Month: January 2022

You Pick It! Which Album to Review in February?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – Skillet – ‘Dominion

  Never Heard Before – The Strokes – ‘This is It’

  Not My Normal Genre – Drive-By Truckers – ‘Decoration Day’

  From My Collection – Blue Oyster Cult – ‘Fire of Unknown Origin’

  From My Collection – Royal Blood – ‘How Did We Get So Dark?”

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in February, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – January 21, 2022

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We have another big week of releases for you on our Friday New Release post. And let me tell you, there is a plethora of styles, genres and sounds which means there will be something for you. You have my word or I’ll give you your money back…now of course you didn’t pay any money to be here so there is nothing to pay you back, but you get what I mean. My choices are highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear or what I may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

  • 71VAIUZH7cL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Kissin’ Dynamite – Not the End of the Road – (Napalm Records): This German band is now on their seventh album and I would say these guys are on to something as they keep getting better. Their 80’s stadium rock sound full of hooks and that anthem sound yet till sound modern. I can’t wait to hear what they have to offer this time around.
  • 81JkNZFtDAL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  John Mellencamp – Strictly A One-Eyed Jack – (Republic Records): Can you believe this is his 25th album? Insane right. I hadn’t listened to him in awhile so now I think it is time to check him out again and see if there is still life left in this pirate.
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – January 21, 2022” →

Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force – ‘Marching Out’ (1985) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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In a little less than a year after the release of Yngwie’s debut album, he puts out another release and this time a few changes were made. First, this sounded more like a band album. Jeff Scott Soto was still on vocals but this time he was involved in much more of the song writing. He contributed writing on 4 of the tracks and sang on 8 of them. For that reason, this was a more collaborative, band like experience…at least in how the album felt. The other change were a couple line-up changes. They brought in keyboardist Jens Johansson’s brother, Anders, to play drums. They also made a change in bass by bringing in Marcel Jacobs who is key and crucial part to the whole Jeff Scott Soto Story.

Marcel Jacobs is vital to Jeff’s story as the two became fast friends and within a few short years, the two would start what I think is one of Jeff’s best bands ever, Talisman. They would go on to do a couple side projects together called Human Clay and Humanimal, but they would always come back to Talisman and ended up giving us 10 studio albums together and numerous live albums and compilations. Without Marcel coming in to Jeff’s life, would his story have gone the way it did…I don’t think it would have. Even though they didn’t get along at first as Marcel was a stuck up European snob and Jeff was a trashy American, they eventually found common ground and their paths were destined to be intertwined for years to come.

Continue reading “Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force – ‘Marching Out’ (1985) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)” →

David Bowie – “Blue Jean” (1984) – 45 Single

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I found this one at Noble Records in Mathews, NC back when I found those two Quiet Riot 45’s reviewed the last two weeks. When I saw it was Bowie, what else would you do but grab it and buy it, no questions asked. The song is off Bowie’s 1984 album ‘Tonight’ which was the follow-up to the smash album ‘Let’s Dance’. The song was the first single off the album and went to #8 on the Billboard Charts and helping the album go to #11 on the charts and selling over 1 million copies. But after, ‘Let’s Dance’, it was considered a let down.

My copy of the album isn’t the standard release. It is the Jacksonville Pressing that was done on a translucent blue vinyl. It had the same B-Side of “Dancing with the Big Boys” which was also from the album. Otherwise, it isn’t a limited edition or anything just one with the cool blue color. I like Blue and being the song is “Blue Jean”, the color is an obvious choice!

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Aerosmith – ‘Classics Live! II’ (1987) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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As we mentioned in the prior post on ‘Classics Live!’, the band Aerosmith had reunited with Brad Whitford and Joe Perry and went out on tour to celebrate the reunion. That tour was the Back in the Saddle Tour. The band had been on Columbia Records, but jumped ship and signed with Geffen Records in hopes of getting back in the good graces of the buying public. They planned out and released their comeback album ‘Done With Mirrors’ with little fanfare at least that was until they were on the Run DMC cover of their song “Walk This Way”. That combination of Hip Hop and Rock joining together and being celebrated so much on MTV brought them back in to the limelight.

This new found fame was great for Columbia Records because the bands new deal with Geffen still allowed Columbia to release material they owned of the band, which was a lot. Columbia took full advantage of this opportunity and the first release was a live compilation called ‘Classics Live!’ in April 1986. This time around in June 1987, a little over a year later, Columbia released ‘Classics Live! II’.

This time around the album is mostly one show which was the New Year’s Eve show at Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, December 31, 1984. It had all five original members back in action. There are two additional songs from other shows, but like the other songs, it is the full gang back together. Nice thing is there are no repeats songs from ‘Classics Live!’ and four of the song titles were not on ‘Live! Bootleg’. There are just 8 songs like before so it isn’t a full show. It is purely a money grab by Columbia, but as a collector, I don’t care. I’ll take it. Plus, it would be 11 years before we get another live album from the band which we will get to eventually.

Continue reading “Aerosmith – ‘Classics Live! II’ (1987) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)” →

You Picked It! – Queensryche – ‘Rage for Order’ – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one wasn’t really that close. After the first five picks were one for each artist, the winner took the early lead and never looked back. The winner this month is Queensryche and their album ‘Rage for Order’ which was one that was in my collection. This one was never really that close. Queensryche had the lead from vote 1 and never lost it. Here are the results.

  1. Queensryche – ‘Rage for Order’ – 8 votes
  2. John Prine – ‘John Prine’ – 6 votes
  3. Triumph – ‘Allied Forces’ – 6 votes
  4. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – ‘Barn’ – 3 votes
  5. Shania Twain – ‘Come on Over’ – 1 Vote

Thanks to all for participating. The February choices will be up on Saturday!

QUEENSRYCHE – ‘RAGE FOR ORDER’:

I discovered Queensryche back in 1988 when they opened for Def Leppard. They were touring for the ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ album which I immediately purchased. As a result, I went back and tried to find more music by them and the next thing I picked up was ‘Rage for Order’. The album came out back on June 27, 1986 and was unlike anything else I had heard at the time. It was progressive metal and I am not sure what the hell was with their clothes and that hair. Woah! That hair. Was it glam? Was it Metal? I had no clue.

Continue reading “You Picked It! – Queensryche – ‘Rage for Order’ – Album Review” →

My Sunday Song – “Nowhere Fast” by Talisman

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For My Sunday Song #282, we are going to discuss the song “Nowhere Fast” by the Jeff Scott Soto fronted band, Talisman. The song was off their album “7” (of course, their seventh album) and was released in 2006. The album is the last studio album by Talisman as bassist and founding member Marcel Jacobs passed away a few years later before they could do another album.

The song “Nowhere Fast” was written by Marcel Jacob and Jeff Scott Soto. The song is lyrically simple. It actually starts out with the chorus and does a 3 line verse back to the chorus. It repeats this process several times and does it effectively. It makes the song catchy and memorable. Lyrically, the song is about a woman he wants to be with but she doesn’t necessarily want to be with him. His friends warn him that the relationship would go nowhere, but he is bound and determined to make it happen. First, he has to change her mind to wanting him. We don’t know now if he ever does, but it sounds like it was a valiant effot.

Musically, it is a juggernaut of infectious hooks and catchy choruses all encompassed in that Marcel Jacob bass sound. That funky bass sound opens the song and then Jeff Scott Soto’s vocals come in so smooth and melodic. Is it funk? Is it melodic rock? Well, it is both and so full of life. If I had to pick a song on what I loved about Talisman, this is one of them. It is full of pleasure and a sound that is music to my ears…literally!! And you know what else I like, guitar solos! And Fredrik Akesson lays down one that fits the song so perfectly. This song is total perfection.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Nowhere Fast” by Talisman” →

Kiss – ‘End of the Road: In Allentown 2020’ – Blu-Ray Review (Bootleg Series)

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I was out a Record Show and I found a table that had a lot of Kiss memorabilia but nothing much I really wanted as I generally stick to the music. I did find something I didn’t realize existed and that was Kiss Blu-Ray Bootlegs. This guy was selling a lot of them. I came back to the table and looked again and decided, you know, I want to try it out. When he then offered that I could get two for $15, I jumped at the chance. $15 was worth the risk. So I grabbed one from the End of the Road tour and one from the 40th Anniversary Tour as I saw both those tours, just not these shows.

So, first up we are going to go the most recent which is the End of the Road Tour and this show was filmed at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA on February 4th, 2020 just a month before COVID shut the whole touring scene down. Kiss was a full year in to the tour at this point and in fine form.

I have to say the video quality is much better than I expected. It is supposed to be a Pro-Shot video and although some of the camera angles sucked at times as they got washed out with the colors in the lights, overall it was pretty cool. The shots from the front of the stage were perfectly clear and killer you still got some shots that were muted by the lights some blurriness as the cameras couldn’t focus fast enough. But for $7.50 a piece, pretty darn acceptable.

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Friday New Releases – January 14, 2022

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Welcome back to the Friday New Releases. This week sees a big jump in releases over last week with over 40 releases. I would say things are back in full swing!! A handful of big releases this week and a couple I am looking forward to hear and they are marked in Blue. Let me know what is out this week that excites you as I hope there is something for you. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

  • 71GZTqxu8qL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Skillet – Dominion – (Atlantic Recording / WEA): This Christian Rock band from Tennessee is now on their 11th Studio album and they have changed so much over the years it is crazy to think how far they’ve come. Lately thought it all seems the same so I am hoping we get something a little different with this one. We will see.
  • 715HK2Gkz5L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Tony Martin – Thorns – (Dark Star Records): Former Black Sabbath singer is back with another solo album. It has been awhile since his last one so can’t wait to hear what he brings to the table this time around.

And then all the rest…

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The Original vs. The Cover – “With A Little Help From My Friends”

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For this episode of The Original vs. The Cover, we are going to discuss the incredible song “With A Little Help From My Friends” originally by The Beatles and most famously covered by Joe Cocker. The song for The Beatles was off their 1967 album ‘Sgt. Pepper & the Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and it was never released as a single until a re-issue of it in 1978. Joe Cocker’s version was off his 1968 album of the same name. His version went to #1 in the UK and only #68 in the US but is a signature song for him.

The song was written by the great writing duo of McCartney and Lennon and according to John Lennon, the song was mostly written by Paul with a little help from his friend. They wrote the song specifically for Ringo Starr who sings lead on the track. I found where the original working title of the song was called “Bad Finger Boogie” because Lennon played with only his middle finger on the piano as he hurt his forefinger. That title is said to have inspired the band Badfinger. Now, only believe this if you believe everything wikipedia tells you.

The song is said to be about drugs as even former U.S Vice Presidential candidate, Spiro Agnew, stated it was and wanted the song to be band. That claims is completely denied by the band. The song could be just about how no matter hard it gets, you can make it through it with the help of your friends. I mean John and Paul wrote the song for Ringo so that was helping their friend. Let’s get to the music.

THE BEATLES:

Continue reading “The Original vs. The Cover – “With A Little Help From My Friends”” →