This week, we are changing it up. We aren’t showing off any vinyl, any cd’s, any cassettes, no musical items at all…well, not quite. We are going to show TOUR BOOKS!! Yes, the Tour Books that artist sell at their shows…or at least they used to sell them. I bought a handful of Kiss ones back in the today and recently so I thought I’d start collecting them when I found them and now I have over 20. We will go through them here this week. The bands include The Monkees, Alice Cooper, The Police, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Rush and a whole lot of Kiss! I hope you enjoy…now I don’t show every page, but you can search them up here on the site and check them out in greater detail.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, June 23, 2025 at 7PM. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
For My Sunday Song #438, we are talking “He Will Provide” by the band Inglorious. The song is from their 2021 album ‘We Will Ride’ which was released on February 12 of that year. This is not a band that charts here in the U.S. as most people here probably have never heard of them which is a shame because lead singer Nathan James might be one of the best new singers out there…period!! The rest of the band are no slouches either and consist of Danny Dela Cruz and Dan Stevens on dual guitar roles, Vinnie Colla on bass and Phil Beaver on drums.
The song was written by lead singer Nathan James and the main riff came from Dan Stevens. Nathan wanted to write a song about an end of times vibe where everyone was waiting on their Savior to return and redeem them all. The people believe their Lord is all powerful and will provide for them at the end it all, thus the title. The song is about Faith, overcoming life’s challenges and God’s Grace. And funny thing, Nathan is not really religious. He simply finds religion fascinating. Ultimately, the song is a message of hope and encouragement.
The song was influenced heavily by Scorpion’s Uli Jon Roth who Nathan was listening to at the time and Dan came up with that riff. The rhythm guitar has a middle-eastern vibe to it. I believe Nathan once said something to the effect that the song’s real role is to showcase the dual guitar work of the band and man does it every do that. The riffs at the beginning are simply heavy and rocking and that dual guitar solo is freaking insane. Over-the-top and dramatic which fits the song perfectly. The guitars make the song, Nathan’s vocals are simply icing on the cake. The killer bass work and drumming are the sprinkles.
Happy Friday! It is time for another batch of new releases this week. I have to admit there is nothing for me this week and sadly that is becoming a trend. However, for a lot of you there is an abundance of big names starting off with Benson Boone so don’t flip over it. You’ve also got Haim, Badflower, Yungblud and a ton others. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Benson Boone – American Heart – (Night Street Records / Warner Records)
Haim – I Quit – (Columbia Records)
Badflower – No Place Like Home – (Big Machine Records / John Varvatos Records)
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.
The bootleg we have for you this time around is called ‘Electric Magic’ and it was recorded live from The Brewery in East Lansing, Michigan on October 21, 1974 about a week before ‘Hotter Than Hell’ was released. This particular one is a soundboard recording which means the sound is pretty good. A little more focused on the instruments as they are louder than the vocals. Also, it means the crowd noise is pretty limited as they weren’t mic’d up. This one is from Godfatherecords and is on a tri-fold cardboard sleeve. It was released on May 15, 2008 so it isn’t that old. But the show is.
The show opens with a classic opening line of “Put Your Two Lips Together and KISS” screamed from the announcer. The opening riff comes on and you know it is “Deuce”. A killer opening track and to be followed by “Strutter” is a brutal opening. Before the song starts, you hear a lot of noodling around on the instruments and it is a pretty long pause before the song kicks in. The bass is real heavy on this one, but it is still killer. Paul announces the next song is off their new album that will be out this week and it is “Got to Choose”. One of the coolest songs on that album and cool they heard it before the album dropped.
This episode we are going to show-off the Kiss 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set for their album ‘Creatures of the Night’. With talk of two new box sets this year from Kiss, I figured why not show-off the two that I have so this episode will be talking the second one they released. It is jammed pack with goodness. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been paying attention to other band’s box sets and now they know how to put one of these together and it is stellar…mostly. We walk through each CD that comes with it (there are 5), a Blu Ray, a hard back book and so much more. An album that came out March 15, 1976 when I wasn’t even 8 years old, but I remember it and still love the album today.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, June 16, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
For My Sunday Song #437, we are taking one of the best power ballads from the Hair Band era, “Don’t Close Your Eyes” by the band Kix. The song is off their 1988 album ‘Blow My Fuse’ and was the 5th single off the album. The song was released on May 12, 1989 and went all the to #11 on the Hot 100 just missing a Top 10 song. The song also went Gold selling over half a million copies. Donnie Purnell, from the band, was their main songwriter. He collaborated on this song with John Palumbo from the band Crack The Sky and Bob Halligan Jr., who made his mark writing songs for Judas Priest.
The song an anti-suicide song. Someone has taken a bunch of pills and called for help. The person who received the call is giving a heart wrenching plea for the caller to stay awake and not fall asleep. The person pleading to hold on tight and they are praying to the Lord to keep their soul. Help is on the way. Damn…so powerful and so dark. A power ballad that is far from a love song. The lyric of “Don’t sing your last lullaby” is so strong and hits you between the eyes. It also makes me wonder if that person didn’t make it and went to the other side. Whatever the outcome, a moving song regardless.
Musically, it opens with a piano, wind blowing and an overall very haunting opening. The guitars, the bass and the drums are all subtle, nothing overpowering as the focus is the vocals of Steve Whiteman. He really sells the story as you can hear the sadness and feel the pain of those lyrics. It feels like a very personal song to the band. There is a great instrumental break, but again, it doesn’t show off and is simply for the song, the way hit should be.
As the Summer keeps getting hotter, I can’t say the new releases are for me. Another slow week here although there are a lot of albums, only the Buckcherry one is of any interest for me. I’ll keep diving in to the new Inglorious from last week and enjoying the Rock Candy addition of Yesterday & Today’s debut that dropped last week as well. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Buckcherry – Roar Like Thunder – (Round Hill Records)
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island – (p(doom) records)
The Cure – Mixes of a Lost World – (Polydor Records / Lost Music Ltd / Universal Music)
This episode we are going to show-off the Kiss 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set for their album ‘Destroyer. With talk of two new box sets this year from Kiss, I figured why not show-off the two that I have so this episode will be the first one they released. It is jammed pack with goodness. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been paying attention to other band’s box sets and now they know how to put one of these together and it is stellar…mostly. We walk through each CD that comes with it (there are 4), a Blu Ray, a hard back book and so much more. An album that came out March 15, 1976 when I wasn’t even 8 years old, but I remember it and still love the album today.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, June 12, 2025 at 12PM (NOON). Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
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.
The next one in the collection I bought is ‘Live in Australia 1980’. It isn’t really a live show per se. It is actually a Australian documentary show that talks about Kiss and interspersed between the narrator, we get live songs and tidbits from band members, Doc Mchee and even their road manager. It sounds like the show was recorded on VHS and they transferred it to be put on CD (more on that later). You get about 11 live songs from their tour in Australia that hit Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane I believe. Most songs I’ve read come from Sydney, but I hear the announcer and Paul calling out Adelaide I believe.
As I said, it is a documentary type show as there is a narrator and the dialogue written is quite comical at times. The narrator delivers it so seriously, but it is so cheesy and at times so inaccurate. Quite enjoyable for the humor of it that wasn’t intentional. It all kicks off with a TV promo that has each member introducing themselves and then Ace introducing the band’s new drummer Eric Carr. The band gets introduced and they go in to “Detroit Rock City” but it is not listed on the track listing. That song is usually a great song to kick off the show, but because this recorded on tape, the tape was rather warped or whatever because we get a lot of tape drag and Ace’s playing sounds simply atrocious. Luckily, this is the only song that is that way.
Bon Jovi have been huge in Japan since the beginning. As a result, Japan gets all the cool stuff and they did again this time as well. Bon Jovi reissued their first three albums on SHM-CDs and in a 7″ Vinyl format…but on CD. You get Bon Jovi, 7800° Fahrenheit and Slippery When Wet. We will walk through what you get with each disc and how it differs from the two recent U.S. Reissues of Bon Jovi and Slippery When Wet.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight, June 9, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.