Kelly Greene ~ You Leave Me Here (album review) ... When Pat Benatar meets Ann Wilson!

Style: hard rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2006
Home: New York

Members: Kelly Greene ~ vocals
Jeff Berner ~ guitar
Kristoff Gerard ~ guitar/drums
Marc Capaldo ~ drums

KG definitely rocks out but is not a Avril Lavigne wannabe punk nor whirling in worldbeat like McLaughlin nor twinkling in coffee houses nor making sure her guitar makes her ass look good. The chunky guitar riffs behind her, even in the slower acoustic moments (i.e. "Memory (If You Knew"), draw directly from the alt rock scene. While for her voice I can imagine KG fronting either a rugged blues band ... though she's a bit soft for the style but she's got a range that would provide a good contrast ... or going in the other direction with soft pop ... though I'm hesitant to call the direction KG has chosen to go with pop, but there are some elements there. For those familiar with KG's well received 2008 outing I Wish I Was Alive her 2006 debut You Leave Me Here, with an equally sobering title, is very much in the same style. If you like one you'll enjoy completing your collection if you haven't already. If there's any difference its that the later album has some more layered arrangements with addition of keyboards & guitars. Actually, at times the rugged guitars seem a bit too punchy & raw for KG's clean voice setting up an interesting contrast, so the later addition is a welcome growth. I wouldn't call You Leave Me Here a sparser album, just with some less texture or texture falling more to the guitars which dominate the arrangements. For those wanting a comparison to a well-known musician, I'm at a loss. The thing is that KG's voice is not one you'd normally associate with rock music. KG is weaving through ground in between most of the popular female rockers you might name. Pat Benatar & Heart's Ann Wilson are names thrown out by KG herself. Benatar might have the closest sounding voice while Heart found a middle ground with music that didn't ever go to one extreme side or another, much like KG.

Ashen Reign ~ An Angel's Burden (album review) ... Laying down their wings!

Style: heavy metal, power metal
Label: Ashen Reign Productions
Year: 2011
Home: Atlanta, Georgia

Members: Brent McDaniel ~ all instruments

When listening to one man, studio-bound & self-produced band there's a tendency to want to play the producer & make suggestions. Getting the producer card out of the way I'll step out on the soapbox & say ... I get tired of rhyming in songs. A little bit is good but every poet will tell you: 1) rhyming can create an internal rhythm that can work against the piece, 2) rhyming pattern push word choices that might not be the strongest, 3) occasional non-rhymed lines or a breaking of the pattern can do wonders. "The wolves gather round, Like a pack of bloodhounds, Tracking you down, Like the speed of sound" from the opener "The Feast" or "To save Heaven he threw in the abyss, He sealed Satan's fate with a kiss, Our Angel he could not miss" from the title track "An Angel's Burden" drives me crazy. It's got an internal sway that works against the song while the word choice tempers the emotional impact. Sadly, the second release by power metal outing Ashen Reign, or Brent McDaniel, is full of this amongst its seven songs. There are a few songs that lessen the repetition with dangling ends but generally a rhyming chorus & rhyming verse, with both often being a similar amount of lines, & a unique soft singing approach that's lazy & laid-back in feel, versus typical metal aggressive, means the lyrics don't stand out like they should. Other reviewers have routinely commented on the lack of vocal punch ... yes, it's probably some of the more soft singing you'll hear behind power metal, but it definitely catches the ear ... & the low production quality ... though I believe even the worst music will shine through bad production & there's a lot of legendary bands who were never recorded well ... but for me the lyrical repetition is the weakest point along with the longer than usual choruses, eight lines in every song kill the verse/chorus dynamic. Though, not wanting to be a complete bad guy, I will give McDaniel credit for his interesting use of images from the big bad wolf, the fall of an angel who turns against God & then Lucifer, sparrows & snakes, setting & morning suns, encircling shooting stars, walking the ring of fire along with very visual representations of dying & moving. To step off the producer's soapbox, or gauntlet, Ashen Reign is a somber metal outing of riffing guitars & some keyboard effects. The riffs are heavily melodic, not very much of the prog end of melodic metal but with songs ranging from five to seven minutes there is some prog elements in the arrangements particularly in the lengthy "A Prayer For The Dying", with solos thrown in for good measure when needed but not overburdening the songs. McDaniel doesn't lack guitar playing ability & I should also mention the playful guitar lines in the stand-out "Hope", which also has some of the best lyrical rhyming patterns interestingly built around the dangling words of "late" & "fate", while "Broken Heart" has some lovely long weaving lines in the solos. He lets his guitar shine on the closing instrumental "The Sparrow" which I'll agree with other critics ends up being a welcome addition. 

Geezer ~ Black Science (album review) ... Oh Elvis do you love me?

Style: heavy metal
Label: TVT Music
Year: 1997
Home: Britain

Members: Geezer Butler ~ bass/keyboards
Pedro Howse ~ guitar
Clark Brown ~ vocals
Deen Castronovo ~ drums

In the metal world & maybe rock in general, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is as iconic as you can get when it comes to bass players. There's players who are faster, fancier & funkier but Butler was setting a standard & rhythmic feeling while those who would prove to be potentially better were still in their britches. I personally call him my number one bass mentor. It's a lesser known fact that he wrote many of the lyrics to the Ozzy era hits, every one a much beloved metal classic & inspiration to metal musicians eternal. But, this doesn't mean a solo album is going to be good. Many musicians have gone out on their own with poor showings, if nothing else showing their limitations, though just as many have gone out to nothing but overwhelming praise, while some get faces filled with curiosity. Black Sabbath set the bar for metal & nobody, not even later line-ups or the reunion of the original, has been able to duplicate the early Black Sabbath feeling & albums. There's variations & competition but no duplication. Thankfully, maybe surprisingly or maybe not, Butler doesn't even try to duplicate his past successes with the second album from his solo band Geezer. 1997's Black Science with Geezer was two years following Plastic Planet, under the name G/Z/R with the same band but different vocalist. Ohmwork would be the, so far, final Butler solo album coming much later in 2005 with the same line-up as Black Science but now with Red Hot Chili Peppers/Chickenfoot drummer Chad Smith & going by the name GZR. None of the albums got gloriously overwhelming reviews but listening years later they've all held up extremely well with a timeless quality, something that can't be said for a lot of metal albums, with middle child Black Science probably being the best overall representation of the Butler solo efforts. They may not be heralded as legendary albums but they are better than a lot of what Butler's old band was producing around the same time in his absence & with rotating vocalists. Speaking of Sabbath ... Geezer follows the same moody & dark feeling, but it's not the drugged out dark of the Ozzy years. Some might call the arrangement style closer to the Dio years, but without Dio's fantasy lyrics. At the same time the band sounds more influenced by metal that was on the scene in 1997 than 1977. Kicking off with "Man In The Suitcase" one might think of Soundgarden with the sludgy detuned guitars. Sabbath was detuned but not sludgy. While "Justified" could be pulled from Metallica's repertoire. It's as if Butler inspired a generation & now is letting his students inspire him. It's an interesting approach that won't disappoint. But, there's two weaknesses to the album. The first is the layered guitars that drown out Butler's bass playing. Further, Butler has a particularly identifiable rhythmic quality, the bass players reading will understand, but the sludgy almost atmospheric guitars don't give themselves to galloping rhythms without a bit of tension & de-emphasizing of the bass. I can't help but think of the solo work of John Entwistle of the Who in comparison who aimed for dark sounds but wasn't drowned out in his own creation. The other downfall is that Clark Brown is a competent but not overly amazing vocalist. He doesn't have any particularly unique vocal tone or phrasing to bring to the album, which on some songs (i.e. "Area Code 51") becomes more obvious than at other times with a habit of quasi-growling. He sounds too much like too many of his contemporaries, which brings the album in line with the metal scene at the time but also doesn't help to distinguish Geezer. There's also some interesting inclusions in that Geezer includes a electronic element in the drums occasionally, so there's no doubt Butler is trying stay on top of current trends. The resulting industrial experiments aren't bad but Marilyn Manson so set the standard for this approach that it's hard not to compare, though Manson is far more dense. It's easy to forget that there's lots of experimental songs on the early Ozzy-era Black Sabbath albums ... which tend to be forgotten. Butler is no stranger to experimenting but we've become strangers to his experiments. Two interesting lyrical inclusions that merit mention are the songs "Among the Cybermen", a reference to evil cybernetic aliens on BBC TV's Doctor Who, & "Unspeakable Elvis" with its odd chorus "oh Elvis do you love me/oh evil Elvis Aaron Presley" ... supposedly, the album was inspired by Butler's childhood, though its not so obvious until these creepy yet playful un-Black Sabbath moments.

Jeff Beck ~ The Visual Story (DVD review) ... The Yardbird's bag of tricks!

Style: classic rock, hard rock, instrumental, blues-rock
Label: XXL Media
Year: 2011
Home: Britain

Concert location: multiple locations
Year Recorded: multiple dates
Length: 51 minutes
Bonus Features: none

Members: Jeff Beck ~ guitar
additional players n/a

Guests: Jan Hammer ~ keyboard
Doug Wimbish ~ bass
Simon Philips ~ drums
Steve Lukather, Carlos Santana ~ guitars

When you need a respected guitarist who is diverse, creative & with a powerful musical presence plus with a long history ... sadly, JB is not a name that is often offered but he should be in the top 10 on the top of the list. The problem might be he's more a guitarist's guitarist than a casual listener's guitarist. With a catalog ranging from pulling the Yardbirds away from the blues into more progressive territories to gutsy bluesy recordings with a young Rod Stewart on vocals, to the powerhouse rock line-up of Beck, Bogart & Appice to a solo career of largely instrumental albums that's been completely unpredictable with forays into blues, rock, avant-garde jazz, funk, electronica & even classical JB has not been necessarily kind to his fans neither giving them what they might want, expect nor music that can be always casually listened to. JB's love of experimentation has often led to musical forays more welcomed by guitarists who are into technical playing then someone looking for a rainy day record ... though, at the same time, he's released solos that would make peers Jimmy Page & Richie Blackmore wilt with tears & experiments that could go head to head with Hendrix, a guitarist who can be just as difficult when it comes to listenability by casual fans as many bootlegs contest. To truly understand JB one needs only turn to the instrumental guitar rockers of the 80's such as Steve Vai & Yngmie Malmsteen to hear his influence. This odd little video, sadly, only continues to push JB away from the casual fan & towards guitarists looking for a hardcore playing lesson & insight into this guitar legend. Opening with a undated & undetailed clip, not helped any by a complete lack of linear notes or any packaging details, is a 1970's British TV performance where JB fronts a top-notch band churning out the blues. It's got a very Led Zeppelin feel to it. The quality is horrendous with a fuzzy picture, obviously not taken from master tapes as the rolling counter on the screen belays, but that doesn't get in the way of JB shining. The song is followed by an on the spot discussion with the unidentified host of the guitar itself, it's switches & strings, JB's foot pedals & even a strange looking "bag" that JB says is one of only three he's seen & turns out to be a proto-vocoder. If you want to know JB's early set-up this is a near must view & with lots of close-ups on JB's fingerplay it's a lesson as good as it gets to a lesson. Actually, watching him it's amazing how much sound comes out of so little & unflashy movement of his right hand. This is followed by a second, & equally unidentified, clip of JB recording a solo in a studio via camera obviously stuck on a table & not meant for anything but personal viewing. The recording is a stop & start process with unidentified producer on hand & half the time is spent discussing or experimenting with different sounds. The highlight is seeing JB play both with an without the previously recorded rhythm section in the background. Put all your dreams of grandeur aside ... there's nothing glamorous about recording. It's a tedious process & a tedious film to watch ... though Andy Warhol would probably rave about it. On the other hand, it's interesting, if not a bit shocking, to see JB call a solo not very good though most guitarists would be exuberantly happy with the previously improvised moment. The clip ends with him rolling a cigarette. Warhol would be squirming with glee. The remaining part of The Visual Story is taken from a 1986 broadcast that was originally shown on Japanese TV & featured JB headlining with Carlos Santana in an outdoor concert. This has been previously released both officially & bootlegged & in longer complete form. It opens with a weak performance of "Wild Thing", a song that really should only be attempted by the original band as it was raunchy by being primitively raw due to recording limitations but when made raunchy comes out everything but. Further, JB is not a dynamic stage presence, though on the backing band includes legendary Jan Hammer, Doug Wimbish & Simon Phillips. Compared to the previous TV & studio bits JB is in prime high energy form giving it his all. The song selection might not the best, relying more on improvisation, but one can clearly see the power JB has with a guitar in hand. The weak opening gives way to a stronger end with songs featuring JB playing with Steve Lukather & Carlos Santana. Three very distinct guitarists in a unique moment. With a lack of bonus features, packaging detail that even extends to not listing song titles for the TV & studio recordings & generally third generation video quality this is a collector's only item. But, if you want a close-up fingerboard lesson on what JB plays this is a must. Or, if you want to see a progression of an artist from rigid tv studio with everything toned down, to working through problems in a studio to letting it all go free on stage then ... well, this video shines. 

Tired Wings ~ While You Were Sleeping (album review) ... The wolf king meets Rev. Mongoose!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal, blues-rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: New York City

Members: Charles "Rev. Mongoose" Canedo ~ vocals/guitar/bass
Luis Cambrero ~ drums

Guest: Jose Cambrero ~ percussion

There's so many ways to look at this latest album by TW: as their former bassist, though I left long before this set of songs were written; or, in light of TW's first two releases, though they are all incredibly different musically & are EP's compared to this first full-length; or, in light of the fact that TW has deliberately aimed for something different with each release as they walk their creative path; or, just ignore all of the above & listen to it within its own context. It's probably the most difficult choice I've faced in reviewing an album! In terms of the music, speaking as a former bandmate & still calling the guys friends, TW has moved a long way in a relatively short amount of time in terms of style & creativity. The riffs are still fairly basic, heavier on groove than flash, which also includes the drums which are less flashy but also more solid than previous releases, though the bluesy roots & Motorhead wannabe moments have finally slipped out of sight. The songwriting remains grounded instead of floating in philosophical confusion. Lyrical frontman Charles 'Mongoose' Canedo has a tendency to write songs about characters such as menacing beasts on a quest in "Wolf King" & "Mammoth", a wild night girl in "Crown Of Fire", the beloved Catholic saint in "Saint Christopher", a mysterious troubled lover in "While You Were Sleeping", a friend needing a kick in the pants with the lyrically simple "Drive", "Down For The Cause" is a prod to fellow NYC bands & even the songwriter comes into the spotlight in "Crossroads" which also is a message to others to respect & love themselves in a unique turn of the Mississippi sell your soul legend. Though, at the same time, the objects of discussion are not so obvious. Is it really St. Christopher under the microscope, particularly with the very un-Christian sounding spoken word injection "Welcome to the house of the Mongoose" during an instrumental break? Are the wolf king & mammoth beasts or actually humbled men on creative & spiritual quests? In light of the band's first two releases While You Were Sleeping neither has the blues of their first EP nor the experimental metal of the second, though opening track "Wolf King" does feature ethnic drums courtesy of Jose Cambrero, the father of blazing away as always drummer Luis Cambrero. Actually, While You Were Sleeping probably has the most distinct personality of their three releases as gone are the influences & arriving is a sound unique to TW with a low end rumble running through all the riffing that shifts the focus of the songs away from the solos to the overall feeling. TW has also gotten much heavier without getting complicated, both in terms of guitars & drums ... complication being what one might have expected. This is an album that defies expectations. To honestly compare the three releases is quite difficult as it's not so much that each features a different personality but it also feels like a different band - though it's always been the same two guys along with continuing the tradition of not having a bassist available beyond the gigs for the recordings. But, now, the band seems more comfortable with the fact that the bass is not by an elusive outsider with the basslines seemingly written as part of the process & not added afterwards because nobody was available. This has also given an evenness to the sound of the album that was missing on the first two albums. While You Were Sleeping sounds like parts to a whole not a collection of varied songs. In terms of defying expectations is the inclusion of two instrumental tracks "Shadow Cast" & "Dronology", though both are odd little tunes that sounds more like improvisations that wants to be Hendrix or a demo than finished tracks.

JD Bradshaw ~ Waiting At The Finish Line (EP) (album review) ... Thrill of the chase!

Style: instrumental, hard rock, heavy metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: Virginia

Members: J.D. Bradshaw ~ guitars/bass
David Parks ~ drums

Instrumental albums are always a bit of a challenge for the listener because, if not more than any other album, they are sticklers for my old rule of thumb that one should listen to an album at least twice before commenting on it ... something a lot of reviewers don't do, by the way. On first listen you get the initial impact, while discovering if it does/does not meet your expectations, while the second listen is where you start to hear the subtlety & the album as it really is. Sometimes it might even sound like a different album. The shock of the impact of the first listen is full of judgments about whether the album is good or bad that are often more reflective of one's opinions/expectations than the music itself. Instrumental guitar albums, whether Steve Vai or Jeff Beck or Charlie Christian or Pepe Romero, might be more difficult in some ways as one is apt to hear, in the first listen, just standard riffing & naught else, particularly if the guitarist uses the same tone throughout the album, that leads to an unflattering conclusion. While its generally easy to play a solo, or some semblance of, it's difficult to make that solo melodically go somewhere, while even the greatest guitar players get lost in the technical aspects of playing & minutes later are still at home base having shown off everything they can do with all the fireworks without actually playing anything. Plus, guitar riffing has the most stringent judge - does it make the listener want to play air guitar to it? By the title of his album alone rock guitarist JD Bradshaw is setting his listener up for a musical challenge & he surely knows it. He also knows that if one does meet the air guitar challenge it'll be a Rock Band-esque workout for the fingers ... guitar aerobics plus. Bradshaw, as a guitar teacher, knows that playing guitar is more than just creating sounds but actually going somewhere & thus makes that the theme of his fourth release, also demonstrated by the thematically titled tracks "High On The Inside", "Quarter Mile Fix", "Blacktop Fade" & "Thrill Of The Chase". With fairly basic rhythms providing a distraction-less foundation for his playing, Bradshaw lets the notes rip with fires blazing in the mold of Vai, Satriani & others of that ilk. Some like to erroneously label this the Berkeley School of playing due to its heavy handed approach that pulls together both rhythm & lead playing seemingly into the same riff for something that might be a flash of notes up & down the fretboard but at the same time has some melodic structure that makes it more than just a long solo. Though, on first listen, the listener might only hear one long solo. I'll confess I was fooled & failed the challenge. Bradshaw opens with fireworks crackling on "High On The Inside" & what happened is that I heard the same fireworks on the following three songs. But, on repeated listens I realized that while the first fireworks might be made in China featuring dragons & planet shapes in quick bright bursts, the following are handmade Cherokee fireworks that crackle lightly then shimmer slowly. What I didn't hear on that first listen is just how different & even at times ballady the other songs on the album are compared to the opener. They also have much more intricate rhythms ... though the repetitive rhythm section is probably the greatest weakness of the album as at times I want the rest of the music to equal the guitar playing but the rhythm just doesn't have the same level of dynamics & ends up more becoming a backing track than a union at moments. "Blacktop Fade" with long notes in the solo, a decent bassline & a reverb heavy rhythm comes the closest to fixing this. On second listen one hears much more textured guitar playing, Steve Vai fans ears up, though one should give it an undistracted listen to see how Bradshaw manages to flawlessly weave between rhythms, melodies & solos. Waiting At The Finish Line might be a game of speed but at the same time the key is in the waiting. No matter how fast a runner goes one still has to wait & there's plenty to enjoy in this lull, though one is tempted to picture what the big crossing will look like missing the lull. I imaged I heard the crossing with the first song & missed the waiting time ... when everyone knows that the its common for runners to burst out fast & then slow down for the long haul. 

The Doobie Brothers ~ Live At The Greek Theatre 1982 Farewell Tour (DVD review) ... Listen to the music!

Style: classic rock, pop rock
Label: Eagle Vision
Year: 2011
Home: America

Concert location: Greek Theatre, Berkeley, California
Year Recorded: 1982
Length: 120 minutes
Bonus Features: bonus tracks "Little Darling (I Need You)", "One Step Closer", "Dependin' On You", "Real Love", "No Stoppin' Us Now"; pre-show interviews with bandmembers: Michael McDonald, Bobby LaKind, John McFee, Cornelius Bumpus, Keith Knudsen, Tom Johnston, Bruce Cohn

Members: Michael McDonald ~ keyboards/vocals
Patrick Simmons ~ guitar/banjo/flute/ vocals
Keith Knudsen ~ drums/vocals
John McFee ~ guitar/violin/vocals
Willie Weeks ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby LaKind ~ percussion/b. vocals
Cornelius Bumpus ~ sax/flute/keyboards/vocals
Chet McCracken ~ drums

Guests: Tom Johnston ~ guitar/vocals
John Hartman, Michael Hossack ~ drums
Tiran Porter ~ bass
Bill Graham ~ MC

In an age when rock bands wrote relatively harmless, or radio friendly, music that drew from rock, R&B, country & blues there was spawned a branch of consumer friendly rock, i.e. not too many guitar solos, memorable melodies & lots of sing along lyrics of peace & love probably sung by multiple members including the drummer. Some people call this blue-eyed soul. REO Speedwagon, Bread, Toto, Steely Dan, Eagles & America might be bands that come to mind along the spectrum of this genre, alongside the Doobie Brothers. You may have forgotten about the band, but who hasn't rocked out to "Listen To The Music", "Rockin' Down The Highway", "Black Water", "China Grove", "Jesus Is Just Alright" or "You Belong To Me" at some time? Sadly, the DBs have been kept alive by an older generation as their music is too safe & live show too tame for the present generation. So, for some kick in the pants nostalgia of when music was still fun & not showing off with over the top stage antics, big hair & wild guitars this final show by the DBs is an enjoyable romp. MTV debuted in 1982 & this is not an MTV band & it was time for a change. It's shame they had to call it a day, but they go out on a high. The band reunited five years later & continue to record albums to the present day, kept alive on the nostalgia circuit that didn't exist as a viable career sustaining entity until the last 20 years. But, in 1982 things seemed to have wound down for the band prompting new musical & creative directions away from the DBs name, which indeed is but a name as no original members remained in 1982 & the sound far removed from the early days, most predominantly in the solo career of pianist/singer Michael McDonald. Introduced by Bill Graham the band goes out in energetic joyous form. There's not a bit of sorrow until a brief twenty seconds clip after the show when a camera backstage spots the bassist hugging another bandmate. He puts his hand over the lens to obviously block out the fact he's crying. He's almost too brief to be seen but summarizes so much about the evening's show. With McDonald hunkered down at a keyboard at the side of the stage, often singing with eyes closed it's not much of a visual show at times, but guitarist Patrick Simmons makes up for it by taking a casual stroll right through the audience while soloing. There's seemingly no security or barricades & when the camera casts its view at the stage over Simmon's shoulder its one of the best, let alone rarest, camera views in a concert video. For two hours the DBs play all the hits across the history of the band. There's even five bonus tracks for some unknown reason cropped from the concert. Potentially its to keep the show at a reasonable length but the bonus songs are also from the McDonald era thus they would give the show more a slant towards a later era when this is a celebration of everyone. And, in that mode of celebration the band was joined on stage by some old bandmates including founding member Tom Johnston. Bonus features also include brief pre-show backstage interviews with many band members about the end of the band, feelings about the on-coming show & planned future activities. It's a bittersweet moment as some members have solo projects on the calendar while others don't. All are sad for the past, while the new members seem the saddest as they're losing their new gig while the old members are ready to move on & have already begun the transition. It makes one want to look up exactly what everyone ended up doing, as it's like a high school year book. Will or won't one become rich and famous? Down the road will we still ... listen to the music?

Marillion ~ Clutching At Straws (album review) ... With a drink in the other hand!

Style: prog-rock, hard rock
Label: Capitol
Year: 1987
Home: England

Members: Fish ~ vocals
Steve Rothery ~ guitars
Mark Kelly ~ keyboards
Pete Trewavas ~ bass
Ian Mosley ~ drums

Additional: Tessa Niles, Chris Kimsey, John Cavanaugh ~ b. vocals

I'll confess that I was expecting something different when I put this album on which was the incentive to listen. Having never heard Marillion outside their reputation I was expecting heavy prog-rock a la Yes or even Asia, but instead found something akin to the very different end of the prog spectrum via Genesis ... that is, the intricately arranged almost soft rock Genesis of the Peter Gabriel era but with some of the slick commercial rock feel of the later Phil Collins era. Or, for those that aren't familiar with the less commercially popular quartet days of Genesis: lush & seemingly complicated arrangements that are better for rainy day listening when you're trapped at home versus going out to a concert for a wild night of mind-altering experimental musical forays. On one hand I wasn't surprised by the commercial slickness of Clutching At Straws, given it was made in the slick late 1980's, but it was also much more tame, but tame in a vibrant hypnotic way not a pop radio way. Marillion is a second generation prog-rock band that came to the fore in the 1980's & wouldn't grow to the same commercial heights in the U.S. as they did back home across the ocean but have taken on a cult status just the same as keepers of the flame in an era when prog-rock became unpopular. Part of their downfall would be the trials of the music business, as often perceived through alcohol, mixed with the incorporation of more hard rock elements that brought them more commercial success but also moved them away from their prog roots & closer to their hard rock MTV peers. They'd eventually find something of a happy though softer medium with their fourth studio album Clutching At Straws. Many fans have called this album the band's masterpiece, made greater by being recorded under great band turmoil, but that recognition must consider that Marillion of 1987 is not the same band musically that started a decade later. Honestly, this release may not be Clutch at their prog-rock height though it might be a straight-ahead rock height, nor is it necessarily a commercial height as its accolades came later, but its without doubt a band trying to get back to having their own sound with thumbs up from both fans & critics. & for someone, as me, whose not familiar with their past efforts without doing some research the result is surprising but not unenjoyable. Almost ironically, it's the last album with charismatic frontman Fish whose soaring alcoholism would take him to a struggling solo career. Though, it's that alcoholism that led Fish to pen lyrics that pushed the button into darker territories as he riots against both his own failings & that of society. It's almost confessional ... a trait that has often been a secret ingredient in prog-rock lyrics which tend to be more esoteric & abstract. The greatest prog-rock albums, whatever the decade, have always been those that dug personal & not necessarily cosmic, or those that reach to the dirt not the clouds. Though, it should be said this is a concept album about a out of work young man named Torch whose trying to forget this troubles with alcohol including a lack of commercial success as a rock'n'roll singer. In his drunken stupor he writes about his life on the road ... sound familiar to a real life rock singer? Marillion's next studio album, the aptly titled Season's End two years later featuring new vocalist Steve Hogarth, would also be well-received but Marillion would never reach the same critical recognition as they would with Clutching At Straws though they continue to release albums twenty years later. There are some more commercial aspects to the album with its cascading arrangements & guitar solos but that aspect does what it should to: builds up not tears down.

The Hotel Year ~ ... it never goes out (album review) ... There's a message for you at the front desk!

Style: punk, alt rock
Label: Mightier Than Sword Records
Year: 2011
Home: Dudley, Massachusetts

Members: Christian Holden ~ bass/vocals
Zack Shaw ~ guitar/vocals
Chris Hoffman ~ guitar/vocals
Sam Frederick ~ drums

To mark their debut on Mightier Than Sword Records the label has re-issued with new artwork the formerly self-released debut album by the HY. The HY aren't braving too much new musical ground as they share the typical punk rock fare including rhythm-oriented & often raucous guitar playing, wild drums & bass thumping & quasi-hollered vocals shared amongst members. The shared vocal approach is a growing trend in the genre as more often than not bands that don't have a traditional non-instrument playing lead singer suffer from not having the best vocalist & thus the chorus & echo approach by fellow bandmates is welcomed & necessary compensation ... that also has the added benefit of adding new depth to the music. The HY understand this as lead vocal duties are seemingly rotated at will with regular use of vocal effects including echoed backing vocals, small group choirs & even pulling the music back for moments primarily given over to vocals. Though, it also means that part of the songs are traditional punk hollering while the other half are more crooning, which leads to lumping the songs into the more predictable punk fare & then the more unpredictable interesting stuff. Further, when they abandon the holler approach the crooning is far better tonally than what a lot of their peers offer. One can tell that at least one of the singers in the HY is actually trying to do something beyond kill the vocal chords. Every person has their natural singing voice, whether that's good or bad is irrelevant to the point, & then there's the voice they create to sing with, such as falsetto or screaming. The HY need to work more with their natural voices because the tones are full, rich & stronger, instead of being top of the range & clipped which is what screaming essentially creates. But as for what they're hollering the lyrics paint a melancholy story, as some of the nine song titles belay: "Our Lives Would Make A Sad, Boring Movie", "Vacancy", "Lonely Hearts Club", "Weathered", "I'm Gone" & "... It Never Goes Out (There Is A Light)". One almost wants the boys to get out of the basement or garage they probably rehearse in so they have some happier material to draw upon ... but, on one hand this is what young listeners want to hear as they are sharing the same feelings of alienation & loneliness, while at least the HY are drawing upon their actual feelings & not throwing out vacant songs of girls & partying as has dominated so much of rock of the last few decades. Sad emotions also provides better song fodder with a more realistic slant. "You can't fix me, cause I'm so burned down" from "Vacancy" pretty much says it all for teenage angst. One thing the HY have that sets them apart is is that they look like four young guys playing rock'n'roll, instead of being covered in tattoos with long hair & looking like every typical punk band on the scene. It's nice seeing a band that looks normal that the non-tattooed constituency can relate to. Not every so-called punk, or post-punk or alt punk, band has to look as anti-social as possible. The Clash started off looking normal & it worked for them & might have been in their favor for reaching a wider audience. The HY not just don't look anti-social they also don't sound that way. The music may still be more dependent on rhythms then flashy leads, as is typical of the genre, but the songs move from rushed to laid back to sometimes veering off in unexpected directions even including a bit of from country-esque flavorings ("Lonely Hearts Club") to blues harmonica (i.e. "Weathered"). It's a delightful & welcomed change of pace from punk bands that have to attack everything & don't realize punk is an attitude not a thrashy speed. Actually, it's quite shocking that a handful of the songs tend to have a more laid back sound than one might expect. Along with working with the vocals more work can be done on the song endings. Most of them tend to end a bit abruptly almost as if someone is holding a stop watch at three minutes. It would be enjoyable to hear songs stretched out a bit more, allowing more room for experimentation, even if it does verge more on jam rock than punk. But, really, punk is a misnomer for the HY as that might potentially alienate some listeners who would enjoy their musical variety. Two songs, "An Ode To The Nite Ratz Club" & "Weathered", that are highly recommended listens do a very un-punk thing by putting more emphasis on the haunting story-esque lament belayed by the lyrics than the music.

The Militants ~ Fuel The Aggression (EP) (album review) ... Echoes of evil ringing in your ears!

Style: heavy metal, black metal, death metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Charlie Zeigler ~ vocals/drum programming/keyboards
Horace Miller ~ guitars/bass

The Miltants second release gives a bigger picture to their metal madness. Looking only at their first release One Nation Under Death one is apt to get the picture that this is just another brutal death metal band screaming & stomping about anarchy, Satan & general destruction. While a title like Fuel The Aggression doesn't exactly deter such conclusions. But, at the same time, it would be a premature conclusion. The Militants, the duo of founding members singer/songwriter Charlie Zeigler & guitarist Horace Miller on the album & expanded into a quartet for the stage but since this release completely retooled by Zeigler with a new line-up, do continue their in-your-face scream & stomp as much as they did on their earlier release. Zeigler still sings with a guttural throat approach typical of so much black metal. But, he's also one of the better singers as so many so-called singers have trouble separating melodic growling from just obnoxious & annoying screaming. Behind him guitarist Miller pours across the fretboard with Pantera-esque riffs full of lots of complicated flourishes leaving quite large & challenging shoes for his successor to walk around in ... it doesn't help the challenge that he gets lots of opportunity to shine holding down the entire guitar sections on the album with both rhythm & leads. While Fuel The Aggression suffers, like One Nation Under Death, from the lack of a separate rhythm section, though the programmed drums & overdubbed guitars do make the loss nearly unnoticeable even in the face of a rather small range of musical variety on most tracks. So far the Militants do hold to the metal stereotype but if one goes a bit deeper, beyond the bubbling roar, into the lyrical content composer Zeigler shows himself using the fierce headbanging motif to share his ideas about social disruptions & the future of the world. The title track "Fuel The Aggression" isn't so much a call to anarchy but a call to social awareness, alongside other similar hearkenings "Echoes Of Evil", "Rise Against Oppression", "Ethnic Cleansing" & "Time Does Not Heal". This is not music for the sensitive eared, whether listening to the music or what's underneath it, for "we are the people of tomorrow's revolution", as Ziegler sings in "Rise Against Oppression" & the people want something better & metal is the chosen tool of the revolution.

Danger Danger ~ Screw It! (album review) ... Too much monkey business!

Style: hair metal, hard rock, glam rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1991
Home: New York City

Members: Ted Poley ~ vocals
Andy Timmons ~ guitars/b. vocals
Bruno Ravel ~ bass/cello/b. vocals
Steve West ~ drums/b. vocals
Kasey Smith ~ keyboards

Additional: Koen Van Baal ~ programming/strings
Jimmie Haskell ~ strings
Erwin Musper ~ piano/b. vocals
Eddie Conard ~ percussion
Mom Ravel ~ violin
Dad Ravel ~ viola
Todd Confessore, Joss Mennen, Pete Lovell, Ginger Lynn , Denis Arabatzis, Lena Arabatzis, Chris Bello, Cathy Brandow, Castagna, Becky Cogert, Danny Delarue, Anthony DiGirolamo, James Eagan, Lance Elias, Merari Escudero, Amber G., Debbie GAnnelt, Briana Goldman, Karcy H., Kathryn, Heidi Katz, Dianna Kish, Hilary Korte, Veronica Mendoza, Mary Moore, Chris Mullins, Jennifer Mullins, Kelly F. Mullins, Normany Piccolo, Maria Ricci, Serge, Rob Simone, Keith Whitby, George Yates ~ b. vocals

Guests: Nuno Bettencourt, Gary Cherone, Pat Badger ~ b. vocals

Of interest to history buffs is that the original line-up of DD featured vocalist Mike Pont & future Megadeth guitarist Al Pitrelli, who would both quit when their joint writing was getting ignored & form the ill-fated Hotshot that would be courted by Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx as his new management project ... if only Vince Neil didn't need kicking out of the band the project might have materialized instead of landing in the gutter, though by this time Pitrelli was touring the world with Alice Cooper. All remnants of the Pont/Pitrelli days from sound to songs are wiped clean by the time of DD's second album Screw It!, the songwriting & path of the band nearly completely dominated by the creative union of founding members bassist Bruno Ravel & drummer Steve West. Pont/Pitrelli had a gritty underground NYC sound, but Ravel/West was a more polished pretty boy affair of slick guitars & lyrics shallowly focused on girls & parties ... successor frontman Ted Poley's habit of grabbing himself on stage, intentional or not, didn't help matters. Anyone questioning the potential longevity of such shallow music had their skepticism proven right when DD quickly faded into obscurity with the landing of grunge. Though, grunge would in turn pave a path for new types of equally shallow music, so it's trading one pawn with another. Rock & Roll will always be shallow on some level so it's really a matter of just enjoying it & calling it a day with that. DD's self-titled debut might be what made the band famous, with the oversexualized hits "Naughty Naughty" & "Bang Bang", & their flame might have never been rekindled with anything beyond that first parade out the door but Screw It! isn't a bad follow-up. It may not stretch the boundaries of its limited hair metal palette but it does show a band with potential to grow musically if they're willing ... sadly, later releases would show they were happy to stay where they were & live off the success of that first release. DD's debut had no writing credits by Pont/Pitrelli but there were some songs on it demoed by that early line-up, plus most of the songs were written while still a struggling club band, while Screw It! is a band composing while their hair sprayed locks were gleaming gold in the newly discovered spotlight. Thus, Screw It! is a more cohesive whole than the debut. Following Screw It! Ted Poley & keyboardist Kasey Smith exited, replaced by vocalist Paul Laine while Ravel & West took took to playing all instruments, with occasional guests, & making DD less of a band & more of a vanity project with a static sound. None of the Laine era would ever have much of a commercial impact, so when one thinks of DD it is the debut & Screw It! that comes to mind & it's these two albums that have been touted by current sleaze rock revivalists as Steel Panther as an inspiration. But, one should be honest. There's a reason bands like this DD couldn't compete against Nirvana & grunge while others, for example Metallica & Soundgarden, got bigger. There's only so much sexual posing one can do before fans get restless for something new. Even over a single album it gets a bit tedious unless one is a top-notch songwriter. There are a few standout tracks: "Monkey Business", the obligatory acoustic power ballad "I Still Think About You" that reached MTV, "Crazy Nites" & "Everybody Wants Some" but nothing that is any different from earlier hits "Naughty Naughty" & "Bang Bang". Actually, it's amazing just how easily duplicated the hair metal sound is, as DD sounds like every band on the scene with no real distinct personality. Also, like so many of their peers the desire for a slick commercial sound actually works against the end result. Rock & Roll needs an impromptu feeling to rock & not just pop. Though, the shallow lyrical fair isn't much to work off of. Thus, essentially DD is all about having fun. This is party time music going full-throttle. Of course, Van Halen threw the same party a decade earlier but they knew when to pull back or aim for a target that was above the belt once in a while. DD has no interest in letting the party sink just because all that is left are the party crashers. You can't blame them. They worked hard to get as high as they did & its not their fault that the scene was over before they could prove themselves. There is really one embarrassing track that deserves mention. "Yeah, You Want It!" ends the album with electronic beats & rapping right off of a Beastie Boys album. At the time DD probably thought they were cool, particularly as they're singing such lines as "went from L.A. Guns to Enuff Z'Nuff, you party with Poison on the back of their trucks ... Tipper says we're trash". As a bonus track it has merit, but followed by a campfire sing-along doesn't help, while today it just sounds dated. Next time include it as a hidden track. It's an ode to a world of rap long gone & for that is a gutsy inclusion.

Love Crushed Velvet ~ Love Crushed Velvet (aka debut) (album review) ... Lost for words!

Style: glam rock, hard rock, pop rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: New York City

Members: A.L.X. ~ vocals/keyboards/guitar/percussion

Additional: Darren Korb ~ guitar/bass/keyboards/programming/b. vocals
Sammy Merendino ~ drumsBen Romans ~ keyboards/programming
J2AM ~ drum loops
Elli Lara ~ cello
Pete Remm, Brian Hecht ~ keyboards
Drew Mortali, Roger Greenawalt, Graham Maby ~ bass
Jeffrey Swart, Georgia Haege, Aleksandra Dubov ~ b. vocals

Guests: Thommy Price ~ drums
Jimi K. Bones ~ guitar/mandolin/percussion/b. vocals
Enzo penizzotto ~ bass/b. vocals

I'll confess that on first listen to this debut album by LCV I heard some glam rock, I heard some alt/indie rock, I even heard a bit of new wave but the full individual personality of the album didn't hit me. Over a month later, after numerous listens in the midst of countless other albums that hit me much faster & may even be closer to the type of music I tend to enjoy on my down time ... it's Love Crushed Velvet that I find myself singing in off moments. LCV, the child of songwriter & multi-talented A.X.L., an abbreviation of Alex caused by a misprinted tour poster, is an indescribable mix of great lyrics & hypnotically layered, though not necessarily flashy, rock. Personally, I've struggled since getting this album because I've never felt like I've been able to do it justice as I'm truly lost for words. Quite often this is a sign that I'm not thrilled by a band, but in this case the exact opposite is true. LCV will sneak up on you. On one hand there's a serious lyrical rock sense to the album backed up by a musical growth similar to Billy Idol & other rockers who try to do more than just throw out fluff lyrics of buxom girls & haphazard riffs. "Goodbye Goldblatt" has been included on Rock Band 3 video game which is a sign that Love Crushed Velvet has its rock grit in place. But, yet, it's also quirky & deceptively upbeat in a way few bands are able to straddle. One of the best that comes to mind is early R.E.M. As for the new wave influence, or the modern take on it, this might largely be due to the presence of producer Dave Bascombe whose resume includes Tears For Fears, Depeche Mode, the Human League, Erasure & Placebo. Anyone can hire a big name session musician for a gig if enough money is available but producers are a breed that, unless assigned by a major label which isn't the case here, are known for only accepting a project which they can believe it. Bascombe's presence is a credit to the writing talent of A.X.L. But, also, with a range of past work that goes from fluffy queer pop of Erasure to the dark cynical outings of Placebo there's no doubt that A.X.L. is going to be able to shine as A.X.L. & not as a shadow or imitation of a past band. My inability to accurately due justice to LCV with any words is proof of this. Though, if you enjoy any of the bands on the Bascombe resume you'll certainly enjoy Love Crushed Velvet. & for those who may wonder given the name, this is not a depressing walk through broken heart but soars with high energy radio friendly songs even on the last few songs when things take to a slower pace. Along for the ride & even helping mold the song is drummer Thommy Price of Billy Joel & Blue Oyster Cult, guitarist Jimi Bones of Blondie & bassist Enzo Penizzotto, with all three men spending time in Joan Jett's Blackhearts.