Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

A blooz harp story

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

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."

Spooky Tooth -- Nomad Poets Reunion gig live stuff from Germany where they wisely remain fans of the genre. Of course, no Greg Ridley, he being dead. And Luther Grosvenor also apparently decided to sit it out.

But that leaves Gary Wright, Mike Kellie and Mike Harrison which, being the lead voices and such, makes it sound exactly like the early Seventies from which the entire set is taken.

"Waitin' For the Wind," "Better By You, Better Than Me," "Tobacco Road" and "Evil Woman" all had substantial pre-AOR FM radio currency. Wright's voice is immediately recognizable and he stays away from making the band do "Dream Weaver," or it's not included. Lots of heavy B3 and assorted vintage keyboard sound and the guitarist is not undermixed. "Better By You" is Judas Priest's old lawsuit song in which two dipso American fans decided to shoot themselves in the head after allegedly being told by the song to "do it." One succeeded, the other turned himself into a horrid-looking jawless ghoul.

The heavy slowed-down attack of Spooky Tooth is preserved. All the songs are about being loused up, depression and dieing slow. Spooky Tooth were no sunshine boys. "I despise yooooo! But I love you because you're my home," they sing on "Tobacco Road." Invigorating, they haven't lost a step even though they all look like duffers who sit on park benches and throw scraps to pigeons.

Archival reissue -- Derringer's Live and If You Weren't So Romantic, I'd Shoot You on BGO.

After charting #1 in the Sixties with the McCoys and "Hang on Sloopy," Derringer wouldn't do like numbers again until his first solo album. Part of the Blue Sky Mafia, he must have been on most every record by Edgar and Johnny Winter up until 1972. Struck out in hard rock act of same name, featuring an ex-Dust man, Kenny Aaronson and Vinnie Appice on drums. The studio records, of which there two until he changed personnel, didn't sell. Lack of success interpeted to rise of punk rock and New Wave, although I'm not buying it. They just didn't get any radio play.

Live was a different matter and the recording of it included on this was their highest charting LP, prob'ly selling to many who'd seen on tour and been sold on the spot. The first fifteen minutes are without mercy, pumping bombast mixed with Derringer's tunes which tended to be fairly full of hook. "Across the Universe" is the exception, an extended guitar and drums blurt in which everyone tries to outrace and outplay each other.

Mike Chapman produced Romantic which went toward for a punk rock vibe, tunes being shorter and faster, although played by the usual slew of session aces. Picked up Myron Grombacher on drums, replacing Appice who went into Axis ("It's a Circus World and I'm an Animal") and later Black Sabbath. Songwriting co-credits to Alice Cooper, Patti Smith and Dan Hartman. Almost a power pop album although it's too guitar loud to fit the bill for most fans of the genre. Sounds a lot like what Pat Benatar would do on her first album, perhaps because she inherited Grombacher, Kenny Aaronson and Neil Geraldo who, while not on the album, went out on tour with Derringer to support it.

Features worst interpretation of "Lawyers, Guns & Money," ever. Rick wasn't good at being subtle or wry.

Best tune is "EZ Action" -- "Does your daddy know you're hot? Has he noticed what you got? Does your teacher know you're cool? Does he keep you after school? With a just glance his way, you'll get yourself an A" In his mid-thirties, at least, when he wrote that.

After the Derringer albums had run their string, he went to work producing and playing for Weird Al. That worked out pretty good.

Dutch reissue of UFO's first for Chrysalis, Phenomenon Comes with bonus track and booklet explaining -- in depth -- the transition from "space rock" band on Decca, big only in Germany and Japan and nowhere else to acquisition of Michael Schenker during a Deutsch date with the Scorpions.

Bernie Marsden was guitarist slated for the album but he didn't mesh with the band, being bluesier than fit the gang's taste. They went to Rockfield with Marsden and recorded some tracks which were discarded after they'd hooked up with Schenker. This disc includes two of them, "Sixteen" as well as "Oh My," later re-recorded with Schenker.

Lengthy notes includes quixotic reviews and comment.

"The singles didn't seriously trouble the charts..." it reads. In the USA ... Phenomenon received unexpectedly glowing praise in Rolling Stone... Billboard, too, was effusive: 'Phil Mogg may well be one of the best straight rock singers to have come out of Britain since the initial musical invasion a decade ago...'"

Review from Sounds 1974: "Don't listen to the first two tracks on this album, they're awful. But if you do hear them, don't let them put you off the album cause it's quite good and shows promising flickers of what the band could develop into. This band have changed line up quite a few times since they were 'the first band to break in Japan.'" What can I say about them, they're just a tight little heavy rock unit. It's so boring writing about rock groups because you keep having to repeat superlatives like 'terrif' and 'amazing' but that's neither here nor there..."

The bonus cuts constitute about one old-style album side and are all good, making this a reissue to get if you're a fan of Phenomenon

i just got a new UFO dvd in the mail. didn't watch it. i have been listening to rick derringer lately though. did my hero bobby caldwell play on that live album? i think i used to have a copy, but not anymore.

came home and BLASTED deep purple's made in europe today during my lunch break and all was right with the world. what a fuckin' album. coverdale haters be damned.

No, Vinnie Appice's on the live Derringer CD. Bobby Caldwell, Rick and Chuck Ruff, too, are on Johnny & Edgar Winter Together which also got the deluxe treatment from BGO in 2007.

The 2007 Euro Chrysalis/EMI reissue of UFO's No Heavy Petting is also plush. Half an LP worth of outtakes, most of which are good, a cover of the Small Faces' "All Or Nothing" which is not something they should have covered. The album didn't chart in the US but it's one of those you have if you're a big fan. The songs and hard rock dynamic are virtually perfect. Rich in lyric, Phil Mogg is at the top of his game and Schenker doing his best to take it to the next level. They cover Frankie Miller -- "A Fool in Love" -- which comes out as something Bad Company should have had the brains to do. Miller's "Have You Seen Me Lately Joan" is in the extras and I wasn't familiar with it. Sounded good in UFO's hands, though.

Danny Peyronel's "Martian Landscape" closes the record, an ode to his homeland, Argentina. You wouldn't know it unless told. It's one of those things that would have been a mediocre folkie coffeehouse tune but Schenker takes it over. His guitar arrangement makes it orchestral and anthemic.

The clippings are a hoot, including one from Sounds in which the critic gripes UFO were too LOUD, adding they dressed in American football pads onstage. Entertaining but hard to believe. No press photos of bands in football pads although Schenker did wear thigh-high white leather girl boots just like Overend Watts used to in Mott the Hoople.

new limited-edition popoff book looks cool. wish i could afford these things. hopefully, someone will compile them all when he's done with the 70's. cutting and pasting from his e-mail:

Ye Olde Metal: 1976

This is the follow-up to Ye Olde Metal: 1973 To 1975 and Ye Olde Metal: 1968 To 1972. Like those, it’s also limited to 1,000 copies, signed by me, and it’s numbered.

Dudes, this one is occasionally pretty controversial, and damn it, this is my era – I loved talking to these guys, writing this thing.

For those not in the loop yet, what I’m doing with this is detailed examinations of classic old albums, using new interviews with guys in the bands, maybe a little available press here and there. These are looks at these albums that are way more exhaustive than any commercially viable (!) book would ever dare. You know me, I just love getting the stories, no matter how many people care anymore. We’ve got more photos than last time as well, plus some 45 sleeves and cool old original ads etc. The book is 241 pages, full trade 6” x 9” dimension, and stuffed with trivia folks ain’t never heard before – I guarantee it.

The chapters this time (less of them but they are quite a bit longer)

Max Webster – Max Webster: my fave Canadian band of all time. Amazing album – I got Kim in here, and Terry and the band’s mysterious lyricist Pye Dubois

Scorpions – Virgin Killer: I talked to Klaus, Rudy and Uli about this record, the blasphemous German cover art etc., the concept of a “virgin killer”

Point Blank – Point Blank: Rusty, John and Philip talk about being Bill Ham’s second banana ZZ Top

Angel – Helluva Band: one of the greatest albums of all time; amazing stories about the business muscle behind the signing of the band. Frank and Mickie dish the goods

Rex – Rex: OK, Rex is one of the most entertaining guys I’ve ever talked to. His stories about the mob and singing on the lunch room tables… funniest thing I’ve heard in years. A lot of Leber and Krebs in here too

Moxy – II: Buddy and Earl on struggling in Canada and then saying, screw it, and playing heavy next time

Teaze – Teaze: heaviest Canadian album of the ‘70s – bloody ‘ell, you should know about it

Lone Star – Lone Star: What happens when your whole band becomes scientologists? Plus you’ll love Kenny’s Peter Grant/Led Zeppelin story

Starz – Starz: OK, Rex is the best, but his brother Michael Lee is pretty funny too. Cool Kiss/Sean Delaney crossover stuff here

Ted Nugent – Free For All: OK, the best story in here, bar none. I talk to the whole band on one of the most cherished albums of my youth. I’m jaded, so it doesn’t matter, but I hope this 16,000 word expose doesn’t destroy your faith in the Tedinator

Boston – Boston: I had the privilege of talking to Brad Delp at length about this album before his shocking suicide. Tom provides some great stuff as well. As tribute, Brad is on the cover of the book

Foghat – Nightshift: bloody LOVE this album, and Roger and Craig do it justice

Kansas – Leftoverture: talked to Steve, Kerry, Phil and Robbie here. Good overview of what Kansas was getting at, and Steve let’s us get a good look at his state of mind

So yeah, he next one in the series will cover 1977, and it’s well along, actually. Then, 1978 and 1979, one per year likely well into the ‘80s, at least. But yeah, the idea is that this is a pretty strange, obscure thing to try, and the hope is that people will “collect ‘em all,” the whole thing making a l’il heavy metal encyclopedia set as they show up, a series, a cool bunch of collectible books.

All right, listening to Howlin' Rain's Magnificent Fiend is a jump-on-the-grenade-and-I-threw-my-money-away-on-a-spec-buy-for-this moment.

Hey, 54 seconds of Chicago opens this one! Then it's "Dancers at the Endof Time" with a fuzz guitar that places it for fans of the Amboy Dukes prior to Tooth, Fang & Claw and Call of the Wild and who thought Ted Nugent was really messing things up.

If it's retro, some of it sounds like the Moody Blues records you didn't buy, some of it like Humble Pie, that version of the Pie that spent half their sets playing folk rock before they realized they were getting shelled in the US for not plugging in the electric guitars and turning it up. Some Firefall, without the guys who could sing harmony. Some Little Feat without as much funk, no slide or songwriting.

Not much, if any, bringing of the rock.

"Howlin' Rain's newest album, Magnificent Fiend, seems to present this question with its combination of psychedelia, blues, funk and classic 1970s arena rock," writes someone from the University of Wisconsin school newspaper in Madison. Leave out the arena rock (unless, naturally, your idea of arena rock in the 70's is the Doobie Bros. without hit singles or hooks) and most of the blues part, any you're a lot closer to the nut of it.

"Howlin Rain harks back to the classic rock of the Grateful Dead, Traffic and the Band," writes someone from the Palo Alto Daily News. And that's a sensible thing to put to paper.

Strong Cali-hippie vibe and the don't listen to the lyrics or you'll be in that laff riot area inhabited by second and third tier bands from the late Sixties who'd stick enthusiastic faux gospel and soulman singing onto their tracks.

I totally get why Rick Rubin likes this. Ah well, I tried. Maybe it'll grow on me.

For those with tastes exactly opposite mine, apply the 360 rule and you'll find much to like on this, I'm positive.

Famous rockstar won't send advance copy But it was in BestBuy!

maybe you can get your money back!

i still like that record. and i think it has hooks!

frampton was the one who put the folk in the pie. which is why he left. cuz steve wanted to rock out with his you know what out. thank god for that.