Month: February 2020

Friday New Releases – February 28th

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Another month has come to a close and another Friday of not a lot of releases.  It has been an incredibly slow start for me this year.  There has only been a few I have liked so far and have had any interest in.  This week is no different.  There are a couple I will try (highlighted in Blue), but nothing I am super excited about, hopefully that will change once I hear it.  So, sit back and go through the list and let me know if there is anything interesting for you. Also, let me know what I missed on the list so everybody can know.  Thanks and have a great weekend.

  • 71G4t4GFyeL._SS500_  Five Finger Death Punch – F8 – (Better Noise Music):  I am not overly excited about this one.  They are kind of like the Nickelback of heavy metal music and my interest has waned over the years.  However, I will give it a try as usually I get a couple songs worth keeping and adding to a playlist.  I like to think of them as tough sounding music to make you feel like a badass even though you are not…that is me in a nutshell!!

  • A1qlo33DesL._SX522_  The Classic Crime – Patterns in the Static – (Criminal Records):  An alternative rock band that gets lumped in to the Christian label because they were signed to Tooth & Nail label which is mostly Christian acts.  They are more a pop/rock band than anything…no real label.  Always some solid stuff so this will get a spin…or two!!

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Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 9 of 15 – Disk 8)

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Welcome back to the Gene Simmons The Vault review.  We are now on Disk 8.  Below are the rules I am trying to follow with each review.

I will try and keep some consistency between each disk.  I will go through each song and mention who wrote, who played on it and what I think about the song. I won’t go through all the stories as you should get the vault to get all the information.  I will grade each song (ranking 1 to 5, 5 being best) and then take an average of the grades for the score of the disk.  I know most of these are demos, so I won’t be taking quality of the sound in to play that much because I know what I am getting and I am more interested in the overall song.

At the end of all the reviews, we will average the score of each review and come up with an overall ‘The Vault’ score which I hope will be a fair representation of the whole package.  I am going to do my best to do one a week, but as I said before, life sometimes gets in the way so I am not going to promise one a week.  Plus, this is 11 disks to digest and that is a lot as I am also doing the David Coverdale Series at the same time.  That is a bunch of music to go through.

The songs aren’t in chronological order.  Gene states each disk is more of a mood or vibe.  The vibe of this one appears to be Rock & Roll.  These are Gene songs plain and simple.  When you think of the Demon, you would imagine him singing these type of songs.

Well, are you ready?  Then let’s get right to it.

The CD comes with a picture of Gene’s rendering of the lights on an early 80’s tour.  It is pretty cool…

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February 2020 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

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Two months in to the year and already some great purchases.  If you are new to the site, this is my monthly wrap-up of my vinyl and CD purchases since not everything I buy makes it on to the site.  Some of it does or already has or will in the future, but whose to say how long that will be.  So, I thought why not share the love of music and let you see what I have been adding to the collection.

The first set of purchases started with a run of vinyl diving when my daughter wanted to go out and pick up a certain album.  We hit two stores…Repo Records and Lunchbox, both in Charlotte, NC.  First stop was Repo Records and my daughter didn’t find anything she wanted, but I found one.  It is the 1980 debut album of Canadian rock star Bryan Adams. Honestly, I have never seen this one and for $5 bucks, why not add to it my ever growing Adams collection. I have at least 6 or 7 of his so this fits in nicely.

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Then we are off to Lunchbox and my daughter found the album she wanted which was Lorde’s album “Pure Heroine” which is actually a really good album.  And don’t worry, I found a couple as well.  I love the UK band The Alarm.  I have about 4 or 5 in the collection and now I have one more.  It is Electric Folklore Live from 1988 that I was missing.

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And then one more to add to the ever growing Aerosmith collection. I finally found ‘Permanent Vacation’ at what I thought was a good price of $10. I’ll take it.

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And then a week later, my wife and I had an afternoon to ourselves and we spent it going to 2nd & Charles as my wife wanted to look at some books and they have a great selection of new and a ton of used books. They also have a vinyl and CD section as well. They have bootlegs on vinyl which is cool and I might have to go back and get some.  I didn’t buy any vinyl, but picked up some cheap CDs which I always like.  First up was a from a band called Audiovent.  Their only album ‘Dirty Sexy Knights in Paris’ came out in 2002 and I had it at one time on CD and loved it, so I re-bought it.

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And since I have been on a Robbie Williams kick lately, I decided I needed all his albums. I didn’t get all, but I picked up 3.  I grabbed ‘The Ego Has Landed’ and ‘Intensive Care’ both studio albums and then a really cool Live album called “Live Summer 2003” recorded at Knebworth.

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I also picked up the new album from Stone Temple Pilots called ‘Perdida’ and I already have shown you that when I did a review.  It wasn’t pleasant.  But I bought it mostly due to my brother-in-law being the engineer and mixer on the album.  Go Check out the Review.

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If that wasn’t enough, when my kids and I were out to dinner on Saturday, February 15th, we were driving by Noble Records and I had to stop in.  As usual, I found a few more things.  First up is another Stone Temple Pilots album. This one is Shangri-La Dee Da and since I am buying albums that their uncle worked on, this falls in that category as he was working with Brendan O’Brien back then and he was the engineer on this album.

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And then there were two 80’s albums I didn’t have.  First one was Dokken’s “Under Lock And Key”…

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and the next one was one of the covers I am after for Stryper’s “To Hell With the Devil”…now I need to find the alternate more controversial cover…

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And that is all.  Well, there was one more, but it didn’t arrive in time for this month’s post so it will kick off next months.  Here is everything in one bundle and yes, I have a problem…

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See you next month…

Tuesday’s Memes – Steven Tyler

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I did an Aerosmith memes collection over 2 years ago so I was gong to do another, but everything was really focused on Steven Tyler. So today, Steven gets his own collection and I am sorry to say, it is not very flattering of the man.  Oh well, that’s life.  I am sure Joey Kramer will be laughing his as off at this.

Yes, dude does look like a lady…

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Hollywood Undead – ‘New Empire Vol. 1’ – Album Review

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Hollywood Undead brings us their sixth studio release with “New Empire Vol. 1”  In what is supposed to be a change in direction and new sound that is fresh while still being Hollywood Undead, it is all of that and none of it.  The music is still a mixture of nu metal and rap which is what they have always done.

However, this album though takes it further with being a little heavier at times and way more melodic at other times full of melodies and hooks that make these songs instantly memorable and you find yourself singing them even when the album is done.

But the biggest difference is the lyrics. There is still the aggression you have always seen, but they seem to be a little more uplifting especially on songs like “Heart of Champion” and “Second Chances” which features Benji Madden from Good Charlotte.

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And that heaviness I mentioned, check out the singles  “Time Bomb”and “Already Dead” as they come at you full throttle and leave you exhausted and wanting more. “Already Dead” is already one of my favorite songs of the year so far.  And that isn’t all, you get “Enemy” slamming at you and if you want a full on melodic gem than listen to “Upside Down” with special guest Kellin Quinn from the band Sleeping with Sirens as he brings a great vocal to the song and takes it a direction that the band wouldn’t normally go.

“Empire” is a little less heavy and a little EDM thrown in backdropping the rap by J Dog and Johnny 3 Tears.   What is cool with them is at times all members get to sing or rap which gives the band a broader range and able to do almost anything they want.  Lots of variety.

 

If you are looking for straight up rap then “Killin’ It” is what you want as it is full of cockiness, swagger and with the EDM effects delivers a solid track that makes you feel you can take on the world.  You also want to hear “Nightmare” which is so dramatic and powerful.  A beast of a song to end the album on. Then “Enemy” explodes and the drums come slamming against your head bringing the metal back to the sound.

The change for the band wasn’t as dramatic as I expected, but it was better than I expected.  I’m really drawn to the melodic sound on most of the choruses.  The hooks have grabbed hold of me. I’m not a rap guy personally, but what these guys deliver is something that holds my attention and mixes well with the heaviness of the music enough to make this rock guy to sit up and pay attention.

This year has been really slow for music and this is the first album that I have gravitated towards and I have a feeling it will stick with me for some time to come.  The production of the album is slick and the mix is top notch as everything sounds nearly perfect.  I give it a 4.75 out 5.0 Stars only because at 9 songs and only 33 minutes, it is too short!! Bright side, I can play it over and over and not take up too much time.

My Sunday Song – “Kickstart My Heart” by Motley Crue

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For My Sunday Song #184, we will discuss the rocking track “Kickstart My Heart” off their 1989 album ‘Dr. Feelgood’.  The song was from the band’s 1989 album ‘Dr. Feelgood’ and was the the 2nd single from the album. And it did well.  It was on constant rotation on MTV and reached #9 on the US Rock charts.  It helped propel Motley Crue even higher in their rise to the top.

The story of the song is really well known, so nothin new I can bring to it other than rehash it. The song title of “Kickstart my Heart” is famously documented as a result of Nikki Sixx overdosing the paramedics having to use the paddles on him to jump start him back to life.  Of course, Steven Adler from Guns ‘N Roses disputes some of the accuracies of that statement.  He claims he assisted in bring him back and not so much the paramedics.  Either way, still scary that he died and was brought back (on more than once occasion I believe).

Nikki had written the song, but didn’t feel it was good enough for the album until the band’s former manager read the lyrics, he told him to take it to the band.  And thankfully he did as it turned in to one hell of a rock anthem.

The song kicks off with some cool notes on guitar by Mick imitating an engine revving up shifting gears and then another cool riff comes through electrifying the song and taking it to another level with breakneck speed.  The driving riff, bass and drums makes you feel like you are speeding down the road ready to crash in to everything.  There is a break and change in tempo before ripping it again.  There is a voice box used on the guitar (like a lot of 80’s rock songs did) and the band crushes it from beginning to end.

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Friday New Releases – February 21st

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Happy Friday and welcome to another Friday New Releases post.  This week we only have slighty more than a handful with a whole 6 new releases with only 2 I am interested in (highlighted in Blue).  I am sorry there can’t be more, but there probably is that I don’t know about or even care about…not that I care about all of these.  What has been a slow year with releases seems to continue thankfully I do have a couple.  Let me know what interests you or what I may have missed so more people will know about it.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

  • 81bOoSHWYlL._SS500_  H.E.A.T. – H.E.A.T. II – (Sony Music Entertainment) – Digital Release Only (CD/LPs out 2/28):  This Swedish Hard Rock band is back with their sixth studio album.  If you want some solid arena rock with a hint of glam and great fun, then this is the album you should check out this week.  Bring on the guitars and let it rip.

  • 91-osrduSHL._SX522_.jpg  Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man – (Epic Records / Sony):  Ozzy!!!  I’m sorry, but Ozzy is no ordinary man even though the album is trying to fool you in to thinking so.  Hell, I’m not even sure the Price of Darkness is even a man!  But he is Ozzy and that is enough for me to give this a spin.  He has earned that.  I wish Ozzy well in his fight with Parkinson and may he keep on rocking.

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Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 8 of 15 – Disk 7)

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Welcome back to the Gene Simmons The Vault review.  We are now on Disk 7.  Below are the rules I am trying to follow with each review.

I will try and keep some consistency between each disk.  I will go through each song and mention who wrote, who played on it and what I think about the song. I won’t go through all the stories as you should get the vault to get all the information.  I will grade each song (ranking 1 to 5, 5 being best) and then take an average of the grades for the score of the disk.  I know most of these are demos, so I won’t be taking quality of the sound in to play that much because I know what I am getting and I am more interested in the overall song.

At the end of all the reviews, we will average the score of each review and come up with an overall ‘The Vault’ score which I hope will be a fair representation of the whole package.  I am going to do my best to do one a week, but as I said before, life sometimes gets in the way so I am not going to promise one a week.  Plus, this is 11 disks to digest and that is a lot as I am also doing the David Coverdale Series at the same time.  That is a bunch of music to go through.

The songs aren’t in chronological order.  Gene states each disk is more of a mood or vibe.  The vibe of this one is hard to pinpoint. It is a little all over the place with rock and some R&B vibes.

Well, are you ready?  Then let’s get right to it.

The CD comes in sleeve with my least favorite picture of Gene…I hope that is not a sign…

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Whitesnake – ‘Slip of the Tongue’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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After coming off the tour of the band’s biggest selling album, ‘Whitesnake’, it was time to record a new album.  But before that could happen, another guitarist left the fold.  Vivian Campbell left the band and it was reported as “Creative Differences”…whatever that means.  But it what it did mean, was more line-up issues for the band.

But that didn’t stop David from starting to write new songs.  He and his now creative partner, Adrian Vandenberg, set forth with writing the new album.  They actually wrote some of the album while on tour, but the bulk was crafter in David’s home in Lake Tahoe. I would think that wouldn’t be a bad place to hold up to write. The songs were all written by David and Adrian (except for one), but sadly, Adrian wouldn’t play on any of them.

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Adrian hurt his wrist and could not record.  He would need surgery for the issue and that put him out of commission for some time.  So, David needed to find a replacement to help with the album.  Now the replacement was to record, but it was also to replace Vivian.  He needed someone really strong and thankfully for us, he found one of the greatest guitar players ever to hold a 6 string.  It was the former Frank Zappa and former David Lee Roth guitarist Steve Vai. Steve brought a whole new style and sound to Whitesnake. Don’t expect Vai to play the blues, he had a texture and sound that was not what Whitesnake fans were used to, but we could accept it. Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘Slip of the Tongue’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)” →

Tuesday’s Memes – Five Finger Death Punch

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I was surfing the web and noticed a lot of hate for Five Finger Death Punch or FFDP.  I was surprised…okay, no I wasn’t.  However, it made me think why I haven’t roasted them on the Tuesday’s memes collection.  I know, I have been slack lately, I apologize.  I am here to make up for it.  So I gathered some of the better memes (or at least ones I could find).  Sit back and get ready to receive a Five Finger Death Punch to the face.

Apparently, the are not cool…

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