As we close out 2024, what were the things I liked the most that I obtained in the collection? That is a very good question that we will answer in this week’s video. We will talk new releases, live albums, reissues and the coolest stuff I think I found this year to add in to the collection. A whole bunch of stuff so check it out!!
Back in 2020, Record Store Day was spread out over several months due to this little thing called Covid. The pandemic slowed things down since people couldn’t gather in the same way we had in the past. But by October 20, 2020, this Record Store Day item was finally released. It was an E.P. from Down ‘N’ Outz that was created to compliment the release of their album ‘This is How We Roll’ which we reviewed a few weeks back. This limited edition release was called ‘The Music Box E.P.’ and was limited to only 1,500 copies. Thankfully, I grabbed one. It contains 4 tracks, one of which was previously unreleased. The other three were extended versions or different edits of tracks from the album.
Down ‘N’ Outz, for those that don’t remember, was a side project from Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott that was originally created as a tribute band to Mott the Hoople & Ian Hunter. It turned in to original songs with occasional covers. The rest of the band was Paul Guerin, Guy Griffin, Keith Weir, Phil Martini and Share Ross. It is a stellar line-up and a full of players that love their craft.
This Side kicks off with an extended version of “Music Box” and the original version, I didn’t care for. It was a musical interlude that Joe had written back in 1978. He dusted it off and it turned it to more vaudeville. We have a fairground organ, a recorder, a bass drum and a harp. It is cute and all, but really adds nothing to the album in my opinion. A full flushed out song would’ve been better. I guess this is the full flushed out version. It still feels like a carnival, but much slower and not as lively. I guess these are the sad clowns. Like the original, this does nothing for me.
The next track is the explicit version of The Tube’s song “White Punks On Dope”. And what a killer track. It has the angst and energy of the original. I love the energy, the honky tonk piano, the blistering guitars and bombastic drums. And then there is Joe, he sounds great. Being the explicit version, the “F” word is used where it wasn’t in the original version they did. Ooohh!! So explicit…these virgin ears can’t take it!! (Sarcasm btw).
That Side kicks off the another extended version and this one is the 2nd “Music Box” song from the original and is called “Music Box Reprise (Griff’s Lament)“. This is another brief musical interlude and like the original music box, does nothing for me or the album.
The final track is a Roxy Music cover of “Virginia Plain”. Now, I am not a fan of Roxy Music so I do not know this song at all. It is an upbeat rocker, with a fun little bounce to it (that doesn’t sound like Roxy Music to me). It sounds like a very glam era rocker and it isn’t too bad. Still doesn’t make me want to run out and
The collector in me had to have it, but honestly, I haven’t listened to it since i bought it originally. I only pulled it out for this review and that is enough. I don’t think I will ever listen to this again…sorry boys. The “Music Box” songs aren’t worth the time, and the original non-explicit version on the album of “White Punks On Dope” is fine with me if I listen to that album. The only reason to have this is Roxy Music’s “Virginia Plain” and it doesn’t move me enough to hear that again…probably. My Overall Score is a 1.0 out of 5.0 Stars as this is strictly for collector’s and completists.
Universal Music was spitting out Kiss compilations faster than Gene and Paul were badmouthing Ace & Peter. Man, that is fast. This time around, we get a German only compilation from 2012 that was only available at the retail store Rossman. It is a 2 CD set with 30 songs and a bonus track as well. But is it really a bonus track if this is the only version released. No vinyl, no cassette, only a CD. That to me seems like it is a 2 CD set with 31 songs. Maybe it is because all the songs on here are album cuts except for this 31st song…who knows. Regardless, cool to get this one in the collection and I love that it has the German Kiss logo with the different SS’s.
The songs are mostly focused on the 70’s with a small taste of anything from the 80’s and when I say small, I mean only like 4 songs out of the 31. But there are some cool choices on here that you don’t normally see on a Kiss compilation and being 2 CDs, gives you a great taste of the band especially if you like the 70’s.
The album kicks off with the song “Strutter”. The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves. The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester.
Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Star Boulevard’ (2012) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)”
To celebrate the band’s 40th Anniversary, they have released a new Greatest Hits Compilation. And I know what you are thinking…big deal…right? Well, this one is a little different. One, it was only released in Japan…Two, the songs were hand picked by their Japanese fans. As a result, you do get the big hits, but there also some deep cuts you don’t normally see on a Bon Jovi greatest hits set.
And the band went all out with this release. It is called ‘All Time Best 1984-2024’ and was released in November 2024. I want to say it was the 6th, but with production delays, I’m not sure exactluy. My copy didn’t show up until around the 20th of the month. Whenever it was released, what a release it is. It chock full of hits and not hits, with 50 songs covering their entire career from the 1984 debut all the up to the 2024 release of ‘Forever’. All the songs are spread over 3 CDs and they even through in a Blu-Ray if you have the Super Deluxe Edition (which I do). Plus a few things more.
A couple weeks back, we discussed the ‘Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood’ show that Def Leppard released on vinyl. It was taken from the bands 2019 Sin City Residency. Well, what we have for you this week is a special snippet of that show. This is a 10″ E.P. that covers the acoustic portion of that show. And the nice thing about it is that it is a picture disc as well. You get 4 songs, all done acoustically, in a limited edition packaging. I believe this was also a European only release and put out some time in 2020. What songs do we get? Well, let’s see.
On Side A, it kicks off with “Let Me Be The One” off the 2002 album ‘X’. One of the best ballads the band has ever done and one that do not play live ever, sadly. Viv and Phil’s acoustic work is always superb and this one is no different. The band’s harmonies on the backing vocals are pretty great live (not studio quality, but who can).
If that wasn’t cool enough, they pull out “We Belong” from the 2015 self-titled album. What is cool about this is it has all 5 guys taking turns singing, which is a first for the band. One of my favorite songs from that album and here they just slay. Everyone sounds incredible and it is as if it was from the studio album it is that good. This time around, we get drums as they were absent on the first track so glad to Rick Allen get involved on the acoustic portion. This had never been played live ever until the Residency.
In 2023, a new Super Group was born. This one was called Generation Sex and consisted of members of both Generation X and The Sex Pistols. From Gen X we get Billy Idol and Tony James. And from The Sex Pistols we get Steve Jones and Paul Cook. The four legends toured Europe in the Summer of 2023. Of course they performed songs from both bands as that was the whole point of the Tour. And like with almost any tour, you generally can find a bootleg and I did just that.
As you know, I love Billy Idol and so any time I can find anything I don’t have I grab it. This bootleg came out on July 16, 2024 and for a show at the Liseberg Amusement Park in Gothenburg, Sweden. The title of the set is called “Listen To This, Johnny!” which is wonderful shout out to The Sex Pistol lead singer, Johnny Rotten. Maybe a giant middle finger…who knows.
The setlist for that show was a whopping 16 tracks, but we don’t get the full show here sadly. This bootleg only gives us 11 songs from that set, but those songs are great. The bootleg was done like those back in the day (70’s/80’s) which means it is a white cardboard jacket with a sheet of paper wrapped around it with the information crudely printed and xeroxed copied. In a word, awesome!! There is no extra information, just basics and the vinyl label is pretty basic with a giant A on one side and basic white on Side B. And as far as sound, a pretty damn decent audience recording and since we are here for the music, that is a good thing. Let us dive right in.
By 1982, Jon Bon Jovi re-recorded “Runaway” which he had originally recorded back in 1980 and had shopped it around with no luck. This re-recording he did with what he liked to call The All-Star Revue which consisted of guitarist Tim Pierce, keyboardist Roy Bittan, drummer Frankie LaRocka, and bassist Hugh McDonald (remember this name). The song started getting a little traction and eventually Jon Bongiovi got a record deal and changed his name to Jon Bon Jovi. He was an artist with a deal, but no band. Jon wanted a band and he was going to go with Johnny Electric, but Pamela Maher that suggested he use the name Bon Jovi since a two word name worked so well for Van Halen. No one really liked that idea at first, but eventually Jon came around and Bon Jovi was born.
So, Jon called his old buddy from his old band Atlantic City Expressway, David Bryan Rashbaum, and the ball got rolling. David called his buddy Alec John Such to handle bass and a drummer he knew by the name of Tico Torres. Alec and Tico were formerly in a band together called Phantom’s Opera. They needed a guitarist, so Jon reached out to his friend Dave Sabo (or “Snake”) who played with them for a very short time. He never actually joined the band, but thankfully he would go on to something almost quite as good with a band called Skid Row…maybe you’ve heard of them.
But the band still needed a guitarist. Jon had seen, and was impressed, by a guitarist by the name of Richie Sambora. Richie had played with Joe Cocker and was in a band called Mercy. Hell, Richie even auditioned with Kiss to replace Ace Frehley, but that didn’t go well. Jon asked him to join and now the band was complete. The band had a new manager by the name of Doc McGhee and with his help, they went off to record their debut album.
Continue reading “Bon Jovi – ‘Bon Jovi (Deluxe Edition)’ (2024) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)”
In 2020, Def Leppard released a really cool box set called London to Vegas. It had 2 shows, one from the 02 in London where they played the entire Hysteria album live and the other called ‘Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood’ where Def Leppard did another residency. The set had CDs for the shows as well as Blu Ray (or DVD) so you could watch it too. But that wasn’t all. They also released the albums individually and I bought each one as well, but this time on Vinyl.
Up this week is the band’s appearance at London’s O2 Arena back in 2018 where they played the entire ‘Hysteria’ album from beginning to end in order. Yes, they have done this before with the ‘Viva! Hysteria’ release from the Vegas Residency, but they had never done the album in full in their home country before so they wanted to document that show as well. In 2020, they released the 2 LP set on vinyl with a beautiful gatefold album jacket. The vinyl itself is a really cool clear translucent color. Is clear a color? Anyway, the packaging was done very well and the whole package looks great.
Back in 2003, Kiss released, okay, the record company released a greatest hits compilation called The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss (1973-1979). It was the first of three volume set. Well, then in 2010, the label issued the ‘Icon’ Series with two volumes. The first volume is the exact same track list as ‘The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss’…well…it is and it sort of isn’t. 11 of the tracks in order are from Vol. 1 of The Millennium Collection while the last song from that collection is moved to kick off Disc 2. In its place is a live song from ‘Alive II’. Disc 2 kicks off with a song from ‘Dynasty’ and picks one song from every album after that up to ‘Pyscho Circus’…well that is if you exclude ‘Carnival of Souls’ and any of the live or compilation albums.
However, as the collector in me, I had to have ‘Icon 2’. Even though I have ‘Icon’ on CD and have the brand new, first time on vinyl version of Icon as Walmart has just released an Exclusive Silver Black Splatter vinyl. And since I collect everything vinyl for Kiss, I had to have it for my collection wouldn’t be complete. Okay, my collection is not complete anyway as I am missing a couple pieces that are extremely pricey, but that is for another time. Yes, I have a problem. Both ‘Icon’ and ‘Icon 2’ were released by Universal in 2010. Universal started vomiting greatest hits compilations for Kiss ever since they left the label. And I mean vomit…there are at least a dozen in about a 10 year span from around the world. It is nuts.
Let us go through this set and talk about the songs since we are here.
There are no more Friday New Release posts for the year as there are so few and so insignificant of releases that it is not worth posting anything. Instead, I wanted to remind everyone that at the top of every page is a “NEW RELEASE” button that will take you to a list of all releases that I know about that are coming out in the next several months. In fact, I even have one out listed that is May 2025. A bunch are already announced and a ton more to go. Please click on that and check it out. It will probably be January 10th or even 17th before we come back with Friday New Releases.
Thanks for the support and see you back here soon.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 