Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

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.

From the remaster thread last night, when someone asked about Imaginos

"plus has anyone ever heard imaginos? how is it?"

It has it's moments. First side is fairly strong. Ya takes yer chances the rest of the way. "The Seige and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria" works because of the over-the-top guest vocal by Joey Cerisano who had a considerably better voice than Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom. He was big in Jersey bar bands and is on a Silver Condor record I have, a not bad but not great slice of mid-Eighties guitar rock. "Del Rio's Song" is another thing from that sounds akin to many of the poppier things BOC liked to do.

I have a CD copy of it but they seem rare. Or were the last time I looked. I actually interviewed Buck Dharma for CREEM magazine at the time of the release of Imaginos. It wasn't a bad record but no one, including the record label, was very enthusiastic about it. It was a different time, BOC were old hat. When I was at Columbia for the interview they were pumping Britny Fox and a said to be upcoming just-signed artist from my neck of the woods in PA, Tommy Conwell, hard. So that was the zeitgeist.
======
Didn't know it was reissued. I actually dragged it out to relisten and the first side is good. That's the first five songs, after which it flops. "Astronomy," "Blue Oyster Cult" (a rewrite of "The Subhuman") and the title cut are all tricked out in dance/Miami Vice theme music tone and it doesn't work at all. A friend of mine cynically commented back in 1988 that BOC had released a "disco version" of "Astronomy."

The album reflects the confusion and disarray of BOC at the time. Imaginos was Albert Bouchard's solo album and while Columbia was interested, they logically wanted it as a BOC album. Except Albert and BOC weren't getting along. He wanted to be back in the band and they didn't want him.

In effect, the album has been recorded by Bouchard with a host of sidemen. He doesn't play drums, they were left to Tommy Price of the Joan Jett band and Patti Smyth's Scandal. Joe Satriani plays solo guitar on "Weisseria." Kenny Aaronsen, Pat Benatar, plays bass. Plus many more.

So it sounds like Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma were brought in to add some vocals and other things, substantially being a BOC album in which they were only sidemen. Nevertheless, the first side was good and if there'd been one or two numbers like "Weisseria" on the second side, it would have been flattening.

I A/B'd it with Britny Fox's debut -- which was being flogged on the floor at Columbia when I went up for the interview -- and that has considerably more excitement and enthusiasm to it. Hair metal hadn't yet crashed and burned and Columbia seemed to think BF were going places, born out by some success on MTV of videos for "Girlschool" and "Long Way to Love." If you don't listen to the lyrics -- which are so stupid they're painful -- it's a fair to good debut album. Your pet cat could have written a better libretto.

On the other hand, the "story" of Imaginos was an impenetrable gobble compared to a simple tune about being a panty sniffer of the products of the "Girlschool."

"Carpe diem!" is a choral exclamation in "Weisseria."

"Seven-seven-seven-seven-seven" is tied to a sequencer on "Les Invisibles." Perhaps someone wanted to get after the Beatles for the "number 9...number 9...number 9" thing in the Sixties.

"A drug called world without end!" is sung over and over in another song. If you can figure out what it meant without a cheat sheet you're a better man than I.

Artful Dodger has been reissued? How about the first s/t LP? That's the one I liked best. Honor Among Thieves was just fine, though. My brother was especially fond of it.

They were a regular opening act on hard rock bills at the Harrisburg Farm Show arena, so we saw them a bunch of times. They were always good. The highpoint of their set was a turn at "(There's Gonna Be A)Showdown" which was a lot better than the Dolls' rendition. It never made it to vinyl as far as I know. And, yeah, I thought they were from Virginia.

I A/B'd it with Britny Fox's debut

Also reissued late last year by American Beat, by the way...how weird. I like it. But yeah, as my Stairway to Hell review makes clear, it has some of the stupidest lyrics in human history. (Not sure why I say in that book that they mainly sound like Kiss, though -- they're much closer to AC/DC, and sometimes even to Slade or Nazareth, both of which bands they covered songs by, the former here and the latter later. Or okay, they sound like the first Cinderella album, only better. And the completely retarded "Save The Weak" sounds a lot like "Patience" by GnR, I realized in retrospect.)

i wish i still had a copy of the artful dodger debut. i'll find one eventually. i never heard the other three albums except here and there. youtube has lots of songs from honor among thieves on it. and the first song they recorded when they were brat. (before they re-recorded it)

So yeah, that Hagar album just really doesn't have the tunes, at all, to make his macho he-man bluster amusing rather than aggravating; to hell with him. I hate "I Can't Drive 55" even more than I expected to. "Voice of America" itself is pretty ridiculous.

Squier album is an iffier sort of mixed bag than I'd thought; still not sure if it'll make the cut. But I like how the talked parts in "Fall For Love" remind me of both Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" and Tom Petty's "Here Comes My Girl" -- and that song, among others, has good Robert Plant-gone-pop potential.

Imaginos seems to be slowly growing on me. I like the "hey hey hey" gang shouts and quasi-disco rhythm of the version of "Astronomy." (Can't recall whether those are alterations from earlier versions.)

And I guess I need to dig back out Artful Dodger's debut LP, if George says it's even better than the followup...

I've never heard Imaginos.

I heard the reason Al got kicked out of BOC was totally stupid, like he didn't say good morning to Roeser's wife or something. Dumb move, they sucked after he left. He was definitely more than your average drummer.

quasi-disco rhythm of the version of "Astronomy." (Can't recall whether those are alterations from earlier versions.)

Actually, George already answered this - duh.

>>So yeah, that Hagar album just really doesn't have the tunes

I'm surprised no one has thought of reissuing his Capitol output. Those were his original meat-and-potatoes records. At one point in the early Nineties, they were on CD, but I haven't seen 'em in awhile. It's where Rick Springfield's "I've Done Everything for You" came from. Everyone has to have a copy of "Red." "Red, red, I like red, c'mon to bed!"

"Cruisin' & Boozin'" -- one of the great songs advocating drunk driving, and "Rock 'n' Roll Weekend" beat "I Can't Drive 55," easy.

Because of short mention on Thud Rock thread, I went and dug up Crushed Butler's Uncrushed. It certainly merits more love.

Tight Brit rock and roll trio with caveman drumming that drives surprisingly catchy tunes. The band really bites down on the material from Bo Diddley beat opener, "It's My Life," to another, "My Son's Alive," which emits smoke and flames. If they could deliver that in a club they must have been something to hear. "Love is All Around Me" seemed delivered to appeal to the then new glitter/glam style.

This is a short record -- 20 minutes -- and almost perfect for it. Has half a foot in music hall under-class glam stomp and loud R&B combo pub rock. Never went anywhere. The same style sort of cropped up in the Hammersmith Gorillas, fronted by the same guy who led this band. I'll have to dig out my Gorillas CD later although it never hit me like this stuff.

Crushed Butler is right up xhuxk's alley.

Crushed Butler at CD Baby.

"Imaginos" title track (the part from the beginning, anyway) sounds weirdly like the weird prog-disco break from Tim McGraw's '90s dance-country debut hit "Indian Outlaw".

I don't think the Squier Signs Of Life album is going to cut it after all. "Rock Me Tonite," its top 20 hit, really is a marked decline into innocuousness from his earlier hits (and not as good as "Love Is the Hero," I think it was, from a couple years later.) And the idea of doing a sci-fi song about 1984 (if that indeed is what it is) in, uh, 1984 is pretty dumb. Not sure why I called it good above; guess that Brian May guitar temporarily blinded me. So: Not an awful album, but not worth the dollar or more it would cost you in a used bin.

Dug out the Gorillas' <I>Message to the World</A> and don't quite know why I'd not played it for years. Jesse Hector recycles a couple songs from Crushed Butler with better production. They're not as animalistic as <i>Uncrushed</i> but the singing's better. You can hear lots of love for rockabilly and Marc Bolan/T. Rex on "Going Fishing" and "New York Groover." "I'm Seventeen" has Elvis hiccuping; "Outa My Brain" cops a popular melody from contemporaneous Status Quo. Hector gets away with a good version of "Foxey Lady" which takes a bit of nerve to kick off your album with.

You can A/B it with Crushed Butler and tell it's some of the same blokes. Came out on Chiswick just after The Count Bishops. They could've shared a bill, both playing tough blue collar rock aspiring to greater things but stuck in English toilets. Going down, as it was, during punk there's some audacity to it as they had much of the flair of glitter bands.

New album streaming from Norwegian rock band Animal Alpha - they remind me of 1990s band Whale

MySpace.com - Animal Alpha - New album jan.28 ! - Rock / Punk / Metal - www.myspace.com/animalalpha

I had a good time reintroducing myself to Toronto, classic 80's rock Canadian band, over the weekend. Didn't make much of a dent in the US but judging by their sound, could have with the right muscle. Somehwere between Heart and Pat Benatar. Actually, they sound just like 1994. Apparently did have one tune which Heart turned into a hit, "What About Love," which was never put on an album until reissues in the age of CD. The Toronto version is almost indistinguishable from Heart's.

Toronto was a band that to my ears got steadily better through four albums. Head On and Get It On Credit sound the best to me. By the last two they were really into that big grandiose big rock sound that dominated radio in the early Eighties. Plus there's a Pat Benatar cover, "You Better Run," on their debut, Lookin for Trouble. On the title song the singer bemoans seeing her boyfriend in handcuffs if he doesn't stay away from the life of crime.

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

GRUNTRUCK/SKIN YARD Singer BEN MCMILLAN Loses Battle With Diabetes -
Jan. 28, 2008

Not sure if this is the right right thread for this or not. Saw this at
Blabbermouth

Toronto was pretty cool. "Your Daddy Don't Know" is a Can-rock staple, and was covered rather brilliantly (sans irony) by the New Pornographers for the FUBAR soundtrack.

Airbourne's Runnin' Wild was getting the endcap $10 push at BestBuy along with the new Louis XiV, so I bit on the former. AC/DC for when there is no AC/DC is the push. Doesn't Australia send one of these bands over every two years. Last one was The Casanovas and before that was Jet. Casanovas did nothing. Jet sold half a million copies of the first and disappeared upon the second.

As for this one, on the first spin it didn't start getting my attention until the last part -- "Cheap Wine & Cheaper Women" and "Heartbreaker." It's not very differentiated which sets it apart from real AC/DC albums in which all the songs don't sound the same. Part of it is the mix and production which is so compressed the dynamics are obliterated. I'm sure this would have worked better if they'd backed off on the louderizer.

There are a good number of people doing AC/DC and one more's always welcome. It's adequate but the Rhino Bucket archival releases last year were better.

Was playing Airbourne back to back with The Black Keys' last two. Magic Potion made me go and get Rubber Factory, one I'd formerly passed on. Both have a brutality and rawness you can only get by using a fuzztone liberally and turning up the spring reverb every so often. There's just something to that basic combination with these guys that works from the two man band fad that just never pulled me in with the White Stripes.

Because of production differences, The Black Keys actually sound heavier on record than Airbourne when the latter actually puts up a fuller wall of noise.

A couple extra minus points for Airbourne's label using an irritating copy protection scheme disguised as a web portal to access special exclusive content. Comes with the Orwellian name OpenDisc, actually meaning the opposite, as in ClosedDisc.

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

Please Daddy, tell teenagers to stop stealing teh music!

There's an official, licensed & remastered LP reissue of the RAVEN LP. Private ohio fucked up, single-minded blues rock. Biker junkie scuzz groove galore.

OM's latest is the first CD I've heard from them. Now they break up. Ah well, I'll probably be digging this one out from the pile in a few minutes to listen again.
=========
Om is continuing forward with a new drummer and working on a new recording. Please check the band's website and myspace page for updates.

A live vinyl only LP "Om - Live at Jerusalem" will be forthcoming. This is Chris Hakius' final release with the group.

I personally apologize to east coast fans who planned on coming out to the shows. Please know that Om will be back in your area later in 08.

Thank you to all of you. Live dates resume in late spring. There is a LOT of new material on its way.
Shrinebuilder is also forging ahead.

See you all soon." - Al/Om
===========

so i got this spam about Sabbat reissues and i was like put your money where your mouth is send me some damn sabbat reissues for pete's sake! so they did, and also the RULING Wishbone Ash First Light sessions cd. I've never heard these recordings. The first recordings! this was the actual first album they recorded that the label thought was too raw. it sounds amazing. ALSO they sent me a NEW wishbone ash album. *The Power Of Eternity*. i'm a little scared, but what the hell, it might be good. AND they sent me a reissue of a Hanoi Rocks album that came out in 2003(!) chuck and gorge probably have that one. *twelve shots on the rocks*. AND they sent me a deluxe double disc reissue of Chris Squire's first solo album *fish out of water*. AND the new orange goblin album. and a cd by M3 which is three dudes from Whitesnake doing old Whitesnake songs. bernie marsden, micky moody, and neil murray.

BUT IF YOU HAVE EVER LOVED WISHBONE ASH - at least the first 3 or 4 records - YOU REALLY NEED THIS FIRST LIGHT DISC. just so you know.

oh and i got two sabbat reissues. see, it pays to ask for stuff sometimes.

The three dudes from Whitesnake have been doing old Whitesnake for a few years. Used to be called Company of Snakes and I had a live CD by 'em that sounded just like old Whitesnake. I'm a big fan of old Whitesnake as it was Deep Purple when there was no DP. I've even been known to get out the old Live at Hammersmith Whitesnake LP (Jap CD remaster) and like it.

I actually like Coverdale's US session super hack Whitesnake but for completely different reasons.

"AND they sent me a deluxe double disc reissue of Chris Squire's first solo album *fish out of water*..."

Worth getting?

I never thought <I>Fish Out of Water</i> was indispensable. Squire used to play some of it during his solo spot during Yes shows on tour in the Seventies. I was never sure what the fish thing was with him. Was he a Pisces?

The story was that he took a long time in the shower so it was his nickname. Seriously.

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.