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

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!!

You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in April?

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 a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – Bryan Adams – ‘So Happy It Hurts’

  Never Heard Before – George Harrison – ‘All Things Must Pass’

  Not My Normal Genre – Gnarls Barkley – ‘St. Elsewhere’

  From My Collection – Oasis – ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory’

  From My Collection – Harry Connick Jr. – ‘Blue Light, Red Light’

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

Friday New Releases – March 11, 2022

Happy Friday!! We have a lot of releases this week for you and a bunch I want this week which hasn’t been the case lately. All my choices are highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you are interested in hearing this weekend and let me know what I may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend.

  • 81z+yoN944L._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Kiss – Off The Soundboard: Live In Virginia Beach 2004 – (Universal Music / Simstan Music): Kiss is now on their second in the Off the Soundboard Series and rumor has it we might be getting 2 more this year and I am excited about that. I hope they start going back further like with the Ace & Peter years or even Eric & Bruce would be great. But I will take this for now.
  • 91nwlc-kmvL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Ghost – Impera – (Loma Vista Recordings / Concord): It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years since Ghost last album, I hadn’t heard of them prior to that one, but I loved ‘Prequelle’ so I am excited to see what Tobias Forge has in store for us this time around.
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – March 11, 2022”

November 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Can you believe there is only one more month in the year? It has flown by so fast. And here we are again with another month end wrap-up of the purchases we have made here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music. It was a pretty decent month and another month where CDs outweighed the vinyl. There should’ve been a couple more vinyl in here, but with all the delays in vinyl pressing I have 3 that have been bought that will now not show up until 2022!! Thanks Adele!!!

First up this month are a couple that came in at the end of October after I had done my post. First is the John 5 & The Creatures release ‘Sinner’ and this one is signed. It is an awesome album and it will be interesting to see where this lands on our year-end countdown.

The other item that I received was another stellar box set from Whitesnake. This time around it is the 25th Anniversary of the album ‘Restless Heart’. It is full of demos, remixes and the always cool Evolutions disc that walks you through the evolution of the songs. Sadly, there was no live show added but that is being picky.

Continue reading “November 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs”

Eric Carr – ‘Rockology’ (1999) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

As we discussed back in the 1991 timeline, Eric Carr passed away on November 24, 1991 due to an aneurysm that probably stemmed from the numerous surgeries he had to remove tumors related to his heart cancer. Before his death, Eric was always writing songs as he was a very creative soul. He could write, he could sing and he could play more than just the drums. ‘Rockology’ is a collection of the songs he had been working on prior to his death. These are demos and not necessarily full fledge songs in some cases so keep that in mind. Think of this as his ‘Vault’ because it is very similar in the type of songs you get. You get some fully fleshed out songs, you get some where lyrics are being scatted because their aren’t any yet and you get some straight-up instrumentals.

The album was put together by one of Eric’s great friends and former Kiss bandmate, Bruce Kulick. With the help of Adam Mitchell (co-writer of numerous Kiss songs), they pieced together a collection of songs from old cassettes or where ever they could find them. They would clean them up the best they could, add some backing vocals where appropriate and even Bruce overdubbed some killer solos in a few songs to help complete them. Bruce produced the album and I think this was a wonderful tribute to his old friend and bandmate.

Continue reading “Eric Carr – ‘Rockology’ (1999) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)”

Kiss – ‘Creatures of the Night’ (1982) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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.

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Creatures of the Night’ (1982) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)”

Kiss – ‘Killers’ (1982) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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.

Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Killers’ (1982) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)”

February 2020 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Two months in to the year and already some great purchases.  If you are new to the site, this is my monthly wrap-up of my vinyl and CD purchases since not everything I buy makes it on to the site.  Some of it does or already has or will in the future, but whose to say how long that will be.  So, I thought why not share the love of music and let you see what I have been adding to the collection.

The first set of purchases started with a run of vinyl diving when my daughter wanted to go out and pick up a certain album.  We hit two stores…Repo Records and Lunchbox, both in Charlotte, NC.  First stop was Repo Records and my daughter didn’t find anything she wanted, but I found one.  It is the 1980 debut album of Canadian rock star Bryan Adams. Honestly, I have never seen this one and for $5 bucks, why not add to it my ever growing Adams collection. I have at least 6 or 7 of his so this fits in nicely.

IMG_1808

Then we are off to Lunchbox and my daughter found the album she wanted which was Lorde’s album “Pure Heroine” which is actually a really good album.  And don’t worry, I found a couple as well.  I love the UK band The Alarm.  I have about 4 or 5 in the collection and now I have one more.  It is Electric Folklore Live from 1988 that I was missing.

IMG_1807

And then one more to add to the ever growing Aerosmith collection. I finally found ‘Permanent Vacation’ at what I thought was a good price of $10. I’ll take it.

IMG_1806

And then a week later, my wife and I had an afternoon to ourselves and we spent it going to 2nd & Charles as my wife wanted to look at some books and they have a great selection of new and a ton of used books. They also have a vinyl and CD section as well. They have bootlegs on vinyl which is cool and I might have to go back and get some.  I didn’t buy any vinyl, but picked up some cheap CDs which I always like.  First up was a from a band called Audiovent.  Their only album ‘Dirty Sexy Knights in Paris’ came out in 2002 and I had it at one time on CD and loved it, so I re-bought it.

IMG_1805

And since I have been on a Robbie Williams kick lately, I decided I needed all his albums. I didn’t get all, but I picked up 3.  I grabbed ‘The Ego Has Landed’ and ‘Intensive Care’ both studio albums and then a really cool Live album called “Live Summer 2003” recorded at Knebworth.

IMG_1804

I also picked up the new album from Stone Temple Pilots called ‘Perdida’ and I already have shown you that when I did a review.  It wasn’t pleasant.  But I bought it mostly due to my brother-in-law being the engineer and mixer on the album.  Go Check out the Review.

IMG_1798

If that wasn’t enough, when my kids and I were out to dinner on Saturday, February 15th, we were driving by Noble Records and I had to stop in.  As usual, I found a few more things.  First up is another Stone Temple Pilots album. This one is Shangri-La Dee Da and since I am buying albums that their uncle worked on, this falls in that category as he was working with Brendan O’Brien back then and he was the engineer on this album.

IMG_1830

And then there were two 80’s albums I didn’t have.  First one was Dokken’s “Under Lock And Key”…

IMG_1831

and the next one was one of the covers I am after for Stryper’s “To Hell With the Devil”…now I need to find the alternate more controversial cover…

IMG_1832

And that is all.  Well, there was one more, but it didn’t arrive in time for this month’s post so it will kick off next months.  Here is everything in one bundle and yes, I have a problem…

IMG_1835

See you next month…

Bryan Adams – Shine A Light Tour (Charlotte, NC 5-4-19) – Concert Review

Bryan Adams kicked off his North American Shine A Light tour in Charlotte, NC on May 4th, 2019 at the Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre.  I am excited to say, I was there and witnessed a spectacular show and loved every minute of this 2 hour show and 28 song set.  At the tender age of 59, Bryan still rocks like he is 18 and I guess he will til he dies!!!

The night started out a little rough.  Thunderstorms and rain were pushing through Charlotte and I was wondering how wet I was going to get.  I arrived with only about 20 minutes to spare before the show started and had my poncho ready.  Just as Bryan took the stage some rain started to fall and the poncho went on (just like about 1/2 the crowd did as well).  By the end of the song, no rain…not one drop the rest of the evening.  Someone up above was looking out for us and for Bryan and his band.

IMG_0427

Let’s talk about the show.  The opening act was none other than NO ONE!!  Bryan doesn’t need no stinking opening act.  Nope!  This was an evening with Bryan Adams and only Bryan (well, his band was there including the amazing Keith Scott, but more on him later).  The stage set-up was really simple. A big Video Screen that covered the entire back of the stage, a drum set on a small riser, a baby grand piano and keyboards and few guitar stands around the stage.  Add a small lighting set-up that was quite simple and that was it.

Bryan came to play music and have a good time and that is exactly what he did and a good time was had by all.  Now, do you want to see this monster setlist??  I am sure you do so here we go…

Continue reading “Bryan Adams – Shine A Light Tour (Charlotte, NC 5-4-19) – Concert Review”

Bryan Adams – ‘Shine A Light’ – Album Review

Bryan Adams is coming in concert to Charlotte, NC on May 4th, 2019.  I thought this would be a great date night for my wife and I so bought 2 tickets.  With each pair of tickets you buy, you get a copy of the new Bryan Adams album ‘Shine A Light’.  I hadn’t bought any new Adams stuff in quite some time so I was glad to get this and I thought, why not review it.  So, here is that review.

The first thing I noticed is that Bryan is more Easy Listening than he is rock now and I guess that comes with age.  And getting through those first two tracks was not easy to listen to at all.  The first song is the title track, “Shine A Light”, and was written by both Bryan and Ed Sheeran.  Yes, the Ed Sheeran.  It is a catchy enough song, but it is pure pop dribble.  And the second track is no better as it is a duet with Jennifer Lopez called “That’s How Strong Our Love Is”. Yes, the J-Lo herself.  Now if you can make it through those tracks, it will get better, I promise.

IMG_0001

“Part Friday Night, Part Sunday Morning” is probably my favorite song on the album.  It is a fun, good old-fashion rock song that Bryan is really good at it.  Great tempo and great rhythm and all around good time.  Not to be out done is “Driving Under the Influence of Love” written with his long time writing partner, Jim Vallance.  Another rocker that takes me back to Bryan in the 80’s.  These are the two songs that should have kicked off this album rather than that crap before it.  It is uptempo and has a guitar solo.  What more could you want.

Continue reading “Bryan Adams – ‘Shine A Light’ – Album Review”