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 – Eddie Vedder – ‘Earthling’
Never Heard Before – Kanye West – ‘The College Dropout’
Not My Normal Genre – Daft Punk – ‘Random Access Memories’
From My Collection – Slaughter – ‘Stick it to Ya’
From My Collection – Tesla – ‘Psychotic Supper’
Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in March, 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.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike & Friends
Come join me tonight as I worm my in to tonight’s episode of The LeBrain Train. See what Mike says below about the show…it will be lots of fun. Will Britney Spears, NSync or Backstreet Boys make an appearance on the list…OMG I hope not!!! But a lot of great ones will! I think my list will differ greatly from the others so should be interesting.
Episode 98 – The Millennium Show: Top Five Albums from the year 2000
A suggestion from the Meat Man — why not do our top albums from the year 2000? The turn of the millennium was a weird time in metal. A lot of bands were still suffering from the fallout of the past decade, while others were in the midst of big comebacks. But there were so much more than just metal in 2000, as you will see with tonight’s lists!
Give ’em a follow while you’re at it, and make sure you don’t miss tonight’s show! As always, the best way is to catch it live so you can participate in the comments. And as usual, there will be special unboxings for those who show up early! There could be something “ABSUЯD” in there.
Happy Friday. Here we are with another Friday New Release post. I feel like we just had one of these last week…oh wait…we did and do every week. We have over 40 this week and sadly, nothing for me this time around which is good as I need a break every now and again plus there is a big one next week I am waiting to hear. Let me know what interests you and what I may have missed as I am sure there will be some. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Shovels & Rope – Manticore – (Dualtone Music Group)
Beach House – Once Twice Melody – (Sub Pop Records)
With the help of the success of “The Flame” from the bands prior album ‘Lap of Luxury’, creative control of the bands next album was given back to the band. As result, the help of outside writers was extremely minimal. This time around, the band, with Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Bun E. Carlos and Tom Peterrson, would get some help from friends like Mick Jones of Foreigner and Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders. Producer Richie Zito was also brought back to man the boards. Creative control and famous guest was a recipe for success…or was it.
The album came out on June 27, 1990 and did spawn one Top 40 hit with the first single, but the following two did only #50 and not even chart. The album sold poorly and within one year after release, the band was dropped from Epic Records. Think about that…a band with the success they had, got dropped by their label. Around 14 years with the label, 11 Studio labels, millions sold and then goodbye! Would this be the end of Cheap Trick? Would they soldier on with more music? What would happen to them? Before we can answer that, we need to discuss this album.
By 1990, Jeff Scott Soto was basically a journeyman as a singer. He would take any job as long as he could sing. He went from Panther, to Yngwie, to Kuni, to Kryst the Conqueror and now we have the band Eyes. Jeff wasn’t the original lead singer, that belonged to James Christian who left the band to go join this little band named House of Lords…probably a smart move on his part as House of Lords did way better than Eyes. Which is a shame because this album is a lost classic of the late 80’s Hard Rock sound. Think Bon Jovi, Danger Danger, Firehouse and any other band from that time period.
The biggest problem this album had was only timing and the fact there were 100’s of bands out there that were all the same. These guys had the sound as they had the rock anthems, they had the ballads and oh my god…they had the hair!! They weren’t on a major label which probably got them lost in the shuffle. They were on Curb Records which back in those days was not a rock label. Without the major label push, they fell to the wayside and were overlooked by most…heck, I didn’t discover them until sometime after the 2000’s began.
The band consisted of Jeff Scott Soto on vocals, Steven Dougherty on guitar, Aldy Damian on drums and Jimmy O’Shea on bass. From what I can find, it looks like Jimmy only played bass on two of the songs as the rest were played by a name I told you to remember from an earlier review…Marcel Jacobs. Marcel didn’t join the band as he was busy with another band at the time which we will discuss very soon. The album came out some time in 1990 as a specific date can’t be found on the web anywhere for its actually release. And as I said, it didn’t go anywhere but as you are about to find out, it still kick some major ass!!
The song for this month’s The Original vs. The Cover is “Big Yellow Taxi” written by Joni Mitchell. The song is off her 1970 album ‘Ladies of the Canyon’. The song saw moderate success at the time going to #14 in her home country of Canada, but only #67 on the Billboard Charts. But in 1974, she released a live version of the song and it went to #24 on Billboard. We will focus on the studio song for this comparison. There have been many covers including a popular one from Amy Grant back in 1994, but I am going to put it up against the cover I know better which is Counting Crows’ version featuring Vanessa Carlton. The song was from their album in 2003 called ‘Hard Candy’. The song for them went to #42 on the Top 100, but did much better on the other charts going to #5 on Adult Top 40 and #2 on Top Adult Alternative Songs.
The song was inspired by a trip Joni had made to Hawaii. She arrived in Hawaii and took a cab to the hotel. I am assuming it was night, as when she woke the next morning, she threw open the curtains and saw such a beautiful view until she looked down and saw a massive parking lot. It was her political statement to the world about how we pave over everything that is beautiful. She even goes further talking about farmers and the use of the poisonous DDT chemical which is killing everyone.
She even puts a little humor in it as she jokes about the fact we take the trees and put them in museums and pay $1.50 to see them which was based on the Foster Botanical Gardens in Hawaii that she visited. There is even another line that a taxi took her old man away which either means he left her and drove away in a taxi or he was arrested as Metro Toronto Police cops cars were yellow at that time. I believe she is from Toronto so that makes sense as well. Enough of the backstory to the song, lets talk about each artist’s version.
JONI MITCHELL:
Joni’s version is more acoustic and folksy as that is who she is. The song is only an acoustic guitar and some percussion and I think that is all I hear. Her majestic vocals are all you really need anyway. Her voice sounds almost childlike in its tone, but is so smooth and beautiful. The background vocals add more depth to the overall sound. It is a soft, yet upbeat sounding song despite the fact it is a song talking about such sad imagery. I love at the end where she goes real deep with vocals and then laughs. It shows a lot of humor and I think adds to the beauty of the song.
COUNTING CROWS (Feat. VANESSA CARLTON):
Counting Crows version plugs the band in and adds more drums, a great bass groove and some good old electric guitar. Vanessa Carlton is on backing vocals duties with a lot of “ooh bop bops” which actually is a nice touch. Adam Duritz vocals are strong and his tone is really cool as well. He lacks a little of the humor that Joni had which I think makes the song slightly less impactful. The Crows version adds a little vocal break at the end where Adam sings in a little scat like way with Vanessa adding more backing vocals with some great fills. It is still a really great version of the song.
VERDICT:
It isn’t really a tough choice. I do really like the Counting Crows version a lot as it was the first time I really remember hearing the song. But Joni’s version is the best, hands down. Joni’s smooth, childlike, innocent vocals are just so hard to beat. The acoustic version gives it a more poignant vibe and I really loved the little bit of humor she threw in to the song which I think helped bring home the point how ridiculous we are paving over our world and taking away everything that is beautiful about it. I see it everyday where I live as the farms that are near us are disappearing and all the trees are getting cut down to build, yet another, subdivision. Just what we need.
I am really interested in hearing what everyone else thinks of these two songs. Let me know which version you like the best and why. Feel free to leave a comment and talk about the song and tell me how right or wrong I am on this one. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
LYRICS:
“Big Yellow Taxi”
They paved paradise Put up a parking lot With a pink hotel, a boutique And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot
They took all the trees Put ’em in a tree museum Then they charged the people A dollar and a half just to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot
Hey, farmer, farmer Put away that DDT now Give me spots on my apples But leave me the birds and the bees Please!
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot
Late last night I heard the screen door slam And a big yellow taxi took away my old man
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot
I said Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise Put up a parking lot
They paved paradise Put up a parking lot They paved paradise Put up a parking lot
Alright…You Picked It! And this one wasn’t really that close. They took an early lead and never looked back. The winner this month is The Strokes with their album ‘This Is It” which was one I had never heard before. I usually pick older classic albums for that slot, but thought I try and bring something more recent like in the last 20 years and it won. Here are the results.
The Strokes – ‘Is This It’ – 9 votes
Royal Blood – ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ – 5 votes
Blue Oyster Cult – ‘Fire of Unknown Origin – 4 votes
Drive-By Truckers – ‘Decoration Day’ – 3 votes
Skillet – ‘Dominion – Sadly, with ZERO votes (poor Skillet, no one wants to hear them)
Thanks to all for participating. The March choices will be up on Saturday!
THE STROKES – ‘IS THIS IT’:
The Strokes debut album came out on July 30, 2001 and I basically ignored it. It wasn’t hard enough from what I heard and I didn’t care for the over all sound so they were pushed to side and I never bothered with them. Here we are 20 years later and I thought I’d throw them on the You Pick It! Series and if they won, I’d finally give them a fair shake. Well, they won so I guess I have to live up to my end of the bargain. I spent all week listening to the album over and over and over and did my opinion change? Let’s find out…
For My Sunday Song #286 is the song “One Love” by the Jeff Scott Soto band called W.E.T. What is W.E.T.? Well, it is comprised of Robert Sall of the band Work of Art, Erik Martensson of the band Eclispse and Jeff Scott Soto from the band Talisman. Take the first initial of each band and you have W.E.T. It also has 2 other members Magnus Henriksson and Robban Back. All are on the label Frontiers Records who brought the super group together. The song is off the debut album from 2009 album simply called ‘W.E.T.’. What many were afraid would be a one album deal has turned in to four album and a live album album. A legit band.
The song “One Love” was written by Erik Martensson and Vivien Searcy and is simply about that one true love. Despite all the temptations out on the road, he knows he will never find someone like her and that she is his rock. Here love is what sustains him and she is that miracle sent form heaven. It is really sweet.
The song itself is a power ballad and a pretty great modern version of one. It opens with keyboards from Erik who also handles all rhythm guitar duties. The lead guitar and solo are from Magnus and it fits the song so well. The drums are from Robban and for some reason Mr. Sail is not on the lead for this one. Musically, it is pure melodic rock gold. However, the highlight are those smooth vocals from Jeff. He really delivers and emotional, heartfelt song that matches the lyrics. You can hear from these high notes the man has some pipes and can sing about anything. If this was released in the 80’s, this ballad would’ve been top of the charts. It is infectious, catchy and simply beautiful. Man, if Jeff would’ve stayed in Journey and they released an album, this is what it would sound like.
Styrper caught a lot of flack back in the day for their look. The big freaking hair, the yellow and black leather, the throwing Bibles from the stage. Yes, they were a Christian band in the Heavy Metal world. Funny thing is a lot of people didn’t know they were Christian and just enjoyed the songs. Heck, their look and sound fit right in on the MTV Generation as this song was one of the stations most requested songs. The thing is, Stryper were sincere in their Christian beliefs and spreading the word, but that didn’t stop the likes of Jerry Falwell calling them “A Wolf in Sheep’s clothing”. That is kinda harsh.
The band’s fifth single off their smash album ‘To Hell With the Devil’ was “Honestly” which was written by Michael Sweet. It was released in 1987 and went all the way to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band’s only song to ever break the Top 40 Charts. As a result, the band saw massive success and the album reached Platinum Status. The B-Side was the song “Sing-ALong Song” also written by Sweet. My copy of the 7″ Single is the standard U.S. version so nothing special other than it is in pretty great shape for over 30 years old.
Happy Friday…you made it another week…AMAZING!! As your reward we have a long list of new releases for you this week. I hope there is something in there that is music to your ears. I have a handful I want to check and I will mark those in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear this week or let me know if I missed anything even though I have over 50, it is bound to happen. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators – 4 – (Snakepit Records / Gibson Records / BMG): Slash and Myles together again…is it possible to have burnout on these two?? I am not sure I am there yet, but getting close. However, I will check this one out as I like Slash and I like Myles…so really a no brainer.
Eddie Vedder – Earthling – (Republic Records): Eddie Vedder is back with another solo album. That is enough for me. I’ll check it out as I’m always interested to hear what he brings that is different than Pearl Jam.
New Release – Eddie Vedder – ‘Earthling’
Never Heard Before – Kanye West – ‘The College Dropout’
Not My Normal Genre – Daft Punk – ‘Random Access Memories’
From My Collection – Slaughter – ‘Stick it to Ya’
From My Collection – Tesla – ‘Psychotic Supper’
Shovels & Rope – Manticore – (Dualtone Music Group)
Beach House – Once Twice Melody – (Sub Pop Records)
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators – 4 – (Snakepit Records / Gibson Records / BMG): Slash and Myles together again…is it possible to have burnout on these two?? I am not sure I am there yet, but getting close. However, I will check this one out as I like Slash and I like Myles…so really a no brainer.
Eddie Vedder – Earthling – (Republic Records): Eddie Vedder is back with another solo album. That is enough for me. I’ll check it out as I’m always interested to hear what he brings that is different than Pearl Jam.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 