Month: July 2025

My Sunday Song – “Wrecking Ball” by Lifehouse

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For My Sunday Song #441, we are talking “Wrecking Ball”. And it is not to be confused with the Miley Cyrus song. This is its own animal. “Wrecking Ball” that I want to talk about is by the band Lifehouse and off their 2010 album ‘Smoke & Mirrors’. This was not a single, but it was my favorite song on the album. The one song that grabbed hold from the get go and I still can’t stop listening to it some 15 years later. The album went to #6 on the Billboard charts which is really great and it was produced by Jude Cole, whose solo work I really love so I found it really cool to know he produced the album, but Jude is a whole other discussion we can have.

If you are a fan of the band, you know Jason Wade is the lead singer…but not on every song. This is one of the rare instances where the bass player, Bryce Soderberg handles the lead vocals. And what a job he does. Jason originally sang it, but it didn’t work so they were going to scrap it and so Bryce gave it a shot and Wow!! The song is about a relationship that sounds like it is a little destructive. It has its good moments and its bad ones…a lot of ups & downs. But the singer can’t get enough of her. She builds him up and breaks down his walls, but then turns around a tears him down. He feels he’s riding a wrecking ball as it swings like a pendulum.

The song opens with a cool bass run and a great, yet simple guitar riff. When the verse comes in it is only the bass and drum driving the rhythm. That guitar riff comes back and then the full band is all there on the chorus. And what a great big chorus it is. Great harmonies, I mean how could it not with Jason there to handle those since he wasn’t singing. Bryce’s vocals are so smooth, and very much like Jason’s. He captures the emotion and feel of the song and you can’t help but get lost in his voice. A song that is mid-tempo song that is close to a power ballad and a straight up pop rock song. This should’ve been a single in my opinion.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Wrecking Ball” by Lifehouse” →

Friday New Releases – July 11, 2025

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Another Friday and another small batch of releases. Like last week, there are not a ton of releases, but a few really big names coming at you. There is nothing for me this week, but hopefully there is something for you. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

  • Backstreet Boys – Millennium 2.0 – (Legacy Recordings)
  • Wet Leg – Moisturizer – (Domino Recording Co.)
  • Noah Cyrus – I Want My Loved Ones To Go With Me – (Records Label / Columbia Records)
  • Amy MacDonald – Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For? – (Infectious Music / BMG)
  • Steve Hackett – The Lamb Stands Up Live at the Royal Albert Hall – (InsideOutMusic)
  • Split Chain – Motionblur – (Epitaph)
  • Floating – Hesitating Lights – (Transcending Obscurity Records)
  • Born of Osiris – Through Shadows – (Sumerian Records)
  • Impureza – Alcazares – (Season of Mist)
  • Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss – (Mascot Records)
  • Matt Jencik & Midwife – Never Die – (Relapse Records)
  • Mal Blum – The Villain – (Get Better Records)
  • The Boxmasters – Pepper Tree Hill – (Keentone / Thirty Tigers)
  • Half Japanese – Adventure – (Fire Records)
  • Gina Birch – Trouble – (Third Man Records)
  • Jeffrey Runnings – Piqued – (Independent Project Records)
  • World’s First Cinema – Something of Wonder – (Fearless Records / Concord)
  • The Terrys – The Terrys – (Westway Collective)
  • Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out – (Roc Nation Distribution)
  • Brent Cobb – Ain’t Rocked In A While – (Ol’Buddy Records)
  • Tanner Usrey – These Days – (Atlantic Recording Corporation)
  • Petey USA – The Yips – (Capitol Records / Crow Island LLC / UMG)
  • Long Tall Deb & Colin John – Light It Up – (Long Tall Deb & Colin John)
  • Stars Go Dim – Roses – (Curb)

Billy Idol – ‘Dream Into It’ (2025) – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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It has been 11 years since we’ve had a full length studio album from Billy Idol. His last one was 2014 with ‘Kings And Queens of the Underground’. He has had a couple of 4 song E.P.’s since then, but no full album of new music. Now, the time is upon us. After he did those two E.P.’s, he realized the press on those was as much as a full length album so why not simply do a full album and we are glad he did. The album was released on April 25, 2025 and it went to #79 in the U.K., but Switzerland saw it go to #3 and Germany it was #2. How did it fare in the U.S.? Well, it was Billy’s first ever Top 10 album as it went to #7. Not bad Billy…not bad at all!

The interesting about this release is that it is a concept album and it is broken down in to two parts. Part 1 is called “Dying to Love” and is Side One on the vinyl. This side is focused on the past and sees Billy being nostalgic and focusing on his early years. Part 2 is called, “I’m Reborn” and is Side Two of the album. The focus here is more forward looking on his life now which sees him now as Grandpa and in love with a great family. Cool to see someone that almost died from his drug use and rock & roll lifestyle to be an older rocker and simply loving life. He seems to be in a good place.

I ended up buying both the CD and the vinyl simply because I collect everything Billy so had to have both versions. We get 9 songs, but really only 8 new ones as one of the song is a remake of the song “John Wayne” which was on hit 2008 greatest hits album called The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself. This time around it is a duet and we will get to that later. A little disappointing that we didn’t get 10 new songs. I was worried he was going to re-use some of the songs from his last two E.P.’s, but thankfully that was not the case. But we do a good some good stuff and some okay stuff, so let’s get to the music.

Continue reading “Billy Idol – ‘Dream Into It’ (2025) – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)” →

The Collection: Ep. 64 – ‘Off the Soundboard: San Antonio, TX 12-3-1985’ by Kiss – Album Review

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This week on the collection, we are going to show of the new Kiss ‘Off the Soundboard’ release we have on both vinyl and CD. The show is from San Antonio, TX recorded on December 3, 1985 and is the first ‘Off the Soundboard’ release to feature Bruce Kulick on guitar. The tour was for ‘Asylum’ which is one of the tours I saw and I actually saw the show later that month in 1985 in Atlanta. We will talk the packaging, the crappy things Kiss Online store do and talk the show itself.

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, July 7, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

My Sunday Song – “In My Veins” by Colton Dixon

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For My Sunday Song #440, we are talking “In My Veins” by Colton Dixon. The song is off his stellar 2017 album ‘Identity’ released on March 24th of that year. The song was not a single, but my absolute favorite song on the album. The singles “Limitless” and “All That Matters” helped propel the album to #73 on the US Top 200 albums chart, but it went to #1 on the US Christian Albums chart. If you don’t know Colton, he is a former American Idol participant during Season 11 and made it to the Top 7, but amazingly didn’t win.

The song was written by Colton and Tommee Profitt and of course is a very religious song. The album it was from, ‘Identity’, was a concept album that had three parts, The Mind, The Body and The Spirit. “In My Veins” fell in The Body section. It is about how Jesus is inside of us, He is the fire in our veins. He gives us life through His death. When your world is dark, he is the light, the power that drives you and through your faith you can accomplish anything with His name written in your veins. A very spiritual and powerful message and every time I hear this song, I feel rejuvenated.

The song opens with a dramatic keyboard run, then the drums explode and you get some orchestration. It is all explosive and over the top in a good way. The chorus is huge, layers of vocals, great harmonies and Colton sounds amazing. The slow build up, the explosiveness and then to go go back to the softness before it explodes again takes you on a journey both musically and lyrically. The music gives you an uplifting, rejuvenated feeling that washes over you. Colton’s vocals are a higher range that is delivered so smooth and so effortlessly. The combination is perfection. A Christian song that is both a sensational pop song and a rock song at the same time.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “In My Veins” by Colton Dixon” →

Friday New Releases – July 4, 2025

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Happy July 4th!! It is Independence Day here in the States and as a result, there isn’t much this week. The biggest release is definitely Kesha’s new one “.”. There isn’t anything for me so I’m going to enjoy the day off and the fireworks. Let me know what you want to hear and if there isn’t anything, there is always next week. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great long weekend!!

  • Kesha – . – (Kesha Records)
  • Dropkick Murphys – For The People – (Dummy Luck Music / Play It Again Sam)
  • Average White Band – Essential Selection – (Edsel Records)
  • The Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed – (Fire Records)
  • Warkings – Armageddon – (Napalm Records)
  • Joe Stump’s Tower of Babel – Days of Thunder – (Silver Lining Music)
  • Wytch Hazel – V: Lamentations – (Bad Omen Records)
  • Rimmar – Raises – (Rockshots)
  • Leonov – Shape of Ash E.P. – (Pelagic Records)
  • Gaupa – Fyr E.P. – (Magnetic Eye)
  • Shouse – Collective Ecstasy – (Hell Beach)
  • Claudia Brucken – Night Mirror – (Edsel / Demon Music Group)
  • Rival Consoles – Landscape From Memory – (Erased Tapes)

Kiss – ‘Snake Attack Budokan: Last Show Japan Tour 1977’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.

A month ago, we did a review of ‘Kabuki Beasts: Kyoto 1977’ and it was recorded Saturday, March 26, 1977 at Kyoto Kaikan Dai Ichi Hall in Kyoto, Japan. This is another Japanese show from that tour. In fact, it is the Last Show of the 1977 Japanese Tour and it was April 4, 1977 at Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. It is called ‘Snake Attack Budokan: Last Show Japan Tour 1977’. There were only 150 of these made and sold so good luck trying to find one and if you do, I hope your wallet is full. Mine is #62.

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Snake Attack Budokan: Last Show Japan Tour 1977’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)” →