Category: Album Review

Jeff Scott Soto – ‘B-Sides’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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We are here with yet another Jeff Scott Soto release and this one is quite unique. It is called ‘B-Sides’ and consists of unreleased tracks, bonus tracks, duets as well as songs used for Tribute albums. It shows as it is an official release from Frontiers Records, but it is very cheap looking. The CDs themselves do say these are “Not For Sale, For Promo Use Only”, but they seem like bootlegs. However, discogs has them on their site and they do not list it as ‘Unofficial’ so everything actually leads me to believe this is a real Frontiers Records release. And yet, the mix of it is not that great as the volume between songs has not been equalized as some songs are louder than others. I don’t know what to think, but I have a copy and I am pretty stoked about it. I am curious as to why the reason behind this product though, so if anyone knows, please let me know in the comments below.

The main reason I’m stoked is that it saves me a ton of money from going and buying all the albums that these songs are on. Most are on an album from another artist that Jeff appears on or Tribute albums where this is probably the only song I would want any way. To have them all in one compilation I would say is big win. One thing that sort of stinks about this is the liner notes on the CD booklet. As you can see from a picture further down the post, there is a fantastic Track List of CD 2 and where the songs originated from, but the left side of the picture does not have the track list for CD 1 and where the songs originated. That is actually a misprint because I have seen pictures of the inner sleeve that have the CD 1 track list breakdown. If the list is there or not, this is still a pretty cool piece in the Soto collection.

The first song was a cassette only bonus track from Jeff’s first band, Panther. “Set Me Free” one of my favorite songs on that album. Soto attacks it with a deeper tone and yet still soars with some high notes. The drumming on it is immense with some great fills. The guitar solo is typical for the time to see how fast he can go, but its great. It definitely takes me back to the 80’s with this one. The next three tracks,”Act of Sympathy”, “Highway to Nowhere” and “Mental Ward” were demos from Jeff’s work with is buddy Gary Schutt on his album ‘Sentimetal’ that Jeff sang lead on. “Act” is pure metal, heavy, dark and Jeff sounds great but a lot of echo…again, this is a demo so not fully polished. Same with “Highway” except it is a little more speed metal, some kickass double bass drum, a real killer track. “Mental Ward” comes off feeling like a leftover track from Jeff’s worker with Biker Mice From Mars soundtrack. It has that same campy, cartoony feel to it.

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Scorpions – ‘Face the Heat’ (1993) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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We are not on to the twelfth studio album for the Scorpions and it is called ‘Face the Heat’. It sees the band bring on a new producer with the late, Bruce Fairbairn and it sees them go a little more political as well as change their sound a little to be heavier at times and yet more contemporary. Whether or not that is a good thing we will soon see. As with most Fairbairn produced albums, we see the band go to the famous Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver Canada to record this one as that was Bruce’s home base. And with them being in Canada, Bruce brought in Paul Laine to work on some backing vocals and as you know, Paul Laine was my first rock & roll star interview so anytime I can draw a connection to him, I point it out.

The band saw their first line-up change in a long time as Francis Buchholz left the band and new bass player, Ralph Rieckermann was now in. This would also end up being Herman Rarebell’s last album with the band but we will get to that on the next album. The rest of the gang was still in place with Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Mathias Jabs. The album was released on September 21, 1993 and saw the band’s popularity drop significantly. The album only went to #24 on the US Billboard 200 and only sold 450,000 copies, not even going Gold. Was it the change in sound or the fact the US was going in to a more grunge direction. I think it was a little of both.

Now my copy is a recent re-issue of the album with the first LP being the regular album and then a Bonus E.P. added holding 4 bonus tracks a couple of which were bonus tracks on the European and Japanese editions of the original album. The first LP is the standard 33 1/3 RPM while the Bonus E.P. was a 45 RPM and it is important to note that because when you throw on the second LP, if you don’t make the switch it sounds like a demon is singing as it is too slow. Now, if you play the 2nd first and then the first 2nd, you get Alvin & the Chipmunks, but I’m going off topic now. Back to the album.

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Scotch on the Rocks: Creatures of the Night Super Deluxe Edition Discussion

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I had the absolute pleasure of joining Superdekes on his show “Scotch on the Rocks” as we discussed the box set from Kiss for Creatures of the Night…see what Deke has to say about it below, then go watch.

From Scotch on the Rocks:

It’s always a great chat when the Snowman hops on “Scotch On The Rocks” and this time was no different!

We talked of course about KISS and the Creatures album but with more of a personal angle than showing an unboxing video of the super deluxe as there are a hundreds of those kind of videos on Youtube currently.

We basically went back into the time machine to talk about how it was being a KISS fan when KISS wasn’t cool in the early 80’s. We talked about the music included in the various formats like the demo’s and live tracks with Vinnie Vincent in pretty good detail.

Some highlights were….

One of us got sprayed with perfume back in high school wearing a KISS shirt.

One of us also thought that “I Love It Loud” (live) wasn’t on the deluxe set.

One of us has Gene Simmons Money Bag Soda and could be seen swigging from the bottle of the Demon at the end of the show.

How’s that for hype!

Click the link below and give it a watch!

Cheers and Merry KISSMAS to you all out there!

Talisman – ‘7’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Talisman didn’t waste any time between their last studio album, ‘Cats & Dogs’, and this one, ‘7’. It is amazing they had time to even do an album as Jeff Scott Soto’s schedule was quite busy with his solo album & touring, his work with Soul SirkUS and then his stint as lead singer of Journey. It was a hectic and crazy schedule. Somehow they did it. The band was back together with Jeff, Marcel Jacob, Frederik Akesson and Jamie Borger and heck, even Pontus Norgren was there to help mix the album. The family was back for one last hurrah as it would turn out as this is the very last studio album by Talisman. A few years later, there were talks of doing another album, but before they could get to it, Marcel Jacob passed away in 2009. This was the end of Talisman and I still get sad thinking of it as I really do enjoy this band.

The original title of the album was called ‘BAR’ which was an inside joke with the band as it stood for ‘Bitter-Angry-Resentful’ which apparently was their outlook on certain life events…who knows if that is true, but I like it. They settled on ‘7’ which is actually the 7th Studio album of the band and they chose the theme of Lucky 7 with all the gambling pictures and Vegas pictures in the album artwork. The album was released on October 20, 2006 by Frontiers Records and they intended to do a tour with the release, but Jeff’s Journey commitment kept getting in the way. The tour was postponed until later in 2007 and by that time, Jeff was let go from Journey as we discussed in the last post. No need to rehash that story. We might as well talk music.

The album kicks off with the most upbeat, happiest guitars with a killer riff at a tempo that will have you flying down the road at 100mph if you are in your car. “Falling” is a modern sounding song while still holding on to the great melodic rock sound. There are keyboards in there (not credited) that really add a great punch to the song. I don’t know how Jamie Borger keeps up the pace he is going pounding those drums. It might be the fastest song they’ve done. Jeff sounds great and the melodies in the song are wonderful. What an astounding opening track.

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Kiss – Rock the Nation 2004 World Tour: Instant Live (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, NC 7/28/04 (2004) – Album (The Kiss Review Series)

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Back on the Rock the Nation Tour in 2004, Kiss offered the Instant Live CDs. Basically, after the show was over, they burned the show to 2 CDs and sold them so you could instantly walk home with the show in your pocket. The band worked with Live Nation who handled all the recording and distribution of the CDs. Now, not every show on this tour was recorded and that was due to two reasons. 1) The arena was not owned / promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment and 2) there were technical difficulties at the show. Which that would suck if you were expecting a copy.

There are about 32 different shows recorded and this is the first one I’ve ever seen out in the wild, so I bought it. And lucky for me, it was the Charlotte show from Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, NC which is the town where I live (or just outside of it anyway). The show was from July 28, 2004. Now, only 31 left to get…joking. I don’t think I will go for all of them although that would be fun. However, if I run across any in the wild, I’ll buy them.

The packaging is simple and the same for every city. No setlist is included as each city might be slightly different. If you want the setlist, they give you website to go and download. However, that site doesn’t seem to exist anymore. The way to tell them apart was by a clear sticker with the city, venue and date of the show as seen on the cover at the top of the post. The band was Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons as you’d expect and then Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer who had taken over for Peter Criss on this tour and is still with the band as is Tommy.

The setlist isn’t printed in it so I found it and have listed it below…

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

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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! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are no longer rules for my selections, maybe themes.  I’m just picking albums in my collection and this time they are all from my favorite era of music…The 80’s. We’ve done one with the 80’s rock scene now let’s go to the 80’s Pop scene and what was riding the charts. What are the 5 albums you ask?  I have them right here…

   U2 – ‘The Joshua Tree’

   Prince – ‘Purple Rain’

   Genesis – ‘Invisible Touch’

   The Cars – ‘Heartbeat City’

   Bryan Adams – ‘Reckless’

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

Journey – ‘Turn the Page: Live in Atlanta, GA’ (Bootleg)’ (2006) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Journey were on a massive Stadium Tour with Def Leppard in 2006. Journey’s lead singer, Steve Augeri had struggled with throat issues and was really having a hard time vocally. The decision was made by Neal Schon to replace Steve and he needed someone he knew could handle the Journey catalog. Luckily for Neal, he had been working with Jeff Scott Soto in their supergroup Soul SirkUs and knew he was the man for the job. Neal called Jeff and there was no way Jeff could say no, it was a dream of his to sing with Journey. He had already been working with Neal, but now he could do it and sing those classic Journey songs, No way he was turning it down.

Jeff got the call and was on a plane the next day and arrived in D.C. on July 5th 2006 and luckily the band had a couple days off, but Jeff had to be ready to sing as the first show with him was on July 7th in Bristow, Virginia. And Jeff was thrown in to the deep end as he didn’t really get to talk with anyone until the day of the show and didn’t even have a setlist for the show until that day and to top that off, he didn’t even get a soundcheck or any real rehearsal with the band…damn that is insane. The only time he had with the band was on the tour bus prior to the show to discuss the set and show. Jeff, of course, survived and continued on with the band.

Jeff’s stint was supposed to be short term, but he was doing so well and the tour was extended until December. Then on December 19, 2006, Jeff was announced as the official new lead singer with the band. His reviews from the tour were glowing and all was going well. There were plans for a new album and work had begun, but by June 2007, it all fell apart rather quickly and as far as Jeff was concerned, unexpectedly. It was announced on June 12, 2007 that Jeff was no longer in the band and the band was going to take the rest of the year off. I don’t think anyone is really sure what happened, but the band eventually wound up with Arnel Pineda who is still with the band today.

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You Picked It! – Alice Cooper – ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ (1973) – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! This one started out close, but one ended up blowing away the rest. Another one had a late batch of votes, but wasn’t enough to get close to the winner. The winner for this month’s picks ended up being Alice Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and I am real excited about this one. Here are the results.

  1. Alice Cooper – ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ – 10 votes
  2. Rolling Stones – ‘Sticky Fingers – 6 votes
  3. Elton John – ‘Captain Fantastic’ – 2 votes
  4. David Bowie – ‘Diamond Dogs’ – 2 votes
  5. Led Zeppelin – ‘II’ – 2 Votes

Thanks to all for participating. The January choices will be up on Saturday! And the choices are all now from my collection and the next one will be some of the biggest albums of the 80’s. Hopefully you can help me decide which one I should review.

ALICE COOPER – ‘BILLION DOLLAR BABIES’ (1973):

I’ve been wanting to tackle an Alice Cooper album so I am glad this one won the vote. It is Alice’s 6th studio album and Bob Ezrin was still at the helm. Being a Kiss fan, having Bob as producer is a pretty big deal and I could hear a lot of Bob’s influence in the music as there is a lot on here that Kiss tried with Destroyer such as orchestration, sound effects and other magical Bob Ezrin inputs. I’m not Bob is the reason this album is so good, but it did go to #1 in both the UK and the US and sold over 1,000,000 copies giving it platinum status. Who am I kidding, it isn’t Bob that made this album #1 it is strictly Alice Cooper and this amazing band which includes Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith.

The album was recorded in both Connecticut and in London. Band member, Glen Buxton, was sick throughout the sessions as he was suffering from pancreatitis brought on by abusive alcohol consumption. Guitarists Mick Mashbir, Dick Wagner (Kiss ghost guitarist) and the great Steve “the Deacon” Hunter who handled the guitar solos on 5 songs and pedal steel guitar on the opening track. The album was finished and released on February 25, 1973 and helped take Alice Cooper to a whole different level of success. The song is so good, that 4 of the songs are still played regularly in his live sets even today.

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Scorpions – Crazy World: 4 Tracks from ‘Crazy World’ – Promotional Vinyl (1990) – (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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In my digging at a record show, I found a bunch of cool European releases from Scorpions. Most were German releases, but there was this one UK Only Release. It was an Advance DJ Copy of the album ‘Crazy World’. It was on vinyl and only had 4 tracks, but it was released prior to the album’s release. It is a pretty simple with only a flimsy cardboard sleeve that was the album jacket and album sleeve. The cover was black with a giant Scorpion on it and had the famous words at the bottom “For Promotional Use Only…Not For Resale”. Well, somebody sold it because I paid money for it.

It is short and sweet with 4 tracks, 2 on one side and 2 on the other. All four tracks are straight off the album, not any remixes nor single edits so nothing special, but I liked it enough to buy it as I like promos as you will see because the next four posts, including this one, are all on promos I have from the album ‘Crazy World’. Sorry about that, but this is the Scorpions Collection Series I believe and they are in my collection.

SIDE 1:

Just like thee album, the promo opens with, “Tease Me Please Me”, which is a sleazy little track that seems part Motley Crue, part everything else at the time and that is okay. The song is a rocker that doesn’t take a lot of thought, but it still kicks ass. A fun opening track with a cool riff, some nasty guitar work, Klaus’ gritty vocals and overall catchy as hell. It is straight up down and dirty rock & roll. Yes, please…sign me up. The song was written by Klaus Meine, Mathias Jabs, Herman Rarebell and Jim Vallance. It did go to #8 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Track Chart.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Essential Ballads’ (2006) – Album Review

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Jeff has only had 3 solo albums up to this point, a couple E.P.’s and that is about it. Yet, we get an entire album of ballads from those releases. Yes, only from his solo albums which leaves out a bunch of great ones from other bands he has been in, but that is okay. This is more than enough. Now, I have no idea whose idea this was…maybe Frontiers Records and maybe Jeff’s which would not be a surprise since when he sang with Axel Rudi Pell, Axel put out entire ballad collections as well. Whatever reason, this is a lot of ballads to take in all at once.

The one good thing about this release is they did add 3 bonus tracks, 2 of which have never been released, so that is always a good thing. That is 16 songs…all ballads…did I mention that it is a lot of a ballads to take in all at once. However, there isn’t a ton of information on the background of this release, so that is all I have for you. As a result, we might as well go through all the songs.

First up from his latest solo release ‘Lost in the Translation’, we get “If This is The End”. It starts off with some slow tempo guitar picking and then Jeff’s vocals softly, yet smoothly float over the verses. Around the 2nd verse, the drums kick in and some electric guitar riffs tossed in. It does pick up a little on the tempo and when it hits that second chorus Jeff’s vocals soar to new heights. Not one of his best ballads, but I like it as it does have a decent solo and is more proof that Jeff can do it all.

Next up is “As I Do 2 U” from his E.P. ‘Believe In Me’. This track is a demo (one of two on here) from a project that never got off the ground called Three Kings. It had Jamie Borger (drummer for Talisman) and Goran Elmquist. It is an acoustic ballad and being a demo, it feels unfinished but it isn’t half bad. A little cheesy, but there are elements there that could’ve turned in to something nice.

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