Diablo Royale ~ Greedy Dogs (album review) ... Animalistic remedies!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: New York City

Members: Adrian Barrios ~ vcoals
Gerard "G-Man" Steixner, Eric Choy ~ guitars
Mike Sankari ~ drums
Pete Connors ~ bass

Three year old hard rockers DR ... Flipt-Up 'Band of the Year' in 2008 after being named best Filipino-American band in the U.S. though the band actually has members from the other far away lands of NJ & Hong Kong ... play the growling hip-grinding unpretentious hard rock that NYC has propagated since its earliest rock days but when it comes to national movements often gets discouragingly stuck on the back burner. DR's second release Greedy Dogs, named after the title track that rants on hypocrites, liars, thieves, war mongers, crooked leaders & other greedy dogs, was composed & written in the wake of economic depression. But, Greedy Dogs doesn't look at our collapsing society from the expected point of view of daily woes & broken hearts & no money or work but instead takes quite a descriptive poetic approach that adds up to a lyrical search for a moral path of righteousness, fairness & hope through themes of bullies & resistance, true self awareness & giving up, materialism & evil. The goal of the album's mood can almost be summed up in "Promised Land" with: "Wonderin’ if the lights will lead me to my doom/Open the gates of gold & sweet perfumes/I’ve been waiting for the turn of tides/Wings so I can fly so high/No more afflictions/No more pain to bear/Take to me to the Promised Land/Oh, please take me, take me now". To match such heavy tomes of woe DR rip out some metal with a strong rhythm section & thick riffing guitars, conjuring up bands like Rage Against The Machine, early Metallica, Danzig & Dee Snider's Widowmaker. DR creates music that is animalistic & even a little bit sleazy glam in that NYC way where solos don't slide smoothly in & out of the mix but come out almost awkwardly as if they're trying to squeeze into the party uninvited. DR keep up a steady chunky guitar rhythm on all their songs, but the rhythms never get carried away or too wild nor do the guitars distract from the singing. Though, sometimes one does wish the guitars were a bit less rhythmically dense & a bit more individually prominent at times taking advantage of having two of them which allows for interplaying dynamics more than just shadowing each other. It should be mentioned some great bass playing which gets a lot of moments to come out of the mix & uniquely shine on it own (i.e. "Remedy") carrying the whole song into some nice contrasting softer moments. Filipino Adrian Barrios is a strong voiced frontman that keeps a bit of a growl in his tenor, who also puts in a strong presence on stage for those lucky enough to see the band, though the live show lacks the backing vocal chorus punch the studio offers that gives a nice added dimension.

Rob Nelson ~ Street Music (EP) (album review) ... But, is this a street you want to live on?

Style: instrumental, experimental, rock, progressive
Label: Laga Music
Year: 2011
Home: Chicago, Illinois

Members: Rob Nelson ~ guitars/bass/keyboards/percussion

Additional: Mike Milenkovic ~ guitar 

This little four song EP opens up with a bubbling bass & a shaker that sounds more like the dark side of Tubeway Army than what one might first expect seeing the title Street Music. The idea of 'street music' probably brings to mind hip hop or gangsta rap or maybe rhythmically searing metal or it might even be some ethereal Jon Anderson-esque worldbeat new age. RN presents something different for his definition of 'street music.' Except for hip-hop there is plenty of searing metal guitars here, though not the the riffing into monotony style, & there is some worldbeat in the use of tuned percussion in the opening title track. But, the guitars & percussion are stewed in a pot of keyboards & sound effects to create a 'street music' that is defined by an ethereal largely instrumental prog-styled rock mix of multiple layers that sneak by like subway noise. 'Street music' is earthy percussion mixed with cold drum beats, synth backgrounds & dancing keyboard sound effects. It's odd sounding meters & constant changes against traditional rock rhythms. It's a bassline that sounds more like a crawling snake in the gutter than marking time or chord changes, while guitars wail nearly chaotically in brief spurts like passing trucks (i.e. "Street Music"). It's also trance like with its flashes of lasers against distorted guitars that have the alienating feel of some modern architecture where buildings tower in star-studded gaudiness (i.e. "The Hunt"). It's also a tap dance of keyboards against a traditional rock rhythm like a thief in a darkened alley (i.e. "Money Grab"). Closing track "Nebula Sounds (Part 2)" brings all the little bubbles of sound together from the lasers to the guitars but interestingly enough, considering it's the longest song, it lacks the most 'street music' personality. But, it does live to its name as it is more akin to sounds in a nebula all floating around bumping into each other. The only real disappointment in this EP is "Money Grab" which has the smallest feel of instrumentation & a mood that lurks instead of pounds, but is all brought down by uninteresting singing. It would have been better to leave off the singing & keep Street Music entirely instrumental, or completely synthesize the vocals so they completely change shape such as whispers or a heavily robotic voice or something that is less intrusive. In the end, Street Music is nothing less than one man's musical kaleidoscope. Ironically, I'm under the impression RN lives in the suburbs & spends a lot of time in the less than crowded outdoors!

Kelly Keeling ~ Giving Sight To The Eye (album review) ... Rising of the snake!

Style: hard rock, pop rock
Label: Mascot Records
Year: 2005
Home: Louisiana

Members: Kelly Keeling ~ vocals/guitar/bass/keyboards/flute

Guests: Carmine Appice ~ drums/b. vocals
Vinnie Appice, John Perrine, Shane Gaalaas, Richard Mann ~ drums
Tony Franklin ~ bass
Roger Daltrey, Don Dokken ~ b. vocals
Kerry Livgren, Wayne Hammerly, Pat Regan ~ keyboards
John Norum, Danny Johnson, Wayne Findlay, Drake Bell, Danny Johnson ~ guitar
Bernie Smith ~ trombone
Denny Laine ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals

You may not be familiar with AOR/hard rock singer/songwriter & multi-instrumentalist KK, though his career has included frontman or session guest with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Alice Cooper, Dokken, John Norum's Blue Murder, all three Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus albums, O'2L with Megadeth's Al Pitrelli, Erik Norlander, Lana Lane, Paris Keeling, George Lynch, Michael Schenker Group, Baton Rouge & King Kobra with the array of superstar musicians gracing these projects being a mind-numbingly impressive list. Some of these all star players of the past were called in to add some salt & pepper to KK's his first & so far only solo album, the Who-esque titled Giving Sight To The Eye, including mixing by Yes's Billy Sherwood & work at prog-keyboardist Erik Norlander's studio. It all adds up to quite an impressive resume for a guy you may not be familiar with even if Baton Rouge graced MTV so long ago. Which obviously begs the question ... should you make the effort to dig into the under-rated world of KK? Absolutely! Giving Sight To The Eye might be the best starting point for his career as KK pulls out all the different aspects of his varied efforts for examination & revisiting including varied musical & vocal styles. But, first the problems with this revisit. No, it's not top-heavy with guest stars, which is often the problem with solo albums, as none of them dominate the songs but instead become another dash of pepper in the salad. Some might even feel that the guests have been under-utilized being relegated to just another layer in the mix. Certainly one doesn't want to hear The Who's Roger Daltrey as a backing vocalist but considering how much KK feels & sings like him on so many tracks its enjoyable hearing him honoring his student by not dominating. No, the main problem is that the album, both with a wide & small critical lens, feels more like a compilation, such as a greatest hits collection, than a cohesive whole. Like the linear notes that look like a scrapbook the album feels much the same. Considering many songs were written during KK's previous efforts in some ways it might actually be a greatest hits collection. While, on the other hand, that there's no dominant feeling allows KK to stretch himself far beyond what he could ever do with any band proving his worth not just as a singer-songwriter but also as a pianist & a really great & adventuresome guitarist. Thus comes one of the important things a band does - it allows one's individual quirks & excesses to be tempered by one's bandmates or one's limitations to not be a hurdle. For example, Jimmy Page is a great guitarist but it's the arranging skills of bassist John Paul Jones that focused Page's meanderings in Led Zeppelin ... the lack of focus being a noticeable problem Page & Robert Plant's Walking Into Clarksdale plus Page's own generally weak solo output. KK stretches himself but Giving Sight To The Eye needs a producer to reign in & focus. Not just do the tracks feel disjointed from each other, jumping between differing styles & moods with little obvious flow, but the individual arrangements themselves could do with a bit of 'less is more' philosophy as many of them suffer from internal disjunction. KK is trying to throw out every Trump card he has. He wants to prove himself, it's obvious, but is so intent on it that he overworks when he should step back & the output fails when it should succeed. Opener "Rising Of The Snake" is the best example of this problem as KK takes all the guitar duties & puts in a flight of fancy that would make Yngmie freak out ... but there are so many overdubs, particularly within the solo, that it sounds like a tribe of guitarists in a guitar battle trading licks. It ends up sounding more like a Jeff Beck in a crazy nose dive ... if not a Spinal Tap moment ... taking a great riff & song in too many places instead of letting the riff sink in first & then accentuating it versus riding over it & loosing the feeling. This is a common problem with many songs. At first listen one just hears an onslaught of powerful music ... but without an identity to remember. Later listens actually bring out how great so many of the songs are. KK has a strong classic rock approach & shines as he pulls out some prog & hard rock & lots of ballads. As a songwriter he suffers from vagueness & abstract ideas not always easy to decipher, somewhat typical of rock music, but his arrangements make up for the vagueness. But, then, as one begins to feel just how great the songs groove one also feels how cluttered & lost in the shuffle the groove is. A refrain on some of the instrumentation would make this nothing less than a collection of potential AOR radio singles yearning to be heard. But, it should be noted that the cluttering isn't necessarily a detriment in the long run as it forces one to want to go back & listen again, then again ... demonstrating how one should never judge an album on a single listen. It also makes one want to see KK do an album with less ornamentation & instrumentation, such as just him & a piano or small band like his live work with Paris Keeling that dots youtube. This theoretical future release with Giving Sight To The Eye would make perfect bookends to the KK experience truly showing all of his potential & creativity. "Parasite" has the crawl of later day Steve Morse Deep Purple, making up where "Rising Of The Snake" flies wrong, while there's the funky organ of "Broken", some modest prog-rock with "Ground Zero" & unexpected country on the too brief closer "Jesse". To truly hear how great these songs are it might take listening of others covering KK's songs. The quasi-ballad "Perfect Day" is one example where it's strengths are in full blossom & one is singing along in a newly recorded & released version featuring former KK bandmates legendary drummer Carmine Appice & former Firm bassist Tony Franklin from the forthcoming KK tribute album Tune In To Mind Radio. Considering KK has spent his career along the sides of others it's almost ironic that his songs might be best handled by others. This doesn't mean one shouldn't check out Giving Sight To The Eye ... much to the contrary, as no matter how others handle a song only the songwriter can give it the true personal touch. KK is just trying to hard when he doesn't have to & needs to let the music bubble to a boil without helping it at every step. Listening to this collection one knows that the music can & will. I almost feel sad writing something bad about the album as after numerous listens I can clearly hear its potential. But, it should be mentioned that not all the blame for its faults should be laid at KK's door. His original mixes were not liked by the label so the album was remixed by an outsider before pressing. A good mix would certainly be a step towards cleaning up a lot of the internal disjunction as it would turn the parts that dominate into parts that merely accentuate. In the meantime Giving Sight To The Eye should inspire one to hunt up KK's under-rated music.

DVD: Bobby Vee & The Original Juniors ~ Bobby Vee (aka self-titled) (album review) ... The Big Bopper's replacement twists again!

Style: classic rock, pop rock
Label: MVD Visual
Year: 2005
Home: n/a

Concert location: Little Darlin's, Rock'N'Roll Palace, Orlando, Florida
Year Recorded: 1989
Length: 45 minutes
Bonus Features:

Members: Bobby Vee ~ vocals/rhythm guitar
band n/a

Guest group: The Original Juniors

There's a whole world of music seemingly gone ... because it doesn't rock hard enough & may not even be considered rock by 2012 standards, the lyrics are kindergarten innocent or about such uninteresting topics as Betty Lou getting a new pair of shoes, the style of music is no longer played such as rockabilly, was hip before the Beatles were the big fad, the musicians in question are all retired or performing on the nostalgia or casino circuit & largely forgotten by anyone younger than 50. 46 year old singer BV falls into all the above unable to ride his teen idol status into a new generation of listeners but as long as his original fans are alive he continues to tour the old songs with pleasure. In the 1960's he had thirty-eight Hot 100 chart hits, ten of which hit the top 20 ... but his feel good bubblegum pop music has largely been lost to history & a new generation of fans alongside such peers as Fabian, Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Sherman amongst others. There's something fascinating & hypnotic walking these folks today well beyond middle aged singing songs of rubber balls, doing the twist & having an audience the same age enjoying every minute of it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this music & on one hand it's easy to wish it back for a moment ... a breath of fresh air against an onslaught of music which has to have a hard beat, guitar solos & a flashy stage show. In all in white BV sings a small selection of his early hits from the 1989 tv show "Live At The Palace" bouncing on his heals & picking up a guitar to strum away. If it wasn't for the full view of the audience dancing away & obviously having a good time the audience would be less than entertaining. If one isn't familiar with BV's teen idol days the later day performer doesn't passions or understanding of what the attraction is. The biggest problem with this video is that BV's act is only about 20 minutes long & passes by as it's just getting started. BV started his career at age 15 in a band called The Shadows who were called from down the block to fill the sudden opening left in the 'Winter Dance Party Tour' by the death earlier that day of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & the Big Bopper. Throughout his career BV would often pay tribute to Holly & has since performed with singer Jay Richardson, the Big Bopper's son. Bonus features include a performance at the same venue by the Original Juniors also with a 20 minute set, BV not included, making this DVD more a split with BV than a solo video as it advertises itself as. The Original Juniors were originally the doo-wop group Danny & The Juniors, frontman Danny Rapp found dead in 1983, famous for their songs "At The Hop" & "Twistin' USA". Their performance is just as interesting as BV & its a shame they don't get double billing.

Queensryche ~ Queensryche (aka debut) (EP) (album review) ... Her royal highness gives her first speech!

Style: heavy metal
Label: 206 Records
Year: 1982
Home: Seattle

Members: Geoff Tate ~ vocals
Chris DeGarmo, Michael Wilton - guitars
Eddie Jackson ~ bass
Scott Rockenfield ~ drums

Seattle's pre-grunge Queensyrche has become known, if not stereotyped, for their prog-metal 90's efforts based around their break-through 1990 hit "Silent Lucidity" & the earlier success Operation: Mindcrime ... but they didn't start their career sounding like this, in an 80's music scene where grunge & prog-metal were not descriptive terms. In 1983 the two year old band released a four song self-titled debut album, reissued a year later under EMI with an unnecessary bonus track as the band worked on a more formal full-length debut, that was as far from prog-metal or anything that would become prog-metal as one could probably get at the time. Actually, it's seeped in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to surprising levels. There's Iron Maiden/Judas Priest tribute bands that don't sound this British & hardcore. If one wants to compare Queensryche to America, perhaps early, also pre-prog, Savatage might come to mind with similarities between frontmen's vocal styles, lyrics & even the steady rhythm sections though it's a far from perfect comparison. "Queen Of The Reich" is particularly Savatage in feeling but without the blistering Criss Oliva dominating riffing that characterizes early Savatage. "Nightrider" has a definite Iron Maiden flavor to it while "Blinded" could very well be out of the Dio catalog with its epic lyrics. The closing track "The Lady Wore Black" is the only song that hints of what would follow a decade later with its re-occurring slow sections that allows Geoff Tate to croon in the open spaces. Listening to this early album, even considering the arrangement of "The Lady Wore Black", it's hard to imagine Queensryche becoming the success they did with the musical style they did. Much in the same way it would have been impossible to eventually see Savatage touring Xmas metal songs as the family friendly Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Queensryche's debut was largely ignored by American audiences at the time of its release, though it found audiences in Europe, & even continues to be a highlight for collectors, though it really should be listened to more as there's nothing naive or demo-ish about it & Tate is using his voice as fully as ever. Considering it was this EP that got Queenryche a major label deal there's obviously something special & good about it ... let alone its just intersting to hear where the band came from. Though, thankfully, like Savatage, they chose to go into deeper musical directions as, also like Savatage, a few albums in they soon discovered the limitations of this particular metal template to dire critical results forcing a change. For a bit of interesting history when this debut EP was recorded Queensryche technically didn't exist. The band was known as The Mob with Tate, who was also in the band Myth, primarily involved for recording & a few live gigs. It was only after the release of the album & a great review in Kerrang! magazine that Tate joined full-time & Queensyrche was truly born.

John Nicole (aka John Schneider) ~ Happy Life (album review) ... Feeling you!

Style: country, pop
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Virginia

Members: John Nicole ~ vocals/guitar/harmonica/keyboards/various sound effects

Additional: Tom Walker ~ guitar
Scott Harlan ~ bass/strings
Seth Kibel ~ sax/clarinet
Laura Baron ~ vocals
Karen Oliver ~ b. vocals

Think the solo albums of Queen's Roger Taylor but subtract his hopelessly cliché social commentary & put in its place some country twang, a dance beat & some downhome love songs & you'll get a close approximation of JN's surprisingly welcome Happy Life. Or, this very well could be a hip new Tom Jones album. A mix of electric backgrounds, from synthetic strings to odd sounds, & a slight laid back country twang that brings one through a collection of songs of love & everyday life. Laid back being the key word. One critic has called JN "sophisticated pop" due to the dominance of a light dance beat for an intimate dancing moment (i.e. "Feel You In My Arms", "Everything Will Be Okay"). Though, that dancing moment changes through the hour into a bit of calypso (i.e. "This Is The Time"), funk ("Dig That Bone") & some spirited Dixieland feeling with playful horns, cowbell & handclaps (i.e. "Do I Love You (Go Away)"). Happy Life opens on a high & then slowly melts away as the songs progress into a somber emotional reminiscence that ends the album ... but it's too late to turn back when you realize JN has pulled you from a dancing mood to a pondering one. Hypnotic jazzy ballads (i.e. "I'm Not Too Old", "Peace Of Mind", "You Are My Woman") punctuate the second half of the album bringing the evening's dance to a slow waltz. The dance floor allows itself one final pop with "Dance With Me" that includes a horn line against a disco beat transitioning to the closing sober acoustic title track, a duet with Laura Baron, with the line "happy new year for the last time, my dear" that brings the dance to the close suddenly waking you up to the story that you were dancing to. Laid off after numerous decades serving as a marketing executive in the wake of a national economic crisis 60 year old JN decided, like many in his shoes, to make the most of his free time while looking for more work & do something that he wanted & not just what others wanted out of him. Happy Life is the catharsis. Happy Life is his first solo album, though it's title is deceptive as it was created in the shadow of losing his job & not finding another in the face of mounting debt, losing his long-time girlfriend & even having his cat die. The project started with the funky bass heavy poem-turned-song "Can't Get A Job" as a personal protest of his situation & then turned into a full length album. But, as JN sings ... "Everything will be okay." Highlights include "It Ain't All Up To You", "Feel You In My Arms" & the particularly Roger Taylor-esque "Remember". A definite must hear is "Together Forever", which opens with the line "I'm doing the laundry" & is filled with an array of odd sounds against a dark bass line in a moody song recounting doing the laundry, cleaning the house, putting away the dishes, making soup & sitting on the couch before going into a church organ chorus about being together forever in a song that needs to be heard for it's use of non-musical sounds coming together. If you're wondering ... this debut went out under JN's birth name of Schneider but due to confusion with the actor-cum-country singer of the same name of The Dukes Of Hazzard TV show he became Nicole ... the name also marking the success of his new music career with numerous releases following.

Nikki Sixx's Sixx:A.M. ~ This Is Gonna Hurt (album review) ... But, not as much as you think!

Style: hard rock, glam rock
Label: Eleven Seven Music
Year: 2010
Home: California

Members: Nikki Sixx ~ bass
James Michael ~ vocals/guitar/keyboards/drums
DJ Ashba ~ guitar

Additional: Shahnaz ~ backing vocals

When Motley Crue bassist/songwriter Nikki Sixx released The Heroin Diaries album to put his 2006 autobiography of the same name into a musical form all ears were turned with interest. Partly it was the creation of a book soundtrack, for lack of a better description, but also here was the guy that had penned so many great hits in a band that basically set the bar for L.A. hair metal & all the partying that went with it. The Heroin Diaries soundtrack was an interesting tour through Sixx's life with the highlights being some emotional ballads that never would have found a home in Motley Crue. The album was slick & commercial but was emotionally awkward enough to be an uncomfortable listen at times & was so far away from Motley Crue it was fascinating for that fact alone. Sixx returned with his ad-hoc group Sixx:A.M. to record this follow-up. Also a companion to a book, seemingly the only purpose behind this side band, the first album basically followed Sixx's autobiography but This Is Gonna Hurt is based on a 2011 photo essay with the music being inspired by the photographs in the book. This means that Sixx isn't forced to bare his soul to give his book a musical form nor does one have to be a soundtrack for the other. There is still hurt here & pretty much pain is the primary thematic device, but the album lacks the punch & rawness of its predecessor & the result is thus less than a climactic high listeners might hope for. The songs have a tendency to draw on cliched lyrical emotions while the band has a sound that decries exploratory ballads of the first album for a sound that might easily be mistaken for countless number of bands that have blossomed over the last couple years of the modern glam rock mold. It's almost hard to believe that this is by a former member of Motley Crue as one expects things different from this fountain of years of entertainment ... though it's easy to forget frontman Vince Neil's solo career was anything but generic hard rock. Sixx:A.M. features vocalist & multi-instrumentalist James Michael & Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba. One of the problems is that even though Sixx is the songwriter he's stuck on the bass so much of the music is in the hands of James Michael. This is one of those albums where a few songs may end up in rotation on the ipod but it's not necessarily a return listen as the songs are essentially flashy & forgettable. The best songs are the L.A. glam/goth styled "Live Forever" & "Deadlihood" that comes out of nowhere & isn't any more original but rock out harder. The best tracks are the acoustic & string orchestrated "Smile" & piano only "Skins" that sound more like The Heroin Diaires ... but they only make one wish the rest of the album was more like this.

Seizure Crypt ~ Under The Gun (album review) ... Moonlight madness from the graveyard!

Style: punk, hardcore, speedcore
Label: Bad Elephant productions
Year: 2008
Home: New York

Members: Thomas "The Madness" Reardon ~ vocals
Michael "Sos" ~ lead guitar/vocals
Grand Mal D Ranged ~ bass
Doug Williamson ~ drums

A cacophonic deluge of socially relevant musical madness now into their third album. This is slam your head against the wall mosh pit music ... though these guys sound so outta control they're smashing their heads to save you the headache. Music is often thought of being smooth ... flowing from one riff or break to another, vocals that echo each other to make a choir, instruments that work off each other to form a lead/rhythm melodic experience ... SC is anything but. There's a jagged guitar line slamming into a wall at the same time as a couple vocal lines are shouted out with no sense of melodic counterpoint, while a rhythm section attempts to destroy its instruments with every beat & once in a while everyone has to take a breathe before the next slam with a momentary guitar or bass run to fill the space. Slamming into the wall at the same time, while all playing the same song of course, & seeing how the result sounds from this chaotically charged experience is an apt visual for the energy of SC. It's not that every instrument is playing something different or aiming for odd counterpoint creativity in some prog-metal ecstatic moment. This is hardcore & speed metal where everything sounds like it's going to fall apart but actually it's far from a bunch of punks not knowing how to play their instruments or trying to just make noise but rather tight arrangements that sound deceptively out of control. It's speed mixed with a lot of changes & sounds like a pain to rehearse but makes for a high energy live show of showering surprises. At barely over 20 minutes the album hits a perfect mark of tearing through an array of songs, though sometimes its hard to distinguish when one starts & another begins, without ever getting tedious in its onslaught & leaves a listener satisfied that they've got SC growling in their best moonlight madness. Not for every metalhead but those who enjoy the chaotic nature of hardcore & speed will probably enjoy checking out SC, if for no other reason than their multiple vocals attack that's a highlight of the experience.

Diamond Claw - No Hate In Paradise (EP) (album review) ... But, lots of sexy women!

Style: hard rock
Label: Black Jack/Ironworks
Year: 1987
Home: California

Members: Mary Go Godges ~ bass
Pam Reene Galloway ~ drums
Jenny Thornburg ~ guitars
Debra Lynn Billingsley ~ vocals

It's an undeniable fact that there is & was a lack of female only bands in the hard rock/metal world. It's no reflection on women musicians & their ability to rock out or play instruments ... however much the absence might speak such. It's also an undeniable fact that hard rock is essentially masculine in his raw sexual energy. But, surprise surprise, women can 'cock rock' as much as any guy & often do with just as much excitement & gusto. They don't have to always look pretty or innocent or on the other end sluttish to play the rock game. There's many women in music that have gained acclaim, both with & without the added bonus of being pretty to look at or taking advantage of their God gifted curves, but as for all girl bands they are few & little known on the mainstream. Girlschool & the Runaways might be two of the bigger ones, but if it wasn't for a series of movies the later would have probably fallen off the radar like the former even given the continued performance of some of its alumni. The next runner-up in general popularity, let alone being around in the 70's, would probably be the Slits ... but they were actually three fourths female often leaving their token male out of photoshoots. While many girl groups tended to be on the more commercial pop end of things, like the Bangles or Go-Go's, or are more contemporary like the riot grrl movement, which isn't hard rock, or of another fringe genre of rock, such as the retro garage rockers the Brood, or just aren't generally as well known as their male peers. It's actually a shame. With so few female groups well known it makes it appear that there aren't any & girls can't rock out when there is a plethora of them, past & present. DC is one of a handful of all girl rock bands from the 1980's that could have been a contributor to changing the reputation of girl rockers everywhere had they gained some popularity. Black Sabbath moody riffs with a hard edge reminiscent of W.A.S.P., Judas Priest & Slayer more so than the L.A. glam metal scene then in vogue. On one hand there's nothing feminine about DC, whether in the vocals which don't reach any highs particular to the female voice with many 80's vocalists reach far greater heights with male falsetto or in the music itself which is straight ahead driving hard rock & cliched meandering lyrics to match. But, on the other hand that a group of women can rock on par with men, even identical to men, is what makes DC interesting. They're breaking the stereotype by not being different ... in a strange twist on things. Though, original or not, this little rarity will be a delight to hear if for no other reason than it's a throwback to pre-Guns N' Roses hard rock untouched by glam/hair metal. Around since 1984 DC released only this EP outside of a 1989 one-track demo of "Sex Thing". They broke up soon after with current whereabouts unknown for any of the members & their name living on amongst collector's of 80's rock & bootleggers.

Raymond Bally & The Renegades ~ Faker (album review) ... Creating a mystery play!

Style: folk rock, experimental
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: New Jersey

Members: Raymond Bally ~ guitars/vocals/keyboards
Dennis Young ~ guitars/b. vocals/marimba/percussion
70 ~ bass/guitar/drums
Andrew Platt ~ drums
Bern Nix ~ guitar
Raymond Bally III ~ bass

This reviews blog now enters its third year which means I've had the chance to review a handful of bands more than once as they've created successive albums. It's been enjoyable to hear bands change & develop & an honor to be kept in the loop of their ongoing output. Singer-songwriter-guitarist RB stands out in the group as he was the first artist to submit an album to me after I decided to open my blog up beyond my own collection, further he's also been interviewed by me for my other media outlets. But, talking about how RB has changed & developed between releasing Nature Of Love & his newest album Faker isn't exactly the right approach. Nature Of Love started as a collection of modest acoustic tunes, previously described by me as having a "folksy but gritty" feeling, that were given an array of overdubs by the unrelated Hans Bally of Sweden lifting them to new levels & helping usher RB's return to the music scene. A few friends were also brought in to accentuate a handful of songs. Those additional musicians, with the addition of a guitarist & drummer & sans Hans Bally, have since been dubbed the Renegades. The line-up no longer just accentuates the RB/Hans Bally songs but contribute fully weaving their ideas into RB's compositions from the beginning making this the group effort that Nature Of Love wasn't. Thus, it's hard to look at RB's two albums in terms of growth & change. Growth perhaps in terms of going from a modest self-conscious return to music after years away to a jump in personal confidence to create a second album. Confidence is a better word to pair up with growth not just because they describe RB's music career of the last few years but also the music itself. For those expecting the songs of longing & love in the vein of Nature Of Love ... well, there are love songs here (i.e. "Hear Me God", "Mystery Play", "Good Night Boys") but now they stand alongside songs of personal discovery or maybe questioning, (i.e. "Heroes & Fools", "Faker") & loss (i.e. "Can't Blame It All On You", "Vampire Song", "Bitter Love", "Dead Soldier" & the instrumental "Good Bye James") with a stunning perspective of a full life now put into perspective beyond a single emotion. Perhaps the real faker is the man who only sings love songs? "Dead Soldier" is a particular lyrical highlight calling out simply to a fallen brother in anything but a single emotion with its simplicity as it dances from one emotion to the next haunting, though ironically the music is not depressing giving the song a strange sobriety in the contrast. Actually, Faker is not the moody jaunt that might be expected whatever the song. The lyrics belay the mood while the music is more an unemotional canvas that takes the colors & mixes them rhythmically together. The music has a tendency to wander almost non-melodically with dueling guitars filling every space, sounding like they're playing atonally or in unusual keys, not exactly playing solos but just lines around RB's talking/singing vocal style. In the background a strummed electric rhythm stays low in the mix helping lay the foundation with the rhythm section for the guitars to trickle around it. It's more akin vocally & musically akin to some of Lou Reed's 80's work, such as parts of Magic & Loss, sans the jagged angry rhythms or earlier Robert Quine soaring solos or the little 50's-inspired backbeat. Though, like the late Quine the solos on Faker are not your obvious melodic rushes but ramble in a loose experimental way that is about sounds over riffs. A further comparison musically might be Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart's bands but without the quirkiness. The strongest songs & tightest musically are those where the lyrics are short & sparse & more time is given to the music (i.e. "Vampire Song", "Heroes & Fools" "Bitter Love" "Mystery Play"). The essential problem musically is that for many of the songs there's a rhythm with a soloing guitar or two on top of it not accentuating the melody but either working against or around it seemingly without direction except in terms of winding around the lyrics. It draws the ear in different directions & pulling away from the cohesiveness of the songs, particularly with the bass so low in the mix where its important role as the bridge between the parts is nullified. But, this is one of those albums that may at first sound jarring but on repeated listens one gets into the lyrics, the real highlight, & it becomes obvious that the inner workings of RB isn't about presenting what you know or expect. "Mystery Play" is the most interesting track where RB actually does his best singing in a deeper softer voice. Also of note the album is the first I've received blatantly citing recycled paper with the brown recycled digipack & rough print being a nice improvement over the modest packaging of Nature Of Love.

Marty Balin ~ Live At The Boston Esplanade, June 14, 2008 (DVD review) ... When the airplane lands!

Style: classic rock
Label: MVD Entertainment
Year: 2009
Home: California

Concert location: Boston, Massachusetts
Year Recorded: 2008
Length: n/a
Bonus Features: interviews with Marty Balin, Signe Anderson, Craig Fenton, Jeff Tamarkin; live tracks: "Do It For Love", "Somebody To Love", "Summer Of Love", "Today", "Shaping The Night", "Somehow The Tired Reach Home", "Count On Me", "Later On"

Members: Marty Balin ~ lead vocals/rhythm guitar/percussion
Mark "Slick" Aguilar ~ lead guitar/b. vocals
Didi Stewart ~ vocals
Donnie Baldwin ~ drums
Gordon Gebert ~ keyboards/b. vocals
David Trupia ~ bass

In order to discuss MB's first solo DVD it's necessary to give a little history lesson. In 1965 a San Francisco folksy-hippie band was formed by 23 year old pop singer MB that would be known as Jefferson Airplane. With him was folk musician Paul Kantner & singer Signe Anderson, who would leave after one album to be replaced by Grace Slick. In 1971 MB left the band feeling isolated from their new & changing musical directions & wanting to pursue a non-drug/alcohol laden lifestyle, the opposite of his bandmates, which was beginning to take the lives of his friends such as Janis Joplin. Jefferson Airplane continued until 1972 ... though by then it was a shadow of itself & solo projects abounded including the Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra that debuted a year earlier with Airplane members Kantner, Slick & bassist Jack Casady performing with David Crosby, Graham Nash & members of the Gradeful Dead. In 1973 Kantner & Slick turned the Orchestra into Jefferson Starship with later Airplane members filling out the line-up. MB would join the band during their commercially successful years. Slick would leave only to return in 1981 for their final three albums & help bring the band visibility on MTV even after the commercial hits were few. They have the distinction of being one of the first bands to utilize online technology to gather a large fanbase. Kantner left in 1984, the only remaining founding member of Airplane, suing his ex-bandmates for the name & thus one word Starship was born. They'd churn out the often quoted hit "We Built This City" amongst others. Slick left in 1988 for an Airplane reunion before retiring permanently from music. At this point, with a young & essentially new line-up, Starship came under the control of Slick's Jefferson Starship replacement Mickey Thomas who continues to tour the group as Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas. In 1992 Kantner formed Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation which regularly featured past members, even vocalist Signe Anderson, before removing the second part of the Star Trek inspired name. MB joined them for a decade before going full time into a solo career in 2003. Jefferson Starship continues to tour with Kantner at its helm with some members from earlier line-ups & some new faces. Having delved into all that this MB solo DVD is marketed as the "ultimate fan package". It's definitely for hardcore fans as few others will be interested in suffering through low production values & a small collection of rock classics by a 66 year old MB who is far more enjoyable heard versus seen. But, the question must be asked - fans of who? Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Starship, Kantner's reunited Jefferson Starship or MB solo? It doesn't help that the set-list is light on MB solo tracks aiming for the more well known catalogs of his past bands. It should be mentioned that drummer Donnie Baldwin was in Jefferson Starship in the 80's rejoining in 2005 alongside guitarist Mark "Slick" Aquilar who joined in the 90's. One would be hard-pressed to possibly consider this a partial Jefferson Starship reunion as MB is given the full spotlight. Its obvious the band is holding back some energy to not offset their charismatic-less frontman who looks ready for retirement & spends too much energy pushing back his not so long gray hair & looking a bit intimidated at the large audience before him but who is, after all, the founding member of Airplane that has given them all jobs. MB was always the short guy in the background who took second billing to the female singers only to step up occasionally with a few self-penned love ballads. Fronting a rock band is not really his forte. It doesn't help that the production is of low quality with sloppy camera movements, including moving from a stable camera to a jerking one, with none in a great location & never giving a full view of the band. The poor recording became quite obvious during the chorus of the lost classic country ballad "Count On Me", one of the best songs for MB's voice, when the band stops but the audience is so far away to be inaudible & the result is a band with no music. Essentially, this is nostalgia through the roof with one of the originators of past music doing what he's always done while the band know exactly that nobody is coming to see them & they are in essence a tribute band. You can see bands like this at every community fair across the country & sadly MB isn't turning in any interesting versions of these songs to stand out nor, while he is in good voice, MB never really soars or gives the songs a personal touch. Though, "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by Canadian songwriter/guitarist Bruce Cockburn is an interesting encore & doesn't just show that MB still clings to the protest hippie ideology but its also of the best songs of the concert given a very different feeling than Cockburn. It's also a common inclusion in his solo concerts. Other highlights include "Volunteers" even if it doesn't exactly have the same social impact that it once did the audience still enjoys dancing to it. Bonus tracks, generally of even worse camera quality, include MB singing "Somebody To Love" ... the first time on a commercial release he's sang lead to this classic. There's also an interview with Signe Anderson & two historians of the Jefferson Airplane legacy. MB is also interviewed in a hotel room & talks about Satya Sai Baba & California falling into the ocean & is everything but what one might expect to hear or want to hear on a music DVD. It's a rambling dialogue of one who appears a bit friend from drugs. Its far from necessary viewing though in some ways the bonus songs, largely acoustic, are at times more interesting than the main concert. 

Shrapnel ~ The Devastation To Come (EP) (album review) ... Don't forget to pick up the pieces after!

Style: thrash, heavy metal, speed metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: England

Members:Jim Hadley ~ vocals
Nathan Sadd ~ guitars
Chris Martin ~ rhythm guitar
Chris Williams ~ drums
Adam Read ~ bass

British quintet Shrapnel have put out a killer four song thrash attack of the Slayer-Anthrax & early Metallica variety. It's amazing, let alone at times nearly unbelievable considering how music changes styles every decade, to hear this style of early thrash, aka pre-black album Metallica, still being saluted through imitation almost three decades after it debuted. I mean, for example, except for some small circles disco & rockabilly have both gone extinct on the mainstream. But, yet, the fierce speed metal/thrash spearheaded by the San Francisco Big Four lives on through multiple generations of followers with as much relevance, fierceness & energy as ever & a modern edge as relevant as Jay Z or the Arctic Monkeys. What's also amazing is not just how the music still thrives in a pure form but also how it's gone international. Shrapnel from Norwich, England are like the Rolling Stones in the 60's ... listening to the music coming over the ocean & wanting to play what they hear with little interpretation. If one listens to the first five Rolling Stones albums its all imitation of the American blues. Shrapnel is at that point in their musical career. "Eternal War", "Toxic Slaughter", "Comatose" & "Hammer Blow" are all heavy stompers with hypnotic rhythms & a powerful low-end. The slower "Comatose", my favorite in the line-up, sounds like a mass of marching evil robots with each foot pounding the ground in haunting sync. The Big Four don't even sound this pure when they rock & thus its shocking to hear Shrapnel & be suddenly reminded how far thrash has moved in the hands of the Big Four & how it once sounded so fierce ... a fierceness now in the hands of a new generation of metalheads. Keep rocking boys.

Nashville Pussy ~ Get Some! (album review) ... Lick it up!

Style: southern rock, hard rock
Label: Spitfire Records
Year: 2005
Home: Atlanta, Georgia

Members: Blaine Cartwright ~ guitar/vocals
Karen Cuda ~ bass/b. vocals
Ruyter Suys ~ lead guitar/b. vocals
Jeremy Thompson ~ drums

Additional: Rob Bertola ~ sound effects
Rick Richards ~ slide guitar

If for no other reason I'm tempted to review this band, as many have probably been tempted to listen to them, because of their name ... and no, it's not because I'm into the 'deep south' ... or maybe I shouldn't say that... Obviously the expectation is sex plus with NP & its certainly here with raunchy sex & party-laced songs (for example, "Pussy Time", "Raisin' Hell Again", "Good Night For A Heart Attack" & the AC/DC feeling "Come On Come On", "Going Down Swinging" & "One Way Down") with a southern rock country boy whiskey swiggin' flavor (for example, the highlight "Hate And Whiskey", the theme song-esque "Lazy White Boy", "Atlanta's Still Burnin'", "Meaner Than My Mama"). Though, on audio the live performance of two female guitarists stomping around in their bras is lost, but essentially the audio puts things into correct perception & lets the expectations down easily. There are performers that put on a more sexually overt show, any female R&B singer for example, & while NP is certainly playing up the sex there's more to them than just girls to ogle. Sleaze rock in general might drool sex but this is also good bar band pouring out sweat inducing rock for a late night party of some drunken misfits who like their music raw & uninhibited. NP debuted in 1998 with Let Them Eat Pussy that, for obvious reasons besides the music, became a underground favorite with a major label reissue leading to a Grammy nomination for Best Heavy Metal Performance. The band has seen a few line-up chances with the female bass slot with Karen Cuda making her debut here, though on audio the gender of the player in this often ignored slot doesn't mean much. Get Some! doesn't brave new territories & NP seem content to continue writing songs about fucking & raising hell, or in their words from 2002's Say Something Nasty to "keep on fuckin'!" Though, in many ways, for a band relying on female sexuality as a major draw the music is quite masculine in its rough sex appeal. This is stagger home sex not romantic candlelight dinner. The band called Get Some! a refocus on the sleeve of the band's early days. Though at the same time the songwriting, however limited its theme, has gotten better over the years. NP is trying to keep the musical attack high even when they're hitting below the belt. This is music for those that like a firm swagger to their tunes, potentially those that love the raunchiness of Motley Crue & W.A.S.P., the stomp of Motorhead & the rawness of New York bands like Tired Wings.

Eddie Vedder ~ Ukulele Songs (album review) ... No guitars allowed!

Style: folk rock, pop
Label: Universal Republic
Year: 2011
Home: Seattle, Washington

Members: Eddie Vedder ~ vocals
Chris Worswick ~ ukulele

Guests: Glen Hansard, Cat Power ~ vocals

Some say that there's no more new music out there as it's all been done, let alone no more surprises ... but the lead singer of one of the father groups of grunge doing a vocal & ukulele albums? That certainly has got to get an award for surprises. & as for being new music ... this is not your father's ukulele album ... nor is it a rock album or a grunge album. Pearl Jam is anything but easy-listening. Classic rock influenced, yes ... though many grunge fans may decry the fact that their movement was helped by a band that drew from Mountain as much as the Sex Pistols. But, if anyone had predicted that frontman EV had a solo album up his sleeve surely the easy-listening emotive acoustic outcome leaves any follow-up predictions in the dust. But, it shouldn't be surprising, really, considering that Pearl Jam has had its share of ballads & pondering moments, albeit against an agitated plugged in background. The thing that's unbelievable here obviously is the choice of instrumentation. There's not an electric instrument in sight nor even any studio tweaking or overdubs. It's a strange yet refreshing moment ... even in comparison to all the great music that has been put out over 2011. One voice, one ukulele. So simple & so powerful. Clicking of plectrum & all. It may not rock but its as intense as anything EV put out with Pearl Jam ... & on that level may rock out even more ... in the deep seated guttural way. Of course, as everyone whose ever listened to Pearl Jam knows & it remains true here on Ukulele Songs, the real secret is EV's deep masculine baritone. In his 40's he may not have the crazy energy or intentions of youth but his voice still retains the same texture that the world fell in love with two decades ago & it's here in pure stark form unencumbered by layers of sound. This is the EV girls dreamed of singing to them alone from the edge of the bed ... or something like that. EV is intimate with this collection of mostly original love songs in a way he could never be with Pearl Jam. Further, it's obvious that he's not trying to show of his singing prowess but just sing a collection of songs that reach into the soul that one might expect coming from Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson versus a grunge rocker. Also deserving mention is Chris Worswick who is a premiere ukulele player showing that the instrument is everything but the toy Tiny Tim might have made us believe. Ukulele Songs will haunt you & you'll be going back numerous times to discover more & more. A masterpiece no doubt on every level. It's hard to make a masterpiece these days.