Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

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.
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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.
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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.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7226757.stm

Hey George (or anybody): What are your thoughts on Legs Diamond? I got sent 12 (!!??) reissue CDs by them in the mail yesterday, and I have no idea where to start. (Well, actually, I'm starting with the debut, self-titled one, which sounds really great.) Any thoughts on which other ones to go for, and which ones to ignore? I'm clueless on the subject.

Otherwise, there are lots of recent CDs (mainly by no-name cdbaby bands) I want to post about here eventually, and I will, sooner or later, I promise.

Meanwhile, from the country thread:

LEFT LANE CRUISER -- Mentioned this Fort Wayne, Indiana blues-sludge-stomp duo upthread and linked to their myspace page. Anyway, I'd say I like Bring Yo' Ass To The Table better than most any Black Keys album I've heard (just seems to have more personality and actual songs that seem like songs not just riffs), though I don't know if actual guitar players will agree with me. Also seems better than anything I ever heard by Railroad Jerk, if not the Gibson Bros (the mid '80s Don Howland blues-punk ones not the late '70s Euro Caribbean disco ones). Anyway, funky enough with a good thick Billy Gibbons style tone and convincing ZZ haw-haw-haws at points, I'd say, and my favorite songs are the ones where they talk about pork'n'beans and mashed potatoes and the one where Amy's in the kitchen (which has the closest thing to a memorable melody, plus a good Dr. John style grumble in the voice.) Actually, there are mashed potatoes in "Big Mama," too, so I guess they like food. Also like the one where they drive to Wisconsin to meet Mr. Johnson. Good record, though probably a bit too monochromatic in its vamps to listen to it all the way through, from beginning to end. An EP could have sufficed, but that's fine.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=25297276

Also wound up liking the new Earth album (are all those Link Wray-sounding parts coming from Bill Frissell?) and, with more reservations, the late '07 Monster Magnet album -- the latter of which mostly for its more Hawkwindish space-rock parts ("Cyclone," "Freeze and Pixielate," maybe "2000 Light Years From Home") and, a little less so, it's "Wild Thing"ish garage-rock parts ("Solid Gold," maybe "Blow Your Mind"). "Slap In The Face" has a pretty cool, swinging riff, but an iffy chorus, I thought. Title track "4 Way Diablo" is almost a frantic kind of new wave. Closer "Little Bag of Droom" is an irritating kind of lounge croon, though maybe it'd sink in if I gave it more of a chance. Almost no stoner-metal, fine with me I guess.

Speaking of frantic new wave, I had hopes for these Jerseyites (especially since they were smart enough to limit themselves to an EP), but I thought they did too much Primusy prog-funk and Pixies nonsense, when I wanted more crazed surf-punk or something; vocals are clumsy, so more instrumentals or just plain funny songs could have helped a lot, I think:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/meltdowns

Interesting. My Joel Whitburn guide says that Legs Diamond never placed a single album even in the Top 200 in the States. But Jasper and Oliver's International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal calls them "undoubtedly the best 'undiscovered' group featured in this volume...an amalgam of American melody firmly entrenched with early 1970s British aggression...could easily be described as the North American alternative to Deep Purple. Unfortunatley, bad deals and bad finance led to their downfall."

Martin Popoff, though, basically says they started stinking after the first two albums. He gives the '77 debut a 7; '77 followup A Diamond Is a Hard Rock an 8; and then he likes just a couple cuts on Fire Power from '78, and he gives that 6, and Land of the Gun from '86 a 2. (That's in The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal; I don't have his '70s guide handy, though sometimes he does upgrade his position on certain '70s rock albums in that one.)

are all those Link Wray-sounding parts coming from Bill Frissell

Yeah, more or less.

Johnny Winter's Live Bootleg Series, Vol. 1 is an archival thing of him with his Texas trio, sounding like a bit prior to Johnny Winter And and his Johnny Winter Live arena-busting stuff.

Always at his best when rocking/interpreting others, a couple of gutbusters are "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Bony Maronie," and "It's All Over Now."

JW always clubs you over the head with his guitar rock mastery, so if you like that, you like this. Rhythm section, by definition, must always be ticking, able to lay it down like it's always on fire. Well and truly oiled and Texan with a capital T. Anyone doing retro in 2008 who hasn't figured out the necessity of boogie needs to listen to "It's All Over Now" from this.

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The first Legs Diamond album was the best. It has some killer material on it. "Stage Fright," "Satin Peacock," etc. Never liked the second one much. Fire Power was fair and had a Righteous Brothers covers I liked OK, predating soppy LA metal balladry.

Twelve Legs Diamond LP's though?! That's really pushing it. They were pretty much done after three everywhere except San Antone.

new deluxe street survivors coming out:

Ronnie Van Zant considered Street Survivors Lynyrd Skynyrd's greatest achievement. A year in the making, the album was recorded twice. Now, on the two-CD Street Survivors - Deluxe Edition - 30th Anniversary (Geffen/UMe), released March 4, 2008, the previously unreleased first version debuts alongside the incendiary final studio album from the original Lynyrd Skynyrd issued in 1977.

The package also features the never-before-issued last known recordings of the band, five songs performed live at a Fresno, CA concert less than two months before the group's famously tragic plane crash.

By 1977, the Jacksonville, FL band--singer Van Zant, guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, keyboardist Billy Powell, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and drummer Artimus Pyle--had scored four hit albums and become one of America's top concert draws. There was a new member, guitarist Steve Gaines, and the group could take its time with a new album. The first version was recorded at Miami's Criteria Studios in winter 1976 and spring 1977 with renowned producer Tom Dowd. But, dissatisfied with the results, Skynyrd returned that summer to Studio One in Atlanta, where "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" had been recorded, and produced the released version themselves.

On Street Survivors - Deluxe Edition - 30th Anniversary, both versions are heard of "You Got That Right," "I Never Dreamed" and "Ain't No Good Life" (the original with background vocals by the Honkettes); three versions of "That Smell" (including a never-before-heard extended guitar jam); a previously unreleased "What's Your Name," and a song dropped from the album, "Sweet Little Missy," as a demo and a master of the also axed "Georgia Peaches." Replacing the two two deleted songs were "One More Time," a newly overdubbed track from six years earlier, and Merle Haggard's "Honky Tonk Night Time Man." A Deluxe Edition bonus is Van Zant's autobiographical rewrite titled "Jacksonville Kid," the last song he wrote and recorded.

from country thread; applies here too "Double Barrel" is a 1970 ska-talk hit from Dave and Ansil Collins):

Ross Johnson's Make It Stop! The Most Of is my album of the year so far, and I've decided (at least until I change my mind, if I do) that 10 2007 copyrights and four more 2004 or 2005 copyrights out of 24 definitely makes it an "album," not a "reissue." Maybe I'll go into more detail someday about why it's so great, maybe I won't, but suffice it to say that his acknowledgement of a hundred strains of '50-'70s pop and rock (Hasil Adkins rips, ZZ Top via Slim Harpo riff vamps, "Mr. Blue," "When The Saints Go Marching In"/"Dixie" [okay, that's pre '50s I guess] "Keep On Dancing" by Gentrys," "Pretty Flamingo," "Farmer John," "Double Barrel" as mentioned above) as wild dance music is pretty much the way I see things, and the hilarious inebriated shaggy-dog spiels and more than a few really gorgeous guitar workouts ("Last Date," "Theme From a Summer Place," "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying," "Senior Stroll") are free lunches full of gravy. I'm not even an Alex Chilton fan, never really have been (though maybe I should investigate his new wave era solo stuff more? Is that when he did "Bangkok," which I've always loved the Nomads version of?) But I totally love this thing. And the jokes about starting a new family before you've even finished with the first one you started are great.

(Favorite cut may or may not be the "Keep On Dancing" cover, with the talkover where the sockhop DJ voice starts asking the audience whether they've ever been beaten up, and that he has, and they might be, so they should keep on dancing but keep on looking over their shoulder. Then again, I always like songs where fights break out on dancefloors.)

Good stuff about Ross looking at nudie mags when he was a kid, too, and about how a nude party might be happening somewhere near you right now. Guy has a very funny dirty mind. And his medley of "Saints"/"Dixie" rocks like Chuck Berry's "30 Days."

Ross's myspace:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=275644278

Funny how The Gentrys keep getting mentioned on ILM. Everytime that happens I think of Jimmy Hart as the guy who used to feud with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. That was when pro wrestling was on Saturday afternoon local, the low-rent bottom-out-of-sight advertising slot. Back in the good old days when wrestlers made joke records instead of serious and semi-serious ones and being associated with them or the agecny was a kiss of death. He managed Randy Savage and Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart!

F-----' ay!

More from country thread"

Finally, I like some of the rockabilly stuff ("Midlife Crisis, Midnight Flight" -- amusing song), guitar jam stuff ("Stop Drinking," eight minutes, possibly about going on the wagon), soul-ish stuff ("Must Be Karma") and stuff where the guitars groove like "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Brothers ("Troubled Dreams") on this Alligator Records blues album Blood Brothers by Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King. Much of the rest of the album just sounds like stodgy old Alligator Records blues, who cares. But it might have enough cuts I like to pass.

No new-album songs on myspace yet, but still:

http://www.myspace.com/SmokinJoeKubekMusic

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

Best seat in the house?

Missed The Donna's "Bitchin'" late last year. Picked it up on firesale and they sound like they took good advice after the last two records of fiddling with a major label. Skip trying to be girly-girl in packaging and proceed directly to the embrace of your inner lumpy leather dirtbag. Girlschool took a similar tack. Lumpy leather dirtbags first, then took seriously label guidance and looking girly, something they couldn't do, and back to dirtbag for the closeout albums of the career.

"Bitchin'" is a fairly good one. Lots of anthemic rock music with groove, handclaps and 'na-na-na's. Guys don't drum in bands doing this stuff as well as the gal in The Donnas. If "Here for the Party" telegraphs with the title, is it evil? Not if you actually bring the party and they do. "Save Me" is worth a bullet point. It exactly captures the hit sound of Def Leppard. Before the singing comes in, you can't tell it's not them for the recreation of the patented arena-rock-in-a-box riff. Best song in the set, too.

Rockman Eighties hit parade sound explained here at my blog.

Witch -- <i>Paralyzed</i> Lots of tinny paper-on-comb/kazoo-like fuzztone guitar playing and twee through-nose singing. Describing it makes it sounds a bit worse than it is when on the receiving end. "Mutated" and "1000 MPH" sound like snotty '78 punk rock, someone imitating the Plasmatics or the Dead Boys. "Psychotic Rock" is the big snap-out number. The second half of it is taken over by a flanging effect that obliterates everything except a little bit of drum and bass, presumably the sound of someone being psychotically rocking.

Nah, too arch for me. But if the tinny and screeching fuzztone rock sound floats your boat there might be much for you to enjoy here.

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Big pro wrestling fans when it was on local cable and no one wanted to buy advertising. Ross the Boss (far left) is smirking because he knew he was laying down the best electric guitar in show business, buddy boy!

The Dictators' Every Day is Saturday rewards the nutty rock and roll fans who actually heard the jokes on the band's debut, Go Girl Crazy, and liked them. Thirty-three years ago.

It packages up the demo made under for CBS/Epic before The Dictators had played one live show. It clinched a record deal and under the guidance (and the term's used loosely) of Blue Oyster Cult's management, the band went into the studio and cut Go Girl Crazy, a flop of still astounding proportion.

The cover of Go Girl Crazy was a scene DD knew well -- locker room in a dingy and beat-up high-school with some shmuck, "secret weapon" Handsome Dick Manitoba, showing off an old-timey wrestling uniform. Yes, kids and adults, we did wear uniforms that looked THAT awful. The only thing we didn't have was the piece of brownish paper, the one with "Maricon!" scribbled on it, tacked on the wall.

Inspirational lyrics, from "Master Race Rock" -- remember this is 1974 and such songs just weren't done, classic rock being business of the most serious kind: We're the members of the master race! Got no tact and we got no grace. First you put your sneakers on, goin' outside to have some fun! Don't forget to wipe your ass, oh no! Set to a guitar riff that kills.

Mirrored

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A blooz harp story

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Picked this up a couple days ago as a reissue. Store proprietor, older white man behind counter, recommended it: "Raven has been issuing very good things."

If you're a fan of the crushing guitar of Leslie West, these are where the mark is made. Both albums charted, Nantucket Sleighride getting the highest. Climbing has "Mississippi Queen" as the kickoff track. Essentially the best of Mountain, missing only "Blood of the Sun" which next to "Mississippi Queen" and "Never In My Life" was their third most pulverizing track.

Bonus material is the title track from "Flowers of Evil" and a folk psych redo of "Travellin' In the Dark" by Bo Grumpus, whose vinyl debut I'd wager Scott must have.

Awesome.

I need to pick up those Mountain albums. I have Flowers Of Evil around here somewhere, along with the West Bruce & Laing album.

Got two good South American hard rock albums today - new stuff: El Cuy and Obskuria. On the German label World In Sound, but mine were mailed from Brooklyn. Wrote about them on the blog.

King Crimson archival live set, "The Great Deceiver," out of print since 1992. Covers the band's '73-'74 line-up, which was David Cross, John Wetton, Fripp and Bill Bruford. Very much a hard rock act crossing into loud and crashing prog metal, it outdoes most of the Crimson studio albums up until Red which was the only non-live thing that approached the band's stage power. In the US Crimson released USA which is from the same period and also pretty good. If you're at all a fan, the reissue of the latter a few years back was also noteworthy.

I'm listening to a show from Providence right now and "Larks, Pt. 2" is massive. Wetton's bass is very powerful and crunching, a fact remarked upon by Fripp in the journal and liner notes included with the package. Cross furnishes violin and mellotron and was fired after the tour, seemingly because he became irritable over the fact that the guitar, bass and drums walked over his contribution. That's not so apparent on the live recordings, which are very good, but it is fair to say that part of the instrumentation was secondary next to the trio of Fripp, Bruford and Wetton. In fact, one notices that on a lot of this Wetton actually outshines Fripp, his use of the bass fuzz-wah being particularly effective. Plus he was a good lead singer. He left Crimson in 1974 to join Uriah Heep for that band's Return to Fantasy which even fans must admit is a dismal record. At the time it must have seemed like smart move, Heep being a much bigger seller than Crimson.
Listening to this material in 2008, it's hard to figure out why Crimson weren't more successful in '73-'74 than they were.

Anyway, great package.

Half way in through the Providence show, KC begin to dig a major hole in the air. "Easy Money," a long improv called "Providence," and an electronically shrieking "Fracture" at which point Bruford yells, "Last round, keep going!" and they begin "Starless."