Author: 2loud2oldmusic

Max the Axe – ‘Oktoberfest Cheer’ E.P. – Album Review

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Max the Axe has made an appearance on our site before with the stellar album ‘Status Electric’. They are back but this time around we only get a 3 song E.P. which is fine. I will take what I can get. I want to thank Mike Ladano for making sure I received a copy as he knows I enjoyed the last one.

Max the Axe are a Canadian band out of Kitchener, Ontario (yeah, I don’t know where that is either).  It is made up of the following members…

The Band:

  • Mike “Max” Koutis – guitar
  • Eric Litwiller – vocals
  • Dave Haslam – drums
  • Mike “Mitch” Mitchell on bass

You probably know Eric Litwiller if you watch The LeBrain Train as he is Uncle Meat. I have been on the show with him and he is a great guy so it is cool to say I know someone in the band. Before we get in the album, what did I say about the last album? I think it was this…“The songs are filled with some gritty, distorted guitars and the lyrics at times have a slight comedic flare which makes me think that this band is the bastard child of Black Sabbath and Barenaked Ladies.” This time around, we get something totally different. I feel a little more rawness and punk attitude at times and at others a bunch of drunks having a good time…more on that later.

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Judas Priest – ‘Firepower’ (2018) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series – Bonus Edition)

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After the stellar performance of the prior album ‘Redeemer of Souls’ thanks in large part of the addition of Richie Faulkner, the band started work on the next album in 2016. However, it took a long time to finally get to the studios in March of 2017 and the band would go until June to finish the recording. The album then sat for months on months and finally get released on March 9, 2018 where it went on to sell around 49,000 copies in the first week putting it at #5 and their highest chart position. Yeah, 49,000 is a far cry from their heydays, but 49,000 in 2018 for any band is a decent week of sales…oh how things have changed.

But sometimes things to don’t change as the band brought back former producer Tom Allom in to the mix to co-produce the album with Andy Sneap. It had been since 1988’s ‘Ram It Down” as the last time they worked with Allom, so 30 years. That is a long gap. Andy would have such an impact with the band, he would actually go on tour with the band as guitarist. The reason for that was due to some sad news from the camp. The great Glenn Tipton was retiring from touring due to his battle with Parkinson’s Disease. The illness was getting to be too much to play some of the more challenging parts in songs. That doesn’t mean he didn’t pop up on stage every now and again when he felt good enough to play because he did. Glenn is still a member of the band and will still help creatively and in recording. Touring is just too much and too unpredictable on how he’ll feel.

One of the really cool things about this album is the cover art. I remember seeing this and thinking, Damn! That is a cool cover. The next thing I know, there was a filter or something because people started replacing their cover picture on Facebook with their name in Judas Priest Firepower font. It was cool. I didn’t do it though as I was probably too lazy as it seemed like to much work and I didn’t want to be a follower, as I am a leader…no, who am I kidding, it was the laziness part!!

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My Sunday Song – “A Little Bit of Rust (feat. Sheryl Crow)” by Will Hoge

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For My Sunday Song #266, we are going to discuss the song “A Little Bit of Rust” by Will Hoge. The song is off his 2017 album ‘Anchors’ and sees Will find his way back from depression after excessive touring from his ‘Small Town Dreams’ album. The song was supposed to be for the prior album, but Will held it off wanting to do it as a duet and he wanted the perfect female voice and he found that with Sheryl Crow, an old family friend.

The song is about overcoming obstacles during difficult times in a relationship. We all go through those. It seems to be talking about being in a relationship that tends to just start fading away for no reason. You fall in to a routine and start taking each other for granted and forgetting to take time for each other. You start building up a little rust. As he states in the song…

Ain’t nothin’ we can’t fix
Ain’t no broken trust
Ain’t no great divide between the two of us
It’s just the heavy hand of time

The building blocks are there, you need to work a little harder to remember why you are together and rekindle that spark. Will has a way to right what is real and honest and lays it out nicely in a beautiful story.

Musically the song has some bluesy and a country vibe with a little mandolin and violin couple with some fine playing on the electric guitar. Both Will and Sheryl’s vocals play nicely off each other. They both have a wonderful seasoned vocal that has seen its fair share of rust and they’ve worked on it and polished it up with a nice shine. It is another shining example of what I love about Will Hoge.

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Friday New Releases – September 24, 2021

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Believe it or not, we are to the last release date of September. Hard to believe another month has flown by and we have yet another week with a ton of releases, but just shy of the two previous weeks of 50 releases or more. This is getting insane. There is really only one I am dying to hear (I know, a little dramatic) and it is marked in Blue. A couple more that I will try (also marked in Blue). Let me know what albums you are crazy about and which ones that came out that I missed so everyone knows. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

  • 91iarAz7faS._SS500_  Tremonti – Marching in Time – (Napalm Records): Mark Tremonti is back with another monster album. I love his stuff with Creed, with Alter Bridge, but I really dig is metal band Tremonti. The man can play some serious guitar and I love the fact he takes the mic for this band. Always some great stuff. Hold on to your hat with this one as it will blow you away!!
  • 91HTD+SQlqS._SX522_  Angels & Airwaves – Lifeforms – (My Products LLC / Rise Records): This is one I am wanting to try out as I really loved their first two albums from a while back. Former Blink-182 member, Tom DeLonge’s band is a little all over the place with their style, but it is unique and at times interesting so want to see what new they brought with them this time around.
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Aerosmith – ‘Get Your Wings’ (1974) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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After the debut album being a dud and all the touring, the band wasted no time going in to the studio for their second album, ‘Get Your Wing’. This time around at the boards was famed producer Jack Douglas who was introduced to the band by the one and only Bob Ezrin, who the label wanted to produce the album. Jack worked out well and would go on to have a long relationship with the band and deliver some of their best albums.

The band had extensive preproduction work and extensive rehearsals, the band entered the studio The Record Plant in New York City on December 17, 1973 and by January 14, 1974, they were done. The album would come out on March 15, 1974 and would go only to #74 on the Billboard Charts. All 3 singles flopped and not one of them charted. If they thought the first album was a dud, this one didn’t fare any better. But don’t feel bad, once the band broke, this album has since sold over 3 million copies and is certified Triple Platinum. It all worked out in the end.

But what makes this album successful on its own is that the band found their voice. They found their sound and they would find rock stardom. Bandmates Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer found themselves and were set to take over the world…okay, that is a little dramatic, but you know what I mean.

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Judas Priest – ‘Redeemer of Souls’ (2014) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series – Bonus Edition)

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The band took a long, long, long break after 2008’s ‘Nostradamus’ which was not received all that well, despite the fact I really enjoyed that one. In 2011, there were rumblings of new album the band had been working on and they said they were going to take their time with it and let me tell you, they did just that. The album didn’t come out until July 8th, 2014 more than 3 years later. And a lot happened in those three years.

The biggest thing that happened was the departure of one of its founding members and the jelly to the jam of the guitar duo. K.K. Downing departed the band in 2011 and it sounded like it was over creative differences with the band. This was a major blow to the band, though probably not as big as losing your lead singer…sorry, easier to replace a guitarist than a singer (except if your Eddie Van Halen maybe). The band found a replacement in the wonderful guitar playing of Richie Faulkner and from what I can tell has been very well received by the fans. Richie immediately has made an impact as he was heavily involved in the song writing for this album.

It takes time to get a new member acclimated to things, so the band spent the next 3 years completing the album and having Richie get familiar with the other members of Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill and Scott Travis. Upon its release, the album saw them hit their highest peak on the charts in the U.S., going to #6 on giving them first Top 10 album. Now, it only sold a little over 100,000 copies but this is 2014 and streaming was taking over as well as digital sales so actual album sales are not what they used to be. Still a respectable showing, but it is a respectable album. Let us find out.

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Van Halen – “Pretty Woman” – 45 Single

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When I was on vacation during this past Summer, I found a ton of 45 Singles with the Picture Sleeves at a place called House of Vinyl and I ended buying 7 Van Halen 45’s. First up last week was “Dance the Night Away” from 1979. And second we have the song “Pretty Woman” off the band’s album ‘Diver Down’ from 1982.

The copy I found was interesting to me. First was the fact the song was called “Pretty Woman” and not “(Oh) Pretty Woman”. When the single was first released, it went without the (Oh) part of the title and later issues corrected that and put the (Oh) back in. So that tells me I have an original issue copy. The second thing I found interesting is that the back cover of the picture sleeve has the flip side being “Happy Trials” which was actually the B-Side on the album. However, this copy is a promotional copy and it only has “Pretty Woman” on Side A and Side B. One Mono version and one Stereo version like the last one. That got me thinking was this in the wrong cover and what I can find is that it is not. It looks like they slipped the Promo copies in the same sleeve as the actual single to the public at least according to what I found on Discogs.

Another thing I thought was cool about the label on the Single was how the Engineer, Donn Landee, was actually listed. That does not happen very often. According to Ted Templeman’s book, he feels that he couldn’t be as a good as a producer he was without the help of an amazing engineer and Donn was that to him. He wanted Donn to get as much credit for these albums and songs as he did so he had his name added. Pretty freaking cool if you ask me.

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Billy Idol – The Roadside E.P. – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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Like a lot of musicians during the pandemic, Billy Idol kept himself busy recording his first new music in 7 years with ‘The Roadside’ E.P. Sadly, it is only four songs, but as a fan I will take what I can get. One of my favorite albums of Billy’s was his last album ‘Kings & Queens of the Underground’ so I have been waiting to see where he goes next and now we know. And I am excited as I can add a new post to the fantastic Billy Idol Series we did here on the site. I don’t know if this series will ever come to an end and I sure hope it doesn’t as I love having new Billy Idol music to hear.

The album was produced by producer Butch Walker (He’s worked with Matt Nathanson who I love) and Billy had his partner-in-crime, Steve Stevens, at his side to help him co-write and create new music. The three together were able to craft a great little nugget of music that will hopefully be the first of many from Billy in the future. The most recent thing we’ve had prior to this was a song Billy did with Miley Cyrus called “Night Crawling” which was fantastic. You know, that makes me think I need to review that song for the series as well. I will get on that.

I have a copy of the E.P. that should be arriving today, but I couldn’t wait to review it so I went ahead and did that thanks to streaming. My version that is in the mail is the standard black edition with one big difference. Mine will be autographed by the man himself! Yep, Billy Idol autographed my copy just for me…plus anyone else’s copy that ordered one.

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My Sunday Song – “Thoughts & Prayers” by Will Hoge

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For My Sunday Song #265, we are going to go back to the controversy with the song “Thoughts & Prayers” by Will Hoge. The song is off his protest E.P. called ‘My American Dream’ from 2018. When Will does the E.P.’s, he has a lot to say and he will not hold back and I think that is the magic of his protest music. It is honest, truthful and he rips the band-aid right off and exposes things for what they are.

This song was inspired by yet another mass shooting and this time it was one on November 5, 2017 in Southerland Springs, Texas at a church where 26 people were murdered when someone walked in to their church and opened fire. Will heard the news while he was on tour in Denver and before his show that night, he sat down and started writing a song based around three words he found useless and pointless that was coming from the mouths of politicians. Those words were “Thoughts & Prayers”. He felt those words held no wait. We need action and not words. He rips the politicians and tears a new whole to the NRA as he speaks to fact we need better gun control in this country. He isn’t saying we don’t need guns, but more that it should be harder to get and more scrutiny who can get them.

Musically, the song is very simple. It is an acoustic guitar and Will truthfully speaking out his lyrics and you can feel the truth oozing from his mouth. You can feel the anger, feel the sadness and the hurt and you can feel the exhaustion from all the non-sense that comes from Washington D.C. Politicians that are snuggled in the warm blankets of the NRA afraid to do something and lose that NRA money for their elections. 3 years later, still zero action and it feels like we have a mass shooting almost every single day. It is really crazy. I know it isn’t guns that kill people, but something needs to be done to make it harder for those people that kill people to get them. Whatever we have right now, isn’t working.

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You Pick It! – What Album to Review in October?

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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!

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 – Candlebox – ‘Wolves’

  Never Heard Before – MC5 – ‘Kick Out the Jams’

  Not My Normal Genre – Issac Hayes – ‘Hot Buttered Soul’

  From My Collection – Guns ‘N Roses – ‘Chinese Democracy’

  From My Collection – Mother’s Finest – ‘Another Mother Further’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in October, 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!!