Van Halen – ‘Women and Children First Sessions’ (Bootleg) – Album Review

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I was out for Record Store Day in September and while waiting in line to buy my RSD purchases, this was sitting at the top of the shelf staring at me. I swear I heard it calling my name…”John, buy me!”. I stopped, looked around, no one else in the store heard it, but it said it, I know it did!! Now who was I to argue. I grabbed it, give it a quick once over and when I saw that it was a bootleg of demos from the Van Halen album “Women and Children First”, SOLD!! I mean look at the cover. They took the original album cover and made it way cooler. And to match the cover, the vinyl is even red to go with the stripes. Sweet!

I took it home and couldn’t wait to hear it. Now, I just bought several record store day items and I was way more excited about this album then the RSD purchases. And after listening to it, I am still more excited. Being a bootleg, I was worried about the sound quality of the demos and let me tell you, it was fantastic. These demos have been floating around for awhile and they are normally very muddied down and a little rough. These have been cleaned up nicely. The sound is crisp and clear and though they do sound like demos, they are also pretty damn cool.

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My Sunday Song – “Come On Get Higher” by Matt Nathanson

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For My Sunday Song #220 and the last one in the Matt Nathanson 10 song set is “Come on Get Higher” off his 2007 album ‘Some Mad Hope’. This is the one song that people most definitely know as it was his biggest hit. It didn’t break the Top 40, but it did sell over 2 million copies of the song alone which is why it is his biggest hit.

The song is about a lost love and missing them terribly. He longs for her touch and even misses the bad parts with her violent words and sweet words she would yell at him. It sounds like a very dysfunctional relationship, but when it was good, it sounds sensual, sexy and amazing and when it was bad, it was truly bad. Despite all that he wants to show her that it can work out and they would be amazing. Matt has way of writing that is so sexual without being obscene or even vulgar. It is more sensual and sexy. Lyrics like…

So come on, get higher, loosen my lips
Faith and desire and the swing of your hips
Just pull me down hard
And drown me in love

It is those little touches in his lyrics that make his song magical and the songs so memorable. It is another shining example of why I think he is such an underrated songwriter.

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Friday New Releases – October 30, 2020

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The day before you and I have a bunch of treats and absolutely No Tricks!! We have around 30 new releases for you this week! Tell me that is not a Treat!! The time changes this weekend as well so you will have a whole extra hour to listen to music. Am I looking out for you or what!!! I have a handful of items I want to hear and they are highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear and if there was anything I may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful, safe, and socially distanced Halloween and great weekend. Until next week!

  • download-18  Black Stone Cherry – The Human Condition – (Mascot Label Group): Now I’m not a massive Black Stone Cherry Fan, but they do put out consistently great material. For that, I will give this a listen as I do love that heavy, southern rock sound. I am kind of a sucker for it so they will be first up this morning.
  • 61MxWQR6cYL._SX522_  Thin Lizzy – Rock Legends Box Set – (Universal UK): Now here is a box set you need to get. I believe there are 99 songs and 74 have never been released. Yeah, that is sort of sweet!! Plus, it is Thin Lizzy so what other reason do you need to buy this…maybe a cheaper price as currently this is cost prohibitive. If the price drops, so will my cash.
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Kiss – ‘Creatures of the Night’ (1982) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Kiss had to get back to their hard rock roots after the disaster of their last studio album ‘Music from the Elder’. The band had been on a downward spiral since ‘Dynasty’ with their sound going softer, Peter Criss leaving the band and now Ace was pretty much done. Due to his disillusionment the last few years with the band, the fact he had no say in anything, his alcohol problem and his prescription drug problem related to a car crash, Ace was done. He was so done in fact, he does not show up anywhere on this album. Well, that isn’t entirely true. Kiss still credited him as a member of the band, his picture is on the cover and he made some public appearances in support of the band including appearing in the music video for ‘I Love it Loud” which he didn’t even play on. After that video shoot though, Ace was no longer in the band.

Kiss was basically a trio for this whole album. Additional musicians and songwriters were brought in to help them write and record this album. Michael James Jackson was brought in as the producer and Michael had worked on the four new songs used on the ‘Killers’ album early in the year. They went in to the studio with the sole purpose of bringing back the heavy rock. Paul’s writing friend, Adam Mitchell, was back to help as well as Jim Vallance, Bryan Adams and Mikel Japp. All these guys co-wrote on the ‘Killers’ album, so it stands to reason that all these songs for both ‘Killers’ and ‘Creatures’ were part of the same writing sessions.

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October 2020 Purchases – Vinyls & CDs

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Is October already over!! Wow! The time is flying by now. Luckily for me, it was another stellar month for picking up so new stuff (most is old stuff new to me though). And I didn’t waste any time as right at the end of September after I wrote the September Purchases post, a few things came in the mail from Amazon within minutes and days of each other. First up was Ace Frehley’s Origins. Vol 2…and yes I have Vol 1…duh!!

Then Queen & Adam Lambert’s Live Around the World. I chose CD on this only because when I ordered it the vinyl wasn’t listed. It did come with a DVD of the shows as well. Since my daughter saw this tour a couple years ago, no brainer…

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Def Leppard – “Make Love Like A Man” – 12″ Picture Disc

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On one of my recent trips to record shop, I scored a couple picture discs by one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard. The one we are going to talk about first the 12″ Single Picture Disc for the song called “Make Love Like A Man” off the band’s 1992 album ‘Adrenalize’. The store I bought this at is called Noble Records and is one of my favorite local record shops in Charlotte. Noble Records has a YouTube channel and he constantly posts videos of collections he has bought and what he will be putting out on the floor. When he has big collections purchased, they usually go out on a Saturday at 10am. I was watching the video and he quickly flipped past the two Def Leppard picture discs as I could tell he isn’t a fan…but I am. I knew immediately I had to have them.

I got up on Saturday, mask in hand and headed to the store. The store was packed and actually made me a little nervous. However, everyone was wearing masks and being polite. Although I am not 100% sure we were following perfect Covid social distancing protocol, I was willing to take the risk. I went in and told Dillion what I was looking to get and he told me where they were (if they were still there and someone didn’t already have them in hand. I went through that stack and lo and behold, they were still there. I grabbed them, paid for them and got out in maybe 5 minutes and immediately hand sanitized my hands. I was so excited to grow my Def Leppard collection a little more.

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Wolfmother – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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It is time for another Album Ranking and this time we are doing the Aussie band Wolfmother. Since they only have 5 studio albums, I threw in the 2 solo albums by lead singer, Andrew Stockdale. I had to since Wolfmother is really just Andrew Stockdale anyway. The band broke on to the scene back in 2005 and brought back the old 70’s style metal with the black sabbath type lyrics, distorted guitars as well as some psychedelic wonderment. The band has had numerous line-up changes and the only constant is Andrew so we might as include his solo albums as they aren’t that too far removed from the Wolfmother sound.

For me, I love their sound as it brings back so many memories of the 70’s metal bands. I dig the distortion and that high pitched howl of Stockdale. The band wore their influences on their sleeves and although not original sounding, their sound felt fresh and alive. As a result, I wanted to bring you a list of how I rank their albums from Worst to First and away we go…

THE WORST – ‘NEW CROWN’ (2014):

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My Sunday Song – “Modern Love” by Matt Nathanson

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For My Sunday Song #219, we are discussing a song called “Modern Love” by Matt Nathanson. The song is the title track on his album ‘Modern Love’ which was released on June 21, 2011. This song was the fourth single off the album and though it didn’t chart it is still a shining light on this album.

What I love about this song is it cynicism. The song seems to be inspired by the “hook-up” culture of the younger generation. This poor girl is tired of “all of these salesmen” who are serving up lie after lie. She is tired of no one wanting to be committed to anything. She is done with it, no more sleeping around, no more bullshit and she is just plain done. I love the line…“Oh this modern love is a taco truck”…Matt stated in an interview that the line is about the fact people stand there and eat the food without actually sitting down and enjoying the meal which is how people are treating relationships. With Tinder and other disappointing apps, it is a fast food world of relationships. I believe he is spot on.

Musically, the song is an upbeat, pop song that is full of life and joy even though the lyrics aren’t truly happy thoughts. That is one of the joys of Matt’s music is that the lyrics and music often contradict themselves. The music is full of bouncy keyboard/horn sounds, a nice danceable groove and some simple guitar playing that all blends together in to a happy musical experience.

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Friday New Releases – October 23, 2020

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Another Friday of new releases and this one is jammed pack full of over 20 new albums. And these are the only the ones I chose to list. I would venture to say there should be at least one thing of interest to you in this list, if not, well…sorry. I have only 2 albums I want and one I actually already have. My choices are in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear and let me know what I might have missed as there usually is. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful Weekend!!

  • 910I1CR8rML._SX522_  Beastie Boys – Beastie Boys Music – (Capitol Records): I am a casual Beastie Boys fan so a greatest hits album is really perfect for me. I do have License to Ill because everyone should have that one. I don’t have this on order but maybe I will put in on my Christmas List!!
  • 71V3Of3HfyL._SS500_  Smith & Myers – Volume 2 – (Atlantic Recording): The Shinedown boys of Brent Smith and Zach Myers are back with Volume 2 after only 2 weeks since Volume 1. And let me tell you, Volume 1 was great so this should be more of the same. It is usually all acoustic (with an electric thrown in every now and then) and some great covers. I think they are going to put this on vinyl so yes, another Christmas List item!!!
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Kiss – ‘Killers’ (1982) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Kiss had released the ‘Music from the Elder’ back in November 1981 and it flopped. The record company was in a panic and needed to get something out so people could forget about the disaster that was ‘the Elder’ so what do they do? Well, they put out a compilation. Phonogram (the band’s European label) requested Kiss go back in and record some new songs for the compilation which they gladly did…well a couple of them gladly did. Ace was pretty much done with Kiss back in 1981 and wasn’t involved at all with any of the new songs. However, he wouldn’t leave the band until after the next album in late 1982. Gene played on them (I think), but didn’t sing or write as he was pretty busy either with his girlfriend Diana Ross or making movies.

The heavy lifting was left to Paul and Eric. Paul wrote or co-wrote all the songs and sang on all of them. The label and band brought in a bunch of outside writers including Mikel Japp, who co-wrote with Paul on his solo album, Adam Mitchell, who would write a lot on the next album ‘Creatures of the Night’, and lastly some guy named Bryan Adams. All the drum work was done by Eric Carr and the late Bob Kulick handled all the lead guitar work just as he did on Alive II, with rhythm guitar on one song done by Mikel Japp. So, I guess it is still Kiss.

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