Author: 2loud2oldmusic

Motley Crue – ‘The Dirt’ – Movie Review

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I will admit that I hadn’t read the book (yet) and I was apprehensive about watching the movie because the trailer looked like a bad Lifetime Movie.  But being it was on Netflix and it wouldn’t cost anymore than I am paying now for the service, I finally broke down and watched it.  What did I think?  Well, that is the whole point of this review, to let you know what I thought about the movie.

The movie is very graphic.  It doesn’t shy away from the drug use or any of the sex…at all!!  The opening scene where they are partying doesn’t hold back and pretty much sums up the whole band in 1 minute.  When I was a kid, this scene would have been epic, but as a 50 year old male, with two daughters, I now found it disturbing and sad…damn how perspective changes with age and life experiences.

Without having read the book, I can’t speak to how accurate the movie stuck to it, but then again we can’t speak to the accuracy of the book based on how drugged out these guys were all the time.  I can speak to the performances overall.  The actors portraying the band are as follows:

  • Nikki Sixx – Douglas Booth
  • Tommy Lee – Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly)
  • Mick Mars – Iwan Rheon
  • Vince Neil – Daniel Webber

The movie started off too crazy and too outlandish which left me not really caring about these guys a whole lot.  As the movie progressed, the acting progressed and the movie actually got better.  As far as Razzle’s death (of Hanoi Rocks) by the drunk driving of Vince, I didn’t feel the proper tension build up it needed. It felt flat.  But later when Vince lost his little girl to cancer, I felt that.  That was way sadder and more believable (plus it could be I have girls and I could relate to how awful that would be to lose one).

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The Original Vs. The Cover – “Africa”

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For this version of The Original Vs. The Cover, we are covering a fairly new cover of the song Africa by Weezer compared to the original by Toto.  The Weezer cover has brought Weezer back in to the news, but it has also brought the band Toto to a whole new generation of music lovers which is always a good thing.

The song was written by David Paich and Jeff Pocaro of the band Toto and released back in 1982.  David came up with the song after watching a documentary about all the suffering in Africa.  It moved him, but so did the pictures of such a beautiful continent.  The song is a love song, but love for a place and not an actual romance.  The song did really well for the band and hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and #3 in the UK.

Now, 35+ odd years later, a fan on twitter kept asking Weezer to record a cover of the song which they did not do.  They did a cover of the song “Rosanna” to troll the people begging for a cover.  However, a few months later, the band finally released a cover of the song.  Their version only went to #51 on the Billboard Hot 100, but much higher on other charts.  To make it even better, Toto went on and released a cover version of “Hash Pipe” by Weezer,  We are not going to cover that song here.

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Bryan Adams – ‘Shine A Light’ – Album Review

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Bryan Adams is coming in concert to Charlotte, NC on May 4th, 2019.  I thought this would be a great date night for my wife and I so bought 2 tickets.  With each pair of tickets you buy, you get a copy of the new Bryan Adams album ‘Shine A Light’.  I hadn’t bought any new Adams stuff in quite some time so I was glad to get this and I thought, why not review it.  So, here is that review.

The first thing I noticed is that Bryan is more Easy Listening than he is rock now and I guess that comes with age.  And getting through those first two tracks was not easy to listen to at all.  The first song is the title track, “Shine A Light”, and was written by both Bryan and Ed Sheeran.  Yes, the Ed Sheeran.  It is a catchy enough song, but it is pure pop dribble.  And the second track is no better as it is a duet with Jennifer Lopez called “That’s How Strong Our Love Is”. Yes, the J-Lo herself.  Now if you can make it through those tracks, it will get better, I promise.

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“Part Friday Night, Part Sunday Morning” is probably my favorite song on the album.  It is a fun, good old-fashion rock song that Bryan is really good at it.  Great tempo and great rhythm and all around good time.  Not to be out done is “Driving Under the Influence of Love” written with his long time writing partner, Jim Vallance.  Another rocker that takes me back to Bryan in the 80’s.  These are the two songs that should have kicked off this album rather than that crap before it.  It is uptempo and has a guitar solo.  What more could you want.

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My Sunday Song – “God of Thunder” by Kiss

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For My Sunday Song #139, “God of Thunder” by Kiss is our menacing topic.  The song is off the band’s 1976 classic ‘Destroyer’.  Kiss was flying high at this point and unstoppable.  “God of Thunder” became Gene’s theme song and is the point in the live show that saw Gene spit his blood and perform his bass solo.  It was always awesome.

The song was written by Paul Stanley and he had all intentions of singing it.  Producer, Bob Ezrin thought differently.  He recommended slowing the song down and letting Gene sing the song.  The slow, almost nightmarish beat of the song fit Gene’s personae perfectly.

The song kicks off with a couple children saying…”Okay, ya’ll can start singing”.  Those kids were heard throughout the song screaming and making all kinds of noises during the song.  Those kids were David and Josh Ezrin, the producer’s kids.  There were so many sound effects added to it to give that eerie feeling.  Even Ace’s guitar work was done in a way to add more of a darkness feel to the song.

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Friday New Releases – April 12th

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A number of new releases this week across a vast array of genres.  There is probably something for everyone this week.  We have Alternative, Christian, Indie, R&B, Country, Metal, EDM, AOR, Bubble Gum Pop and who knows what else.  There a few that interest me, but don’t necessarily excite me where I am running out and buying anything. A few I want to listen to and they are highlighted in Blue as always.  Let me know what interests you or if I missed anything.  Enjoy listening and have a great weekend!!

  • 81wqiwabv8l._sx522_  Band of Skulls – Love is All You Love – (SO Recordings):  This English band is back with their 5th album and they are quite interesting and worth a listen.  They are part Blues Rock, Indie Rock, Stoner Rock and just plain Hard Rock.  They are a little of everything and that is what is great about them.  Give them a try if you haven’t already.

  • A14oFsF98hL._SX522_  Danny Gokey – Haven’t Seen It Yet – (Sparrow Records):  Christian artist and former American Idol hopeful releases his fourth album and I was pleasantly surprised by how good his last album was that I will be checking this one out as well.  It is towards the pop realm in Christian music, but his voice is fantastic and the lyrics are great.  If you need something uplifting, this should fit the bill.

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Harem Scarem – The Ultimate Collection – Album Review

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Formed in Canada around 1987, Harem Scarem has been rocking for well over 30 years now.  With 15 studio albums, 8 live albums and numerous compilation albums, they have been delivering solid rock music for the masses.  The band only has two original members still in it from the beginning and they are the two most crucial in this scenario.  Lead singer, Harry Hess, and Lead Guitarist, Pete Lesperance.  Why would these two be the most crucial, well they are the principal song writers as well as the voice and sound of the band.  I would say that is crucial.

The Ultimate Collection is a box set that contains 12 of their studio albums plus a collection of songs from early in their career as well as a disc of unreleased tracks.  And to top it off, the studio albums include all the bonus tracks from those albums as well.  That is a lot of music and there are 175 tracks in this set. Incredible.

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What does that look like all sprawled out?  Here you go…

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Billy Idol – ‘Vital Idol’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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Mid-way through the tour for Whiplash Smile, there was a new head at Chrysalis Records named Mike Bone.  He wanted to immediately make his mark with Billy and suggested putting a compilation together of Remixed songs along with a live version of “Mony Mony”.  Billy was on board and while on tour, they recorded the live version, slapped a bunch of remixes together and bam…you had an album.

All this above was from Billy’s book, ‘Dancing With Myself’, but doesn’t make sense to me.  As the time in the book was around 86/87 and this compilation had already been released in 1985 in the UK.  In September 1987, ‘Vital Idol’ was released in the US.  Plus, my version doesn’t have a “Live” version of “Mony Mony”.  At least it doesn’t sound live.  Not sure Billy’s memory was correct in the order of things as the book doesn’t mention the UK version and the live take of “Mony, Mony” was on the greatest hits collection that came out in 1988 not the 1987 version of Vital Idol.  Sorry, not completely true as a 1988 Japanese version of Vital Idol does have the live version.  Confusing.

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The UK and US version also differed ever so slightly.  The UK version had one less song and the track order was different.  The US version had a remix of a track off Whiplash Smile which the UK version was out before that album was even released so it wouldn’t have it.

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Tesla – ‘Shock’ – Album Review

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Tesla decided to make a new album after saying the last one was…well the last one.  Thankfully, that is not the case.  Tesla’s new album is called ‘Shock’ and there has been a lot said of this new album and about how much it sounds like Def Leppard since it was produced by Phil Collen, lead guitarist of the band.

And let me tell you, they are 100% RIGHT!!  It really does!!  Mostly, it is from the backing vocals.  On a lot of the songs, the backing vocals have been done in the same way Lep does it.  In fact, all the backing singers sound exactly like Phil. Now, I am not saying sounding like Lep is a bad thing.  It is, however, a little distracting and a little detracting. 

From the opening track, “You Won’t Take Me Alive”, “Taste Like”, “I Want Everything” and “Afterlife” it is the classic Lep sound.  They aren’t bad songs at all and they do grow on you with each listen.  It is just strange.  At times I feel like I am listening to a Lep album with a new lead singer.

The album is also very soft at time.  It has several ballads (“We Can Rule The World”, “Love is a Fire” and “Forever Loving You”) and even a breezy little song called “California Love Song”.  At times you could compare this album to Def Leppard’s X (often called the “Love” album for it’s ballad heavy track list).

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My Sunday Song – “She” by Kiss

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For My Sunday Song #138, I am going to dive in to the song “She” by Kiss off their 1975 album ‘Dressed to Kill’.  “She” is one of only a handful of songs that originated with Wicked Lester which was Gene and Paul’s band prior to Kiss.  The song was written by Gene Simmons and Stephen Coronel from Wicked Lester.

The song was originally titled “She Walks By Moonlight” which is the first line of the song.  It was inspired by a line in the film ‘Hondo’ which was a western from 1953.  The song is basically about sex, go figure.  That is one of their favorite subjects.

The original version of the song had a flute, a tambourine and even some congas in it,   It was really cool with a real nice groove and had these earthy vocals to them.  Very Jethro Tull with that flute.  You can hear it on the Kiss Box Set.

Kiss removed all those instrumentations and really beefed up the guitars.  The groove was still there, but the song was much heavier and Ace takes it up a notch with the guitar.  The solo was even taken from The Doors song “Five to One”.  The song for me has this great flow and style and might be one of my favorite tracks from ‘Dressed to Kill’ as it is not a full on rocker in the “anthem” sense, but something really cool and different.

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Friday New Releases – April 5th

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Welcome to April and another Friday of new releases.  This week there are a handful of decent releases but nothing I am freaking out about.  There are a couple I will give a spin and others I will have to see when I can fit it in…if at all.  My choices are highlighted in Blue.  Let me know what interests you or if I missed anything.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

  • 71BTfniLtdL._SX522_  Mike Tramp – Stray from the Flock – (Deko Music):  The former White Lion frontman continues his long solo career with another new release.  Since we will never get White Lion again, I will take this as his solo stuff is usually interesting although I don’t like everything, he still gets a listen.  I haven’t heard anything yet and I will wait until I can spin the whole thing all at once.

  • 81PvBHmmkLL._SS500_  Brooks & Dunn – Reboot – (B&D2/Sony):  Okay, I give country music a hard time…well because new country sucks.  But Brooks & Dunn aren’t new country.  They have been away for a long while and I am happy they are back.  However, I am disappointed it isn’t new material. Instead it is re”boots” of old classics with today’s country artists.  I did say today’s country sucks, so this ain’t too promising. The Kacy Musgraves one could be cool though.

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