion to keep my interest. The "best of" a few years back left me cold.

Hadn't looked into the booklet that came with the Rick Springfield Cd. Contains 576 postage stamp-sized shots of Rick posing one-on-one with fans, almost all middle-aged women. It's kind of touching showing as it does his eagerness to grant them their small requests. Only one or two men and I'm sure he must have guy fans at his shows. I'd think a shot of them with RS might not be something to show buddies at work lest they be seen as ...

Also noticed most of the album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge who has a style fine-tuned for radio and, in particular, the kinds of bands which have done the Springfield thing, like Tsar -- who it didn't work for, and the Jonas Brothers, who won the jackpot. And ta think that was the guy who mixed the "Living in America" song for the old Rocky movie.

Come to think of it, I've no idea why Tsar's first record ended their career on a major and the Jonas Brothers went gangbusters. They sound almost the same.

Rick Springfield Cd. Contains 576 postage stamp-sized shots of Rick posing one-on-one with fans, almost all middle-aged women. It's kind of touching showing as it does his eagerness to grant them their small requests. Only one or two men

Sounds like the 3,000 names inside the new Dierks Bentley best-of I wrote about here; he's gotta have male fans, too, but it's the ladies who showed up:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/06/one-curious-tre.html

no idea why Tsar's first record ended their career on a major and the Jonas Brothers went gangbusters.

Disney! And Hannah Montana...

Interviewed Alice Cooper tonight. He talked about his last two studio albums, The Eyes Of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds, the former of which was apparently recorded in 12 days with as little overdubbing as possible for a garagey hard rock vibe, and the latter was a continuation of that same spirit. Has anyone heard these records? Were they decent?

Dirty Diamonds from '05 (as I mentioned a few posts up) was catchy enough for me to keep it on my shelf for a year or two. Not great, obviously, but probably his best since Flush The Fashion, to my ears. Most songs ran under four minutes, which helped. (Found his new one completely unlistenable.)

You know what's surprisingly good? The new(ish) Annihilation Time album, Annihilation Time III: Tales Of The Ancient Age. That title might lead you to expect warrior metal or something similarly hokey, but it's actually a stripped-down '70s-hard-rock-meets-pre-Rollins-Black-Flag disc - 10 songs, 32 minutes, room enough for a guitar solo here and there but the big selling point is the vocalist, who sells lyrics like "stretched thin, about to snap/no escape from society's trap" in as pure a SoCal bark as I've heard on anything recorded post-1982. On Tee Pee and highly recommended, by me anyway.

Did a rundown on Jonas Brothers' new one on the Miley Cyrus thread. Harder-sounding than the last but not as good in the song-writing. Again mixed by Chris Lord-Alge who's apparently the go-to guy for this manner of material. And not always to the artist's benefit.

Lord-Alge did the Springfield CD, most of it -- anyway, not that it needed it. And since he mixed this one I dug out some of the old stuff he was on that never succeeded and did some contrasts. He does really give bands the heavy power pop sound -- crunchy and loud guitars but never too in your face. Always more energy and sonic candy on the choruses -- more doubling, handclaps, multiplying shouting voices. Really souped-up for radio and video maximization. However, it evens out most of the hills and valleys, nixing a lot of potential rock 'n' roll drama for a flavor of manufactured excitement. Sometimes it works, like with Jonas Brothers.

He did Tsar's first album. That was supposed to be big but bombed. He did The Donnas' Spend the Night for Atlantic. Dragged it out and that's one example where the band's performance got past him a bit. It's often a crushing CD, a character he tends to erase in favor of Hollywood stardom. Remember a band called Other Star People? They got the Chris Lord-Alge treatment and it didn't do them any good. Naturally, Green Day, too.

I liked Dirty Diamonds quite a bit, it was a really fun record. Haven't heard the new one, though...

I have to third the Dirty Diamonds love here. Really solid album. Eyes of, on the other hand, was pretty boring.

Has anyone talked about the new Supagroup record, Fire for Hire, on here? Pretty catchy AC/DC knockoff, not going to win any awards for originality, but they have some serious hooks.