Category: Rock

Needtobreathe – ‘Acoustic Live, Vol. 1’ – Album Review

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There are only a few bands in your lifetime that come along and touch you in ways that nothing else can.  I have been fortunate enough to have that happen on a few occasions.  Needtobreathe is one of those bands for me.  Their music speaks to me and makes me feel things that have made them a part of my life.  I have only seen them live 3 times now and each time they get better.  I have all their studio albums on vinyl and now their 2 live albums.  The latest to the collection is the release ‘Acoustic Live, Vol. 1’.  And that is what we are going to talk about here today.

Back in 2017, Needtobreathe went on their first ever acoustic tour.  They played smaller venues and stripped it down bare to make the shows as intimate as they possibly could.  Sadly, I had to miss the show due to my work schedule and let me tell you how much that sucked.  I hate that work gets in the way of life.

Back to the album…the cover art was drawn by none other than Bo Rhinehart, lead guitarist.  He is one talented MF.  He also designed the videos shown during their most recent tour that my wife and I caught this past Summer (read about HERE).  The rest of the artwork is really strong giving the album this vintage, retro look of say the early 1900’s.  It is really cool.

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My Sunday Song – “Fractured Mirror” by Ace Frehley

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For My Sunday Song #121, we are going to explore the instrumental classic by Ace Frehley called “Fractured Mirror”.  For the next 10 posts, I am going to go through 10 of my favorite instrumental songs.  I figured I would start with the first instrumental song I ever got into.  The song is from Ace Frehley’s 1978 Kiss Solo album and it was the last track on an album that made me wish I could be Ace Frehley and a guitar god.

“Fractured Mirror” was actually the first instrumental that Ace would release would end up being a total of 5 pieces released in total on most of his solo records. You have “Fractured Too”, “Fractured III”, “Fractured Quantum” and finally “Quantum Flux” on his latest release.  For me, they are usually the highlight of the albums.

On Ace’s 1978 solo album, Ace showed he could be the frontman, he could survive on his own and do songs just as good or better than Kiss.  It was the start of things to come.  With “Fractured Mirror”, Ace showed that he was a technical guitarist and that he had the chops to hang with the best.

From the opening bells of the song, the opening guitar riff and throughout the beautiful melodies he created to the ending of that same opening guitar riff, Ace delivered a masterpiece that all his other instrumentals would be compared against.  Sadly, all were good, but none were this good.

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Friday New Releases – December 7th

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Happy Friday.  Welcome to December and we are ever closer to Christmas so the choices get more limited and I have to stop buying so my family has something to get me for Christmas (and my Birthday).  This week there are a handful of releases and a lot of them live. I have highlighted in Blue those I might give a listen, but no promises.  Let me know if there is anything for you or anything I missed.  Have a great music Weekend!!

  • 51wAcQGL3OL._AC_US436_QL65_  Coldplay – Live in Buenos Aires – (Parlophone):  I haven’t listened to Coldplay much at all lately, so not sure why I am interested in hearing this, but it it is calling me.  I will give it a spin.

  • 41ffk6lfXtL._SS500  Gotthard – Defrosted 2: Live – (Nuclear Blast):  When Steve Lee was alive and the lead singer of Gotthard, I was a huge fan.  I haven’t been since and it is no fault of the band, I just found Steve to be AMAZING! and it is hard to get back into the band now.  The original Defrosted was great and I am willing to give this one a try out of respect for the band.

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Def Leppard – ‘The Story So Far…The Best of’ – Album Review

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Def Leppard decided to grace us with yet another Greatest Hits Collection right before the holidays. How nice of them!  It is exactly what I needed…uhh…yeah…NO!!  No offense Lep, I am a huge fan, but why do we need another greatest hits collection.  We have some solid ones already.

I get it.  They have been riding a pretty big wave this last year with the awesome success of their arena and stadium tour with Journey (You can read about those here for Def Leppard and here for Journey).  They have picked up some fans this past year and also they were nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (FINALLY!!!).  All-in-all, a pretty big year so why not cap it off with a new greatest hits set.

Now, they released 3 different sets.  One was a single CD set, a Deluxe 2CD set and a Vinyl Set (2LPs).  So what are the differences between the sets?  I am glad you asked.  We will start with the single CD and the Vinyl Editions.  Both of these sets have 16 tracks.  Okay, the CD has 17 because it includes the new track which is a cover of Depeche Mode’s song “Personal Jesus”.  Now that I mention that, the Vinyl set has that song 2 but is on a separate 7″ Single and the B-Side is the bands new Christmas song “We All Need Christmas”…we will get to those two new songs later.

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The Struts – ‘Young & Dangerous’ – Album Review

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The Struts come back with their second album, ‘Young & Dangerous’, and they are showing that rock is alive and well and can be one helluva a good time.  Their retro rock sound is both refreshing and feels entirely new.  Where Greta Van Fleet is getting picked on for sounding too much like Led Zeppelin, the Struts seem to be celebrated for sounding like bands from the past.  They sound like Queen, Aerosmith, Mott the Hoople and they crossover genres like Glam, Classic Rock and 80’s Pop and the Hair Bands.  They are the best parts all rolled up into one.

The band consists of Adam Slack on guitar, Jed Elliott on bass and Gethin Davis on drums and let me tell you they rip it up throughout this album.  Their ability to play around with genres and sounds is so convincing and outstanding.  But let’s admit it, it is lead singer Luke Spiller who truly shines with this band.  His cocky, confident and flamboyant singing and style just screams frontman.  Think Freddy Mercury and Steven Tyler and you have some idea of what I am talking about.

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From the opening track “Body Talks” and the over-the-top, glam-filled “Primadonna Like Me” and you see that they can play and that your are in for a fun-filled, rocking good time.  The energy level is up to 10 and I can imagine that their live show takes it up to 11.

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My Sunday Song – “I’m Not A Saint” by Billy Raffoul

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For My Sunday Song #120, I am discussing one of my favorite songs of 2018 called “I’m Not A Saint” by newcomer Billy Raffoul.  The song is from his 2018 E.P. called ‘1975’ which I did a review on a couple months back (go check it out – click here).  The song was released as a single, but sadly, I don’t think I have heard it on the radio which I find to be sad as the world is missing out on a real talent.

When I saw Billy Raffoul open for Needtobreathe over the Summer, I was really impressed with his Jeff Buckley sounding vocals and so I picked up the E.P on vinyl at the show (which he gladly signed for me) and it turned out to be one of my favorite albums I have heard this year.  This song in particular jumped out at me and I really connected to it.

The song is about the fact we all have things we do that we know we shouldn’t.  Some sort of vice that is keeping us from being what he calls a “saint” such as smoking, drinking and cursing (which is my biggest problem).  He states he could be a saint if he tried, but honestly, I don’t think he is going to try which is fine as there is nothing wrong with having a vice (well as long as it doesn’t kill you I guess it is okay.

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Friday New Releases – November 30th

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The last Friday of November and Christmas is just around the corner which means one thing.  Album releases start to become relatively scarce. You want to drop your album early enough that it makes it on people’s Christmas list, but not too late where no one will grab it as they have spent all their money already on Christmas presents.  Now, there isn’t a whole lot I care about this week and in fact, there is only one.  Some of the other might get a listen sooner or later.  Have a great day and let me know what you are interested in hearing.  Mine is in Blue.

  • 61WAzq7sdaL._AC_US320_QL65_.jpg   Def Leppard – The Story So Far – (Virgin EMI/Mercury):  Def Leppard is bringing yet another greatest hits release.  Just what we needed, right?  Well….not really.  However, that doesn’t stop me from buying it.  I have it on pre-order for the vinyl so I can’t get the 7″ Single of their Depeche Mode cover of “Personal Jesus”.  Yes, I am becoming a completist with Def Leppard.  Anyway, this is a pretty complete greatest hits package and not a bad one to get if you don’t have on yet.  Enjoy!!

  • 31Ncg-T41kL._SS500  The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships – (Dirty Hit / Polydor / Interscope)
  • 91CRBGCU3QL._AC_UL115_  Neil Young – Songs for Judy – (Shakey Pictures Records)

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The Greta Van Fleet CD Giveaway! WINNER!!!

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If you remember, a few weeks ago I held a contest giving away the debut album from Greta Van Fleet, Anthem of the Peaceful Army.  Well, I forgot to come back and announce the winner.

The Winner was Alex Bolbat from the fine city of Moscow of the Russian Federation.  Congratulations to Alex as the CD has been shipped (might take awhile to get there).  Thanks to everyone that participated and maybe I will do it again sometime.

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Until next time, have a great day!!

Generation X – ‘Valley of the Dolls’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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After the moderate success of their debut album, the band went in to record their sophomore album with famed musician and producer, Ian Hunter.  Yes, the Ian Hunter from Mott the Hoople.  The album would come out just a few months later in January 1979.  Before the album was released, the record company, Chrysalis, came to the band and basically told them, the album better succeed or they were to be dropped from the label…no pressure.

The album was quite different than the first album.  It had some of the punk sound from the first album, but there were elements of some glam (thanks to Ian) and even more of an American sound ala Springsteen (or at least what they felt was like Springsteen). The songs were a little more complex than the first album and the writing was more mature, but I am not sure it was good yet.

The two writing contributors were Billy Idol and Tony James so everything was based around what they wanted.  Heck, in fact when promoting the debut album, it was only Billy sent to America to promote it.  That started putting thoughts in Billy’s head about what he could do on his own. However, on this album, most of the influence on the album seem to be coming from Tony (he even picked the producer).  It was the start of things to come.

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A Star is Born – Soundtrack – Album Review

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I bought this on a 2LP Deluxe Edition vinyl for my daughter the week before it was actually released.  Not sure how we were able to do that, but there it was so we bought it.  I have to say it is one sensational package as you get a lot for your money which isn’t always the case. There are 34 tracks, but only 19 actual songs (which is still a lot).  The other tracks are little snippets from the movie.  So without seeing the movie myself, I know the movie pretty well now as the soundtrack follows the storyline.

The movie stars Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga and follows the story of an aging country singer (Bradley) and he meets this young woman (Gaga) and loves her singing voice and her as it turns out.  Her star goes up while his falls and the movie tells the story of how that impacts their relationship.  I won’t spoil it for you.  The movie is also Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut.  Oh yeah, he sings and writes some of the songs too.  Impressive.

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The songs were written by both Bradley and Lady Gaga as well as contributions from many other artists include DJ White Shadow, Lukas Nelson, Mark Ronson, Jason Isbell, Diane Warren and Andrew Wyatt (Miike Snow) to just name a few.  I have to say, musically the album sounded great with some stellar session musicians taking the rein.

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