Billy Sherwood ~ Oneirology (album review) ... The Yes man's wake up call!

Style: prog-rock
Label: self-release
Year: 2010
Home: California

Members: Billy Sherwood ~ all instruments

From opening title track, & recalled a few tracks later in "The Following", there should be no doubt why multi-instrumentalist composer producer Billy Sherwood caught the attention of Yes's Chris Squire which led to their forming Conspiracy & Sherwood joining a post-Trevor Rabin Yes making a 90's comeback & later forming Circa with Yes's Tony Kaye & Yoso with Toto's Bobby Kimball. If anyone of the next generation has kept the flame burning bright of post-70's modern prog-rock without letting it stray too far from the foundation set by Asia, Yes, GTR, John Wetton & countless other gentlemen of prog it's definitely Sherwood. From the album's opening notes it's obvious he's been taking lessons from the great Steve Howe in soloing & rhythm playing. Oneirology is a modestly packaged release of eight new songs with all instruments & compositions by Sherwood. The songs tend to follow a similar pattern of soaring Steve Howe-esque guitars ("Oneirology", "The Following", "The Gate", "Walking With You") with dense textures ranging from keyboard heavy ("Wake Up Call", "Lost Inside") to laidback acoustic settings ("Setting Sun", "The Recurring Dream"). There's much similarity here in feeling & sound with the albums Sherwood did with Yes as producer, second guitarist behind Howe & co-composer (i.e. Keys To Ascention 1 & 2, Open Your Eyes, Union, The Ladder) which I personally find to be a creative high for Yes they hadn't seen in years. Though, it's hard to say if Yes has influenced the Sherwood of Oneirology or if Sherwood gave Yes a boost of new life. I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt & say he gave them some new & young blood as Magnification that came after his departure lacked the creativity & brought the band to an end for a decade. But, Sherwood's Yes albums tend to hit hard & immediate with lots of variety while Oneirology takes some time to warm up to. This is not an immediate in-your-face album but requires a bit of focused listening. Focused is not something a lot of people do anymore with music. The problem it faces is that the songs range from six to ten minutes ... the weakness of much modern prog-rock. There seems to be a general agreement in the prog world that songs should have that extra bit of length. But, if the song doesn't have wild arrangements a repetitiveness tends to set in which works against the composition & that's the case here. It's hypnotic music for a generation that abandoned drugs decades ago. Part of what gets lost is the fact that Sherwood is quite a prolific lyricist. He not just has taken guitar lessons from Chris Squire & Steve Howe but also writing lessons from Jon Anderson with a palette of lots of colorful visuals mapping out a common theme of searching for something in light of dreams of the past. I will boldly say that I wish Sherwood was still in Yes as these are the lyrics I wanted to see on their new album Fly From Here. For those curious, oneirology is the scientific study of dreams, though most may need a dictionary for that one ... if the lyrics in the CD don't give it away without hesitance. It's definitely a dreamy album with dreamy musical landscapes that take their time like a long night. "Setting Sun", even at eight minutes, is a particular highlight which opens with an simple acoustic guitar that leads into some heavy guitars & four minutes in completely changes pace with a solo that comes off of a Dire Straits or Jeff Beck album, not Yes. It's one of the most exciting tracks on the album with one of the best arrangements. Coming in second place is the closing track "Walking With You" which at almost ten minutes seems to encompass every song that came before it with swirling keyboards & guitars & highs & lows & even some of Sherwood's most ambitious singing.

Wendy O. Williams & the Plasmatics ~ Metal Princess (EP) (album review) ... Royally torturous!

Style: punk, shock rock, heavy metal, hard rock, punk, live
Label: Stiff Records
Year: 1981
Home: New York City

Members: Wendy O. Williams ~ vocals
Richie Stotts ~ guitar
Jean Beauvoir ~ bass/keyboards
Wes Beech ~ rhythm guitar/keyboards
Joey Reese, Tony Petri ~ drums

NYC's punk rockers the Plasmatics were not so much famous for their music as they were their singer Wendy O. Williams & the controversy she stirred up on stage, including: destroying & blowing things up such as automobiles & televisions, mohawked Williams strutting around in near nudity, simulating sex on stage & the climactic moment of every show when she would cut a guitar in half with a chainsaw. It was sex & shock rock at its obnoxious underground best. Though, the G.G. Allin-esque punk rock tended to leave much to be desired both musically & lyrically, while Williams was more of a shouter than a singer. In 1984 Williams went solo with an album featuring all of the then members of Kiss. She'd release two more solo albums before retiring & working in a health food store taking to animal activism & healthy eating with as much controversy as her music. She was finally success in committing suicide in 1998. But, before Gene Simmons the producer was on the horizon, the Plasmatics had just released their second album when the Metal Princess EP came out. It's creation was instigated by producer/writer Dan Hartman who'd worked with .38 Special & James Brown & had became enamored with the Plasmatics wanting to do something with them. The EP came at a time when the record label also wanted new material to cash in on the growing popularity of the band but timing was pre-mature for a full-length. It probably was not what was expected by the label nor fans as it leaned far more to hard rock/metal than Plasmatics had done before, plus had some of the most cohesive songs & the best vocals by Williams on any album. It also introduced two new members behind the keyboards & drums, though the attention is always & completely on Williams with the band going through many line-up changes before its day was over that few will notice outside the wild stage show. Metal Princess features the tracks: "Lunacy", "Doom Song", "Black Leather Monster", "12 Noon" & live versions of "Sex Junkie" & "Masterplan". The guitar solos aren't fancy & the songs still retain shock value over unique arrangements but for over the top headbanging one really doesn't need any more than the basics. "Lunacy" is a highlight with its Randy Rhoads wannabe riffing falling behind some of Williams best singing, or for once as close to real singing as she could do. Halford comes to mind as a similar vocal equivalent at times. "Doom Song" also demonstrates an openness to experiment & getting moody in a way that the Plasmatics hadn't done before with its church organ opening, but the whole album is an ongoing experiment, such as in the Cramps-esque stomp "Black Leather Monster" or with the Blondie sing-song approach in "12 Noon". On one hand it shows the band pulling out all the stops but on the other greatly over-represents them. The least interesting tracks are the two live cuts from the previous tour which don't just suffer from low production but also are the chugging punk music that the Plasmatics had been churning out & pales in comparison to the neater hard rock of the new studio recordings. Though, in this context these unimaginative songs actually come out sounding better as they are one more example of variety. This little under-rated & oft-forgotten album, as EP's often do, ends up showing the range of the Plasmatics. The next step is a video to see the chainsawing in action. After that pop culture junkies only need to continue.

JP Corwyn ~ In Plain Sight (album review) ... How can you be so blind as not to hear this album?

Style: indie rock, hard rock, folk rock
Label: Ante Up Audio
Year: 2006
Home: Florida

Members: JP Corwyn ~ vocals/acoustic guitar
Bill Mercurio ~ electric guitar
Karlin McNeill ~ bass
Brian Highsmith ~ drums

Additional: Joey Hann ~ percussion
Michael Seifert ~ keyboards/guitars/percussion/b. vocals
Sam Getz, Block, John Fegyversei, Jimmy Weaver ~ guitars

On vocals & acoustic guitar New York native, now removed to Florida, J.P. Corwyn is a storyteller of very personal & unique tales of worry, fear, loss, sadness & mischievous mysterious dreams & meetings. In Plain Sight follows his debut EP with an all out rocking affair of ballads & rockers swirling together in a bubble of Stone Temple Pilots, Creed, Buckcherry & Toad The Wet Sprocket mixed with a reclaiming of the title 'indie rock' from the 90's when it meant music of an underground nature, an emotional edge, a lack of flash & a whole lotta fun ... not the maudlin overly-serious dull pop rock it's come to represent. Corwyn is legally blind. It comes up in his press releases via tongue-in-cheek humor, like "how can you be so blind as to not have heard of JP Corwyn". Okay, he's blind. What's the big deal? Music has been full of talented blindmen from its earliest days including Blind Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Doc Watson, Boccelli, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Healey, Ronnie Milsap & George Shearing to name a few. ... & there are countless other musicians who are blind to how to run their career successfully. ... Blind doesn't necessarily make a musician better, though I'm sure they'll all claim it does. But, Corwyn does do what many other blind musicians don't do & that is use his blindness in his music. Stevie Wonder, with or without the Funk Brothers, never really sang about being blind & the troubles it brought. Perhaps he thought nobody could relate to his situation or didn't want to hear about it. I believe Corwyn has suffered with such feelings many times. But, instead of perpetually suffering in silence & loneliness he turned his feelings into songs, like every good songwriter, & didn't worry if anyone could relate or not to the dreams that cluttered his mind. The irony is loneliness & worry are universal & Corwyn's lyrics are anything but maudlin, indulgent or frightening. Corwyn often performs with only a voice and guitar but has pulled together a band for In Plain Sight. At times it sounds too much like other bands, mentioned previously, & loses some of the offbeat character of Corwyn's live show. The 2011 follow-up The White Cane Conspiracy follows Corwyn into a more acoustic territory & one hopes brings in a bit of the homespun spirit of the live show.

Greeley Estates ~ The Death Of Greeley Estates (album review) ... The undertaker has been notified!

Style: metalcore, heavy metal
Label: Tragic Hero Records
Year: 2011
Home: Arizona

Members: Ryan Zimmerman ~ vocals
Brandon Hackenson ~ lead guitar
David Ludlow ~ rhythm guitar
Chris Julian ~ drums
Kyle Koelsch ~ bass

The fifth album from metalcore rockers GE shows a band, who found early fame via the Vans Warped Tour & the Myspace Tour, attempting to move into new musical territory. Not just are only two members left from their 2002 founding, in vocalist Ryan Zimmerman & guitarist Brandon Hackenson, but The Death Of Greeley Estates seeks to bring together their early emo leanings with their later day metalcore. It's very much a transition album, further compounded by the fact that GE has seen a regular turn over in membership never allowing the band to get musically comfortable while the change in musical focus over the decade has led to a diversity amongst fans. It's now time for a bridge between fan groups plus a relaxation into the music versus yet another rediscovery of what GE is. Marilyn Manson is not necessarily an originator but definitely a litmus test of the potential of mainstream industrial music. He comes to mind while listening to GE who use similar industrial-esque guitar slogging rhythms & shouted lyrics. GE also pulls in the dark elements of Manson but without the nonsense lyrics. The difference is that Manson is much moodier & explores variations in tempo & arrangements while GE is basically going for onslaught supreme a la Korn, Rage Against The Machine & parts of nu metal. What gives GE a different feeling, & which is probably a hangover from their emo days, is the heavy chorus & effect on the vocals & the use of symphonic keyboards. The keyboards are a delightful bonus that give the songs a much needed added dimension, the best example is "Friendly Neighborhood Visit" which also includes a boy's choir. Slashing guitars, no matter how rhythmic, have only so much texture & GE have discovered this fact. A highlight is "Bodies" that pulls back the heavy rhythms & creates one of the most haunting songs on the album. The sixth song "A Thousand Burning Forests" follows the same mold essentially showing at this point the two sides of GE which includes the industrial-esque onslaught &then more haunting pieces that seem to be a different band. This approach is more common than not with bands today & often has detrimental results in terms of album cohesion, but with GE the lighter songs provide more of a relief than a speed bump ... a calm before the storm. This is achieved by the fact that many of the more industrial songs (i.e. "Leave The Light On", "Circle The Wagons", "Mouth To Mouth", "The Reaction") include small elements of the opposing softer style. The album does suffer with tediousness that weighs in long before the 15 songs are over. GE is one of a new breed of bands that is finding fame through constant touring & new social websites such as myspace &twitter. They're also one of the many bands of the next new wave of metal. But, I believe bands like GE will go a lot farther with a bit less experimentation & a bit more relaxation into what they do best ... & not trying to pour out everything out with one album. Hold a little back. Do a strip ... tease ... not a strip.

Henry Lee Summer ~ Way Past Midnight (album review) ... Way past commercially slick for its own good!

Style: country rock, hard rock
Label: Epic Records
Year: 1991
Home: Indiana

Members: Henry Lee Summer ~ vocals/rhy guitar/keyboards/bass
Tim Pierce, Tony Bowles ~ guitar
Kenny Aronoff ~ drums
John Pierce ~ bass
John Cascella ~ sax/keyboards
Doug Sizemore ~ keyboards

Additional: Danny Miranda, Gene Boccia, Toby Myers ~ bass
Rich Tancredi ~ keyboards
Michael Organ ~ drums
Kenny Greenberg, Danny Torrell, Michael Landau ~ guitar
Kim Fleming, Vicki Hampton, Micky Thomas, John Batdorf, Myrna Matthews, Maxine Waters, Julia Water-Tillman, Joe Turano, Chris Rodriguez, Shaun Murphy, Terry Wood, Jean McClain ~ b. vocals

Guests: Joe Walsh, Al Pitrelli ~ guitar
Robbie Buchanan ~ keyboards
Joe Franco ~ drums
Michael Bolton, Stan Bush ~ b. vocals

There's a growing trend amongst musicians who either charge out the door with a modest hit or are seeking one ... & happen to be unlucky enough to know an L.A. producer ... they become incredibly more commercial & over-produced which kills their individuality along with their career in the eyes of many fans. This is particularly the case of acoustic focused rockers, such as Cheryl Crow, Jewel & Keb Mo' who all started as rough coffee house-esque folk rockers like nobody had seen only to be glossed up & lacking future hits. The third album with Epic Records found Mellencamp-esque heartland rocker Henry Lee Summer, famous for his mullet & his 1987 hit "Wish I Had A Girl" following the commercial route to find a bigger audience & in the process becoming less heartland, less HLS & more bland FM friendly rock. Way Past Midnight was essentially the beginning of the end for HLS who'd fall into heavy drug addiction & a complete collapse of his career for many years. Once described as having a "sandpaper voice" & the "homeless man's John Mellencamp" HLS always had a particular at ease passion in his music that made up for his lack of originality. He was always best with homespun ballads with the commercial gloss usually being his weakest moments ... given the poor response to Way Past Midnight the logic behind this observation becomes quickly obvious. It's one thing to sound like John Mellencamp but it's another to sound like Michael Bolton but without the soft croon. But, that's the transition that's occurred here ... considering the album opens up with a song HLS co-wrote with Michael Bolton. The clichéd outcome isn't so bad but it's a false high followed by a series of songs demonstrating that Bolton-esque keyboards don't always gel with sandpaper. Many of the songs (i.e. "I Don't Want To Live This Lie", "So Desperately", "Little By Little") end up becoming unrecognizable as part of the HLS catalog. They might be lyrically perfect for HLS but are transformed into sappy overproduced commercial songs. But, for those who can stick through half the album the 'side B' reverts back to the traditional HLS sound with "Anytime For You," "Medicine Man" & "Turn It Up", though none have the memorable flare of "I Wish I Had A Girl". Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around & Fell In Love" & the Rolling Stones Exile-esque "I've Got The Fire" are the two best tracks on the album, though few will have the patience to listen that far. On the album are guest guitarists Joe Walsh of the Eagles & Al Pitrelli of Alice Coooper/Megadeth, drummer Joe Franco of Twisted Sister, bassist Danny Miranda of Paul Rodgers & a reunited Queen, plus members of John Mellencamp's band & Los Lobos.

Cyndi Lauper ~ Live ... At Last (DVD review) ... Girls having more fun than ever!

Style: pop rock
Label: Sony Music
Year: 2004
Home: New York, New York

Concert location: The Town Hall, New York, New York
Year Recorded: 2004
Length: 112 minutes
Bonus Features: "Stay" music video, behind the scenes, alternative angles

Members: Cyndi Lauper ~ vocals/guitar/dulcimer
William Wittman ~ bass
Kat Dyson ~ guitar
Sam Merendino ~ drums
Steve Gaboury ~ keyboards/accordian
Deni Bonet ~ violin/dulcimer

Additional: Roger Squitero, Bobby Allende ~ percussion
Mitch Frohman ~ sax
Dan Reagan ~ trombone
Peter Nater ~ trumpet

Though I grew up in the era of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" I've always loved the later more mature "It Rained All Night"/"Who Let In The Rain" era CL, one might even label the pop balladeer era. She would take that style a step further with 2003's stripped down jazz flavored At Last that set her against such classics as "La Vie En Rose", "Makin' Whoopee", "Unchained Melody" & even a duet with Tony Bennett. The result is enjoyable though at times uneven but it gives us a side to CL that never would have been allowed in her youthful funky years. The Live ... At Last DVD showcases the tour that followed & is highly recommended over the CD. She enters the stage dressed all in black, normal colored hair, with no fancy lights or wild set pieces. It's the opposite of what some might expect from CL but the outcome is incredibly intimate in a way the wild act wasn't. I'll confess it's the CL I love & this concert gives all the reasons why. The show takes the best of At Last & mixes it with greatest hits from across her career. It's hard to find fault with the set-list as its perfect for new & old fans & folks like me who prefer one era over another. CL isn't the greatest singer but her youthful looks & energy make up for it, plus she has a repertoire of just great songs hands down. It's hard to believe that she's 51 watching her dance around the stage with her own array of unchoreographed moves. The best description of the overall show might be to call it a flashier version of MTV Storytellers as CL bridges songs with her strong Queens accent telling stories of childhood. It's intimate. It's mature. It's funny. It's even cute. It's stripped-down to the bare essence of the music & the artist herself. Some of the stories are hit/miss & some songs better than others, but the improvised feel of the gig makes up for it. It's like watching a girl in a homecoming sharing her life. It's having fun long after the young wild image has been laid to rest. Where her voice limits her CL makes up for it with interesting arrangements, such as an accordion remake of "She-Bop" that is only missing a boat ride down the Danube while the 60's classic "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a stripped down acoustic piano affair with haunting results & "Change Of Heart" has a violin/guitar duet right out of Riverdance. Understated & full of surprises is the key word. It's a breathe of fresh air for a girl that was always overstated & became famous heavily commercialized producer dominated studio honed music. Ironically, the weakest part of the show is the encore. "Unchained Melody" with scenes of NYC on a screen isn't very moving, but part of that has more to do with the over-saturation of the song than the performance plus it's actually quite a difficult song to sing well. It's followed by CL playing a dulcimer on her lap to "Time After Time", including a joke about changing from skirt to leather pants, joined by two women on electric guitar & violin to create an interesting arrangement ... both visually & musically. The original is still the version you'll turn to but this shows great creativity. This is followed by the required "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" with an extended calypso arrangement, including Rasta singing & a horn section. It's concludes the already anti-climactic encore ... with views of the audience on the feet but not exactly dancing or clapping along & definitely not getting into the Rasta party spirit as Lauper is obviously trying to do on stage to the best of her dancing ability. Early in her career Lauper tried to be a showgirl & eventually the image had to be set aside that went for inner fire over fire-like hair dye. In the encore she aims for the showgirl with the result being that when she lets her true colors shine she shines. But, you can't fault Lauper for continually experimenting & trying new things, which has been the hallmark of her career. If it hadn't been for experimentation there never would have been the "It Rained All Night" era I love & there never would have been that wild girl the world discovered day one.

Adrienn Zsedenyi ~ Zseda (album review) ... Hungary's Vanessa Williams!

Style: pop, electronica
Label:
Year: 2002
Home: Hungary

Members: Adrienn Zsedenyi ~ vocals
Viktor Rakonczai ~ keyboards/cabasa/b. vocals
Zoltan Keresztes, Gabor Kiss, Akos Letray ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Zoltan Sipeki, Krisztian Dajka ~ guitar
Gergo Kolta ~ bass
Edina Szirtes ~ violin/b. vocals

America is full of its sultry songstresses a la the Whitney Houstons & Vanessa Williams that have brought together ethnically flavored lush arrangements with dance beats, but it's easy to forget that it's not just American musicians who are inspired to create such music to croon love songs over. In 2002 28 year old drama/voice student Adrienn Zsedenyi released her debut recording & with a mix of her cute elfin looks & a soft voice, nearly symphonic lush keyboards & under-used electronic drums ... a mix that would sound totally at home at home on a Michael Bolton or George Benson album ... found herself with an unexpected Gold album & a new career. It also reached #7 on the pop music charts ... that is, the Hungarian music charts. I didn't mention that not just are foreigners inspired to follow American music trends but they also do so in their native tongue. Hungarian is not known to non-natives as a particularly attractive or expressive tongue such as Finnish, it's closest but quite far cousin, or French or Italian. But, from the lips of Zsedenyi it's like a whole new language rich in emotion. Musically Zseda ranges from dance electronica to classical/flamenco acoustic guitar to acoustic piano & violin ballads. It is a delightful range of music that never goes too far in one direction & shows that one doesn't need to pound out the dance beats to make good music but just memorable songs. The follow-up album Zseda-Vue would reach #1 on the charts & have a song become the theme to a Hungarian soap opera, a rare treat for any artist in any country. Zseda was no fluke success as Zsedenyi would go on to make four more albums. Zseda may seem like an odd inclusion on this blog of metal & rock but mentioning it serves a few purposes. For this blog Zsedenyi is representative of many similar musicians across the globe & mentioning her, one hopes, is a reminder that there is a world of great music out there & America is not the world. Further, there is a large percent of music listeners who rarely hear anything not sung in English, or maybe it's limited to Rammstein & traditional music such as African dance. In this context it becomes almost comical. Also, listening to a foreign language actually pulls one away from the lyrics & into the overall feeling of the music. How much music is churned out where once you remove the lyrics there is no feeling? This happens across the spectrum of musical genres, too. As for the soft nature of the music ... consider how many 80's rock bands have their most popular songs being their piano based power ballads? While, how many great hard rock musicians have taken jobs as session musicians for some of these musically light affairs? In this world of downloading where linear notes don't exist that fact is slowly getting lost. But, I can think of one Megadeth thrasher who has played forgotten in the background with pop crooners Kathy Troccoli & Donnie Osmond, for example ... Further, it's sometimes just nice to pack away the distortion for a minute & clear the ears of the norm.

Alice Cooper ~ Trash (album review) ... Trashing the world in superstar style!

Style: shock rock, hard rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1989
Home: Arizona

Members: Alice Cooper ~ vocals
Mark Frazier, Jack Johnson, John McCurry, Guy Mann-Dude ~ guitar
Paul Chiten, Steve Deutsch, Gregg Mangiafico ~ keyboards
Allan St. John ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Hugh McDonald ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Chouinard ~ drums
Diana Grasselli, Jango, Louis Merlino, Jamie Sever, Myriam Naomi Valle, Bernie Shanahan, Tom Teeley, Joe Turano ~ b. vocals

Additional: Kane Roberts ~ guitar/b. vocals
Desmond Child, Maria Vidal ~ b. vocals
Guests: Steve Lukather, Joe Perry, Richie Sambora ~ guitar Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums
Steven Tyler, Kip Winger, Michael Anthony, Stiv Bators, Jon Bon Jovi ~ b. vocals

This is not AC, let's take care of that fact first. Yes, his name is on it, it's his release, it's his recognizable voice & it's his back-up band, including early 80's songwriting partner/guitarist Kane Roberts on a track, but there's another ingredient in the pot that tips the scale. The ingredient goes by the name of Desmond Child. To explain, Trash came after a decade with no charting songs & a career stepping around but not finding success. Trash was AC's attempt, starting a few albums earlier with Kane Roberts, to recreate both himself & his career following a commitment to sobriety & Christianity. It was a deliberate attempt at a comeback & thus the magical writing talents of Desmond Child were called in who was riding high engineering the comeback of Aerosmith with their Pump album. The result is that this is really a Desmond Child album with the AC band & a few guests, including Aerosmith, performing his songs. With a career that includes Cher, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & many more, the shock rock of AC seems an odd person for Child to pen songs for. The problem is not Child's talent but that his stamp dominates the outcome. This is an album of 10 love songs with some light tongue-in-cheek shock rock humor thrown ... & could easily have been an album by Bon Jovi or Aerosmith. It's far from bad with nearly every song a hit ... but an album of only sappy love songs isn't exactly fitting the Alice Cooper mold ... but re-inventing the mold to suit the songs. If anything that's the one true success of Trash. It reinvented the mold by fully turning AC into a anthem spouting leather clad hard rocker totally in sync with the hair metal of the era. It also spawned a place on the coveted MTV with four videos, chart topping hits & an around the world tour, recorded on the Classicks album five years later & the Trashes The World home video. Finding the success he sought AC abandoned Childs for the follow-up Hey Stoopid & brought the shock/monster imagery back to the rock. But, Trash would firmly set the path/mold for a long time with the current tours of 2011 even being the modern version of Trash in many ways. Trash gave AC something that he could twist turn over the years to make personal with a musical & visual platform. The psychedelic AC of the 70's was gone forever across the board leaving many fans divided between the 70's & the later AC, though some see the later leather AC as the authoritative character as the earlier AC was a member of a band followed by a solo outing that went through numerous images including balladeer. "Poison", "House Of Fire", "Spark In The Dark", "Why Trust You", "Only My Heart Talkin'", "Bed Of Nails", "This Maniac's In Love With You", "Trash", "I'm Your Gun", "Hell Is Living Without You" ... if any of these songs make you rock out than you'll enjoy Trash & what would follow. But, the reverse is also true so if you don't like Trash you may want to stick with the 70's AC. Later albums, particularly The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet & Along Came A Spider, might be more interesting & varied musically but Trash largely sets the pace. It's big hair anthemic 80's rock with bursts of energy balanced by bursts of acoustic ballady moments. There's a reason Trash became as big as it did & it's not just because of Desmond Child. It's basically a good album chock full of memorable hits that any musician should be pleased to make. Ironically, AC had earlier done an album with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin & it floundered ... for those who say that AC could have chosen any great writer & had a hit album as the outcome.

Split ~ Unimpressive (album review) ... Please look this way!

Style: alt rock, power pop
Label: Transistor Sound
Year: 2010
Home: Chicago

Members: Charlie Crane, Ryan Gatenby ~ vocals/guitar
Ramsen Isaac ~ bass
Andy Miles ~ drums

The debut album from the quartet Split is not 'unimpressive'. According to their press release, the albums "includes songs about infidelity, codependency, insecurity, defeatism, incredulity, availability, transportation, texting, sex & drugs." Are you feeling impressed? Though, 'unimpressive' might actually be referring to the low budget basement acquisitioned to record the album but the not so unimpressive low production values are well disguised & what might be discernable is one of this album's charms let alone helping towards its quirky underground alt rock sound. Actually, 'unimpressive' is one of the songs, while 'split' might just be referring to the topics under the band's lyrical thumb as there is an examination of the split between good/bad, right/wrong, having/not having. Song titles give away a lot, with no pretense or masks, about what particular split is being examined: "Codependent", "Cheater", "Please, Please Look My Way", "Devil Girl," "Peace Of Mind", "Availability Vibes", "Back To You", "Sleep With Me" & "Stop Texting Me". Quaint love ballads move over! But, they actually are quaint. Power pop is the name of the game, almost Liverpool-eque pop but with more distortion & less classic rock psychedelic wanderings & with a twist of Robin Hitchcock or Psychedelic Furs lyrical quirkiness. "Stop Texting Me" will be a highlight for most listeners, for obvious reasons. Though, honestly all the songs tend to fall into a pretty similar sound so if you like one you'll generally like the others, or at least where ever the lyrics up the quirky ante which they don't all do equally. Of all the textual references I implied in the beginning of this review there was one careful readers might have noticed was missing. Is Split, formed in 2009, going to split? When Split wrote to me suggesting I check out their tunes it was 2010 & they were getting some local radio buzz. Well, in my inability to review bands in a timely manner, as has happened a few times much to my regret ... to quote the band themselves from their myspace: "The band Split has officially split. Who saw that coming?" Cheers to you, guys!

Overwhelming Colorfast ~ Bender (EP) (album review) ... Hangin' on to the legacy of Roy Orbison!

Style: alt rock, pop, punk
Label: Relativity
Year: 1992
Home: San Francisco, California

Members: Bob Reed ~ vocals/guitar
Dan Reed ~ drums
Torg Hallin ~ guitar
Bean ~ bass

Back when I was in high school I'd wander into the record store on a weekly basis ... if not more or at least multiple stores in one week ... & would buy a bunch of cheap CD's by bands I didn't know that had something interesting about them, such as songs, cover art, or maybe just the name of the band. I discovered many bands this ... Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe was from all three of those things ... even the first song that ever made me cry (so far the count is 3) was a chance discovery in this pattern. Overwhelming Colorfast is one of those discoveries. I liked the name. Twenty years later I still like it. Bender was my surprise buy so long ago because the songs included Paul Simon's "For Emily" & the Dozier/Holland/Holland soul classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On", plus an original tune called "Roy Orbison". I could tell from the psychedelic art that this was an alt rock band, though this was really before the term became fashionable so underground pop/punk might be better, which is a style I tend to not gravitate to but this song line-up got me curious. Plus, 4 of the 5 tracks were done live in a single take with no overdubs except for some backing vocals as was prominently advertised on the back cover. Further, EPs are great because if you end up not liking the band you've spent less money & only suffered through a few songs. Quite a few bands I wish I'd gone the EP route. As for OC I was sad I did. Listening again almost 20 years later I like them as much as ever ... though ironically I listen to alt rock even less. Overly distorted guitars chug on without being out of control & those who know Husker Du/Bob Mould will find many similarities from the music to vocals. Now I know Mould but back when I didn't so the similarities hit me now giving me a new insight into OC. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" is nothing like it's original even with a psychedelics opening though it has backing vocals, a prominent bassline, guitar breaks & the most distinct arrangement of any of the songs. R&B has clearly left the building here. "For Emily" is a two minute distorted rushed affair that doesn't even do justice to Simon's lyrics, but everything comes back in line for the original "Roy Orbison" which shows Reed's composing abilities in a great light. It would get a more polished & overdubbed makeover OC's second full-length album that was in the near future following this little bridge between albums. The other Reed original "Roll The Ocean" shows some variety with melodic guitar playing versus just chords & reminds one of the same spirit that was moving through Bleach-era Nirvana or early Pearl Jam. The album ends with a incredibly polished track pulled over from OC's self-titled debut in the Beatles' "She Said, She Said", showing quite a difference in sound from the guitars, to the mix to the singing. It's like, though Mother Love Bone & Pearl Jam share members they don't have the same sound in the least. This final tune is also much more pop-oriented then the one-take tracks & it's hard to say if this is a bonus or not ... it's nice but the other tracks are grittier with a bigger wall of guitar sound & stand out even given much worse production values. OC's debut was produced by Butch Vig just before working with the Smashing Pumpkins on the similar wall of sound Siamese Dream. One might wonder if OC wasn't a test run for Vig. Bender is not adventurous nor polished, it's a rough & tumble affair of lots of energy & semi-good production quality & actually is closer to the OC live sound than the polished music which almost disgraces them. It's drawing on the punk side of Bob Mould no doubt. Coming on the heals of their debut Bender is an easy little release for new fans to bite into for this little band of yore who would release three full-length albums before vanishing into obscurity.

The Evidence ~ Currents (album review) ... Sweeping across the waves!

Style: pop, hard rock, alt rock
Label: Meter Records
Year: 2011
Home: Canada

Members: Casey Lewis ~ vocals/drums/keyboards
Tyler Pickering ~ vocals/guitar/programming
Dean Rud ~ vocals/bass

For many years, for me, alt pop meant a type of alternative rock that wasn't gritty & played a lot of overly sentimental ballads in the mold of Coldplay or maybe Oasis. It wasn't bad but I like my rock with a little bit of masculine energy not a bunch of dreamy eyed boys blowing kisses to girls in the audience or getting all overly sentimental & mystical. The Evidence is one of a new breed of alt rock bands combining a touch of Coldplay but with the energy of the Foo Fighters ... or giving more emphasis to the alt than the pop ... & realizing that the girls in the audience like to rock out too & not just listen to love songs. You can get the girls via both approaches. Further, after years dominated by the shadow of punk in terms of Green Day & three chord song alt rock rhythm sections are finally stepping back into the spotlight by providing lots of texture & changes independent of the guitar & put the variety & low-end attack back into the arrangement. Since 2000 the Evidence, starting as high school friends dubbed as the Failure, have sought to craft out a niche for themselves with highly skilled arrangements that sweep across numerous styles. A boost, & eventual name change, came after eight years as the Failure when the drudgery of band life moved the lyrics from the cliched to the personal. The Evidence know disguise mental dilemmas under a little bit of sing-along pop. I recently was talking to John Wetton of Asia/King Crimson about his new solo album Raised In Captivity & he said it sounded just like a full band, though it was actually only him & former 1990's Yes bandmate & producer Billy Sherwood. The Evidence sounds like a quartet if not bigger ... I'm even willing to bet that they really are but for legal rights are leaving off the other other band members in the linear notes. Though, I know that they've added a fourth member for their live shows. But, on album sound nothing like a trio as they've done a superb job layering drums, guitars, keyboards & programming in a mix that blows me away. It's almost illegal to have this much vibrant music for only three guys. What's your secret boys? I'm guessing its in the mix. The fact that the song-writing is great too combining rock with pop certainly is a contributing factor. & the three part vocals certainly boost things up a notch.

Warrant ~ Ultraphobic (album review) ... You're under arrest & so is this album!

Style: hard rock, hair metal, heavy metal
Label: CMC International
Year: 1995
Home: California

Members: Jani Lane ~ vocals
Rick Steier, Erik Turner ~ guitar
Dave White ~ keyboards
Jerry Dixon ~ bass
James Kottak ~ drums

Planned to be their comeback album arriving in 1995 it was the worst time for a comeback. Grunge had killed the hair metal 80's & in 1994 the unrivaled king of grunge Kurt Cobain died. The world was still reeling & finding itself musically all over again & though hair metal has returned it took 20 years not 5 to make that happen. But, in their favor Ultraphobic is much harder than anything they had created before & remains their hardest outing & is nearly unrecognizable from the glam rock "Cherry Pie" era. All the 80's clichés have been set aside & the band has moved from hard rock to heavy metal ... successfully. A comparison of song titles from releases says a lot. Ultraphobic includes the heavy sounding: "Undertow", "Followed", "Sum Of One", "Chameleon", "Crawlspace", while Cherry Pie includes the cliched: "Bed Of Roses", "Sure Feels Good To Me", "Love In Stereo", "Song & Dance Man" "You're The Only Hell Your Mama Ever Raised." Though, it should be mentioned that though but five years bridge releases this really wasn't the same band. A lot had changed for them as they'd hit highs & low plus numerous line-up changes. They'd been through too much to keep writing sappy love songs & Ultraphobic reflects that in incredibly personal & sometimes bitter lyrics, like "I'm still bleeding from a wasted youth ... don't touch me" in the highlight "Family Picnic". In many ways the album also has far more personality than the by the mold glam rock of earlier days where they played the same riffs every band played. By 1995 Metallica, Alice In Chains, Smashing Pumpkins & Soundgarden were paving the way in the mainstream for metal & copying them was out of the question for Warrant ... though fans of Soundgarden will probably enjoy this & fans of the current Stryper, which says more about the sound of the album than any other description ... so Warrant had to find themselves & reinvent themselves like never before. The fans might not have come out in hoards but the result is nothing to cringe at or hesitantly approach. Peers Firehouse took their music in the same direction when styles changed & found the same type of musical success but also found themselves playing extended tours in Japan but not elsewhere. Not long after this Warrant would lose its sexy & iconic frontman Jani Lane along with seeing more line-up changes than albums & continue a struggle to the present day ... though for their credit they never broke up like many bands. But, though this wasn't their last album if it had been a swan song they would have gone out on a high of highs. Released today Ultraphobic would be indeed welcomed. It's interesting to note that at the same time the label CMC was promoting similar bands such as Widowmaker featuring another struggling star looking for a comeback in Dee Snider rocking out also harder than ever with future Megadeth guitarist Al Pitrelli.

The Dwarves ~ Fuck You Up And Get Live (DVD review) ... Punk your face!

Style: punk
Label: Greedy Worldwide
Year: 2004
Home: San Francisco, California

Concert location: The Continental, New York City
Year Recorded: 2004
Length: 75 minutes
Bonus Features: official music videos of "Over You", "We Must Have Blood", "Bleed On", "HeWhoCanNotBeNamed", "Pimp", "Way Out"

Members: Blag Dahlia ~ vocals
HeWhoCanNotBeNamed, The Fresh Prince Of Darkness ~ guitars
Wreck Tom ~ drums
Clint Torres ~ bass

I don't listen to a much punk rock. On the whole the genre has never really grabbed me. There's something about the energy and basic playing approach that does little for me, albeit retro garage I do like and it's not a very distant cousin. I tend to be more interested in a song here or there versus full albums or a particular band. Though, my boss regularly blasts out the Clash and other classic punk bands so it's not that I don't find myself listening to it. I know that one reason I've never been into punk is because quite often the studio recordings aren't as interesting to me as seeing a band in concert with the energy of the moment. It's like just listening to Wendy O. Williams when she saws the guitar in half. It's not the same when you can't see it. But, having said that I'll confess that I know punk also has quite a thriving internal energy that doesn't require visuals. Punk is primarily motivated by internal angst. Though I may not be a punk fan I can recognize bands in the field that are at the top of their game and worth checking out. If you're looking for a post 1970's, aka post- Sex Pistols, punk band that has the visuals plus the internal energy and is making top notch in-the-face hardcore punk the Dwarves are a definite good starting point. But, be warned ... lots of breasts, panty shots, profanity and a guitarist that performs in briefs and a Mexican wrestling mask and even wears a bit less showing a bit more in one of the bonus music videos. It's chugging chord scrapping music and quasi-profane shouted lyrics with an audience as wild as the band. The bonus features are indeed a bonus in every aspect of the word and might even be more interesting than the concert itself. For those unfamiliar with the Dwarves sound the music videos give one the studio versions to compare to the live versions. Though, another warning, these aren't MTV videos ... which make them interesting. They never would be allowed. If you really want to have a good time with this video and bonus tracks play a game of counting women's bare breasts and you'll know why they aren't MTV material. For those that don't know, or haven't already realized it, the Dwarves have a reputation for nudity both male and female, on-stage sex, self-mutilation and heavy drug usage often leading to incredibly short shows and band injuries in the tradition of punk rocker extraordinaire G.G. Allin. Though, they play far better music.