Month: August 2023

Bon Jovi – ‘New Jersey’ (1988) – Part 1 – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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After a sixteen month tour for ‘Slippery When Wet’, Bon Jovi immediately went back in to the studio so they could prove that their third album wasn’t a fluke. They packed their bags again and headed back to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with Bruce Fairbairn back as producer and Bob Rock as the engineer. The band was ready to record and they record they did. This time around, they wanted to experiment a little with their songs and their sound, but at the same time they brought back a team that understood them and what they wanted.

The were so inspired on tour, that they had a ton of material to record. So much so, that they wanted the album to be a double album and it was going to be called “Sons of Beaches”. They had Desmond Child back to help with some songs and this time around they even had a couple other very famous songwriters, Holly Knight and Diane Warren. They really wanted to make sure they could repeat their previous success. When all was said and done, they had around 26 songs. However, the record company was really nervous about releasing a double album. They were worried that it would price them out of the market. So, they made the band release a single album.

That album would end up being called “New Jersey” and it was released on September 19, 1988 and was it as successful as ‘Slippery When Wet’? Uhhh..basically, yes! It went to #1 and had 5 hit singles and sold over 7 million copies (I think Slippery has had over 12 million). I would say that was another massively successful album. The sound of the album was really middle-America with a rock, country flair that felt like a Rock & Roll Western at times, but still that Arena rock overall filled with even more great ballads. It is a quintessential 80’s Rock album. Let’s get to the music.

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The Monkees Tour Book – 1967 U.S. & British Tour

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Over the years of my crate digging, I suddenly started finding Concert Tour Books and thought, why not collect those as well. I have found numerous Kiss, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and others and on one of my more recent digging adventures I found one from The Monkees. It was for their 1967 U.S. Tour and is the oldest Tour Program I have in the collection. As I am a Monkees’ Fan, I figured it needed a good home. It is in fair condition, but someone did feel the need to write on it and name each member on several pages, but that is part of its charm…at least that is what I keep telling myself. Luckily, it was cheap. Still glad to have it.

The Tour Program is for the band’s 1967 US & British Tour which kicked off on June 9, 1967 at the Hollywood Bowl and then saw the band head to England for 5 shows and the back to the states to finish off the Summer with numerous dates across the country. It was the height of Monkeemania which saw them hit 28 cities and a fun, cool fact is the Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for them on a handful of their American tour dates. And Lulu opened for them in England.

The shows would last about 65 minutes or so and the average setlist looked like below…

Last Train to Clarksville
You Just May Be the One
The Girl I Knew Somewhere
I Wanna Be Free
Sunny Girlfriend
Your Auntie Grizelda
Forget That Girl
Sweet Young Thing
Mary, Mary
Cripple Creek  (Peter solo)
You Can’t Judge a Book By the Cover  (Mike solo)
Gonna Build a Mountain  (Davy solo)
I Got a Woman  (Micky solo)
I’m a Believer
Randy Scouse Git
(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone

Oh, man I would’ve loved to have seen them play back in those days…there was a problem as I wasn’t even born yet at the time of these shows. I was still about 18 months out from being born. So, the main reason we are here is to look at the tour book so let us get to that.

After opening the cover, you will see an ad on one side and the band on the other…there is no denying what year this was with those outfits.

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My Sunday Song – “Winter Freeze” by Santers

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For My Sunday Song #373, we are on to the third pick from Deke over at The Distortion Den. This time he picked “Winter Freeze” by the band Santers. Now, Santers never broke here in the States, but in Canada they did well as well as the UK. The band hails from Toronto Canada, but I don’t think they sound Canadian, if that is a thing…we will get to that. The band is a trio with Santers brothers Rick(Guitar and Vocals) and Mark (Drums) as well as their trusty sidekick Rick Lazaroff (Bass).

The song “Winter Freeze” is off their 1982 sophomore release ‘Racing Time’. The song seems to be about a woman that Rick is wanting but she keeps freezing him out…thus “winter freeze”. She is giving him the cold shoulder, the freeze out and any other cold saying you want to throw in there. She is apparently American and she probably doesn’t want to date a Canadian because it is too cold in the Great White North.

The song is a great melodic rock song. The band was listed as metal, but they are far from it. This song and this album are firmly planted in the 80’s hard rock category. The song is actually killer with some great guitar work and a great rhythm section with some great drumming by Mark. The sound is a little raw in the production, but I like that feeling…it isn’t overproduced. Rick’s vocals are great as well and he does have an 80’s sound, but such a great tone and nice high register. Really a kick ass song and I hate that it never did anything down here. Maybe the whole country gave them the “Winter Freeze”.

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Friday New Releases – August 11, 2023

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We have another week of Heavy Hitters with this Friday New Releases. First up for will be the new Coney Hatch live album ‘Postcards from Germany’ as it is the first time streaming and it has two new studio tracks. Other hitters you might like are The Hives, Liam Gallagher and even George Lynch & Jeff Pilson with Heavy Hitters 2, plus many, many more. I am sure there is something for you. Let me know what you want to hear this week and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

  • 91YG6LCoekL._SX466_  Coney Hatch – Postcard From Germany – (Ex1 Records): finally on CD next week August 18th
  • 51tEb83fEoL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  The Hives – The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons – (Disques Hives)
  • A1EAn53uUTL._SX466_  Liam Gallagher – Knebworth 22 – (Warner Records)
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Bon Jovi – ‘Slippery When Wet’ (1986) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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Bon Jovi had two moderately successful albums under their belt. However, they weren’t happy with the fact they weren’t superstars yet. So, changes had to be made. Not in the band line-up as it was still Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Alec John Such. Nope. They needed to change their approach. One of the first things they chose to do was bring someone in to help with the songs. That person was Desmond Child. Desmond didn’t try to change who the band was with the songs, but he helped refine them, make them better. Jon and Richie wrote well together, but with Desmond’s help, the songs became stories that connected with people, but first they had to record them.

To do that, they changed even more stuff. Jon was listening to Black & Blue’s album ‘Without Love’ and he loved the production of it. So, he reached out to Bruce Fairbairn and he was hired as producer..with some other cat named Bob Rock as the engineer. The band moved to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada and the record was started. The album was finished and released on August 18, 1986 and would become a 12,000,000 selling album making it Diamond. It would spark 4 Top 40 singles of which 2 went to #1 and would see the band tour massively. They would start out the tour as an opening act, but by the end they were the headliners. The band got what they wanted and they were now Superstars!

But before we get to the music, let’s talk about the album name and cover. It was inspired by a trip to The No. 5 Orange strip club in Vancouver. The boys saw this stripper who stripped all the way down to nothing, stepped in to a shower and lathered herself all up. That was motivation for the boys to finish the album and inspired the Slippery When Wet name. One of the original names was ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ and had the boys dressed as cowboys, but that was scrapped. They did use that cover for the single though.

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Night Ranger – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC – August 6, 2023 – Concert Review

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Back on Sunday, my neighbor had lawn seats to the Bret Michaels Party Gras concert that he couldn’t use. He asked and I said I would love to use them and why not as the show had Jefferson Starship, Night Ranger and Bret Michaels with friends Mark McGrath and Steve Augeri. Night Ranger was the only one I really wanted to see so it was a no brainer to take those tickets.

I was getting ready to leave when the rains came. I braved it and went anyway as the rain was supposed to stop soon. I had my lawn chair, some water and snacks ready to not only Rock America, but Rock Charlotte. I get to the show and stand in line holding my chair when I was told the lawn was closed tonight…WTF?? But good news, they were giving us seats. Apparently, tickets didn’t sell so they wanted to move everyone closer so the place looked full and it did. First though, I had to take my chair back to the car and then walk back and get in line…again.

Once in, I had to go to a table and pick up an actual seat ticket. I told the guy that if he only had front row left, I would make the sacrifice and take it. Sadly, he did not. I did get decent seats though as they were in Section 3, row S so it was fairly close off to the left of the stage. Once seated, I was ready to get started.

JEFFERSTON STARSHIP

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Coming Soon to 2 Loud 2 Old Music – The Def Leppard Collection Series

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We are to the final of the Big Collection Series I will be doing. It is DEF LEPPARD!!! This is the last large collection I have…well…in my collection. Will it be the final series? Probably not, but don’t expect any more to go to this size again. There is nothing else left that would even hold a candle to it. The only one’s bigger are Kiss and Jeff Scott Soto and we’ve finished those series. Bon Jovi is close, but we are currently doing that one as well. So, this is it for the Big Guns.

Coming September 7th, 2023, DEF LEPPARD!! We are going to go through the series in chronological order of the material, not necessarily the album release dates. My Buddy Mike Ladano did his Leppard Series that way, and honestly, I liked it. So the years of some of these releases might be more current, but all the songs on it aren’t. There might be some minor exceptions to that rule over time, but my series, my rules. I hope you are ready for it!

What will we be reviewing? I have that mapped out so let’s talk through it.

THE STUDIO ALBUMS:

And I didn’t realize I didn’t have the 2015 self-titled album on vinyl. I think I was waiting for The Collections, Volume 4 to come out, but maybe I need to go ahead and get it.

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Slam – ‘Slam’ (2023) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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When I went to see Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler live a few months back, this CD was in the Merch booth. I got real excited real fast. Slam is a band Jeff was in way back in 1991. Jeff received a call from former Beau Nasty guitarist, George Bernhardt, about doing a project. Jeff didn’t have a steady gig yet as Talisman wasn’t a full time band so he was up for doing some demos. George’s songs that he sent Jeff were full of funk and groove and that is exactly what Jeff loved so the two hit it off immediately. They did 7 songs together and the band was formed. Well, the name Slam was really all they had as there was no real band since it was just the two of them so far.

They found a drummer, in Boston, by the name of Mark Bistany and then through an ad found two more New Englanders with guitarist Craig Polivka and bassist Chris McCarvill. Craig & Chris replied with a demo of a song that would become “Dance the Body Elektrik” that appears on this disc. There was a problem as these three new guys were all on the East Coast and Jeff & George were on the West. Jeff actually drove to the East Coast and picked the boys up. Once back out west, they added a fifth member, rapper EOG (Eric Grinstead) and he rounded out the band. With this line-up the band had a rock, a rap, a soul, a funk and a whole lot of other cool sounds in their music.

But, it didn’t last. The boys from the East coast decided to go on their own and then EOG left as well. But they did bring on another guitarist that would become a regular fixture in Jeff’s life, Gary Schutt. Ricky Wolking would come in on bass, but again..it didn’t last. After 3 to 4 months, they scaled down to a 4 piece with Gary out now, but the band could not get a deal. And Slam would eventually go out with a thud. Now, 30 years later, we get the full set of songs they worked on and we have 16 choice cuts to ponder. Let’s go through them and see what they were up to 30 years ago.

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My Sunday Song – “Shag Shack” by Teenage Head

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For My Sunday Song #372, we are on to Deke’s 2nd choice and this time it is from the punk band Teenage Head and their song “Shag Shack”. This was never a single, but was off their third album ‘Some Kind of Fun’ which was released in 1982. This Ontario band scored a gold album reaching #18 on the Canadian charts and are considered by some to be Canada’s answer to the Ramones. The band consists of Gordon Lewis, Steve Mahon, Nick Stipanitz, Frankie “Venom” Kerr and they all had a hand in writing this song (or they agreed to split things four ways and they each got credit).

There is no great mystery to what the song is about. It is about a place around 200 miles up the tracks from where ever they are that is meant for all sorts of fun. Based on the title, I think you know what kind of fun that pertains. The person is completely wasted as he says in the song and he might be laying a “deuce” which is way too much information to share. Really, Not Necessary!! LOL!!

The music is pretty much party rock with a punk edge to it. A drum barrage of snare hits kicks things off with simple riffs and a groove. It isn’t as fast as I would’ve expected, but is upbeat enough to party to. If you are looking for some mindless fun, then this is right up your alley. Nothing thought provoking, just punk…plain and simple. This isn’t punk railing against the establishment, not at all. It is simply sex, drugs and rock & roll and maybe taking a deuce to top things off.

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Friday New Releases – August 4, 2023

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The Summer is in full swing and we are now in August, hard to believe. And August starts out with a bang for me as I am really excited about two releases today. Mammoth WVH’s second album simply called Mammoth II with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfie!! The debut was awesome and with this kid’s talent, I don’t expect anything less. The second release is from a guy I have been following ever since Jessie’s Girl. That is right, Rick Springfield is back with another new release and he might be aging, but his music doesn’t seem to as it is always solid. Both of these are set to be delivered today. Now, let me know what you want to hear this week and if we missed anything. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!

  • 816or2TXxOL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Mammoth WVH – Mammoth II – (I Am the Sheriff / BMG Rights Mgmt)
  • 81Vj02dVDiL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Rick Springfield – Automatic – (Songvest Records)

And then there is all the rest…

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