Codeine Velvet Club ~ Codeine Velvet Club (aka debut) (album review) ... Drugged up & still looking glamorous!

Style: retro rock, alt rock, experimental
Label: Dangerbird Records
Year: 2010
Home: Glasgow, Scotland

Members: Jon Lawler ~ guitar/bass/vocals
Lou Hickey ~ vocals

Additional: Ross McFarlane, Affy Ahmad ~ drums
Helen MacLeod ~ harp
Gospel Truth Choir ~ b. vocals
Lewis Gordon, Ed McFarlane ~ bass
Mick Cooke, Derek Watkins ~ trumpet
Mark Nightingale ~ trombone
Allan Cuthbertson, Will Foster ~ keyboards

For some years, spearheaded by such groups as the loony but well-received Squirrel Nut Zippers & Buster Poindexter, there's been an revival in mixing Big Band jazz, cabaret & dance with a rock flair. Scotland's Codeine Velvet Club took the cabaret/jazz feeling but opted to shy away from the retro campiness & create something somewhat new ... in the same way that fellow boy/girl team the White Stripes make old blues riffs sound new. In their single release, that failed to immediately ignite the charts with long term promotion lost due to the band splitting after three years together to pursue solo careers, pulls together the lyrical spirit of Barry Manilow with a Big Band setting against alt rock arrangements. At times the music sounds like lazy day on a river with a mariachi band in the distance (i.e. "Time"), at other times it intones the same retro as the Squirrel Nut Zippers with more guitars than horns (i.e. "Vanity Kills", "The Black Roses") while at other moments is big ol' Broadway a la Manilow (i.e. "Hollywood"). Codeine Velvet Club is a fusion roller-coaster of styles that recall a spirit of music long gone ... but if Hollywood still made musicals regularly Marlene Dietrich would be happy to sing these tunes. The rotating vocals of Jon Lawler & his muse Lou Hickey add a lot to the variety. They aren't vocal powerhouses, the White Stripes come again to mind along with Icky's Ego, but it adds to keeping the music casual instead of pretentious or comical. It's almost a shock that CVC's mix of guitars & horns didn't catch on with the public more than a few blips, particularly with some great videos & not a bad track on the album. Has the music listening populace gotten so shallow it doesn't recognize great creative music anymore?

Henry Lee Summer ~ Henry Lee Summer (aka debut) (album review) ... I also which I had a girl!

Style: Americana, country-rock, folk-rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1987
Home: Indiana

Members: Henry Lee Summer ~ vocals
Jimmy Rip ~ guitar
Graham Maby ~ bass
Ed Roynesdal ~ keyboards/violin
Anton Fig, Mike Organ ~ drums
Tony Aiello ~ sax
Mimi Mapes, Lisa Fisher, Sandra St. Victor, Norma Jean Wright ~ b. vocals

Some people may remember the videos of 80's heartland/Americana rocker HLS because of his now uncool mullet while others may recall his biggest hit "I Wish I Had A Girl" from his self-titled third album. HLS has often been compared to fellow Indiana rocker John Cougar Mellencamp as they both come from the same country-rock mold that was pushed to the national stage by Bruce Springsteen. The comparison is not without its merits but Mellencamp & HLS are quite different artists. One is a tough talkin' & heavy smokin' rootsy socially-minded rocker, while the other is the boy next door who just wants to fall in love, generally mind his own business & play his music & at the end of the day be able to say 'hey, I did something good'. Further, one has had a long career of many country-tinge hits charting a career of musical style changes, while the other is known for a handful of songs & a well-publicized drug addiction & slow recovery of his life, sanity & career. HLS's music may stay firmly in the Mellencamp shadow without straying too far but he has one secret weapon that even Mellencamp can be jealous of - his albums are incredibly memorable as you soon find yourself singing long after the album has stopped playing. Since first putting the CD on a couple days I've found myself repeatedly singing the chorus of "I Wish I Had A Girl", along with putting on a few of HLS's later albums. Addictive is an understatement, which given HLS's history might be the wrong word choice but whether it's drugs or music the high & the desire to listen again is generally the same. HLS is not fancy or intricate, he's no Dylan & the music isn't full of too many surprises. It's just straight ahead heartland rock that's fun & unpretentious with a few twists of commercial friendly guitars & keyboards dotted here & there. Following the opening hit is ten other songs in the same mold of girls next door, listening to the radio, loving & hurting ... if you like the way the album starts you enjoy the rest of the ride. "Hands On The Radio" & "Still Bein' Seventeen" are other standout sing-alongs, while "Darlin' Danielle Don't" & "I'll Hurt For You" are slow ballad highlights, with the former sounding like something out of the rockabilly 50's at times. In an interesting side line, HLS is also known as an painter, but unlike fellow musician/artists who work on traditional canvas he's famous for his intricate & colorful painting on guitars.

Guys With Wives ~ Life Is A ... (album review) ... Give it up to this blues rock trio!

Style: hard rock, blues-rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Members: Travis Haugen ~ vocals/bass/organ
Len Milne ~ guitars
Todd Lesage ~ vocals/drums

Additional: Jaxon Haldane ~ saw

My initial thought within seconds of popping in the GWW CD is how much the singer & even the music sounds like former Rainbow frontman Graham Bonnet, particularly his outstanding solo album The Day I Went Mad. Bonnet has one of those very distinctive voices, often described as 'tuneful shouting', with a particular tone & phrasing that includes lots of stretched notes ... a technique under-utilized by rock's screamers outside of Bonnet, Nadir D'Priest & a few others ... with a sound & style that I've never heard anyone else come close to in a field where all rock singers sound like Robert Plant, that is, until now. It's almost uncanny the similarities. But, while Bonnet reaches into the upper tenor GWW's primary singer Travis Haugen is just as tuneful but deeper, more animalistic & bluesy & avoids some of the highs Bonnet likes to over-indulge in. Further, the music behind the voice avoids the 80's keyboard moments that hurt more than a few of Bonnet's albums aiming just for in your face hard rock with lots of melody & great arrangements with highs, lows & variety. One will be immediately addicted to GWW within a few songs. Warning: repeated listens will be unavoidable. Even after I write this review I plan to listen again, something I don't usually do as I move to the next band. The first time I heard GWW it was just a couple songs in a deliberately critical setting. I had some confusion over exactly what their lyrics were about. I knew it was socially focused but they were a bit too vague for me & I even misinterpreted them as being about racial issues & coming out of a band more akin to Living Colour, but they also had a visual appeal akin to Jim Steinman that I liked with such lines as "wing blowing ... land blowing again behind the empty sheds & you & I running ..." from "Give It Up". You can see it & feel it & that's far better than so many of the 'you & me forever, baby' lyrics that rock bands pour out with ... heartless ... abandon. I will also say that after hearing but two songs the only problem I faced outside of the lyrics was my embarrassment at not being able to criticize anything else though they asked for an honest criticism & I could only drag my tail & ask for a copy of Life Is A .... The band is amazing with lots of texture & just enough ornamentation. They draw on the same blues-rock feeling as Cream with a lot of modern rock thrown in, while not over-doing like many blues-rock bands that end up leaning too far to the downhome blues becoming the Eagles or Gov't Mule. Though, I will say, 15 songs does sound a bit long making the album a bit weaker than it really is. Sometimes 15 is a perfect number, but GWW knock you out so fast so soon that a few weaker tracks in the second half make it seem a bit long. You won't see GWW on MTV or in Rolling Stone magazine & they probably don't ever tour much outside of their immediate area, but hunting up their album will be well worth it as they are the reason that I split this review blog between mainstream & independent releases. You come at an unknown band with no expectations & get blown away far faster than the Hollywood based bands that spent way too much money on fanfare & cashing in on their reputation & should have put it instead towards playing music ... again. 

D'Priest (aka London) ~ Playa Del Rock (album review) ... A completely under-rated '80's singer!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal
Label: Noise
Year: 1990
Home: California

Members: Nadir D'Priest ~ vocals
Brian West ~ bass
Sean Lewis ~ guitar
Alan Krigger ~ drums
Vince Gilbert ~ keyboards

Additional: Guy Babylon, Jimmy Greenspoon ~ keyboards
Paul Frank, Bobby Gianetti, Brent Lowe, Vickey Seeger, Shane Smith ~ b. vocals

Antonio D'Priest, or more commonly Nadir D'Priest, might not be a name known to many outside of 80's rock fans but he's a singer well worth investigating. Nadir D'Priest rose to fame as the fifth & so far final frontman of the 70's/80's glam band London which, like the bands Johnny Crash & Badlands, became more famous for its members' future bands than any chart hits, as it included a pre-Motley Crue Nikki Sixx, a pre-W.A.S.P. Blackie Lawless, pre-Guns N' Roses Slash & Izzy Stradlin & Steven Adler, a pre-Cinderella Fred Coury & a post-Mott The Hoople Nigel Benjamin with their second album produced by Runaways creator Kim Fowley. The third & final album, coming 4 years after its predecessor, Playa Del Rock saw the band rechristened as D'Priest, though some releases included the London name. By 1990 no original members remained while the alumni had already hit the peaks of their respective careers & begun the settlement into less exciting but more comfortable positions. The newest London album would keep the fame tradition alive by including notable musicians in drummer Alan Krigger, formerly of the Ike & Tina Turner band, & The Cult's keyboardist Vince Gilbert ... rocking beside lesser known but an equally talented guitarist & bassist. By 1991 the band would break up, though the Playa Del Rock line-up would perform periodic reunions both as D'Priest & London to the present day. Though this final album may not immediately seem like the most obvious choice to discover the London legacy it's actually a perfect introduction. D'Priest is a band that in many ways should have theoretically parted ways by the time they recorded Playa Del Rock after achieving little commercial success, going through 19 members in the tradition of Yes & having only 2 albums with neither featuring any of the future superstars. Playa Del Rock is a band that almost has given up on success & is now just playing music they like & hoping someone else likes it too. Further, it's just far enough away from the mid-80's hair metal peak to give it a more modern edge that sounds like something that could arrive on the shelves today. Though being named after its lead singer makes this appear more like a solo album than a London album. With the 4 year gap between recordings & a line-up change it very well might be on some level ... in the same way that Doro's first solo album is more a Warlock album but with a name change. The band is definitely dominated by its frontman who also had a hand in the songwriting & essentially molding the sound. I want to write 'if you like Sebastian Bach', but Bach is second rate compared to Nadir D'Priest who may go for similar highs & screeches, let alone attitude, but has vocal control equal to Ronnie James Dio who might be a better comparison. Lyrically the album isn't that exciting, or any more exciting than its 80's peers with groin-drenched love song after love song, but Nadir D'Priest's vocal style carries it to new heights with a superb band behind him rocking out with great arrangements. Yeah, it verges on cliché 80's hair metal but somehow it all sounds new & fresh even if the band was working on its temporarily final gears.

The Yardbirds ~ Birdland (album review) ... Leftovers of the pecking order!

Style: hard rock, progressive
Label: Favored Nations
Year: 2003
Home: England

Members: John Idan ~ vocals/rhythm guitar/bass
Jeff Beck, Gypie Mayo ~ lead guitar
Chris Dreja ~ rhythm guitar/percussion
Jim McCarty ~ drums/b. vocals
Alan Glen ~ harmonica

Additional: Martin Ditchum ~ percussion

Guests: Jeff Baxter, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Brian May, Steve Lukather ~ guitars
Johnny Rzeznik ~ lead vocals

Let's be honest. Outside of the name this isn't really the Yardbirds nor even the brief New Yardbirds. Yes, some of the original members are here & as they got a career boost so long ago behind blues king Sonny Boy Williamson II there's nothing wrong with having a guest heavy album. The Yardbirds were actually one of the most adventurous bands on the British scene, even eclipsing the early Beatles, as they moved from a blues band to a psychedelic band with their songs remaining undoubtable classics. But, times have changed ... the bird has been plucked. Gone are the experimental wild eyed blues boys to be replaced by a plodding near middle-age tribute band. The music falls flat while the 7 new originals are interesting, but the fact that they are the best songs on the album, only one including a guest guitarist & its the weakest, doesn't say much for keeping the Yardbirds name alive. The classic songs are weak & without the risk or even bluesy swagger that they once had. Even their peers Deep Purple, which is criticized today for its FM radio friendliness that was never present with Richie Blackmore, put in a more exciting show. Originally, the Yardbirds came to an end when everyone left except for new guitarist Jimmy Page, who recruited new members, labeled them the New Yardbirds, only to have the name of the band missing from the first album & thus all we have is the name of the album - Led Zeppelin. Before Page the band also had the guitar powerhouses of Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton ... Tony Topham where are you? ... pushing the band through distinct personality changes. Nobody is pushing now. Though Beck guests for a single track on Birdland all that's left of the band is the drummer & rhythm guitarist, returning to the studio 35 years after their last recording. We don't even have original singer Keith Relf, long gone from this world, & singers can make all the difference to a band. It's like someone other than Eric Burden fronting the Animals. You don't know what you've got till it's ... The remaining members might have co-composed the songs but we turn to others to make it pop. Some bands reunite & its like the music kept developing even though it wasn't played for decades. The reunited Doors with Ian Astbury, aka Riders On The Storm or previously Doors of the 21st Century, sound as if they never broke up but kept developing. Big Brother & the Holding Co., numerous singers post Janis Joplin, are the same for those still listening. While other bands reunite falling somewhere between a tribute band & a brand new entity. The Yardbirds here are like that. It's not bad, but it's not the Yardbirds. It's a nice tribute band with no guts except when they do the new songs, which are in a Yardbirds style whatever that means. Not even the guests are able to boost the songs. Actually, the guests seem unnecessary just adding flash where a little breath would be better. The songs, most obviously "For Your Love", started life so primitively that to flesh them out works against them. The result is often one not bluesy enough nor rock enough. This was always a problem with the band since day one, not helped by the "Over Under Sideways Down" psychedelic period, but becomes more so here 35 years later. One of the problems is that there was never any real dominant force within the band & the revolving guitarists didn't help, while the band also went through numerous musical changes. There still is no dominant face, just torch carriers. To be fair, though, to have only two members of a once five member band it doesn't matter whether the two members are Clapton & Relf back from the dead or the rhythm section. There's not enough parts of the equation to take it home & give it life beyond a second rate but high profile tribute band. For those that don't know the Yardbirds outside of their major hit "For Your Love" with Eric Clapton it's time for a musical education. Just don't start with this album as they've got a rich catalog that will keep you happy awhile before you get to this release. Since Birdland the line-up has changed again. McCarty & Dreja remain & so does the revolving door.

Indofin ~ 2X Broken (album review) ... Ska power pop out for repair!

Style: ska, reggae, punk
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Austin, Texas

Members: T.J. Huerta ~ guitar/vocals
Albert Huang ~ bass
Donald Mann ~ drums

Laidback power pop & a dominating reggae/ska beat dominate Indofin's second self-release. But, don't read this thinking No Doubt. If you need a comparison go more for Keith Richards reggae with the X-Pensive Winos but not so rough & more ska than reggae for those that know the difference. For those that don't ... it's the backbeat strum of the guitar without the Rasta attitude. "Nonprofit" is a standout with its heavy drum/backbeat ska rhythm reminiscent of Matisyahu while the similar sounding "Princess" would be great for a tribute album about the beach as it sounds like music to wait for a big wave with. These tracks stand out because they play up the rhythmic ska aspect, something the album suffers from. It never goes far enough ska nor hard enough rock, though there are a few rockin' guitar solos sprinkled throughout, while retaining a pretty laid back pace that doesn't push in either direction. I'd recommend letting the songs last longer than 3 minutes as currently the album stands as a lot of short little tunes that blend & lack personality instead of accentuating each other. A few more developed tunes would help the flow of the album a lot & provide some much needed diversity. More time means more groove & a crescendo here & there wouldn't hurt either. "Whatever", another standout track, comes close to this.

Lou Reed ~ A Night With Lou Reed (DVD review) ... If you're not a Lou fan after watching this, than you won't be!

Style: hard rock
Label: Panorama
Year: 2000
Home: New York, New York

Concert location: The Bottom Line, New York, New York
Year Recorded: 1983
Length: 60 minutes
Bonus Features: none

Members: Lou Reed ~ vocals/guitar
Robert Quine ~ guitar
Fernando Saunders ~ bass
Fred Maher ~ drums

He's off drugs & maybe alcohol, too. He's got a new band with an amazing guitarist pulled over from underground punk legends Richard Hell & the Voidoids, an amazing bass player who would stay with him in the years to come & a drummer who had just the right sound with not too many flourishes. He just stands there in jeans & is anything but visually exciting or sexy as he was years earlier. He's also taken off the make-up. He's playing guitar after years away with his modest guitar skills fully in the spotlight showing what they truly are. He's got a set of songs including Velvet Underground classics & stuff from his stellar new album The Blue Mask which is a new & very personal mask for him to wear ... & Andy Warhol is in the audience. Are these ingredients for a classic rock show or a bomb? In this case it's probably one of Lou Reed's best live productions, not eclipsed until his revival of Berlin 2 decades later. This live concert begins a new story for Reed, one where he is reinventing & essentially rediscovering himself. On stage he's intimate & almost self-depreciating without being too interactive with the audience. He's more mature here, now sober, & sliding into his role as elder statesman of the punk generation which has already come & gone. He's still not fully comfortable with his guitar playing after a decade away & has yet to push his solos upfront as would soon be the case, thus what he plays may be technically unchallenging but it's raw, naïve & an experiment in just pure sound in a way only Reed can & would not do so again. Plus, he's got the amazing Robert Quine on guitar who was not just a diehard fan of the Velvet Underground & Reed but comes from the school of Jeff Beck guitar where the guitar sounds anything like a guitar. I became a fan of Quine's style after this as I'd never heard solos so ... cold & haunting ... and I've never heard anyone else even get close since. Sadly, The Blue Mask would also be his best outing with Reed of three albums before he'd contribute a box set of early Velvet Underground recordings & then commit suicide after the death of his wife ... remaining a true legend to all who know his playing. I should also confess that this video made me a bigger Lou Reed fan, too. One of the best parts comes at the end in a brief backstage clip when Reed talks about having one his his guitar notes reach all the way to the back wall of the space & then angularly bounce back. You completely believe that he heard this & want to go back and find it for yourself. Highly recommended as an introduction to Reed.

Odd Zero ~ Admire The Liar (EP) (album review) ... The album you want to make!

Style: punk, hard rock, heavy metal
Label: Odd Zero Records
Year: 2008
Home: New York City

Members: Mike Friedman ~ vocals
Tay Malloy ~ bass
Milton Hernandez ~ drums
Mike Fujii ~ guitars

The second release by Odd Zero, their only EP, is the album Duff McKagen wanted to make when he did Loaded. It's raw in your face punk-inspired rock ... the opposite of the million dollar commercially slick uninspired music McKagen created with his punk roots long forgotten. The high energy & headbanging friendly music of Odd Zero reflects the dive bar surroundings of a band that did more than its share of local clubs before temporarily taking a break in 2011 where straight ahead attitude rules over highly technical playing. A lot of bands pour out raw punk power chords but Odd Zero has always tried to pull out more with a melody behind the punk that keeps the energy but leaves the sloppiness of punk behind. It's deceptive as it makes the music seem simpler than it really is as guitarist Mike Fujii is quite a competent guitarist brought up on 80's power metal, as his solos belay (for example, the title track). This is a recommended release for those that like a mix of genres. There's even a bit of ska thrown in the title track for a bridge that falls between 80's power metal solos & punk rhythms & the mix works wonderfully. This particular release features a set of memorable songs that became fan favorites ... which all of the 6 tracks ... okay, to be fair, 4 out of 6 but that's close enough to round up. It may only be 6 songs but it's an album worth looking up & while you're at it check out their other albums Another Dread To Zero from 2010 & their 2006 self-titled debut.

John Payne ~ Different Worlds (hits comp) (album review) ... One of the great voices of rock!

Style: hard rock, prog rock
Label: Devgel Records
Year: 2007
Home: California

Members: John Payne ~ vocals/bass/keyboards/guitar
Andrea Datwyler ~ lead vocals
Steve Howe, Al Pitrelli, Sandro D'Incau, Ian Crichton, Guthrie Govan, Torstein Flakne, Elliott Randall, Joel Bogen ~ guitar
Geoff Downes, Alex Seiberl, Ryo Okumoto ~ keyboards
Tony Levin, Emilio Barrantes ~ bass
Chris Slade, Michael Sturgis, Vinnie Colaiuta, Chuck Sabo, Ronnie Wolf, Jay Schellen, Steiner Krokstad ~ drums
Luis Jardem ~ percussion
Steve Overland ~ b. vocals

For me, one of the most distinctive features of British vocalist/bassist & songwriter John Payne is not his bass playing nor his songwriting, but a distinctive baritone that's unique in the rock world of tenors & screamers. It's made his output over the decades immediately recognizable that includes solo work & the bands Lunatica, CCCP, ELO, GPS & most prominently Asia. His songwriting, which I happen to like, comes in second place only because its changed over the years & with different groups.
But, his distinctive baritone means that the songs on this quasi-career retrospective tend to sound more alike than not. Compilations tend to either have a disjointed approach where you hear a musician go through distinct musical styles, if not also technology changes, but the high quality of the songs keeps it all together or compilations tend to sound more like a complete studio album in itself as if everything was recorded at the same time. Different Worlds could easily be mistaken as an original studio album as the collection flows easily from song to song & style to style, though its far from that. It's also potentially one of the best compilations Payne has produced of his music that's neither a gluttonous affair nor focused just on hits, nor featuring any controversial re-recordings, plus gives one a complete picture of his career versus just of Asia, which might be his step-child but isn't all he's done. Also, pulling, the compilation full shows his diverse compositional skills & creativity. If a listener didn't know Different Worlds was a compilation one might be thinking that this John Payne is a very talented guy whose got his thumb firmly on the modern AOR prog-rock sound a la GTR & Genesis. The problem is, I feel, he's not given the credit he deserves, as the shadow of pre-Payne Asia is an albatross around his neck. The early Asia might have the hits, but I've always enjoyed his singing & his songwriting far more. The thing with Payne, though, which I've already hinted at at the beginning of this review, is that he's never an anonymous backing musician but fully involved from songwriting to production, thus all the songs tend to fall into the same slow rock ballad approach which has become almost a trademark style for him & is really best for his vocal approach that is more comfortable trying to yank the guts out of words than rush through them. Payne has often worked with keyboardists, a regular feature of the prog-rock scene, so his music tends to be more harmonic & keyboard heavy with guitars providing texture instead of just typical riffing. This isn't technically a greatest hits collection as many certified hits are missing but more a general look at Payne's sometimes under-appreciated career that he's hand-picked. For those who only know him via Asia it's a good introduction to the rest of his work & with nine tracks given to Asia it's even a good introduction to his most popular musical child. The one problem with the release is it doesn't tell which tracks belong to what bands as outside of identifying writing credits, such as Payne/Downes is Asia, one would have to do any research to know what song belongs where. Though, its probably already-made fans that will pick up this album so that may not be a problem but compilation albums really should be made for strangers not fans.

Lisa Dominique ~ Rock & Roll Lady (album review) ... Scarlet O'Hara on acid!

Style: hard rock
Label: FM Records
Year: 1989
Home: England

Members: Lisa Dominique ~ vocals
Marino, Mark Kulke ~ Guitar
Billy Kulke ~ Bass
Dan Tilbury ~ Drums

Today many will see Lisa Dominique as a Lita Ford wannabe with her mix of hard rock with an over the top sex strut. In many ways the comparison might be apt, particularly considering Ford's solo debut from the Runaways came a few years before Dominique's 1985 performance debut, but the difference is that Dominique hails from England & is the better singer with a more sultry style. Rock & Roll Lady, her solo debut after leaving Marino The Band, is a good starting point for Dominique's career, let alone career highlight. It has all that would make up her sound, which is, honestly, stereotypical 80's hard rock with all the solos, flairs & melodic dynamics & lots of sexy power ballads, particularly "Somebody Special". After only her first live performance Dominique was labeled by one reviewer in Kerrang! magazine as "rock's new sex kitten that strutted the stage like Scarlet O’Hara on acid." This has both good & bad repercussions. It means that her live show is good but one is a bit hesitant in checking out her audio only studio albums where looks don't mean a thing. Later albums would be a little wilder but Rock & Roll Lady retains its own personality that's more like a sly vixen than a rock star. It actually helps that the Dominique & her band went through numerous experiments in finalizing their sound, including an offer from famed producer Jeff "Mutt" Lange of Def Leppard & help from Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson, with Dominique finally putting her own pen to paper giving the music something only she could. Dominique has been compared to Debbie Harry of Blondie & if Harry did a hard rock album one would expect it to sound like this as vocally they aren't that far apart (for example "Time Bomb" & "Holding On To Your Love"). Rock & Roll Lady topped the British charts & made Dominique England's top female rocker & favorite sex symbol ... beating Stevie Nicks, Annie Lennox & Lita Ford. Sadly, her success would be almost as high but not lasting in the States, though with her follow-up Gypsy Ryder she'd be performing alongside Bon Jovi, Aeromsmith, Ozzy, Lemmy of Motorhead & Ronnie James Dio. Today her name is obscure to many younger rockers, not helped by changing national music styles, a small relatively small output & forays in non-musical directions including a wine company & novel writing.

Billy Idol ~ Cyberpunk (album review) ... Generation X for the future!

Style: hard rock, electronica, experimental
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1993
Home: England/New York

Members: Billy Idol ~ vocals/keyboards/programming
Mark Younger-Smith ~ guitars/sitars/keyboards/programming
Robin Hancock ~ programming/keyboards

Additional: Doug Wimbish, Larry Seymour ~ bass
Tal Bergman ~ drums
Durga McBroom, Carnie Wilson, Wendy Wilson ~ b. vocals
Jamie Muhoberac ~ organ/keyboards
Robert Farago, London Jo Henwood ~ voices
David Weiss ~ percussion/saw

Guest: Timothy Leary ~ voice

There seems to be this idea that music of the future will be cold & heavily electronic, or the music of machines & cold like machines. Whenever musicians have tried to do something looking into the future the outcome tends to be like this such as the Smashing Pumpkin's Machina/The Machines Of God ... if it doesn't go to Vangelis route a la the Blade Runner Soundtrack. But, in reality, the groundbreaking musical movements have always been anything but sterile. Billy Idol's 80's career was a mix of hard rock with New Wave ballads sung through a punk sneer. Given his punk attitude it's almost ironic that his ballad moments were also his biggest hits. Only momentarily did his music go in any truly different directions with those songs now forgotten about in the long run. While it becomes hard to make the sneer interesting when one is closer to 40 then 20 years old. Idol was beginning to face this situation, on top of a music scene moving away from his 80's hard rock, when he decided to refashion himself as a cyber-rocker with the future sounding concept album Cyberpunk which includes riffing songs, electronic drums & sampled synthesized dialogue bridging the songs that makes the result more akin to a soundtrack to a sci-fi movie than a great rockin' album. The songs tend to sound under-developed & lack the spirit & energy of his earlier albums. The songs that work are those that use the electronica as a background & rely on guitar riffing but none of the them come close to "White Wedding" or "Dancing With Myself". There are some creative musical moments, particularly with the Indian themed "Shangri-La" with actual sitars. There's also a techno version of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" which Allmusic.com calls "one of the worst covers ever". That might be debatable but as a hardcore Lou Reed fan I will say that I didn't even recognize the song, let alone all the power has been sucked out of it & sounds more like Frankie Goes To Hollywood than the streets of New York. And, the drug of choice is more like a double shot of espresso. The irony is that this is really no different than any other Idol album - there's numerous good songs but just as many unmemorable ones. Cyberpunk is not as bad as 2005's Devil's Playground, the follow-up to Cyberpunk. Though, some may say it's a toss-up. Allmusic.com gives Cyberpunk one star & Devil's Playground two but Cyberpunk is really far more creative. Though, the songs might be more complete on Devil's Playgound Cyberpunk is more memorable. Idol definitely deserves another star for the creative approach to the album which braved new waters in the music industry that are today standard approaches: it was recorded over 10 months in a home studio via a Mac computer, was the first album to include an e-mail address for the artist, while its promotion included the internet, e-mail, virtual communities & multimedia software including the first multi-media floppy disk sold with an album. Idol is the first mainstream musician to utilize such cyber approaches making the album more than just music but an idea. In the end, though, it's sadly just a case of experiment over music. A good producer or better song-writing might have been able to turn this into something great for both Idol as all the pieces are there & the template in place but it just lacks that spark to ignite it into a flame. If anything it makes you realize how thin the music Idol's career is based on. Though, on the other hand, the shallowness of the album ... though Idol's albums were never very philosophical ... might actually make this a popular album now 20 years later in the current scene of DJs & remixing past music. It's got the perfect beats & rhythms & is a new DJ mix waiting to happen. Thus, Idol's prediction of future music as being cold & electronic couldn't be more spot-on. Sadly. He was just 20 years too early.

Caitlin Moe ~ Caitlin Moe (aka debut) (EP) (album review) ... Siren song!

Style: experimental, instrumental, classical
Label: self-released
Year: 2009
Home: New York, NY

Members: Caitlin Moe ~ violin

22 year old Caitlin Moe found her spotlight a lot brighter in 2011 as she joined Trans-Siberian Orchestra on their first European tour followed by a mini-tour of the States. TSO, one of the top-grossing rock tours, is known for its revolving door which has given many lesser known musicians both a career highlight & a national audience they might not have found otherwise. Moe already got a great critical response when she released her self-titled EP in 2009 but being in the TSO family just confirms her talent. But, many who know her only from TSO might be surprised by her incredibly creative originals on her self-titled debut EP that mix multi-layered violin sounds with a electronic foundation that is a perfect musical face for her sexy street attitude & energetic solo live performance. "Someone To La-La-Love" includes shy vocals reminiscent of a southern folk singer alongside an upbeat drum beat, violin flourishes & a pop sensibility that makes it surprising that this wasn't a bigger hit & one can only fault the difficulties of distribution/getting heard in the internet age. While "Siren Song" consists of layered plucked violins against a drum beat & layered vocals. Anyone expecting long violin solos a la Carnegie Hall need look elsewhere. This is almost dance music with its inviting combination of beats with sliding textures that sound like the ocean moving, as its supposed to. Though Moe's "Instrumental" gets close to Carnegie with the lack of a electronic beat but with at least 3 layers of violin sounds, each played or plucked in a different way, building to a large crescendo its more akin to Phillip Glass. The remaining two tracks are just as different as those before them, just as experimental. On one hand its good that Moe got a gig with TSO as it opens her fanbase beyond those who might have seen her live in NYC or discovered her myspace page, but her music is so different than the over-the-top guitar/piano driven epics of TSO that the quasi-restrictive requirements of the show where she's playing others' musical creation doesn't show her at her best. Though, on the other hand, one hopes that the restrictiveness of TSO, let alone I'm sure much needed additional income, prompts her to explore her creative side even more in a follow-up to this EP. Moe is not the first rock chick to pick up the violin but no one before her have sounded like this. There will be no regrets investigating this rising star.

The Stomachmouths ~ Born Losers (hits comp) (album review) ... Cranked up reverb surf music!

Style: garage rock, surf, instrumentals, retro
Label: Subliminal Sounds/Kooks.org
Year: 2003
Home: Stockholm, Sweden

Members: Stefan Kery ~ vocals/guitar
Martin Skeppholm ~ drums
Lars Kjellen ~ guitar
Par Stavborg/Jens Lindberg ~ bass
Anna Nystrom ~ organ

I have mixed feelings on surf music. I'm not talking the Ventures but the modern surf bands that encompass the surf revival which mixed together traditional surf with a punk attitude & fast rhythms, with the not-so-distant cousins of the revivals of psychobilly, rockabilly & garage rock that all share the same visuals of 50's/60's cars, babes in bikinis monsters. I grew up in Bellingham, Washington, the home of famed surf label Estrus Records & the legendary Mono Men & thus was regularly hearing about many great surf bands, so I'll confess a bit of a nostalgic bias of high school days when I listen to the music again. Surf music is undoubtedly fun to play with its 3 chord chunky rhythms, fun to listen to with its careless straight ahead attitude, can get quite creative particularly when it includes soundtrack excerpts & sound effects ... but I always tire of it after awhile. The lyrics are shallow & basically built around one line, with few surf bands claiming great singing, while the music has a rather small range of heavy repetition the was set by the Ventures decades ago & stays faithfully within that framework. What makes it good is also what makes it bad. Those that do push to sound gimmick often often rely on some strong gimmick, such as Man Or Astro-man? which includes a line-up of robots & aliens or the rockabilly/garage rock Cramps with their sex & monster stomp approach, but such gimmicks often get over-used in a short time. In the 1980's Sweden's Stomachmouths brought together the best of surf from the tongue-in-cheek singing of straight-ahead unpoetic lyrics, the punk attitude, the speed, some variety of textures that range from straight surf to more organ-driven garage rock & of course songs under 3 minutes. Like their peers the repetition is heavy & the reverb cranked. With 25 tracks it might appear to be at first a tedious listen to a non-surf/revival fan but its everything but. There's bands that are wilder, more popular, more talented, more creative & definitely more gimmicky but the Stomachmouths have gone across the revival spectrum & put together a collection that holds up a lot better than a lot of their peers. In many ways Born Losers could be a historical overview of the revival scene as not a style of music is missing & everything is executed to perfection. You'll find here hardcore surf alongside hardcore rockabilly. There's no feeling of 'maybe we'll try a surf song now' & see what happens. The execution is always spot on. This album would be my first recommendation to someone who wanted to be introduced to the revival movement. The irony is that this comes from a European band that has no surf or rockabilly history. Greatest hits albums aren't always the best introduction to a band this one couldn't be better, though sadly with a catalog of but few records Born Losers provides a listener with the essential Stomachmouths & only a collector would feel driven to pursue the original individual albums which are hard to find as it is. This compilation includes remastered takes on the original 80's masters oversaw by frontman Stefan Kery a decade after the band's break-up with the improved technology giving a much rawer sound to the music that was missing in the original releases.