Month: July 2020

Friday New Releases – July 31, 2020

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I learned a new phrase today.  I learned that Friday’s are also called “POETS” Day. A British slang I believe for “Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday”.  So why don’t we all celebrate “POETS” Day every Friday and treat ourselves to some music.  There are a good amount of releases today and my choice is highlighted in Blue.  Let me know what you are interested in hearing and what I missed on the list as I only usually put stuff on here for bands that I actually know something about so I miss a lot.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend…now Piss Off!!

  • 8100gpzX9lL._SS500_  Dee Snider – For the Love of Metal (Live) – (Napalm Records):  Speaking of live albums, we have a new one from Dee Snider from this tour of his latest album, For the Love of Metal.  Looking forward to hearing this as that was a great album.

And here are the rest…some good stuff that might get checked out in the near future…

  • 91l829R5KWL._AC_UL115_  The Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain – (Cooking Vinyl)

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Kiss – ‘Rock And Roll Over’ (1976) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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After the massive success of ‘Destroyer’, the band was riding high. Now the hard part, following up a massive album.  Despite the success of the prior album, there were many fans who didn’t like the direction Kiss was going. They felt the rawness of the band was missing. It was that rawness they loved.  They weren’t alone, Ace and Peter felt the same way.  They did not want to repeat what Ezrin had done, but Gene and Paul didn’t want to completely throw it away either.

So, Eddie Kramer was brought back in to produce.  They camped out at the Star Theater in Nanuet, New York i hopes to have a live feel for the album to make sure they capture the true essence of the band.  And whether or not they did is still up for discussion.  You get a mixed bag of thoughts on the production of this album, I will just say I think it is one of their most consistent albums they have done and we will get in to the meat of it later.

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July 2020 Purchases – Vinyl & CD

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Another month gone by and a lot more purchases.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my CD purchases have skyrocketed over the last few months.  I have been to a bunch of shops that have CDs and have them cheap so I can’t help myself.  However, this first batch of CDs is not from a shop. They are mostly from Amazon as my kids gave me an Amazon gift card for Father’s Day as they weren’t sure what I didn’t have (which is a valid point).  So with these cards I continued my Jeff Scott Soto Collection and picked up 6 more discs (okay, one was from ebay).

I picked up Jeff Scott Soto – “Essential Ballads”; Soul Sirkus – “World Play”, W.E.T. – “W.E.T.” and “Earthrage”, SOTO – “Orgami” which is the last of the SOTO collection, and Talisman – “Talisman”.  This brings me up to over 20+ now in the JSS collection and still about 20+ more to go.

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Next up, my wife wanted to run back to 2nd & Charles as she needed  some books and I of course wanted to tag along as they have a great used CD collection and I always find something interesting and this time was no different.  I picked up a Bootleg Robbie Williams 2 CD compilation from Japan.  It is called Sexed Up and it has been outlawed for sale by Discogs, but I saw one an eBay for about $30+.  I payed about $3.  It is an HDCD, whatever that means.

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But that wasn’t the only thing I bought from there as they had a sale where you buy 2, get one free.  I picked up 8 more discs including 2 more Robbie Williams CDs, 3 Oasis CDs, Ozzy’s Just Say Ozzy E.P., Candlebox’s “Lucy” and Jude Cole’s “I Don’t Know Why I Act This Way”.  Not a bad haul.

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And on the way home, my wife saw Noble Records and asked if I wanted to stop in, and of course I said yes.  She is so awesome!!  I did a little damage there as well. I picked up 2 more CDs – Cheap Trick’s “At Budokon: The Complete Concert” CD set and Thriving Ivory’s “Through Yourself & Back Again”.

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I did get vinyl while I was there as well. I picked up Deep Purple’s ‘Machine Head’ and ZZ Top’s “La Futura” because I saw the documentary on Netflix and needed this album as I didn’t have it as I’m now on a ZZ Top kick.

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The next thing that was purchased was neither vinyl nor CD.  I have started my new obsession, Kiss Tour Books and first up is this one…not going to talk about it as I already have a post coming in August going in full detail…

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And that is it…until next month

Krokus – ‘Headhunter’ (1983) – Album Review

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Do you remember Krokus?  I certainly do. Krokus was the biggest selling Swiss band ever until the band Gotthard came along, but that is another post.  For now, the focus is Krokus…hey, that rhymed!! Back in 1983, Krokus was starting to make some headway in the US.  Their sound was heavy and sounded a lot like AC/DC.  Then on April 25, 1983, they released the album ‘Headhunter’.  They took that heavy AC/DC sound and when up another notch as they were louder and way heavier than they had ever been before.

All of that was due to producer Tom Allom (hey, I think that rhymes too! – man, I am on roll).  Tom is a producer and a sound engineer who had worked with Black Sabbath and Judas Priest so the man knew his metal and he took that expertise and gave Krokus their biggest selling and most successful album to date.  And man, did it rock. The use of the twin guitars, the awesome sound of the double bass drum and man the singer could lay down some killer vocals on the chorus.  It is everything you could want. And on a side note for you Def Leppard fans, Tom was producer on their debut ‘On Through the Night’.

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Matt Nathanson – ‘Live in Paradise: Boston’ – Album Review

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There is nothing better than artist that delivers a surprise and Matt Nathanson did just that.  On Wednesday of last week, he made an announcement that he was dropping a live album and you could pre-order it on vinyl or many bundles on Thursday at Noon EST.  So, I set a reminder on my calendar and when 12:00pm hit, I was on the site and the album was ordered.  And to make it even better, you were sent an email and able to download the album immediately in a digital version.  And to make it even better than better, you got a deluxe edition with another 36 tracks.  That was over 3 hours of music…hell yeah!!!  And the album would drop to the general public on Friday so I got to hear it day before everyone else (except those other fans that ordered).

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The main standard album is mostly an actual show that was recorded on his 2019 tour called the “Song Wheel” Extravaganza Tour at the legendary Paradise Rock Club in his hometown of Boston, MASS.  What was really cool about this tour is that it was an acoustic show with just Matt and his friend Aaron.  And another really cool aspect is the tour included a big wheel called the Song Wheel. There were a ton of songs around the wheel and he would spin it several times during the show and let the wheel decide what song would be played next.  This is exciting because basically each show he played would be different than the show prior.  That is almost unheard of in today’s technical and choreographed lighting shows where every bit of the show is timed out to the precise moment leaving no room for improv which Matt is an utter master at doing.

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My Sunday Song – “Don’t Break My Heart Again” by Whitesnake

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For My Sunday Song #206, we are discussing “Don’t Break My Heart Again” by Whitesnake off their 1981 album ‘Come And Get It’.  The first single off the album and it reached #17 on the UK Charts. The album did really well in the UK hitting #2 and was their highest charting album at that time.  Sadly, still absent from the states for the most part due to contractual issues.

The song is very personal and emotional song from David Coverdale.  It is about the ending of David’s first marriage (and I think “Fool For Your Loving” is as well too). David delivers some emotional and heavy lyrics.  There is a darker overtone with the subject matter and David sounds a little heartbroken.  It is a different side of him and Whitesnake as normally they throw the “cock rock” in your fact as they do in numerous other songs on the album.

It opens with the amazing Jon Lord on his Hammond Organ.  Neil Murray’s throbbing bass is mixed in and accompanied by Ian Paice with a hard driving drum beat.  The song has that great drum beat throughout and then the guitars are added with a cool riff.  Bernie Marsden delivers the solo that fits perfectly for the vibe of the song.  It is also one of David’s finest vocal performances on this album as he puts enough emotion into his vocals to get the message across loud and clear.  It is such a stellar track.

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Friday New Releases – July 24, 2020

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Happy Friday everyone. It is another day for releases and hopefully something you’ve been wanting.  There isn’t a whole lot here this week, some solid metal, pop, country, r&b, comedy and two surprises that only popped up as being released this week.  And those two are the only ones I am interested in which is good as vacation is coming and some much needed time off.  Those two are in Blue.  Let me know what you are digging this week and what I have missed.  If there is nothing for you, what is something new lately that you find to be pretty dang great?  Let me know!  Have a great weekend everyone!

  • Screen-Shot-2020-07-23-at-8.24.01-AM-1595507076  Taylor Swift – Folklore – (Republic Records):  Surprise, Surprise!! Taylor announced yesterday that she is dropping a new album at midnight…right when this post posts!  Written and inspired during the Covid-19 stay at home orders…I’m actually interested in what this will sound like. I know, I’m surprised by that as well.

  • 1524a4cc-50b7-4682-85bc-fcf749503497  Matt Nathanson – Live in Paradise: Boston:  The announcement came on Wednesday, Pre-Orders were Thursday and the Digital is came immediately so technically this came out yesterday, but I don’t care!!!…This is so exciting for me as nothing this man puts out is bad and now a Live album…Hell Yeah!!!  There are no videos, but someone posted one from the show last year that is supposed to from so close enough.

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Kiss – ‘The Originals’ (1976) – Bonus Edition (The Kiss Review Series)

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In the last two weeks, I have talked about special Kiss albums or singles in my Big Box of Vinyl and that continues one more time.  This time in my big box of vinyl there was one more special Kiss album.  Now I bring you ‘The Originals’.  This was released on July 21st, 1976 which actually turns out to be 44 years ago just two days ago!  Why didn’t I schedule this for Tuesday…who knows.  Sometimes I am stupid.

‘The Originals’, as noted on the album cover, are “the albums that touched off a Rock & Roll explosion.”  It was a special edition re-release of the albums ‘Kiss’, ‘Hotter Than Hell’ and “Dressed to Kill” in one package.  With the overwhelming success of the live album ‘Kiss Alive!’ and ‘Destroyer’, Casablanca Records wanted to take advantage of that success and re-release the albums in one glorious package.

The album comes with a 16-page history booklet, a color Kiss Army sticker, and a sheet of six trading cards.  It looks something like this…

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David Coverdale – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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Starting back on August 1st, 2019, we started the David Coverdale Series of reviews.  It was a long process and after 36 reviews, we are capping off the series with not one, but two album rankings.  The first one covered only the Whitesnake albums.  The second one, this one, will cover ALL albums that David Coverdale has done.  The list are only studio albums.  No E.P.’s, no live albums and no greatest hits.

David started his career back in 1974 with Deep Purple’s Mark III lineup on the album Burn.  Through 20 studio albums that cover Deep Purple, David Coverdale solo albums, Coverdale/Page and of course, Whitesnake, there is so much music to cover in his 46 years of music.  It was so much fun tackling this David Coverdale series that part of me hates to see it end,  but all good things come to end.

Why don’t we get started and let’s see how David Coverdale albums rank from the Worst to the First.

THE WORST – WHITESNAKE: ‘THE PURPLE ALBUM” (2015):

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Kiss Kompendium – The First Complete Collection

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I was out vinyl digging with my two daughters and we stopped by an Antique Mall as the girls love to look at all the old antiques. I don’t argue as there are numerous booths with vinyls that I can check out and heck, you never know what else you are going to find.  The girls didn’t find anything, but I certainly did…and it wasn’t vinyl.

It was this 3″ thick book called ‘Kiss Kompendium: the First Complete Collection’.  I knew instantly what it was when I saw it…okay, I think my daughter saw it first and told me “look dad, a Kiss book”.  Yes, a Kiss book.  One I had been looking to find for quite some time and Wow!! There it was.  I immediately grabbed and carried it around the store until I could pay for it.  And let me tell you, that was a mistake.  By the time we walked up and down the rest of the aisles, my arms were jelly.  This book is not light in the very least.

What is the book you ask.  It is the complete collection of Kiss Comic Books.  Now, I don’t own a single comic book and don’t really care for them all that much. Nothing I don’t like about them other than I collect music, not comic books.  But I also collect Kiss and this fits that bill nicely.

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