You Picked It! The Strokes – ‘Is This It’ – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one wasn’t really that close. They took an early lead and never looked back. The winner this month is The Strokes with their album ‘This Is It” which was one I had never heard before. I usually pick older classic albums for that slot, but thought I try and bring something more recent like in the last 20 years and it won. Here are the results.

  1. The Strokes – ‘Is This It’ – 9 votes
  2. Royal Blood – ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ – 5 votes
  3. Blue Oyster Cult – ‘Fire of Unknown Origin – 4 votes
  4. Drive-By Truckers – ‘Decoration Day’ – 3 votes
  5. Skillet – ‘Dominion – Sadly, with ZERO votes (poor Skillet, no one wants to hear them)

Thanks to all for participating. The March choices will be up on Saturday!

THE STROKES – ‘IS THIS IT’:

The Strokes debut album came out on July 30, 2001 and I basically ignored it. It wasn’t hard enough from what I heard and I didn’t care for the over all sound so they were pushed to side and I never bothered with them. Here we are 20 years later and I thought I’d throw them on the You Pick It! Series and if they won, I’d finally give them a fair shake. Well, they won so I guess I have to live up to my end of the bargain. I spent all week listening to the album over and over and over and did my opinion change? Let’s find out…

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My Sunday Song – “One Love” by W.E.T.

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For My Sunday Song #286 is the song “One Love” by the Jeff Scott Soto band called W.E.T. What is W.E.T.? Well, it is comprised of Robert Sall of the band Work of Art, Erik Martensson of the band Eclispse and Jeff Scott Soto from the band Talisman. Take the first initial of each band and you have W.E.T. It also has 2 other members Magnus Henriksson and Robban Back. All are on the label Frontiers Records who brought the super group together. The song is off the debut album from 2009 album simply called ‘W.E.T.’. What many were afraid would be a one album deal has turned in to four album and a live album album. A legit band.

The song “One Love” was written by Erik Martensson and Vivien Searcy and is simply about that one true love. Despite all the temptations out on the road, he knows he will never find someone like her and that she is his rock. Here love is what sustains him and she is that miracle sent form heaven. It is really sweet.

The song itself is a power ballad and a pretty great modern version of one. It opens with keyboards from Erik who also handles all rhythm guitar duties. The lead guitar and solo are from Magnus and it fits the song so well. The drums are from Robban and for some reason Mr. Sail is not on the lead for this one. Musically, it is pure melodic rock gold. However, the highlight are those smooth vocals from Jeff. He really delivers and emotional, heartfelt song that matches the lyrics. You can hear from these high notes the man has some pipes and can sing about anything. If this was released in the 80’s, this ballad would’ve been top of the charts. It is infectious, catchy and simply beautiful. Man, if Jeff would’ve stayed in Journey and they released an album, this is what it would sound like.

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Stryper – “Honestly” – 45 Single

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Styrper caught a lot of flack back in the day for their look. The big freaking hair, the yellow and black leather, the throwing Bibles from the stage. Yes, they were a Christian band in the Heavy Metal world. Funny thing is a lot of people didn’t know they were Christian and just enjoyed the songs. Heck, their look and sound fit right in on the MTV Generation as this song was one of the stations most requested songs. The thing is, Stryper were sincere in their Christian beliefs and spreading the word, but that didn’t stop the likes of Jerry Falwell calling them “A Wolf in Sheep’s clothing”. That is kinda harsh.

The band’s fifth single off their smash album ‘To Hell With the Devil’ was “Honestly” which was written by Michael Sweet. It was released in 1987 and went all the way to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band’s only song to ever break the Top 40 Charts. As a result, the band saw massive success and the album reached Platinum Status. The B-Side was the song “Sing-ALong Song” also written by Sweet. My copy of the 7″ Single is the standard U.S. version so nothing special other than it is in pretty great shape for over 30 years old.

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Friday New Releases – February 11, 2022

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Happy Friday…you made it another week…AMAZING!! As your reward we have a long list of new releases for you this week. I hope there is something in there that is music to your ears. I have a handful I want to check and I will mark those in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear this week or let me know if I missed anything even though I have over 50, it is bound to happen. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

  • download-8  Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators – 4 – (Snakepit Records / Gibson Records / BMG): Slash and Myles together again…is it possible to have burnout on these two?? I am not sure I am there yet, but getting close. However, I will check this one out as I like Slash and I like Myles…so really a no brainer.
  • 912DX03hpZL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Eddie Vedder – Earthling – (Republic Records): Eddie Vedder is back with another solo album. That is enough for me. I’ll check it out as I’m always interested to hear what he brings that is different than Pearl Jam.
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Aerosmith – “Angel” (1988) – 7″ Single (The Aerosmith Collection – Bonus Edition)

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The next single from the Permanent Vacation album we will discuss is the third single from the album, “Angel”. Again, we have another Promotional copy of the single which means “Angel” is the only song on each side. The song was written by Steven Tyler and Desmond Child and is one of the band’s biggest hits up to that time going all the way to #3 on the Billboard Charts.

Tyler feels this song was a big sell-out for the band he hated for Record Executive, John Kalodner, for forcing outside writers in to the band. Tyler felt the ballad made him look like he lost all his street cred. However, I am sure his bank account would disagree. And if you look at the next couple Aerosmith albums, there a few more ballads in the mix. It helped revitalize their career so it wasn’t all bad.

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Cheap Trick – “Ghost Town” (1988) – CD Promotional Single (The Cheap Trick Collection Series – Bonus Edition)

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We have another Bonus Edition to the Cheap Trick Collection Series. Since it is “The Collection” Series, we are going through stuff in my collection obviously. This next piece I found at Noble Records in Mathews, NC ( look him up) and is something I problem wouldn’t normally buy, but it was inexpensive and sealed and a promo so I had to. And yes, it is still sealed as I don’t want to open it as it is the album track with no other edits or songs so I am good leaving it as is.

The Single came out in October of 1988 and since it was October, I guess they went with the Halloween theme. Well, that and the fact is the song has “Ghost” in the name. As you can see from the CD below, there are Black Cats and Pumpkins pictured on the disc. Pretty cool marketing trick. As you can also see, there is no booklet or cover to the disc. As a result, the cover picture on the post is actually from the 7″ Single release. This is a promo as noted on the back with “Demonstration – Not For Sale” clearly labeled.

“Ghost Town” was written by Rick and the great Diane Warren which gives us a connection to the Aerosmith Series we are doing (although we aren’t to that part in the Aerosmith Series). Diane Warren was brought in to co-write and song doctor songs with the band who were very upset at this idea and they let it be known they were. The song was written though back in 1981 by Rick, but it had gone relatively unfinished. Diane helped him finish it. The song did hit the Top 40 landing at #33 but it wasn’t as successful as the two previous singles.

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Def Leppard – ‘X: World Tour (2003)’ – Tour Book

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On July 30, 2002, Def Leppard released their album ‘X’. Which is either “X” or “Ten” depending on what you want to call it. It was the band’s 8th Studio album, but 10th album released to date. It saw the band take a lighter side to their rock and had some people calling it “The Love Album”. It went to #11 on the charts and spawned 3 singles, but failed to ever garner Gold or Platinum status.

The Tour started in June of 2002 and went until November 2003 where the band performed 163 shows which is quite impressive for an album that didn’t do that well. It was the last really BIG tour the band has ever done. Since that time, the longest a tour has lasted was around 100 shows. My Tour Book is from the 2003 leg of the Tour

Since this was 2003, it was not a good year for me to see shows since my wife and I had our first child that year. There was no way I was getting out to see a show as the schedule was too hectic. I hate I missed it, but I survived. Since I have no ticket stub to show you this time around, let’s get right to the book.

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Kryst the Conqueror – ‘Deliver Us From Evil E.P.’ (1989) / ‘Soldiers of Light: The Complete Recordings’ (2019)- Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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You are probably wondering why I am reviewing two albums at once. I know, it is strange. Well, here is the thing. We are reviewing Kryst the Conqueror’s E.P. – ‘Deliver Us From Evil’, however, I don’t have that version of the album. I have the more recent release which is called ‘Soldiers of Light: The Complete Recordings’. This contains the E.P. ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ as well as all the songs from that recording session.

But first, let’s back up a little. Kryst the Conqueror (pronounced Christ) is a project from former members of the band The Misfits. It consists of Jerry Only (known as Mo the Great in The Misfits and as Mocavious Kryst for this band) and his brother Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein. The idea of the band was take fantasy and sci-fi imagery and mix it with religious themes and in this case Jesus was now a Conqueror and was going to deliver us from evil. Yikes!

The E.P. Cover

The band never officially had a lead singer. Jeff Scott Soto was brought in to record the songs to get a feel for the songs and how they would sound, but he was never intended to be the lead singer. In fact, on the E.P. he is not even credited. The lead singer is listed as Kryst the Conqueror. In fact, with all the songs he recorded, only 5 were ever released and that was the original 5 Song E.P. ‘Deliver Us From Evil’. From what I can gather, it was released as a fan club package to the Misfits Fan Club to make sure Jerry was keeping in touch with the fans. But the project never really had any staying power or amounted to anything much. I guess that isn’t totally true, although they never performed live, the band did stay together (at least Jerry & Doyle) until around 1995 when they reached an agreement with Glenn Danzig to reignite the Misfits and then they started touring under that name taking some of these songs and turning them in to Misfit songs.

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My Sunday Song – “Outta My Way” by Talisman

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For My Sunday Song #285, we are talking about the song “Outta My Way” by Talisman and another great Jeff Scott Soto song. The song was written by Marcel Jacob and Jeff Scott Soto and was off their stellar 2003 album ‘Cats & Dogs’. This was my gateway in to the band and might be the first one I bought. From there, it went nuts when it came to Talisman.

The song is an angry track and just seems to be about a guy that is ready to snap. He just needs that one push to send him over the edge and if he does, you better watch out as he will explode. It is as simple as that.

Musically, the song is explosive. It has a quick one two banging opening straight in to a Marcel Jacob bass solo then Jamie Borger goes ballistic on the drums with Fredrik Akesson throws down some stellar riffs. Soto attacks the vocals with so much angst and anger and you can feel the tension like he is going to explode. The song is a fireball of energy and its frantic pace is non-stop throughout. There is a great instrumental piece in the middle where Marcel and Fredrik trade bass and guitar licks back and forth and I love it. This song is a shining example why they were so great.

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Billy Idol – Funko Pop! Rocks

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Community! With this website, I have discovered that there are a lot of people out there that love to talk music. That group of bloggers/writers that I have met have made me feel at home and I’ve found a real sense of Community among them. One person in particular seems to epitomize that feeling of Community above all others. That would be Aaron over at KeepsMeAlive. He has sent me something before and this one was completely out of the blue. He apparently was strolling through a store and saw this thing all by himself and felt it needed a good home.

What he found was the Funko Pop! of Billy Idol. Aaron knew I was a Billy fan because of the Billy Idol Series I did a couple years ago (and because he sent me a Generation X album as well a couple years back too!!. He might be one of the nicest guys in the world (at least in North America anyway). Aaron is in Canada and I’m in the U.S. so I know this took some effort to get it shipped across the border (especially in this Covid World). It was much appreciated. So, Thank You Aaron!! You found Billy Idol a good home.

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