Author: 2loud2oldmusic

My Sunday Song – “Lights and Thunder” by White Lion

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For My Sunday Song #459, we are going to discuss the epic White Lion song “Lights and Thunder”. The song was the first single off their fourth album ‘Mane Attraction’ and the song came out in March 1991. It was an unusual song for a single due to its length at over 8 minutes long. By far, their longest song up to this point in time. That would change in 2008 when they released “Sangre de Cristo” from their album ‘Return of the Pride’. “Lights and Thunder” actually charted in the UK at #95, it charted, I didn’t say it charted very high.

The song was written by Mike Tramp and Vitto Bratta and talks about a Utopian society where there is no fighting, no religion, no kings and only peace, love and happiness. Yep, a make believe world that will never exist. It was a statement that the world is really fucked up (imagine if that was written today as it is more so now) and there is too much fighting, too many wars and simply too much.

Musically is where this song is so badass. It was inspired greatly by Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand” and is full of very complex moments, tempo changes and full on rock epicness. This was the opening track of the album and what a way to kick things off. It starts off with some weird keyboard sounds, some drum fills echoing in from all sides and a little Vitto guitar solo…totally wicked. The song explodes in to full band mode, the drums are heavy as hell and the barrage of snare hits is crazy almost like machine gun fire. Mike Tramp sings with an almost angelic-like vocal delivery welcoming you to the utopian world. He goes all gritty during the chorus. Before one of the instrumental breaks, there is a lot of spoken words from various leaders around the world including Martin Luther King, George Bush, and many others all letting us know how bad things are down here.

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Sing Me Away: The Night Ranger Album Review with Tim Durling

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I’m on Grab A Stack of Rock tonight with Mike Ladano and Tim Durling…see below…

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode

Episode 125:  Sing Me Away: The Night Ranger Album Review with Tim Durling
With co-host John Snow (The Collection and 2Loud2OldMusic)

Author and Youtuber Tim Durling has been busy.  Sing Me Away: The Night Ranger Album Review isn’t even his newest book!  More on that later, because tonight we celebrate the California Quintet and Tim’s panel book on them.

Joining us tonight is fellow expert and fan John Snow, who will prove that you can still rock in America, oh yeah!

Tim is a passionate Night Ranger fan and collector, and we will quiz him tonight on everything that went into this book.  The albums, the lineup changes, the amazing tunes, and Tim’s collection. We’ll also talk about the present and what’s happening right now in the world of Durling the author.  We’ll do an unboxing and talk about a contest where you can win yourself a Durling book!

Don’t miss this one live, as we love to interact in the comments.  We always have fun lined up, and fun will be had!

Friday New Releases – November 14, 2025

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Happy Friday. We have a handful for you this week so hopefully something floats your boat. My boat will be floated by Cheap Trick’s new album. That is it for me. What do you want to hear this week and what did we miss? Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend!

  • Cheap Trick – All Washed Up – (BMG Rights Mgmt)
  • 5 Seconds of Summer – Everyone’s A Star – (5SOS, LLC / Republic Records / UMG)
  • Of Mice And Men – Another Miracle – (Century Media Records)
  • The Rolling Stones – Black And Blue (Deluxe Edition) – (Promotone B.V. / Universal Music)
  • Motley Crue – Theatre of Pain (40th Anniversary) – (BMG Rights Mgmt)
  • Green Day – Warning (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) – (Reprise Records)
  • Men Without Hats – On The Moon – (Shocore Music / MWH Entertainment)
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Kiss – Kiss and Ace Demos (1995) – 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.

This time around we have a German demo called ‘Kiss and Ace Demos’. And guess what, that is what is in on it, plus a lot of Wicked Lester tracks. The first 10 tracks are Wicked Lester (but not really). Tracks 11-15 are Kiss Demos (mostly) and Tracks 16-18 are Ace Frehley Demos (one of which I’ve never had before. Track 19 on the list is the radio commercial for Kiss – The Originals release. An interesting add.

Now, the track listing says you get 19 tracks, but that isn’t really true. Like most bootlegs, there are mistakes. Well, a couple errors in this case. First is that tracks 9 & 10 are not what they have listed as “We Want To” and “Shout it out Loud”. Nope that is actually one song called “We Want To (Shout It Out Loud)”. Th other mistake is “Ladies in Waiting” is spelled “Laidies in Waiting”…which I guess makes it take on a whole new meaning…or maybe fits the meaning of the song that much better. And there was a little bonus inside the booklet. There was the actual receipt when this album was purchased back April 12, 1995 (if bought in Europe, then it would be December 4, 1995…not 100% positive on either. But the price was rather high at 49.85 after tax. A little steep back in that day.

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The Collection: Ep. 81 – Bon Jovi: Forever & Forever (Legendary Edition)

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This week we are going to talk about Bon Jovi’s latest album, Forever (Legendary Edition) as well as the original Forever album. The album came out on October 24, 2025 and I figured we would walk through each song, discuss the duet partners and how much we like or dislike each song. This is the band’s 16th and 17th Studio albums and honestly, I am so happy they are still putting out new music. I haven’t liked everything this band is done, but new music is better than no music. We have vinyl, CDs and even a cassette to show off this week. I hope you enjoy.

So go check it out as it is live right now on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

My Sunday Song – “Do Her Wrong” by AtomSmash

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For My Sunday Song #468, we are talking “Do Her Wrong” by the band AtomSmash. The song is off their 2010 album, ‘Love Is In The Missile’ which was the label debut on Jive Records. “Do Her Wrong” was the lone single from the album and after only 4 months and 25,000 units sold of the album, Jive Records dropped them. Wow! Is the song and the album that bad? No, not in the least. Is it that good, No, not in the least. But is it fun! Hell to the yes!! The song did hit #30 on the Mainstream Rock Chart and actually #1 on Sirius XM’s channel Octane

The song was written by Serg Gabriel Sanchez and is basically about a guy that is no way looking for love. He’s out there sowing his wild oats and simply wanting sex and only sex. He says the woman can be the one, this perfect angel who makes love like a hooker (he says it worse than that), but she will never be able to tame him. He will always find a way to do her wrong…so why bother trying. Not a real deep song, but that is not why I like it.

The reason is the music and how it makes you feel. Sometimes you need a mindless song that has the right beat, the right hooks and all you want to do is crank it up and rock out. That is THIS SONG!! The lyrics are teenage humor fodder, but the music is hard rock at its most catchiness. The band is Serg on vocals, Alex “Z” Zilinski on guitar, Luke “Cowboy” Rice on guitar, Mark “Taco” Annino on drums and Arnold Nese on bass. The drum beat is explosive, the guitar riffs and bass are heavy and the song simply soars. Vocals by Serg are awesome as he has this slight grit, a great sounding Rock voice. He sings the song like he means it and that is what sells me on the song. He believes these corny lyrics and that is half the fun.

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Friday New Releases – November 7, 2025

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I can’t believe it is already November. The year is almost over, but the new releases aren’t yet. Stuff is still coming out just in time for Christmas. What on this list will be your Christmas wish list? Honestly, the only thing maybe I’d like to get is the Wings Deluxe set and quite possibly the Adam Ant compilation, but that is probably it. Let me know what you want or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

  • Finger Eleven – Last Night On Earth – (Better Noise Records)
  • Slash – Live at the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival – (earMusic)
  • Paul McCartney & Wings – Wings (Deluxe) – (MPL Communications Inc/Ltd)
  • The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Bold As Love – (Legacy Recordings)
  • The Cranberries – The Cranberries MTV Unplugged – (Island Records / UMG Recordings)
  • Adam Ant – Singles – (Sony UK)
  • Portugal. The Man – Shish – (KNIK / Thirty Tigers)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – November 7, 2025” →

Kiss – ‘Boxx (Vol. 2) – Live in Europe 1984’ (1993) – 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.

This time around we have another Australian Bootleg which means it has a big “UNAUTHORIZED” across the cover. It is called Boxx (Vol. 2) – Live in Europe 1984 and was released in 1993 by a label called Banana and distributed by Apple House Music. What is with the fruit references?? It’s packaging is identical to the other two we’ve reviewed from this company All were made in Australia. This time we get a Gold Disc for the CD which is different.

This show has Bruce Kulick on guitar and he was not yet an official member. All the songs are from a show at the Gaumont Theater in Ipswich, England on October 11, 1984 for the Animalize Tour. I have a full show from this European Tour and it was the October 26 show in Stockholm on the “They Only Come Out at Night” bootleg. This one here is only 10 tracks, it is not a full show, but with only 3 songs are classic 70’s Kiss and the rest are all from the 80’s, I am truly okay with that as I love the 80’s songs. Heck, the 80’s were the era I grew up in. The 70’s, I was a little kid and influenced heavily by my brother’s taste. The 80’s were all my doing.

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Boxx (Vol. 2) – Live in Europe 1984’ (1993) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)” →

The Collection: Ep. 80 – October 2025 Wrap-Up

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October draws to a close, so it is time for the monthly wrap-up so lets see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection this month. This is the October 2025 Wrap-Up and we have a little vinyl, a whole lot of CDs and even a book. Plus, I visited a record store…twice, ordered from Discogs, ordered from another record store online and went thrifting. So much to go through including a couple new Rock Candy CDs in the collection, Kiss and a Box Set rolled into one. Lots of great new and old stuff to go through and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it is live right now on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

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My Sunday Song – “Defying Gravity” by The Veer Union

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For My Sunday Song #457, we are talking “Defying Gravity” and no, this is not the Wicked song of the same name. This one is by the band The Veer Union and is off their 2016 album ‘Decade’ which celebrates the band’s 10 years of existence. The song was the first and maybe only single and was released on December 11, 2015 while the album was not released until January 29, 2016. For this album, the band wrote five new songs and pulled five songs from around 10 years back that were never used. But we are here to talk “Defying Gravity”.

The song was written by Crispin Earl and is about his battle with depression. The song details how the singer has been impacted by depression. How it weighs him down and he has no energy to do what needs to be done to fight it. He is looking for the strength as he knows he has to lift himself up to beat this horrible disease. If you have suffered from depression, you know how the weight of it holds you back. For him, defying the gravity that is holding him down is what it will take to fight his way out of it. It is such a hard battle fighting the demon inside. It is a daily struggle, a constant struggle. It can be fought and you don’t have to do it alone. There is help out there, but asking is the hardest part.

Musically, it is heavy like the subject matter. If you haven’t heard The Veer Union before, think a cross between Breaking Benjamin and Sevendust. Those are probably two good bands to compare them too. The guitar riffs are brutal by Dan Sittler, the drums are destructive from Tyler Reimer and I love how it goes from really heavy in the chorus while being melodic to a softer tone during the verses. Crispin Earl handles the clean vocals and you can hear the pain and emotion in his vocals. He is singing from his heart. I’m not one that usually likes unclean vocals, but bass player, Amal Wijayanayake, does a great job with the screaming vocal parts not to mention his bass playing along with rhythm guitarist Ryan Ramsdell keep the song moving forward. The unclean vocals aren’t overdone and only serve as an added texture to the song. I think it adds to the overall darkness of the heavy subject.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Defying Gravity” by The Veer Union” →