Finally, a week I have a couple items that of interest to me. I am eager to hear the new Bush album as well as the new Styx. I will listen and if I like, I’ll buy. There are few others that some people might enjoy as well so take a look and see what you can find. Let me know what you want to hear and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Bush – I Beat Loneliness – (EarMusic)
Styx – Circling From Above – (Universal Music / Alpha Dog 2T Inc.) – some people already have it but on Apple and Amazon it is officially out today
Joe Bonamassa – Breakthrough – (J&R Adventures)
Five Finger Death Punch – Best of (Volume 1) – (Better Noise Music)
Slaughter to Prevail – Grizzly – (Sumerian Records)
Motorjesus – Streets of Fire – (Reaper Entertainment)
We Are Scientists – Qualifying Miles – (Groenland Records)
2025 is upon us and it is always fun anticipating what new albums will come out in the year. Since today would normally be a Friday New Release post, let’s look at the new releases coming our way in 2025. There are quite a few we already know about, but some haven’t been officially announced or even a date set yet.
Last year, there were a few artist I was hoping would release an album that might have or might not have released one. It is always fun to hope for new music from these bands, but sometimes there are disappointments. Here are the ones I was hoping to get new albums from last year and what actually happened…
Def Leppard – It is time for The Collection Vol. 4!! Come on boys, give it to us!! Or a new album…whichever you want. Well – we didn’t get a new album, but we got a new live album ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill’ which was pretty great.
Kiss – I will keep this on the list until I die!! Time to start up more Soundboard LPs or another box set…give us something! Still nothing!! No new album, no more Soundboards LPs and not even a release of The Final Show from MSG…come on guys (or label) and hurry it up. Give us something other than Anniversary Editions with nothing new.
Guns ‘N Roses – Rumors, Rumors, Rumors!! Will we ever get a new album! – Still nothing…no new albums…more tour announcements. Honestly, I don’t really care anymore so what.
Aldo Nova – He keeps talking about a 2CD set for over 3 years and still nothing much, but will he get around to releasing the full Life & Times of Eddie Gage? I hope so. – Nothing at all from him in 2024 but live shows. Dude!! Where is the new music???
Bon Jovi – A new album WITH RICHIE SAMBORA!!! – No, no Richie album, but we got a new album with ‘Forever’ and it wasn’t half bad. Still waiting on that 40th Anniversary Box Set!!
Robbie Williams – Hey Robbie, time for a new pop album…no more Trance please!! – No new album but at the end of the year he released a Biopic with his character as a monkey. Movie will get a wide release in 2025 and a soundtrack…which is on order.
Okay, are there albums I want to see this year from some of my favorite bands that haven’t been announced or in some cases even rumored? Of course there are. These are the bands I want new albums from this year…but it might not happen.
Def Leppard – It is time for The Collection Vol. 4!! Come on boys, give it to us!! Or a new album…whichever you want.
Kiss – I will keep this on the list until I die!! Time to start up more Soundboard LPs or another box set…give us something! Even give us the Blu Ray of the final Kiss show that I was at, that would be awesome too!!
Guns ‘N Roses – Rumors, Rumors, Rumors!! Will we ever get a new album! Do we even care anymore? Not really, but I’ll keep on the list.
Aldo Nova – He keeps talking about a 2CD set for over 3 years and still nothing much, but will he get around to releasing the full Life & Times of Eddie Gage? I hope so.
Billy Idol – There are rumors of a new album and even Steve Stevens showed a test pressing..could it be??!!
Paul Laine – In 2024, there were rumors of a solo album and a full Jet City Junkies release…please…please…Give us both!!!
Creed – They had a massively successful tour in 2024 and it will continue in 2025…will there be new music? Oh, please say it will be so!
From what I have gathered around the internet, here are the bands that should have new albums out in 2025 or are rumored, but no dates announced yet. The ones I would give a try will be highlighted in Blue. The ones with Dates Announced are at the bottom of this post. The list is building up nicely!!
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 June 2024 and we have vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, Singles, DVDs and even a book. So much to go through including not one…not two…but three Noble Record Exclusives. And to top that off we have some Kiss CDs & Cassettes and even a Billy Idol Floppy Disk…you read that right. So much to show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, July 1, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
And for those that like to see all the stuff in one shot…here you go…
For My Sunday Song #398, we are to the next Japanese Bonus selection in Mike’s Choices. This time around we have the song “Straight Down the Line” by the band Shaw Blades. This short lived band of two great friends consisted of Night Ranger’s Jack Blades and Styx’s own Tommy Shaw. The boys were also part of the supergroup Damn Yankees. This song was written by both and was the Japanese Bonus track on the stellar debut album simply titled Shaw Blades. Later, Tommy did include it on his album 7 Deadly Zens but with Kevin Cronan on backing vocals instead of Jack (and that is the one I have the video for…sorry).
The song seems to be about a woman Tommy loves but she doesn’t love him back. She is out trying to find herself and that one thing to complete her and they are all dead end roads like a trip to Mexico, voodoo, a new age guru, being a Hollywood Star. When she looks in the mirror, I don’t know if anyone is looking back. She seems empty. He still loves her and hopes she’s thinking of him and will come back to him. He believes she’s the one for him. I hope she finds herself. She reminds me of Jenny and Forrest Gump.
What does Mike have to say about the song…”Straight Down the Line” is the gem. It’s the fastest song of the whole bunch, upbeat but light, and a blast in the car. Tommy’s intricate little lightning fast guitar hook is a tasty delight. Tracks like this are why collectors really seek out Japanese imports. They are their own rewards.” And he isn’t wrong on his view of the song. There is a light, upbeat feeling despite the sadness in the lyrics of this lost go trying to find herself. The guitar work is great and it is such a catchy, airy song. I will have to go crank it in the car and see if he’s right about it being a blast. I have a feeling he is!
If you had a 2 Loud 2 Old Music Mug, I’d tell you to sit back, fill it up with whatever you like and prepare yourself for what is to come. This was an interesting month and some incredible finds…for cheap!! And I mean cheap!! But before we get to the cheap stuff, let’s discuss what first showed up on our doorstep for May…well, it was actually April but it was the day I posted the April Purchases wrap-up so it missed that post. That is the boxset for the Whitesnake album ‘Good To Be Bad”…titled “Still…Good To Be Bad”. Another impressive boxset…or is it?…review to come.
And there was an album that came out months ago on CD and digital, but the album just showed up in May. It is for the lead singer of one of my favorite bands Needtobreathe. It is Bear Rinehart’s second solo album under the name Wilder Woods. It is different then NTB which it should be since he is the voice of NTB. If it sounded like NTB, it would be a NTB album…
Last year flew by and now here we are in 2023 and already at our first month purchases wrap-up. It was a good start to the year if I do say so myself. I started a new collection, found some stuff for other collections I have, treated myself to an album I’ve been wanting for years and even found a Jeff Scott Soto CD that I didn’t even know existed. I would say that all makes for a solid month.
The month kicked off in full glory when 2nd & Charles kicked off the year with a buy 5 get 5 free sale on their CDs and so I pounced on it. Sadly, my memory sucks and one is one I already had, see if you can guess which one because it was in my November purchases as well.
If that wasn’t enough, later in the month I went by Repo Records here in Charlotte and found a handful of picture sleeve 45’s. I love the picture sleeves and so I bought about 9 this time around. Some great stuff to add to the collection…
In my quest for picture sleeve 7″ Singles from my favorite artist in the 70/80/90’s, I found this one from Styx. It is the 7″ Single for the song “Mr. Roboto” from the album ‘Kilroy Was Here’, the album that basically killed the band for a short time anyway. This song was released on February 23, 1983 and went all the way to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over 1,000,000 copies.
The album was a concept album which Styx was not unfamiliar with and they still do them today, but this one caused a riff in the band. Dennis DeYoung wanted to really focus on the theatrics and he loved doing the soft ballads, which was against the grain for what James Young and Tommy Shaw wanted to do. It led to a short break-up, if you want to call it that. Tommy left and eventually came back but Dennis was gone by then and still gone today. But this is all for another day, let us get to the song.
The song is about…well…let’s let Wikipedia explain it as they can do a better job than I can…
The song tells part of the story of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK), in the rock opera Kilroy Was Here. The song is performed by Kilroy (as played by keyboardist Dennis DeYoung), a rock and roll performer who was placed in a futuristic prison for “rock and roll misfits” by the anti-rock-and-roll group the Majority for Musical Morality (MMM) and its founder Dr. Everett Righteous (played by guitarist James Young). The Roboto is a model of robot which does menial jobs in the prison. Kilroy escapes the prison by overpowering a Roboto prison guard and hiding inside its emptied-out metal shell. When Jonathan Chance (played by guitarist Tommy Shaw) finally meets Kilroy at the very end of the song, Kilroy unmasks and yells “I’m Kilroy! Kilroy!”, ending the song.
Back before Christmas of 2021, it was announced that Loverboy, REO Speedwagon and Styx were coming to Charlotte. Loverboy was one of my wife’s favorites bands back in the day and she wanted to go see the show, so tickets were bought and months were spent waiting until the day finally came on August 6, 2022 at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC. It was a rainy afternoon and evening and this was an outdoor show. I wasn’t worried about the show itself because we had seats undercover, but the walk there was a little wet…but we didn’t care as it kept it cool and was a little fun to get wet.
The show kicked off on time and first up was Loverboy promptly at 7pm. The first thing I noticed was that they were old…I had forgotten that time had passed. I looked around and I noticed the crowd…well, I won’t say they were old too, but Depends did have a booth giving away free samples and Jonathan from Colonial Penn Life Insurance was there selling their $9.95 Plan (let’s see who gets that one). After remembering that people age, I got my mind back in to the show.
Since they were the opening act, they only played 8 songs, but they were a great 8 songs. I will admit my wife was a little underwhelmed at first and so was I as the vocals didn’t sound that great and the playing was a little sloppy at times, but it got better, much better. Mike Reno didn’t move around a ton and neither did Paul Dean. However, Matt Frenette, the drummer, looked exactly the same in that red ball cap and he was still killing it on the drums. He hadn’t aged a bit. When they played “Kid Is Hot Tonite” and “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”, it took me right back to high school and it sounded incredible. I got chills. And when the final two songs came on “Turn Me Loose” and “Working for the Weekend”, the crowd was totally in to it and on their feet. It was a helluva a way to end the show with every one truly loving every minute of it…pun intended. If the whole show would’ve had the energy of those last two songs…they would have blown everyone off the stage that came after.
Another month down and therefore it is time to review the purchases made this month at 2 Loud 2 Old Music. And I think it was a pretty good haul. We bought some stuff online, we hit a local record store and we had a record show this month. And we will kick it off with the brand new album by Jeff Scott Soto which came out on May 6th. It is called ‘Complicated’ and we won’t be getting to review this one for a long time as we are only 20+ albums into the 70 album series. For now, take a peek…
Then I have some research I need to do for a friend of Jeff Scott Soto. I have a lot of homework to do on Jason Bieler of Saigon Kick (notice the three Rock Candy Editions) and his new band Jason Bieler and the Baron Von Bielski Orchestra plus others. Hmmm…now why would I be doing homework…I guess you will soon find out…
February is over so it is time for our monthly round-up of what 2 Loud 2 Old Music got their hands on this month and it was another banner month. It all started with a trip to the antique mart called Sleepy Poets. My daughter loves that place and I don’t mind because there are records and I found a couple good ones. One was the only early Stryper album I was missing and the other was one of my mother’s favorite bands Air Supply so I had to buy it. I miss her a lot so it will be something in my collection that when I am really, really missing her I can pull out and play.
Then the following week, my daughter wanted to hit more antique shops as she loves to find old vintage clothes at not a too ridiculous of a price. The first place we hit in Mathews said it was an antique place, but really it was a record store and now I have another great place to go buy albums!! Yeah me!! I found some great vinyl, CDs, singles and cassettes…they had it all. First are the albums, which are an early pressing of Mariah Carey’s debut on vinyl and a Billy Idol 12″ Single of Mony Mony.
Bush – I Beat Loneliness – (EarMusic)
Styx – Circling From Above – (Universal Music / Alpha Dog 2T Inc.) – some people already have it but on Apple and Amazon it is officially out today
Joe Bonamassa – Breakthrough – (J&R Adventures)
Five Finger Death Punch – Best of (Volume 1) – (Better Noise Music)
Slaughter to Prevail – Grizzly – (Sumerian Records)
Motorjesus – Streets of Fire – (Reaper Entertainment)
We Are Scientists – Qualifying Miles – (Groenland Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 