Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

I saw Helix a couple times in the mid-80s, they were huge here in Canada. Fun band. I knew Vollmer was still plugging away with a bunch of fill-ins, but I didn't know he had an album coming out. I'm definitely interested now!

Actually, the late Too Loud McLeod was in Headpins, not Helix (another great, underrated Canadian hard rock outfit). Chilliwack, too. Paul Hackman was the Helix guitarist who died, when their van rolled out on the Coquihalla highway in BC.

Yeah, I need to check out that Helix record too, now! (My younger sister, now a math teacher in Michigan, had at least one cassette by them back in the day, though I bet she doesn't remember it. But mostly she was a Bryan Adams and John Cougar fan.)

So. Bigelf. Yeah, Magical Mystery Metal -- far less so-what stoner-rock and more harmonizing than I'd expected, and good for them. Enuf Z'Nuf comparison makes a lot of sense, though I actually hear a lot of King's X in there too, I think. And "Sunshine Suicide" sounds to me like "Buick Makane" by T. Rex (maybe the GnR version), for some reason. I'm going to conjecture that the most Crack The Sky-like tracks (since George didn't name them) are "Falling Bombs" and "Bats In The Belfry," the latter of which has all this weird post-Zappa fusion math going on.

Toilet Boys album wore on me; they always hit me as kind of okay, but I've yet to ever connect with any of their albums for more than a week, I don't think. George's pick hit "Astrological" sounds glam-fruity enough, but always makes me wish I was hearing Alice Cooper's "Long Way To Go" instead, since that's what its chorus is. "Nothing to Lose" and the Ramones cover are at least passable too, but "Sex Music" (with the request-line intro from Debbie Harry) reminds me of Adam and the Ants but not as good, and the remixes (which the album could really have done without, thus making it a decent enough EP) remind me of A.R.E. Weapons but not as good. I really hate that "poppers poppers poppers" pop-in thing interjected to the end of the "Drug Of Choice" remix; find it totally irritating. So I'm still on their side; just never wind up liking the Toilet Boys as much as I want to, frontshemale or no.

'08 Rock from bottom of Rolling Country '07 thread:

FINN AND THE SHARKS -- Weirdly, the the last song on Breakfast Special, an apparent gospel singalong apparently called "Down to the Well" or something, opens up with guitar chords from "Cover of A Rolling Stone," but then it always lets me down by not being "Cover Of A Rolling Stone." "Rhythm and Ruin," meanwhile, opens with guitar chords from "Smokin' In the Boys Room," so I guess these seeming Teddy Boys actually grew up on '70s AM radio (I bet Fonzie and Sha Na Na were inspirations, too). Also, some of the better tracks ("Tell Your Mama," especially, and "Growing Up Evil") are really more dark sleazy AOR blues-rock than rockabilly, and "I Don't Want To Die Unknown" has a monster hard rock riff and reminds me of the MC5, and "Drugstore Cutie" sounds like a '70s hard rock band going new wave in 1979, always a good thing. But some of the more obvious greaser-jitterbug revival stuff ("Rockabilly Bop," gawd) is more so-what, and "Every Day" annoys me even more by reminding me of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies/Royal Crown Revue '90s swing revival (which reminded me a little of the Blasters itself, so that kinda makes sense.) Still, more hard stuff ("Fed Up" is another fast tough one) than wussy stuff here, and the Led Zeppelin cover kills.

-- xhuxk, Thursday, 27 December 2007 14:25

ATOMIC BITCH -- Tuneful self-released La.-via-L.A. band, led by a strong-voiced gal named Ursulla, plenty of glammy '80s Cali pop and glammy '80s Cali rock color in their sound (I liked the EP they put out in '06 too); not a lot of country on Promnite, but one of the best songs (at least partially about lemon merengue pie and getting tied up) is called "Hillbilly Swing," and it has a bit of a twang to it (along with some Bowie glam in the high notes), so that's a way in. I also like "Suspicious Hair Dryer," which is a good fuzzy dancey song (with some Blur or Pavement in its woo-hoos but not in a bad way) about a household appliance (possibly used as a weapon), with brand names (Maytag, Sunbeam) and pink hair curlers adding speficity. And in another song Ursulla shares a leather jacket with a boy, and in "Easy There Tiger" she tells a boy to slow down. And "Rock'n'Roll High School" is not a Ramones cover but that's okay, as is the fact that the hooks might pop out more if they were more slickly produced.

-- xhuxk, Thursday, 27 December 2007

I've also been wanting to proclaim my love, or at least like, here for the upcoming early '08 album by the Horror Pops, lady-led Eurogothskasurfabillies on Hellcat; as with labelmates Tiger Army earlier this year, they'd never hit me before but somehow seem to have finally come into their own. Good glam-rumble bottom underneath, and the singer (sorry, don't have her name in front of me) does a good Lene Lovich hiccup on top, and she likes exciting movies (as evidenced by the excellently surf-guitared "Thelma and Louise" and the somewhat torch-kitsched but still real good big ballad "Hitchcock Starlet" as in "tonight I'll die in black and white like a Hitchock starlet") and other tales of girls living or at least driving fast and dying young ("Highway 55," probably my favorite), and "Missfit" has cool Madness "Our House" quotes and "Boot To Boot" has cool oi! shouts and "Horrorbeach Part 2" has cool Link Wray style guitars and "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" has a cute '80s modern-rock melody, and the schtick dates way back to the Cramps at least but all told I sure don't recall No Doubt ever being this much fun. (Qualifies for thge country thread thanks of course to the rockabilly element, which No Doubt lacked.)

...Apparently the singer's name is Patricia Day; HorrorPops is only one word; they are from Denmark but currently based in L.A.; and have Warp Toured.

-- xhuxk, Sunday, December 30, 2007

Bigelf's Falling Bombs, yeah, that's the CTSky I hear. Still hear a lot of Pink Floyd in them and maybe xhuxk doesn't because he never had his nose rubbed in 'em the way I did in grad school since they were the favorite act of one of my lab assistants, whose name was actually Lloyd (rhymed with Floyd!)

xp And yeah, Richie Ranno sent me a pile of Starz CD-Rs, which I've been working my way through. I never heard the Ryko reissues of the studio albums, but I assume that's what this Starz, Violation and Coliseum (all of which include bonus tracks, the best I've noticed so far being the debut's surprisingly Skynyrdish "Sweet Jeremiah") are; Ranno also sent Live in Cleveland, which is really good, on par I suppose with the Starz' Greatest Hits Live that came out on GNR Records in '99 but I only just heard last summer. I'd forgotten (if I'd ever truly noticed before) how great the Coliseum tracks "It's A Riot" (a way better shotgun wedding song than Billy Idol's) and (jailbaited) "So Young So Bad" are. Still don't know if I entirely follow the plot of the eternal classic "Rock Six Times" -- still seems to me that it's the only song ever written about shoplifting an old vinkyl record (which may or may not be called "Walk This Way", which makes no sense) from a thrift store (though Starz call it a "welfare store"); George, are you any clearer on this issue than I am? Also not entirely clear on why the protagonist of "Subway Terror" is wearing a suit. Also noticed a direct rip of Marvin Gaye's (or okay maybe Grand Funk's) "Some Kind of Wonderful" a few tracks into Violation (my notes say in "Cherry Baby," their only Top 40 hit, but that can't be right -- "Violation" itself, more likely.) Vaguely '50s-ish Violation bonus track "Rock This Town" makes me wonder whether the Stray Cats (from Long Island, right?) were Starz fans growing up. All in all, an stellar supply of sweathog-rock!

Also wonder when "Subway Terror" (from '77) came out in relation to the Son of Sam murders and citywide blackout; seems somehow thematically linked, I bet.

And the remixes from the Toilet Boys' <i>Sex Music</i> are completely unnecessary padding. On the other hand, Helix' "The Power of Rock and Roll" started life a couple months earlier as an EP, "Get Up," which was successfully expanded to the above-mentioned. One of those exceptions to the rule where the padding actually makes a good thing even better.

The Toilet Boys rec got me interested in them again so I found a couple Miss Guy interviews on the net. They were taken around as opening act on a bunch of prime tours, most notably as opener for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Still, it didn't get them the major label deal they could have used, if only for the additional money to take the recorded presentation a little further. Miss Guy really is marginal as a singer but integral in the front slot and a glam producer in the Seventies, even a Bob Ezrin, could have made something more compelling of it.

Plus, they set fire to the London Astoria with their stage show around the time Great White burned clubgoers to death in New England. At which point, it was said, Toilet Boys gave up their unauthorized stage pyro for obvious reasons...

Her's is a good story and it deserved a couple more better written chapters.

Re Starz, I always saw Subway Terror as a simple rape, torture and kill song. I don't hear "Some Kinda Wonderful" in "Cherry Baby," just the 12-string guitar which was probably the producer's suggestion. I'd have to cue up "Violation" again to check for it there although the song was about a future where rock 'n' roll was outlawed, so maybe they put a quote into it. Not on the main chourus, though, which was basic he-man rock.

I bought CD-Rs of some of the stuff off Ranno years ago. He used subpar recordables they developed read errors and died within two years. For two of them, I was able to resurrect the data on a PC and burn them out fresh to better media. I have CD-Rs from lots of other sources and have almost never had that happen.

Ah, I presume he didn't send you Attention Shoppers! which ate it if you were a fan of the first two. Feeble record company-mandated attempt to transform into a power pop band for the sake of radio. Pretty much a momentum killer. My brother and I were big fans after seeing them live and there was considerable dismay and gnashing of teeth after the shrinkwrap came off of that one.

Also got four CDs (courtesy guitarist Mister Zero) by Toronto hard-new-wave-rock legends the Kings (who hit #43 in the U.S. with "Switchin to Glide"/"This Beat Goes On" in 1980). Haven't yet put on the CD reissue of their classic Bob Ezrin-produced debut The Kings Are Here, which has four inticing bonus tracks tacked on; thought Party Live in '85 was pretty darn inaudible, though I'll come back to it; most recent album (circa 2004/2005) Because Of You seemed fairly watered down, but I'll eventually come back to that, too. Been really liking 1993's Unstoppable, though -- lots of good soul-based toga-party rock, possibly most energized in "I Got the Lovin'," and there's a slight pop-country bent to some of it, notably "Shoulda Been Me," which maybe Billy Ray Cyrus shoulda sued them for (sounds a lot like his '92 "Could've Been Me"), so it's probably a good thing he didn't hear it. And "If We Don't Belong Together" is very tasty post-Hall-and-Oates blue-eyed soul yacht-rock; reminds me a bit of "Black Coffee In Bed" by Squeeze, possibly in part because coffee is mentioned in the first verse.

But the out-of-the-blue old-new-wave revival that really caught me by surprise, as I earlier implied on the metal thread, was the Reds. I'd assumed they'd fallen off the face of the earth decades ago -- Great debut album on A&M in 1979 (same year as Joe Jackson and the Police debuted on the same label) that somehow beat Joy Division and Killing Joke and maybe Birthday Party to their dark grooves while rocking harder than any of them (got just a smidgen of AOR play in Detroit with "Self Reduction," which was as much Iron Butterfly or Deep Purple as new wave); cool 10-inch A&M EP the same year which I dumby got rid of (they covered the Doors' "Break On Through" on that); second and third albums Fatal Slide and Stronger Silence (from '81 and '82) put out on tiny indies or in Canada (thought the band were Pennsylvanians) if at all (those two were combined on an Italian CD reissue on Helter-Skelter Records a decade or so ago), then pffftt, I thought. Though poking around on their website now I see a '84-or-so EP called Shake Appeal that spurs my memory; maybe I saw it in a used store in Europe back when I was in the Army.

But even that one would've been nearly a quarter-century ago; I had no idea they'd put out a really good album called Cry Tomorrow (produced by Mike Thorne) in 1992. Somewhere along the line, though, they'd become just a duo, Rick Shaffer on guitar and vocals and Bruce Cohen on keyboards (and now apparently sometimes bass and percussion as well). And now as of last November there's now a new duo record, Fugitives From the Laughing House.

I like the '92 one (which has a cover of the Stones' "Last Time" and more dub parts but also a more substantial chunkiness in general) better than the new one (which trudges more), I think, but they're both good. Favorite on the new album -- the one that makes the creepy-crawling churn sound the toughest and most compact -- is probably "Big Town," then perhaps "Little Cisco" or "Gunn's Suicide".

thought the band were Pennsylvanians =
though the band were Pennsylvanians, I meant

'03 cdbaby album from Illinois band Viceroy linked above is just really quality no-bullshit hard-pop/hard-rock, period; don't think the Stone Temple Pilots ever made an album this consistent; and I'd be extremely surprised if the Foo-Fighters never made one anywhere near this rocking; and even when Urge Overkill were making albums this good, they were being way more tongue-in-cheek about it (which worked sometimes better than other times). Just about ever melody kicks in within a couple listens; favorite is probably the Aerosmith circa Rocks rip "Better Dance"; "I Want To See You Shine" is an excellent STP/Who hybrid; the rest ranges from Sex Pistols (riff opening "Rock n Roll Poster") to early Babys ("You're Going to Have to Yell It." "Girlz" and "Makeout" also pretty much kill. (Cdbaby page lists their influences as Cheap Trick, UFO, Thin Lizzy, and AC/DC, none of which I hear directly, but I still hear where that's coming from.)

(Oops-- '06 album, I meant, not '03.)

really liking 1993's Unstoppable, though

Actually, I'm enjoying this '93 Kings album less, the more I play it. Given the competence-but-not-much-more-than-that of its grooves/lyrics/singing/ melodies, the soul-pop really needs more rock in it; as is, it's unfortunately mostly kind of bleh. A couple cuts sound pretty good, still. But the Kings' debut will be replacing it in the CD changer soon.

George, the "Some Kind of Wonderful" rip on Violation is basically in the melody of Michael Lee Smith singing the line "do it like you need it" in "All Night Long." (What had confused me before is that that's track #6 on the actual CD-R I was sent, where the cover lists track #6 as "Cherry Baby" -- the song order is completely different; how weird.)

"Cool One" comes next: farfisafied bubble-rock about a handjob at a movie: "She reached over and grabbed on my rocks/I lost it all in the popcorn box," ha.

Also, it should be stated here that I don't hate Attention Shoppers as much as George does -- yeah, weak first side, but the second side is okay, especially "Johnny All Alone" and "Good Ale We Seek."
(But right, Richie Ranno didn't send me a reissue.)

(Bonus Demo version of "Cool One," Smith's vocal goes in a brief but blatant Elvis imitation toward the end, clearly another '50-rock'n'roll-within-'70s-hard-rock move.)

Late '80s/Early '90s post-GnR/Cult Hard Rockin Shit special -- which of these bands were the best ones?

Royal Court of China

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EbLXxtGIkHY

Salty Dog

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UpeveNqlXoM

Circus of Power

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v8vTaPgKFn4

Dangerous Toys

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LmXM5jpyTS8

Junkyard

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SLovmg6I3tQ

Rock City Angels

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_0DkrApDSMs

Electric Angels

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Imp5KWu24dg

Johnny Crash

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FqNrlBKdD-o

Sea Hags

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1fMvsJRga_8

Raging Slab

http://youtube.com/watch?v=A8XaCWmu3tU

In a piece I wrote for the Voice in March 1990 (called "Boogie Blunderland"), all of these bands (except Rock City Angels, whose album was already a couple years old) apparently looked to have as much chance of "making it" as the Black Crowes, who were also included in the article. (As did Company Of Wolves and Law And Order, who are impossible to search on youtube, unfortunately but understandably.)

Royal Court of China and Circus of Power were true barrel-scrapings. Most of these were, actually.

The guitarist from the Sea Hags died about a month after their album came out. Salty Dog became American Dog. I don't know what happened to Law and Order. The Highway Kings played with 'em once and they weren't bad. I was always a Raging Slab fan but their third -- or "art" album -- was patience-shredding.

These were all part of a major label fad that was going to bring back the authenticity and street feel to hard rock. Do you remember King of Kings? Or The Lost, a Lisa Robinson discovery? The Lost were lost pretty quick. And then one cannot forget Life Sex & Death. It seems there ought to be some YouTube footage of "Stanley," their alleged homeless man/frontman.

Can't forget the goyls. The Cycle Sluts from Hell were part of this wave of signings. One album and Columbia shitcanned them, unfairly I thought. The cover art was the worst I'd seen in a long time. Someone lost their mind and made it look like a still from a gay porn movie which, in stores, tromped right over the line in terms of what their projected audience would be seen carrying up to the cash register. One of the Sluts is Gretyl in H&G. Another is the leader of the She-Wolves.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/sluts.jpg
In the past, they wished you were a beer

The Four Horsemen figured into this, too.

and the four horsemen were cult-related, no? it's kinda hard to remember now just how huge the cult were in the u.s.! were they the last u.k. hard rock band to sell 2 million records in the states? (okay, def leppard, i guess, who else?)

out of all of those above, raging slab seem to be the only ones with any kind of lasting legacy. at least in stoner rock land anyway. i think i have a dangerous toys tape that i like.

wait, weren't royal court of china more of a jangle-rock band like 54/40 or drivin' & cryin' or something.

Xpost. I bought that debut Kings CD a while ago from a Canadian friend. What drives me a little crazy about it is that my memory of Glide/Beat (one of my favorite songs when it was on the radio, though I thought it was by the Kinks at the time) (I was 11) is a faster tempo than what's on the CD. As far as I can tell, I'm just wrong, but does anyone know if there was a single mix or something that made it on the radio in the US?

The first Dangerous Toys album is a lot of fun. Not necessarily "good," but there are some really catchy songs on there.

as a hardcore kid i was supposed to hate junkyard cuz it was brian baker's sell-out move. but i never hated them. they were no minor threat, but they weren't bad. plus, the dude from the big boys started the band! i love the big boys!

this is the tape that i like even more than my dangerous toys tape:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/3b/ba/f964c6da8da00c4c53e22110.L.jpg

this album rocks!

Shadows Fall covered a Dangerous Toys song, so they had some sort of influence on metalcore? Maybe?

I liked Junkyard!

Speaking of hardcore (from Virginia -- close to DC, right?), God's Will were one of the first bands I ever wrote about in the Voice -- a 250-word "lick" back in October 1984. I haven't thought about them (or heard any music by them) for at least 23 years, but they fit here since they did anti-hard rock songs, e.g. "Rock Jam" and "Lynyrd Skinhead"; in my review, I compared them to the Pop-O-Pies, Meatmen, Devo, early Sabbath, and the Meat Puppets:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223/usa/godswill_main.html

that johnny crash video is awesome. tokyo blade were cool! how come i don't have any tokyo blade albums???

does gorge remember my fave brother cane song:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BZ6vageQo4w

Glad to see the Four Horsemen mentioned...they were the best of that lot. Vancouver punk institution Dimwit was their drummer.

yah, of subhumans and pointed sticks fame.

four hoursemen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKv_YYzdI2w

beat that, brian baker!

while we are at it:

War Babies:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lHFkWVysn3s

Electric Boys:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=S1yn-x_WTuA

Saints & Sinners:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RLtNSHVrHek

Sleeze Beez:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xny0opSPD1M

Southgang:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=42u6THtPEew

Roxy Blue:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mnT0Jjrx15k

Pretty Maids:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WAaeD4CFzK4

Holy Soldier:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cEZFRib-ykQ

Wildside:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8cQjmGB-YfE

Love/Hate:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xolgNdwQX2M

Babylon A.D.:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kNyaj-9IrIg

Big Bang Babies (sorry, bad sound):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rzOjSkAVvMU

Von Groove:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VcUFmFz4hJE

Rox Diamond:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aMfEeNbCQ6g

Bangalore Choir:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BjwBgiLlHhI

sorry, got carried away. but all from the early 90's i think.

I have that Electric Boys album! Pretty mediocre, but a few decent tracks. I also have a Love/Hate CD from 1995 called I'm Not Happy that's pretty embarrassing. Also, it has a cover of "I Am the Walrus."

Babylon A.D.:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kNyaj-9IrIg

There's a good, underrated band from the last days of pop metal. Great song.

For your next assignment, dig up Havana Black doing their Bad Company-style one hit video wonder...Actually, they had two albums, one of which I still have and like. Right alongside my War Babies CD, the one and only Brad Tinsel or Sinsel from TKO. And if you don't have TKO's In Your Face and Up Your Ass, the Metallic KO of Seventies drunken swine Seattle hard rock, your collection is still incomplete.

i saw tad open for gwar! late 80's. what a show.

-- scott seward, Wednesday, January 9, 2008 2:43 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

I was at that show, too! it was great cos when gwar came out they had the smoke machines going full blast, but when they started playing their backline malfunctioned and the guitars cut out. so all you heard was bass, drums, and the vocalist gurgling, and all you saw was ominous giant shapes moving in the mist.

also remember being in the crowd before gwar came on and slowly realizing that the cute girl standing next to me was slymenstra sans makeup...

The Hangmen were in the xhuxk bunch, too. Signed by David Geffen for a fortune, it all went into becoming heroin addicts. When the money was gone and they'd had some years to dry out, they made a couple of decent indie records on Acetate in the late Nineties. One studio, one live -- at least. Saw them a bunch of times at the Garage, a bona fide dump on edge of Hollywood, where they always delivered.

And if you don't have TKO's In Your Face and Up Your Ass, the Metallic KO of Seventies drunken swine Seattle hard rock, your collection is still incomplete.

The only TKO I know is In Your Face, which was pretty solid way back when. One of the more memorably misogynist album covers of the early 80s...

http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%20goupes/T/TKO/In%20Your%20face/In%20Your%20face.jpg

In Your Face & Up Your Ass -- I should scan some pics from it -- was an extra to the original, put out on CD a few years ago. It had a live gig, their self-made singles and the songs recorded by another version of the band. There was some grumbling that the originals were sacked by the label or something...I'll have to check. Both were entertaining pieces.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/sheely.jpg

Hilarious booklet image from In Your Face & Up Your Ass although it doesn't come near to topping the cover from original major label release. This was an archival edition, one of those things always alleged to set the record straight, giving listeners the "right version" of the album, the one so callously consigned to the trash by the major label who insisted the original band members were too wretched to put on the new production. For the archival, the band featured Adam Bomb Brenner, who had his own shots at the big time, none of which went anywhere.

This is a fairly amusing record. In between the raw bursts of drunken sod hard rock bar band rage aimed at the women who consented to be dancers/strippers at their gigs, the packaging is laugh out loud funny. Contains a couple tracks from self-released 7-inchers which accidentally get into Raw Power Iggy & the Stooges territory, which happens more often than ya'd think when you mix shrill slashing guitar with over the top aggression/frustration.

"Run Outta Town," "Working Girl," "Danger City" -- truth in advertising titles. Read 'em and you know what you're getting straight off. "Danger City" is the exceptional cut. Two disc set, one of which contains falling off the stage intoxicated gig in which Sinsel spews the goon squad shtick on the audience.

Drummmer quote, highlighted in booklet: "we really sucked..."

Just got Pig Iron's The Law and the Road are One and started listening, plunking the laser down on "Biker Lord." Surprises! Band has a good blooz harmonica player and knows right where to stick the fills to wind up the riffing. And they have a singer, too, not just a he-man shouter. A promising start to something that looked like stock stoner shtick on the outside.

Pig Iron's <i>The Law and the Road are One<i> -- after much listening -- is a standout. Someone furnishes truly blistering blooz raunch harp in competition with the guitar for half of it. Works great on "Biker Lord" and "Lord, Can't Stand the Pain" which is southern rock on the hard obscure side of the genre -- think Hydra, Blackfoot, etc.

"The Pentagram" is seven minutes long, the last two which break into a harmony guitar charge. Not doom or standard stoner rock.

There's arrangement, dynamics and a glowing B3 Hammond on parts of this record. Someone went to the trouble of ensuring the band didn't lapse into shtick and stodge. "Lord, Can't Stand the Pain" is a song which could actually work on classic rock radio if it were still an open format. Plenty of heavy metal moves also on tap throughout the record which comes in -- like the new Helix one -- at just about a neat and exciting half hour. Gone before leaving any stink.

Glad to hear that about Pig Iron. I read a review of them, sounded promising. I'm a huge Blackfoot fan, so glad to hear that.

Earth -- <i>The Bees Made Honey In the Lion's Skull</i> -- not unfavorably disposed. First track, "Omens and Portents 1," sounds like Seventies Pink Floyd in the latter's instro parts. First fifteen minutes captures a good Seventies Floyd art-rock vibe. I'd like it even a bit more if it hadn't been put through the louderizer. As a result there's some noticeable clipping on it that can't be dialed out by backing down on the volume. Since I like some of this it must mean most of the usual fans of it won't. "Engine Rule" starts off with a very nice evening piano jazz theme. Bill Frisell does the guitar on it so the tone's pretty rich.

Hey, Earth is even to vintage tremolo guitar on the title track. And they put on sitar or Coral sitar guitar into it for you psych-ee-delic music fans.

Okay, catching up: The Kings Unstoppable from '93 is at least a marginal keeper after all, even though you have to get to the last three songs ("Cosmic Groove" which asks where did all the hippies go, "Shook Me Loose" which has some hard J. Geils/Iron City Houserockers blues-rock to it, and especially closer "I Got the Lovin," which turns out to sound very Cougar circa '82 especially in its drums) before the thing really starts rocking; there is one tough pop-metal tune earlier though ("To Be In Love"), and I still like "Shoulda Been Me"'s achy-breaky pop-country and "If We Don't Belong Together" (more, I dunno, Paul Young or solo Paul Carrack or somebody than Squeeze it turns out) blue-eyed saxed pop-soul. (Worth noting is that this album reprises three of the five bonus cuts from the expanded CD version of Kings Are Here, though I've yet to absorb that disc otherwise. Not sure whether there were fast and slow versions of "This Beat Goes On"/"Switchin To Glide" or not. "Run Shoes Run" on Are Here is blatant Glass Houses Billy Joel fake new wave, though, which cracks me up.)

An unexpected surprise was the CD-R reissue of Starz' Coliseum Rock I was sent; Martin Popoff really underrates this one, I think, and so had I up to this point. Some highlights: hard power ballad "My Sweet Child" (yo Axl?); Bryan Adams style rocker "Outfit" about the short skirt she wore to rehearsal the other night (maybe or maybe not better than Drive By Truckers song of the same name); proto-(post-'80s-hair-metal)-'00s-country-rock tune "Last Night I Wrote A Letter"; aforementioned shotgun wedding "It's a Riot"; hard hard heavy metal "Where Will It End"; good bonus cut "Vidi O.D."--kick ass.

Also got another pile of American Beat CD reissues; damn I love that label. What a weird selection of B-and-C-level '70s and '80s stuff they issue, though. So far, I'd say Sammy Hagar's VOA sucks dead donkey dicks; Blue Oyster Cult's Imaginos seems to have some potentially interesting tunes buried somewhere way beneath its (live-album-like, Popoff accurately said) muffle, but I doubt I'll have the energy to dig them out of there; and Billy Squier's Signs Of Life is surprisingly good for an album released after I'd assumed he'd pretty much shot his wad (in '84); a good science-fiction a rocker (with Brian May guitar) about 1984 (see also: Bowie, Warrant's "April 2031"), but so far the standout cut is "Take A Look Behind Ya," just real classy hard studio powerpop with a real funky rhythm (drums, bass, cowbell), which is a sub-genre Billy basically owned. Obviously old-school hip-hoppers were listening to him (i.e., "The Big Beat"), but by 1984, I wonder whether the reverse was true, too?

Actually, though, track 5 of Imaginos was just on -- "The Siege and Investiture Of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle of Weisseria"!! -- and the prog sounded real good. So who knows, maybe that album just needs more listening time to kick in. Curious to hear George's viewpoint; he's the expert. Popoff says it was originally a Bouchard solo joint.

But man, the two American Beat reissues that are really killing me are Donnie Iris's weirdassed two-albums-on-one-disc Back On The Streets/King Cool and ESPECIALLY, holy effing shit, Artful Dodger's Honor Among Thieves, which -- correct me if you disagree, George -- sounds like one of the great hard-pop albums ever. They were Virginians, right? Raspberries era. Bicentennial. I still have the self-titled debut on vinyl, but I don't remember it being this good. Who does Billy Paliselli sing like -- the guy from Streetheart, maybe? Somebody really cool. But the album opener/title track has him yelping Steve Tyler style, and he's excellent in proto-Babys/Bryan Adams high-register midtempo mode (both album and single versions of "Scream" here). And "Hey Boys" is great hard glam bubblegum, and they do a killer hard rock version of Little Richard's "Keep A Knockin." I think George said once that, live, they could rock as hard as the Dolls, but I never heard that myself.

Okay, Donnie Iris notes some other time, I guess...

Hmmm....Hagar's "Swept Away" is very tasty post-Zep AOR pomp, with time changes about Spanish eyes. So...I can't write that album off yet, either.

the Earth album is really good.

Listening to the new (International) Noise Conspiracy right now. It's actually pretty damn good. Less Sweden rock than their last one, more psychedelic and jammy.

digging the latest stuff from small stone that i've gotten in the mail. new ones by roadsaw and ironweed. or is it roadweed and ironsaw? or sawweed and roadiron? in any case, they rock nicely. roadsaw, from boston, have apparently been around forever, but this is the first i've heard. i have heard their side project antler though.

BOTH ALBUMS RECORDED IN BEAUTIFUL ALLSTON MASSACHUSETTS!

you know the drill though. big riffs, mayhem, wine, whiskey, women, etc.

I picked up that Roadsaw CD in the dollar bin. Haven't listened yet, though.

wait, roadweed or ironsaw?

a lot of the small stone stuff i end up playing really loud two or three times and then i forget about them. but the ironweed song playing right now sounds great! very heavy and rocking.

Roadsaw. The title "See You in Hell!" caught my attention, and then when I saw what label it was on I was sold.

Lemon, a whimsically named reissue subsidiary of Cherry Red, is putting out the back end of Pat Travers' Eighties catalog. It's the end of his road with Polydor and encompasses Radio Active, Black Pearl and Hot Shot.

Radio Active came off the success of Crash and Burn which spawned the Travers tune most immediately remember, "Snortin' Whiskey."

While Crash and Burn was successful, it apparently wasn't quite so enough for Tommy Aldridge. He went off to join Ozzy. Second guitarist Pat Thrall quit to do his own thing and flopped.

Travers replaced Aldridge with one of Lita Ford's early drummers, Sandy Gennaro. Radio Active flopped, as did the rest of these, but not for much, if any, dip in what old fans had grown to like. Black Pearl took a turn for AOR pomp and added a synth player. It broadened Travers' tone somewhat. Of all Travers' records, it's simultaneously very musicianly, tuneful and the most smooth-listening in his major label catalog. Polydor had wanted to dispense with him but Travers' lawyers compelled them to honor the fine print in his contract. And that forced them to issue Black Pearl. The label declined to promote it.

Hot Shot takes his sound back to stadium rock. Of the three, it features the hardest sound and attack, often crossing into commercial mid-Eighties heavy metal.

My preference is in the order of release, Radio Active being the best. However, all three are solid.

Liner notes in the reissues along with paste-ups from the Brit music press, notably Kerrang which uncharacteristically threw him a couple bones for these. In the Radio Active notes, Travers recalls the Brit press treated him like a stodgy idiot during the first part of his career, which coincided with the rise of punk rock. (Paradoxically, his first drummer in the UK was Topper Headon.)

Hitmen retrospective from 2007, in Australia, finally arrived here. Two discs, one a reissue of their debut album and various singles. The second, single from before release of first album and various live dates.

Band was a follow-on to Radio Birdman. Helmed by Birdmen Chris Masuak and Warwick Gilbert, fronted by Johnny Kannis, who comes off as Oz's Dick Manitoba with a voice.

Living Eyes by Birdman came out around the same time but that band was ending while this was getting started. There is some overlap in sound. I come down on the side of the Hitmen bringing a heavier sound but sometimes it sure sounds like the Birdmen with someone else at vocals.

Did two great covers know one knew popularly: Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers from New Order. Not the famous NO, but Ron Asheton's post-Stooges band with Dave Gilbert of the Rockets on vocals. And one of "Solid as a Rock" by Shakin' Street.

The best part of the package is the live material. It smokes. It covers a couple tunes by BOC, notably a great version of "Cities On Flame with Rock 'n' Roll." When they're not sounding like BOC, they combine a lot of Detroit garage influences, plus some Dictators. "King of the Surf" -- a cover, is their bit to imitate something from Go Girl Crazy.

Juan de la Cruz Band -- Himig Natin. What's that mean? From 1972, this is a Philippine release, although most of it is in English, I presume because there appears to be an American -- who furnishes lyrics and singing and drumming -- in the band. It's '72 and Cactus was floating their boat, I bet, because a lot of it sounds like 'em only slower. No one named Juan de la Cruz in this band.

"Mammasyal sa Pilipinas" is a direct rip of the Jeff Beck group's cover of "I Ain't Superstitious."

"I Wanna Say Yeah" is the 'Merican singing about gettin' drunk, yeah -- yeah -- yeah -- outtasite, baby, fine chickee fahn.

Right '72 dolt's, if which I was one, thud rock. I'm betting the band was popular with American servicemen out to get drunk in bars around Subic Bay.

Some Wal-Mart purchaser needful of liquidity brought a copy of AC/DC's Black Ice to Penny Lane on Colorado, so I snatched it. No Wal-Mart's within thirty-forty miles of Pas.

Anyway, it's real OK by me. Brent Musberger pitched a segment of "Rock 'n' Roll Train" video during the Tech/Oklahoma State game, so someone's applying some promo arm-twisting. And they know their audience. Extra points for moving close to a million (or now maybe over) physical units fairly quick, puncturing myths on the primacy of modernity.

This one's way catchier than House of Jazz. And it shakes better, too.

The Train single, "Money Made," "Wheels" "Big Jack" and "Rocking All The Way" are all good. "Money Made" is the pre-lim favorite. It has the most arresting rhythm and gang shout. Since it's fifty-five minutes, you can cut out ten and it would shape up as a vinyl format AC/DC record without too much filler. In any case, it goes by a lot faster than the last one.
You can remember the tunes. The only one I could remember from the last a week after I bought it was the title cut.

No one beats Malcolm's rhythm chops and Angus has played the same fills for the last forty years but they're the best fills in the world, so why change?

Shows diff between AC/DC and bands that mine AC/DC, like Airbourne. For this one, the Youngs wrote some songs as opposed to just riffs. Louder than hell R&B.

Unsurprisingly, election day wasn't what Ted Nugent had hoped for.

Thoughts on Chinese Democracy and ZZ Top

I like both records. But it's well established that I have bad taste.

Interesting post, Gorge, but I thought Bobby Knight came up with that quote at the top about sportswriters. I may be wrong.

The problem with the guitar solos is that, while the five replacement guitarists may (arguably) be technically better than Slash, they aren't emotionally better.

Just got a terrific batch of stuff from the German hard psych rock label World In Sound, apparently now based at least part-time in NYC. A lot of their releases are by South American bands, and the best one in today's pile is Cosmos Kaos Destruccion (I bet you can do the translation without my help) by La Ira de Dios (the Wrath of God). They're a super-heavy psych-punk-hard rock trio in the vein of High Rise or Mainliner with a better mix (everything's not deliberately in the red) and some elements of early peak period Hawkwind as well. Really good, blaring stuff. "Por favor, dame velocidad" (please gimme speed) he howls, and I totally believe him. Recommended.

A rolling hard rock gathers no Moss

not even sterling?

is this about those dancing days?

I totally disagree with most of this, but it actually makes me curious about the bands here that I've never heard of:

http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/3172289350/show/929916

Classic Rock magazine best albums of 2008

50. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
49. Todd Rundgren - Arena
48. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Dig Lazarus, Dig!!"
47. Thunder - Bang!
46. Tesla - Forever More
45. Viking Skull - Doom, Gloom, Heartache & Whiskey
44. The Jim Jones Revue - s/t
43. Girlschool - Legacy
42. Stonerider - Three Legs Of Trouble
41. Black Tide - Light From Above
40. Diagonal - s/t
39. Dirty Penny - Take It Sleezy
38. Glenn Hughes - First Underground Nuclear Kitchen
37. Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs
36. Graveyard - s/t
35. Lethargy - Purification
34. Testament - The Formation Of Damnation
33. Blood Ceremony - s/t
32. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
31. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
30. Kings Of Leon - 0nly By The Night
29. Rose Kemp - Unholy Majesty
28. The Clash - Live At Shea Stadium
27. Joe Bonamassa - Live From Nowhere In Particular
26. Endeverafter - Kiss Or Kill
25. Uriah Heep - Wake The Sleeper
24. Rose Hill Drive - Moon Is The New Earth
23. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
22. Queen & Paul Rogers - The Cosmos Rocks
21. Thin Lizzy - UK Tour 1975
20. Judas Priest - Nostradamus
19. Marillion - Happiness Is The Road
18. Pride Tiger - The Lucky Ones
17. Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider
16. Motorhead - Motorizer
15. Black Crowes - Warpaint
14. Stone Gods - Silver Spoons & Broken Bones
13. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
12. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
11. Opeth - Watershed
10. Motley Crue - Saints Of Los Angeles
9. Journey - Revelation
8. Big Linda - I Loved You
7. Whitesnake - Good To Be Bad
6. Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge
5. Airbourne - Runnin' Wild
4. Black Stone Cherry - Folklore & Superstition
3. Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
1. AC/DC - Black Ice

That Black Stone Cherry album is dreadful. And to think they had so much promise...but no, they're well on their way to being Nickelbackified.

The first track is pretty good, but other than that, those are my thoughts exactly.

I actually way preferred this year's Nickelback album myself. (And I never heard much promise in Black Stone Cherry to begin with.)

So who are: Big Linda, Pride Tiger, Rose Hill Drive, Rose Kemp, and Dirty Penny?

Not sure I've ever heard Thunder, either, though I've definitely heard *of* them before.

Had no idea Uriah Heep put out an album this year, either.

Unjustifiably missing on that list: Rose Tattoo, Rick Springfield, Helix, Night Ranger, Ted Nugent's live album.

I have a self-titled Thunder album from 1980 that Wounded Bird reissued, I remember correctly they play mildly interesting roadhouse rock. Had no idea they were still together/reunited.

That was weird spacing... also, it should be IF I remember correctly. I mean, I could probably throw the CD on, but I'm lazy.

That must be a different Thunder, these guys are ex Terraplane who were around in the late 80s. God why do I remember this stuff?

Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider

I completely missed this, is it worthwhile in any way whatsoever?

I couldn't even make it through the thing. (And I'd actually liked 2005's Dirty Diamonds OK. Think we talked about this somewhere upthread, actually.)

The Thunder I know had a US debut -- were more well known in Britain as regular openers for the mighty Quo, I think -- at the end of the Eighties/early Nineties. Made some noise due to a single and video for "Dirty Love" -- which is a funny, amusing and very catchy song. The video had the drummer, a short bald guy in a ballerina's outfit and dirty sneakers. I recall it being on MTV a lot. The rest of the album was only fair by comparison. Second album and they were about through here although they had more in the UK.

I've a best of collection. It's OK, was very cheap used and contains "Dirty Love" which is the entire reason for owning or investigation. Most of what they did was standard hair metal, boogie and ballads.

Gave 'em a review in the newspaper which essentially said you'll probably hate most of the album but damned if the single won't keep you coming back to it.

Helix had a new album? I'm amazed I didn't know that. Good, I take it?

Yep. Wrote about it here:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/05/hair-metal-pion.html

I think George wrote about it on his blog earlier than me, too.

And Thanksgiving weekend in Michigan (true story), I convinced my younger sister to go out to her garage and find her legendary cassette copy of Walking The Razor's Edge and donate it to my collection. She said she'd bought it for the "great ballad", which must have been a hit in Detroit, or at least Windsor, at the time. She also got excited when she saw an old Giuffria cassette (self-titled) of hers out there. (She'd bought that for a ballad at the time, too.) The two boxes of cassettes in the house were pretty much all John Cougar and Bryan Adams ones (hers, like I say in that Helix review) and Pat Benatar ones (her husband's), except for the Firm and a couple other things.

George beat me to the Helix album by four months:

http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2008/02/sludge-in-70s-recent-cost-effectives-us.html

Haha, yeah, Helix's ballad (cover of "Make Me Do Anything You Want") was quite the crossover hit in Canada.

I should track that new album down, good to see it was well-received. They were just in my city playing some tiny dive, flogging a Christmas album or something, and I sort of wanted to go, but didn't. I saw them a couple of times in the mid-80s when they were selling out 3000 seat theatres in Canada.

Bleh, I remember Giuffria..."Call to the Heart", that was the big song of theirs.

Demonstration of the Korg Pandora by me. Basically, much of the technology is devoted to putting a classic rock band in a box the size of a cigarette pack.