My Sunday Song – “On And On” by Saigon Kick

For My Sunday Song #452, we are talking “On and On” by the very underrated band Saigon Kick. The song is off their third album, ‘Water’, which came out on September 28, 1993. This was an album I didn’t discover until a few years back when I interviewed Jason Bieler on The Lebrain Train with Mike Ladano. I remember “Love is on the Way” off ‘The Lizard’, but I didn’t explore them more back then and boy did I miss out. This song was not a single on the original issue, but when they reissued the album in 2023 the did release it a promotional singer.

“On and On” was written by Jason Bieler and it is a simple song. All it is saying is live in the moment as that feeling can’t be beat. Give your full heart and go for it because everything could be gone tomorrow. The song is specifically talking about a girl that he loves, but it can be applied to anything…an adventure you want to take, a walk on the beach or taking that trip you’ve always wanted to take. Don’t let everything be gone and you regret the what ifs!

Musically, you have Jason on vocals and this is actually the first album he handled the vocals as former lead singer Matt Kramer had left the band. Jason’s vocals are simply stellar. I love his delivery and his energy. On bass, you have Chris McLernon and let me tell you. His work is the coolest thing on the song. He is the driving force as he delivers some killer bass lines. A little funk, a little reggae mixed together with Jason’s simple riffs are pure joy. Phil Varones drumming also knocks it out of the park. The song is so simple, yet so catchy, so joyful and straight up fun. You can’t help but be in a good mood after hearing it.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “On And On” by Saigon Kick”

The Collection: Ep. 47 – February 2025 Wrap-Up

As we end another month, it is time to go back and see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection. This is February 2025 and we have lots of vinyl, CDs and even some autographs. So much to go through including Artist Bundles with extra stuff as well as additions to the Rock Candy collection, the Kiss collection and Box Set collection. Lots of great albums to go though and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, March 3, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Friday New Releases – February 21, 2025

Welcome back to Friday New Releases. This week, I have a couple on pre-order with Jason Bieler and David Lee Roth and I can’t wait to get them. There is also some more rock available with Killswitch Engage and Dirty Honey and for those pop people there is Mat Kearney and Tate McRae plus a whole lot more. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

  • Jason Bieler and The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra – The Escapologists
  • David Lee Roth – The Warner Recordings 1985-1994 – (Rhino Entertainment / Warner Music)
  • Killswitch Engage – This Consequence – (Metal Blade Records)
  • Dirty Honey – Mayhem And Revelry Live – (Dirt Records)
  • Mat Kearney – Mat Kearney (Still Drowning in Nostalgia) – (Middle Kid Records)
  • Tate McRae – So Close To What – (RCA Records / Sony Music)
  • Silverstein – Antibloom – (UNFD)
  • Sam Fender – People Watching – (Polydor Records / Universal Music)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – February 21, 2025”

Jeff Scott Soto / Jason Bieler – ‘Live at the Evening Muse: May 13, 2023’ – Concert Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

We interrupt the Jeff Scott Soto Series to bring you a new concert review for a show I attended this weekend that included Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler. It was Saturday, I guess that makes it alright, so I headed down to the Evening Muse in Charlotte, NC, for another fun evening with the comedy stylings of Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler…oh yeah…there was a lot of music too. What started out as two grumpy old men sitting on stage, ended with two very drunk men practically falling off stage…ok not quite, but they had a lot fun as people kept bringing them drinks all night long…as well as cookies.

The evening started at 6pm for those that bought the VIP package…and yes, I was one of those. Last year, they mostly sang, but this year they did a full on Q&A section. You had to stand up, say your name and where you are from, then the crowd said it back to you. My question was to both of them asking if we would see Solo tours from them anytime. Jason stated that he is working on doing a Baron Von Belski tour later in the year, but wants to make sure it presents those 2 Baron albums the right way. Jeff got all serious and laid down the truth. That truth is No, there will be no tour. He said there is no demand for his solo shows in the States and it would not be cost effective to pull it off. Sadly, I know he is right and that disappointments me greatly. I guess I need to keep writing the Soto reviews as the word hasn’t reached everyone yet.

After the Q&A, the boys played a few songs for us including the Saigon Kick songs “On and On”, “One Step Closer” (I think) and ‘Sgt. Steve”. All classic SK songs and performed beautifully. The two were in rare form, cracking jokes and keeping the audience in stitches and they even lost it a few times (especially Jeff). Sometimes Jeff would laugh so hard because Beiler would go off on these tangents that made no sense, but were funny as hell. After around 30-45 minutes or so, the VIP experience ended, the boys went to eat and then we waited for the show. Oh yeah, I forgot we were given a secret password and any time they said that word, we were to cheer really loudly and get all excited. They said this would confuse those that came in for the show and by the end the would start cheering and have no understanding why. The word was “New Jersey” as there were several people in the Q&A from there.

Continue reading “Jeff Scott Soto / Jason Bieler – ‘Live at the Evening Muse: May 13, 2023’ – Concert Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)”

April 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs & DVDs

Okay, grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax as we are going to be here awhile as April turned in to a stellar month. And let’s just jump right in to this shall we. Before March even closed and after I wrote the March post on the purchases, this arrived in the mail…Needtobreathe’s Fan Club Exclusive vinyl autographed by the band. It is the 1st Edition from 2022 and took awhile to get here. And two weeks or so later. the 2nd Edition for 2023 arrived, autographed by the band. These are two of my favorite pieces now in my collection. As they are one of my favorite bands (after Kiss & Def Leppard of course).

And if that wasn’t enough with autographs, Jason Bieler released his latest album and I was able to grab on CD with his signature. I could’ve done vinyl, but I don’t have of his albums on vinyl so why start now. And this another great one. His stuff is so interesting and eclectic, Love it!!

Continue reading “April 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs & DVDs”

Friday New Releases – April 14, 2023

Here we are! Another Friday of new releases and this week has a HUGE one with the new album from Metallica!! I will listen to it before I buy it as I’m not a massive Metallica fan, but I know a ton of you out there love them so they are first on the list. I am actually more interested in Jason Bieler’s new album from his project Jason Bieler & the Baron Von Bielski Orchestra. ‘Postcards from the Asylum’ is going to be an eclectic mix of adventurous songs and I can’t wait. My copy should be here soon and it will be signed by Jason!! I thought I wanted to hear the new Mike Tramp album but I can’t imagine he could do anything that would improve on those great White Lion songs. Anyway, that is enough about me. What do you want to hear this week? What did we miss? Let us know and as always thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!!

  • 91nXuH6lzKL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Metallica – 72 Seasons – (Blackened Recordings)
  • download-34  Jason Bieler & the Baron Von Bielski Orchestra – Postcards from the Asylum – (Baron Von Bielksi)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – April 14, 2023”

SOTO – ‘Inside the Veritgo’ (2015) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

Jeff Scott Soto has been around for over 30 years now and he started out singing for some heavy bands like Yngwie Malmsteen and Axel Rudi Pell. Then he was more melodic with bands like Talisman, Eyes and W.E.T. and he evened funked things up with his solo albums on occasion, but he has always liked the heavy stuff. For his next project, it wasn’t another solo album, but instead it was a new metal band called SOTO. Hmmm…where did he come up with that name? Jeff has said this is a working band and not a side project and will be around for a long while and there is definitely a band. In SOTO are of course, Jeff, but you also get Jorge Salan on guitars, BJ on guitars and keys, David Z (Of ZO2) on bass and Edu Cominato on drums.

However, there are so many guests and extra musicians on this album, that I’m not sure you can really count this as a band album as the “band” isn’t on every song. Now, that doesn’t take away from anything on the album, I’m just saying I don’t really see this particular SOTO album as a band more of as a project. The album came out on January 30, 2015, but I don’t see a physical release of the album in the States so they only had digital. My copy of the album is actually from Mexico and is a digipack. No bonus or nothing extra, but I will take what I can get. Let’s jump right and get in to the meat of it all as the music is why we are here.

The first track is “Final Say” and it is written by Jeff Scott Soto and Adrenaline Mob member Mike Orlando who does all the instruments on this song (see, no band members but JSS). And like I said above, that doesn’t take away from the music as this song kicks some major ass. The guitars are heavy, the drums are thunderous and Soto is aggressive and lethal with the vocals. An explosive opening that tells you right away this is a heavier, darker JSS and I’m all for it.

Continue reading “SOTO – ‘Inside the Veritgo’ (2015) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)”

Saigon Kick – ‘The Lizard’ (1992/2018) – Album Review

For my last You Pick It vote, I had a tie between Queensryche’s ‘Hear in the Now Frontier’ and with Saigon Kick’s ‘The Lizard’. Last week reviewed Queensryche and this week, as promised, we have Saigon Kick. Mike Ladano from MikeLadano.com agreed to tag team with me here and he is also reviewing this album so go check it out as it came out today as well. Go to Mike’s Lizard Review here.

Saigon Kick had a problem in 1992. Mis-labeling was their problem. Due to their massive power ballad hit, “Love is On the Way”, they got dumped in to the 80’s Glam Rock scene (or Hair Metal) when in fact, they were not even close to anything that sounded like that. People who bought this thinking it was the next Danger Danger, Trixter or maybe even Bon Jovi were surprised at what they heard. They weren’t Grunge either so they were a band that had no real marketable identity at the time. They were alternative, but to melodic for them and not metal enough for the glam. What a weird place to be. The timing sucked for them as well with the Glam scene dying at an alarmingly fast rate and Grunge taking over, just where did this band fit in the mold.

Saigon Kick’s sophomore album, ‘The Lizard’, was a diverse collection of rock songs that defied classification. The songs were so well crafted, so mature and unlike anything else at the time. The closest band I would say would be Extreme as they were also had a diverse, eclectic set of songs and because of their ballads also got lumped in to the Hair scene, unfairly as well I might add. The band was Matt Kramer (Vocals), Jason Bieler (Guitar, keyboard), Tom DeFile (Bass) and Phil Varone Drums). The bands second album saw Jason step up and produce the album and do most of the heavy lifting with the songwriting as he wrote all the music and had his hand in all but three of the songs on the lyrics. The album was released on June 2, 1992 and sold well, going to #1 on the Heatseekers Album Chart and #80 on the Billboard 200 chart. It did get certified Gold selling over 500,000 copies some time around 1996 though.

I was a fan of that ballad I mentioned earlier, but back in the day, I didn’t buy this album. I didn’t buy it until last year after I saw Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler in concert together. They played mostly Saigon Kick songs and I had forgotten how great those songs were so I ran out and bought the band’s first three albums off Rock Candy. This version of the album has massive liner notes all new for this reissue and a bonus track. To top it off, thanks to the clout of The LeBrain Train show, I was able to snag Jason Bieler for an interview and Mike Ladano and I interviewed him for that show. It was a lot of fun and great diving in to his career.

Continue reading “Saigon Kick – ‘The Lizard’ (1992/2018) – Album Review”

Talisman – ‘Best of’ (1996) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

Sometime during 1996, Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacob were completely thrown for a loop when a best of album was released in Japan for their band Talisman. No one told them. The album was called “Besterious” and consisted of all songs that were previously released from the band. In response to this, Jeff and Marcel, along with Empire Records, decided they were going to release their own band approved version of a greatest hits compilation. It was called “Best of…” and it was chock full of hits plus a ton of previously unreleased tracks that any diehard fan would want to buy. I should know, I bought it!!

Two of the biggest treats were the first two tracks. These were both demos yet they had Goran Edman on vocals instead of Jeff Scott Soto. Goran was the singer for John Norum’s band and joined Talisman prior to Jeff. Goran left to join Yngwie’s band. The first of the demos is “Day By Day” and musically is no different than what ended up on the debut. It is a very Bon Jovi style song. Goran’s vocals are higher than Jeff’s but I’m not sure they have the power Jeff’s have. Regardless, it is still a stellar version of the song.

The second Goran demo is “Lightning Strike” seems a little more raw than the final Soto version, but all the elements are there. The chorus has some great harmonies and layers of vocals. Jeff sings it in this same style as Goran. I’m not sure which one I like better with this one. The rawness of this one adds a little to it.

Continue reading “Talisman – ‘Best of’ (1996) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)”

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike & John – Interview with Jason Bieler!!

Episode 112 – Jason Bieler (Saigon Kick, Super TransAtlantic, The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra)

We are so excited to talk with JASON BIELER of Saigon Kick fame to discuss his newest project The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra, new tune “Sic Riff”, upcoming Soto/Bieler shows and his past as well.   Known as one of the funniest and nicest guys in rock, Bieler is a multi-talented singer, songwriter, guitarist, comedian and even owner of a Record Label.  His brand of rock runs the gamut from progressive to mainstream.  His collaborations with artists such as Bumblefoot and Jeff Scott Soto are highly praised.  This is a chat that we are looking forward to big time!  “What You Say”?  Take the pain to far and distant places, and if you ask of Jason, he’ll tell you all the stories of life!

Do not miss this one — we will try and ask your viewer questions live!

Friday June 17, 7:00 PM E.S.T.  on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!