A Friendly Reminder that Paul Laine will be joining us tonight on The LeBrain Train. Paul has been around since 1990 with his first solo album, ‘Stick It In Your Ear’ and I have followed him for 30 years from his bands Danger Danger, Shugaazer, Darkhorse and currently The Defiants. Come enjoy the fun and if you have a question, ask away and we will see if he can answer your question.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and John Episode 63 – Paul Laine John from 2loud2oldmusic is to thank for this week’s guest: the hugely talented Paul Laine! He became a solo star here in Canada back in 1990, but has since worked with Danger Danger, the Defiants, Shugaazer and Darkhorse. He’s […]
I can’t believe we are already in to May. Time is flying by. This week this is a lot and there isn’t. There is a lot as in I do have over 35 releases for you today, but there isn’t a lot as their are only a handful I am interested in hearing. I will mark those in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear or what I may have missed as I am sure there is something that came out that I don’t have on the list and people need to know. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
Weezer – Van Weezer – (Crush/Atlantic): I am not a Weezer fan by any stretch of the imagination, but when you name you album “Van Weezer” and this supposed to be your so called metal album I guess, that makes me interested. I am giving this a try strictly out of curiosity.
Nancy Wilson – You and Me – (Carry On Music): I am excited to hear Nancy Wilson’s new solo album. Although this ain’t Heart, it is cool she finally is releasing her first solo album. Their are 8 original tracks and four covers and some great guests including Sammy Hagar, Duff McKagan and Taylor Hawkins. We also get a song that is a tribute to Eddie Van Halen called “4 Edward”. I’m expected a good time to be had by all.
Despite not having any new albums in years, Kiss was touring. In 2000-2001, the band was touring the so called “Farewell Tour” which was supposed to be the end of Touring. Well, in 2003, the band announced The World Domination Tour where the band would be co-headlining with Aerosmith. Ace Frehley believing the Farewell Tour was the final tour, did not want to do this tour if they were the opening act for Aerosmith. Well, Ace was now gone. Because apparently the Farewell Tour was really the Farewell Tour for Kiss playing with Ace. Peter Criss came back in to the fold and did the World Domination Tour.
When that tour ended, Kiss decided to do another tour in 2004 called the Rock The Nation Tour. This time around, Kiss was the main headliner and the opening acts were Poison and Z02. Before the tour started, Peter Criss’ contract with the band had expired. According to Peter, no one contacted him about signing back up with the band for the next tour. Now, Peter was gone, yet again. Kiss was back down to just Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley with the hired guns of Eric Singer on drums and Tommy Thayer on guitar. This is the line-up that would stay in existence for the remainder of the Kisstory. The Rock The Nation Tour, was the start of a new era of Kiss. One where people either still loved the band and didn’t care who was in it or a group that hated Tommy for being in the band and wearing Ace’s make-up. Sorry folks, but so what. Tommy was hired to do a job and Tommy does that job very well. No one seemed to care too much that Eric was in the band and wearing Peter’s make-up and maybe that was because Eric had already been a big part of Kisstory before and he had earned his cat whiskers.
While on tour in support of their album ‘Killing Machine’/’Hell Bent For Leather’, Judas Priest decided to record a couple shows for use on a live album. The shows that were recorded were the February 10 & 15, 1979 shows at Kosei Nenkin Hall and Nakono Sun Plaza in Tokyo, Japan. After 5 studio albums, it was time for the world to see what Priest was like live for those that had not seen them in concert. The 70’s were big for Live albums, as seen by UFO, Peter Frampton and Kiss, so why not Judas Priest.
There is a lot of debate on whether the album is actually live. The short answer is yes, it is….sort of. The long answer is much more complicated. The music is definitely live with maybe a few touch-ups in the studio. The vocals, however, are not truly live. Yes, a live person sang them live in to a studio microphone, but these are not the vocals from that show because according to Rob Halford, his vocals on the tape get messed up and they had to be redone. They did record him singing as he would in a live concert setting except he was in a studio. Which explains probably how some of those notes were hit so perfectly. There is a common name people call this album and it is usually, Unleashed in the Studio. Regardless of any of the above, it doesn’t seem to have bothered the buying public because the album quickly went Platinum and is one of the best live albums of all time thanks to the work of producer Tom Allom. You know Tom, he was a recording engineer and producer of the likes of Black Sabbath and he produced Def Leppard’s debut album ‘On Through the Night’.
In 2020, Covid had the family home a lot. One thing we ended up doing was Jigsaw Puzzles. I believe we did around 6 during the year. What would happen is that the kids would get excited and open the puzzle and sort out all the pieces to find the end pieces because that is where you start the puzzle. They would work diligently and do the border and then they would slowly do less and less of the puzzle leaving me to finish them up…so I guess you could say I finished 6 puzzles and the kids started 6. My wife helped of course because she loves to sort the pieces out by color and get everything organized so we can get through it quicker and more efficiently. Yes, I think she is a little OCD, but I love that about her. Hell, even the apps on her phone are organized…BY COLOR!!!
Now for Christmas in 2020, the kids thought Daddy needs another puzzle so they got me a Kiss puzzle. Yes, why not give me one of my favorite bands. So, now I had another puzzle except this time, I started it, I sorted it and I finished it. No one really helped me because they are all sick of puzzles.
So, it was time to start it one weekend and I did what you always do, unwrap the cellophane from the box, open it and then dump all the pieces on the table…
And then it was time to sort the pieces and build the border which probably took an hour tops…
And I decided the easiest step for me is do the albums that are around the border because I know those albums intimately. I could easily see a piece and quickly know which album it belonged to and I built that up rather quickly. I would say a few hours tops (over a couple days not all in one sitting.
Then it got harder. The middle section had a lot of dark pieces and slowed me down a bunch. That took the longest part of all. It is funny how you can sit down at the puzzle and start piecing things together and the next thing you know, a whole hour has gone by and not much progress has been made, but once I got in to a rhythm and picked up on some clues, I was able to finish it up…
And then it was done…
1000 pieces in probably about a 6 hour stretch over about a week. Not too bad. It helped that I know the images, that was a huge advantage. Normal puzzles take me a lot longer as I am studying the picture a lot more.
I hope you enjoyed this silly distraction and send me pictures of your Rock & Roll Puzzles! Admit it, you know you have them too!!!
This week on The LeBrain Train, I get to guest host with Mike in my first interview with Paul Laine. I have to thank Mike for having me and allowing me to check off a bucket list item by interviewing a rock star.
Here is what Mike and I have to say about Paul…
JOHN – We are joined this week by the multi-talented singer, songwriter, musician, composer, engineer, producer and all great guy, Paul Laine. We will cover his career from his 1990 solo album debut Stick It In Your Ear to his time as lead singer of Danger Danger in the 90’s, all the way up to his current band The Defiants, who just confirmed a third album is coming. We will find out about his time with Bruce Fairbairn at Little Mountain Sound Studios, his other bands Shugaazer and Darkhorse and everything in between. Come join the fun.…Here is my homework for the week…
MIKE – Paul Laine is a remarkable talent. At age 16 he was playing clubs. Knowing he needed money to record a good-sounding demo, he started and sold a management company, raising the needed $50,000. The tape went from MuchMusic’s Terry David Mulligan to uber-manager Bruce Allen. By age 22, he had Stick It In Your Ear produced by Bruce Fairbairn under his belt! As John says, he made the leap from solo artist to band member in 1993 when Danger Danger needed a new singer. We will be covering it all this Friday night on the LeBrain Train.
TIME: Friday May 7, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook: MikeLeBrain and YouTube: Mike LeBrain. Below is a little reminder for you…
If you follow my site at all, you know I am in the middle of a Judas Priest Review Series where I am reviewing all the albums from the Judas Priest Collection Box Set (and a few more it missed). I thought as I am immersing myself in their catalog, why not find out some information about the band by reading Rob Halford’s book, ‘Confess’. They sum up nicely below who Rob Halford is but it is really a bland description. I think they left out is that Rob is the ‘Metal God’, Rob is a man who waves the Rainbow Flag proudly, Rob is sober for over 30 years, Rob is human, which means Rob is fallible.
The story of Rob Halford, told by Rob Halford, covers a lot of time. It starts off him as a child growing up in the Black Country of the U.K. His stint where he wanted to be an actor, and then his discovery that he could sing. And man can he sing. It spends most of the time talking about his time with Priest, but it really is about Rob, the person. His struggles in life, but not just with being gay. He struggles with that, but it was more about his struggles with hiding it as being the lead singer of a Heavy Metal band and what would be the fall out if it came out. Honestly though, he didn’t really try to hide it because a lot of the early Priest songs actually talk about it, but no one was perceptive enough at the time to figure it out. The story really is about his struggles with finding love and with trying to have sex while on the road while the band had easy pickings of the female groupies, Rob had to go to seedy truck stops and bathrooms to find love. It didn’t always go well as we find out when Rob has his own George Michael moment. Rob was very lonely, for a very long time and that caused a lot of drinking and a lot of drugs and then rehab. He had many bad relationships with guys that were really straight, it was a tough road. Rob, however, found his way sober and finally found love and it all had a happy ending, thank goodness.
For My Sunday Song #246, we are going to review the song “Need You Tonight” by INXS. The song is off their massive hit album, ‘Kick’, which was released in 1987. The song was the first single off the album and took the band in to the stratosphere. The song went to #1 in the US and ended at #2 in the year end chart. It became a mainstay on MTV and the band were the new darlings of the time. The song was written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence and would boost their confidence and turn them in to the main song writers for the band.
The music was written by Andrew who had come up with the rhythm section of the song while waiting on the cab. When the cab driver arrived he asked the driver to wait as he had to get something from his room. An hour later Andrew came back down. I don’t think the driver was very pleased, but the rest of us are because in that hour, he demoed the song much to the dismay of the taxi driver. When Andrew played the song to Michael, Michael wrote those lyrics in about an hour. Now, the lyrics aren’t real deep as it is basically Michael trying to get a booty call which I am sure was pretty easy for him to get one as they were quickly becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.
The song is mostly an electronic track with a drum machine and a click track with a little cymbal hit every so often. But is that guitar riff that takes the song up a notch. It is very recognizable riff which the band was actually quite adept at coming up with those riffs in their songs. When you take the sexiness of that riff and through in the sultry vocals of Michael, it is no wonder that the women swooned over this band. The song had a bounce to it, a slick groove and was over-the-top sexy and made for a perfect combination to make this a #1 song.
Friday April 30th…the end of another month. And this week, we actually have 30 new releases for you to look over. Hopefully something in this bunch will float your boat. My boat is rocking with a couple killer releases and then my boat feels a little country too with another. My choices are in Blue. Let me know which ones you are dying to hear and which ones I might have missed as I am sure there are some despite the large number here. Thanks for stopping by each week and for all the support. I hope you all have a great and rocking weekend!!
Royal Bloods – Typhoons – (Warner Bros): This album was supposed to come out last year and I have been waiting a long while for it to finally arrive. Their last album, the 2017 “How Did We Get So Dark?”, was smashing. If you like rock with a little blues, a little garage rock sound and just plain hard, then this is for you!!
Gojira – Fortitudes – (Roadrunner Records): If Royal Blood isn’t heavy enough for you then Gojira might more up your alley. This French metal band has the goods and delivers all the time. The last album was back in 2016 and was called “Magma” and it was a lava filled volcano of rock. This should be just as good or better…yes, expectations are high!!
On our journey through the band Kiss, we have taken detours for one side project from every member of the band. We are almost done with that part of the journey as we only have two members left we haven’t covered. The first of those is Gene Simmons. In 2004, in between all the band’s touring, Gene managed to put together an album for his first “true” solo album. I say it that way because his first solo album was part of the 4 Kiss solo albums each member did that was under the Kiss logo. This is his first proper one. If you remember his first, you will remember it was very diverse and had a ton of guest appearances on the album. Let me tell you, this album is in no way different. It is also all over the place style wise and contains more guest appearances than any album in the history of albums…okay, that is a bit much, but there are a lot of guests.
The album was released on June 8, 2004 and didn’t do that great only going to #86 on the Billboard Charts. There is both an unedited version of the album (and cover) and an edited version of the album (and cover). The cover picture for this post is the edited as I was worried the unedited one might get dinged on Facebook or Twitter for being too offensive. And as you can see by the picture below, you get an idea of what the unedited might be like. Now, before we move on, is anyone else wondering where that finger has been in the picture below or is it just me??? I am also waiting for any minute that Sir Mix A Lot will pop out and sing his signature song…again..is that just me???
I am very familiar with this album, but not for the reason you think. It wasn’t because I ran out and bought this. Nope. I actually just bought this album a few weeks ago, because I need it to complete the collection. My familiarity with it comes from Gene Simmons ‘The Vault” as almost every song is on that collection and is on it in demo form except for maybe one or two tracks. And sometimes they are on there numerous times at different stages of completion. I will be completely honest with you…I prefer ‘The Vault’ versions immensely more than this. Why? Because at least I knew “The Vault’ versions were demos, these are supposed to be finished products, but I’m sorry, they aren’t that good AT ALL!! With minor exceptions.
The album kicks off the album with what is probably the best song on the album. And I will go further and say it is one of my favorite Gene tracks. “Sweet & Dirty Love” is a beast of a track. It rocks out with the help of Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer on guitar and drums, respectively. It is what you want the Demon to do as a song and Gene hits some killer notes and has never sounded better. I like one of ‘The Vault’ versions better only because it is a little more raw and raunchy as this is very polished. But still, the best song on the album.
The second track is a cover which is a little early to have it the #2 song on the CD in my book. And it is a strange one as Gene is covering “Firestarter” by Prodigy. The guitar work on here is fantastic as that is handled by Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction fame. Gene sticks to the original version for the most part and the song is ver industrial with that metallic sound and I know people think this song is awful, but I think it is so bad it is now good. I actually don’t mind it because I do love the music in it and Gene is being Gene which I have to admit I like at times.
Then we get to the song “Weapons Of Mass Destruction” which is another heavy song, completely balls to the walls bombastic power. There is even a punk edge to it. It has Bruce and Eric back helping out and if you take out the stupid “E Pluribus Unum” quote in the lyrics, this would a 5 star song, but I will ding it down to a 4. Another great track and really the last of the really good ones. There are two demos on ‘The Vault’, one with Eric and Tommy Thayer that is a little slower and darker. The other lyrics were written and it was given to Ace to play after it wasn’t picked for ‘Psycho Circus which was the original intention. The Ace version is killer. After this the album goes to shit.
Next we get the song Gene wrote with Bob Dylan…yes, that Bob Dylan. It is a ballad and it is bloody awful. It is called “Waiting on the Morning Light” and I think Gene is trying to be Dylan and he isn’t the Bob Dylan type of writer and that is okay, we love him for him. It is just a bad attempt at trying too hard.
Then we get a synth song called “Beautiful” with Mark Addison helping on guitars and such and Nina Singh on percussion who wrote the song. It is another ballad that has a nice chorus and is a pretty good effort that just falls short of being a great ballad. That annoying synth sound doesn’t really help. The verses are a little rough vocally, but he makes up for it in the chorus. “The Vault” version is actually cleaner sounding and I like it better than this one.
We are now at the title track “Asshole” which is rocking track where Gene embraces the whole “asshole” personae. It is a rock anthem type song that makes you want to scream “asshole” right at Gene and helps make it a fun singalong. It is still not a great song, but it will pass. Now, the edited version is atrocious as it doesn’t bleep out asshole, it just turns the “ass” part in to what sounds like a goat…it is horrendous.
“Now That You’re Gone” is a song Gene wrote with Bob Kulick. You get his daughter Sophie on background vocals along with Zachary Grant and Jeff Diehl on keyboards. The bass is real strong on this one, it has a children’s choir type sound with Sophie and Zachary. It plods along going nowhere and is totally uninteresting and lifeless and that is putting it nicely. ‘The Vault’ has three versions of this song and none are really that great.
Then we get “Whatever Turns You On” was a demo received from a band Gene was working with and Gene took it from them but it has the co-write of Dave Williams so he didn’t steal it. If you are going to steal a song, steal something better. This sounds like a bunch of drunks hanging around and partying having a good time and thought it would be a good idea to record it, but they’d be wrong. It does have his lovely wife Shannon Tweed and her mom on the background vocals along with Dave. I think with some work, this song could’ve been turned in to something better than what is here. At least they sound like they are having more fun than the listener. This one is on ‘The Vault’ as well with about the same effect, maybe a little better.
“Dog” was written by Gene and Alex Chuaqui (or Bags as Gene had him change his name as Alex Chuaqui wasn’t a good enough rock name and too ethnic) On the song Gene howls like a dog and he speaks a very sexual and dirty Little Red Riding Hood verse that is as dirty as it gets. It is a mid-tempo song and is so close to being something good. It isn’t bad, but could’ve been more.
Then we get an unexpected surprise an unfinished Frank Zappa song called “Black Tongue” that Gene licensed from the estate and finished it up with the help fo the entire Zappa family as Dweezil, Ahmet, Moon and Gail are all on background vocals. Frank even has a speaking part that was left over from the original demo. The guitar work is sensational as you would expect because it is being handled by Richie Kotzen. Zappa’s guitar riffs are their, Richie does the solo and adds some flair. It sounds like a mixture of grunge with still a hint of that Zappa psychedelic vibe. I will admit I like this song.
Next we get “Carnival of Souls” which was written by Gene and Scott Van Zen and recorded back in 1993 or 1994 originally. It was passed over for both the ‘Carnival of Souls’ album and ‘Psycho Circus’. ‘The Vault’ has two versions of it and both are really good. One version is a little slower tempo and much darker which is always a good thing. This version is heavy, speedy and a rocking track. It isn’t half bad. I will keep this one especially since it is another with Richie Kotzen on guitar. Also, Nick Tweed Simmons does the background vocals so now the whole family was involved.
Then we get what might be the worst song on the album “If I Had A Gun” is a horrible topic and just a horrible pile of dung. It sounds like what comes out of an Asshole for sure so if that was the intent, then he struck gold. Not a great song for all the gun violence we have. It slows down and speeds up and goes back and forth but feels so disconnected and utter trash. Skip this one as fast as you can. I skipped ‘The Vault’ version to and wound up on My Worst of the Vault list.
Lastly, we get a similar ending as we got on his 1978 solo album. Almost a carbon copy of that Disney sounding song is this copycat “1,000 Dreams”. This one even has a country music flair to it. Please cue the vomit inducing noise now as that is what you want to do when you hear this. More garbage and the worst way to end this album. Good Riddance.
Track Listing:
Sweet & Dirty Love – Keeper
Firestarter – Keeper
Weapons of Mass Destruction – Keeper
Waiting for the Morning Light – Delete
Beautiful – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Asshole – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Now That You’re Gone – Delete
Whatever Turns You On – Delete
Dog – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Black Tongue – Keeper
Carnival of Souls – Keeper
If I Had A Gun – Delete
1,000 Dreams – Delete
The Track Score is 6.5 out of 13 or 50% which is probably way to generous on my part. I have a soft spot for Gene, what can I say. However, I still think this album is horrible and not worth getting unless you are a diehard like me or a glutton for punishment. The songs are all over the place and there seems to be no direction and the album is definitely lacking good flow. Overall, the album only get s a 2.0 out of 5.0 Stars and that is probably too high of a score but that is what I am giving it. To me, ‘The Vault’ was worth what I paid for it, but this one, not so much.
Next Up: Kiss – Rock the Nation Live ! – DVD (2005)
Check out the rest of the series if you have time!!
2 Loud 2 Old Music 