Keel ~ The Right To Rock (album review) ... Gene Simmons was behind the wheel of this headbanger!

Style: hard rock, glam metal
Year: 1985
Label: Gold Mountain
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Ron Keel ~ lead vocals/guitar
Marc Ferrari, Bryan Jay ~ guitar/b. vocals
Kenny Chaisson ~ bass/b. vocals
Steve Riley ~ drums/b. vocals

There's not enough honest to goodness headbanging albums out there. There's a lot of flashy glam metal albums full of wild solos & melodies. There's a lot of overly dramatic power ballads that kinda rock. But, there's not enough albums that from start to finish that just rock with a groove, with riffs that go right for the groin & have your fist pumping. I mean, headbanging like you do to 'Welcome To The Jungle' or 'Balls To The Walls' or AC/DC, Danzig, 70's Kiss, Motorhead, W.A.S.P.. Keel's The Right To Rock sounds nothing like those bands, though Accept might be close at times, but has the same groin & head banging energy of all of the above. Its something that you feel in your soul & don't have to fake it. You can't help but pound your fist. This is an absolutely great headbanging album from the vocals, to the lyrics, to the guitars. It might be glammy, flashy, have big gang vocals, but also has guts & substance. There's so much energy here. Its like some dynamite was lit & went off under the band's collective asses, & now they are running for their lives & only headbanging rock will save them. Keel's The Right To Rock lives up to its name & I highly recommend it. The producer behind this rock monster is the beast himself, Gene Simmons. He did not play on the album, but co-wrote 3 songs, & would produce the follow-up. Yet, this doesn't sound like Kiss, though it does rock in a big way like them. If anything, Ron Keel's vocals have the same punch & phrasing as the way Gene sometimes sings. "Easier Said Than Done", "So Many Girls, So Little Time", & the W.A.S.P.-esque "Electric Love" could be sung by Gene in Kiss & I doubt anyone would know the difference. The first two are coincidentally co-penned by Gene. The sad irony is this rocks far better than a lot of what Kiss was putting out in the 1980's. Paul Stanley has said at times it felt like he was doing solo albums, as Gene was off producing bands, starting magazines, acting & doing everything but focusing on Kiss. His work here is good. If only he had done this quality work with Kiss their 80's days might be very different. I could totally hear Paul Stanley singing "Get Down", also by Gene. One last thought. Take a listen to this album but skip the third track, "Let's Spend The Night Together." There are many reasons why bands include covers. One reason is to attract attention when things aren't commercially popping. This is the second Keel album, while the first didn't make much of an impact outside of getting Gene's interest, so having a cover might attract listeners. I love the Rolling Stones. They pretty much can do no wrong for me. Keel turns in a good thick guitar version, but its the weakest track on the album by miles. They have dumped the bluesy swagger & the quasi-romantic vibe, neither are in Gene's palette, and just inserted some pumped up guitars. Keith & Brian's original guitars, or even Mick & Ronnie's, are way better. Their guitars weave, but here the boys just drone. There's no swagger. Its something that sounds like a weak covers band at your local bar where they don't actually know the correct chords to play. Skip this one track & this will be an awesome album. Oh well. Its a minor complaint on an otherwise must hear rock outing.

Phil Lewis' L.A. Guns ~ Cocked And Loaded Live (live) (album review) ... Kick ass energy loaded & cocked!

Style: hard rock, hair metal
Label: Frontiers Music
Year: 2021
Home: n/a

Members: Tracii Guns ~ guitar
Phil Lewis ~ vocals
Johnny Martin ~ bass/b. vocals
Ace Von Johnson ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals
Scot Coogan ~ drums

I'll say it upfront: I'm not a fan of L.A. Guns. I enjoyed their 2020 album Renegades, with the latest Steve Riley led line-up with bassist Kelly Nickels, guitarist Scott Griffin & vocalist Kurt Frohlich. It was just great straight ahead sleazy rock'n'roll. I also enjoy their work with Jizzy Pearl, but because I enjoy his vocals whatever the outing. Other albums & line-ups have just not grabbed me. I've heard other albums, but I don't hear what others hear in them. The current Phil Lewis & Tracii Guns led version of the band have released a live album of their second & breakthrough album Cocked & Loaded. The single night performance was done in honor of its 31st anniversary. This group was planning a new studio album, but things were interrupted by the coronavirus. The desire to play was so strong they decided to gig & this is the outcome of that night. Out of curiosity I decided to give L.A. Guns yet another chance by taking a listen. I don't want anyone to say I don't do my due diligence investigating a band. The original album features the classic line-up of frontman Phil Lewis, guitarists Tracii Guns & Mick Cripps, bassist, Kelly Nichels & drummer Steve Riley. It was re-recorded in 2000 as Cocked & Re-Loaded. I may have heard that release in my attempt to dig into the band, but I don't remember it. To write this review I listened to the original album first & then this live album a couple times, though not the 2000 version. I've also not heard any other live albums from them. This new album features only Guns & Lewis from the original, with a new bassist, rhythm guitarist & drummer. The bassist has been around since 2016, the other guys since 2018 & 2019. Only the bassist has appeared on an album, so this formalizes the new line-up on wax & previews them before their studio debut. Sadly, I can't say much about the guys, as the recording quality essentially makes this sound like vocals, lead guitar & drums with some noise. I don't know if releasing it as an album was an afterthought, or it wasn't recorded well in the first place, or they don't know how to mix an album well. This sloppy recording was better than an audience bootleg, but isn't doing any justice to the music or band. They did leave in the applause & Lewis' banter, so that's good, & likely there was no overdubs. The only thing I can really say is to comment on the drummer. Every song was driven by the same boring beat that provided a beat but not much else. I even went back to the studio album to see if I had misheard the drumming there. Nope, that's more interesting. I like a drummer that pushes & pulls & accentuates more than keeps the beat. Maybe the drumming is better than I think here, & its the fault of the bad recording that I missed it. After numerous listens I feel these live versions are: sloppy, wild, Tracii goes bonkers, Phil's banter is obnoxiously cocky & strangely clueless, the drums are predictably steady ... & I found this live album so much more entertaining than the original studio versions. The songs are stripped down away from tons of overdubs.  I felt on the originals Tracii often went crazy, but to the detriment of the songs. I see why he's a respected guitarist, but all I hear is a guy playing over everything trying to throw out as many notes as possible, but lacking groove, melody, focus. His playing is show-offy & messy, with runs that are completely oblivious to the mood of the music. Self-control anyone? Yngwie syndrome anyone? Melody anyone? Now the songs are bare bones & its the perfect setting for him to blast away. I never felt he ruined any song here, but I can't say that about the originals. "Never Enough", "Speed" & "Give A Little" are highlights. They sounds great live & are made for the stage with so much pent up energy that I didn't feel on the album. "Malaria", one of the tracks that stood out to me on the original, comes off dripping like a liquid here that makes it even more moody. So, I still don't care for the Phil Lewis version of L.A. Guns, but live is where they shine. Many bands are far better live, not just groups like the Grateful Dead & the Doors, but Talas & Mr. Big with Billy Sheehan, Rammstein, Y&T & countless others who never have quite got the feeling down on their albums. Thus, I rate this as a down & dirty sleaze rock festival of merit for fans that should have been recorded better. Yes, I'll take any criticism you want to hurl in the comments. I read everything.

Jizzy Pearl's Love/Hate ~ Let's Eat (album review) ... Chef Jizzy at your service!

Style: hard rock
Label: Perris
Year: 1999
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Jizzy Pearl ~ vocals
Joey Gold ~ drums
Jon Jones ~ guitar
Jeff Simon ~ bass

If it wasn't for grunge L.A. hard rock vocalist Jizzy Pearl might be a name better remembered, rather than that singer whose played in L.A. Guns, Ratt, Adler's Appetite & guested with many other bands. Where he may lack an immediate recognizable voice he's far more exploratory with his voice than a lot of singers going from a clean tenor to gruff Bon Scott-esque moments. He's not for everyone, but he's far more interesting than a lot of his peers who just want to scream in as high a pitch as they can. L/H was Jizzy's entry onto the L.A. hair metal scene, though ironically the quartet of Jizzy, Jon E. Love, Skid Rose & Joey Gold started out under the influence of The Cult with a gothic look before becoming more L.A. hard rock. Before their day was up they would tour with Dio, AC/DC, Skid Row & Ozzy Osbourne, but success was always just out of grasp. Their second album was turned down by the label so writing started again with growing conflict between the band & label on the musical direction to be taken. L/H were dropped by the label after the second album didn't have the intended financial return, the band didn't approve of some label decisions & the label in turn didn't support the band, including sponsoring a tour with Black Sabbath. The third album was funded by the sale of songwriter/bassist Skid Rose's car. Then grunge came & L/H would never have a chance. During the fourth album Skid & drummer Joey Gold started a band called Skoe, while Joey also hooked up with Jizzy for Sineaters. After a few ups but mostly downs Jizzy joined L.A. Guns, which brought him his most fame, & later spent six years with Ratt. L/H would reform, but it would be with Jizzy fronting a revolving door of members, only occasionally would one of them be an original member. By the time of their final album Let's Eat L/H was gone, or existing only as a Jizzy outing. As much as L/H with Jizzy only is not really L/H, considering all the songwriting had previously been done by Skid Rose, this final L/H album is not a L/H album outside of name. It probably horribly shocked any unknowledgeable listeners when it came out it's so much not a L/H album. This is the Sineater recordings & the similarities with L/H are few if none between the two musical groups. None of the interesting musical variety of L/H is here, nor are the polished wannabe hits as this is a fairly lo-fi almost demo affair, & probably are demos. If there's any connection between the Sineaters & L/H it does have the lyrical anger that had come out on L/H's last two albums, climaxing with the aptly titled album, I'm Not Happy, but again this is now Jizzy's pen not Skid's. This might be better considered a Jizzy solo album. He's done a couple, though reviews are mixed. I find the problem with his two solo albums, particularly Vegas Must Die, is too much AC/DC does L.A. & Jizzy doesn't have the vocal experimenting going on as I've enjoyed hearing from him elsewhere. Plus, he just cannot compose great music to compliment his vocals. The music here essentially fails, either becoming unmemorable or imitative, & the poor production doesn't help. Jizzy is experimenting with his vocals but there's no music to back him up like on the other L/H albums, as guitars just chug in a non-melodic haze. The potential is here as Jizzy is feeling around at some new ground, even going so far as to not imitate AC/DC, like on Vegas Must Die, but actually the talk-rap of something that might be found with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (for example, "Don't Play Your Guitar When You're Talkin' To Me", "Walk On The Moon", "Heartbreaker"), though at the same time I could draw parallels to Faith No More. But, again, he needs either a songwriting partner or at least some clean guitar lines. Vegas Must Die also suffers from muddy sounding guitars. Let's Eat feels like a club band with not enough melody, too much distortion, not enough time working on the songs, but a desire to just play & who cares, which might be more closer to the Sineaters truth than not. Here Jizzy is letting it all hang out rough & if I had to choose a solo album to hang on to or let go this is it as in repeated listens it keeps my interest much more than the proper solo albums. Ironically, the feeling of this reminds me of Hole's debut & Nirvana's Bleach. Jizzy might have been pushed out by grunge but he's trying his best to join the crowd here as I hear many Sub Pop bands in his writing & I'm tempted to want to give him some credit for trying ... just don't listen then switch over to the first two L/H albums or even L.A. Guns. Just don't compare this to any of the Sub Pop bands & you'll find it interesting.

Phil Lewis' L.A. Guns ~ Waking The Dead (album review) ... Sex, drugs, rock & cliches!

Style: hard rock, glam rock Label: Spitfire
Year: 2002
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Phil Lewis ~ vocals
Tracii Guns ~ guitar
Adam Hamilton ~ bass
Steve Riley ~ drums

Guest: Ricky Beck Mahler ~ guitar

 

  The first two songs ("Don't Look At Me That Way" & "Ok, Let's Roll") open the album with some of the stronger riffs you can have this side of Alice In Chains or Megadeth & I chose those bands deliberately because it's a bit of both of them. I'll confess that after having my introduction to L.A. Guns being the one album with unique vocalist Jezzy Pearl, the remaining songs on this album just sound average to me ... or I should say, voiced by just another wannabe Blackie Lawless, Lizzy Borden, Axl Rose or any other L.A. glam rocker. But, the riffs are so strong & heavy they offset the lyrics, which do occasionally rise to the moment. One lyrically top example is "Waking The Dead" which also features some killer guitar solos. But, weak & cliched lyrics is more often than not the situation with rock bands where the subject matter is the same old sex, society & partying. This also means the ballads are weaker than the hard rockers because lyrics are the secret to most ballads being successful. But, in the midst of every one of these weak ballads comes a searing guitar solo flying out of the air. Though I hate to say it due to the history of the band Slash does often come to mind in sound & style. I'll also confess that I enjoy the later hard rock days where it wasn't necessary to slap a slow acoustic ballad in the middle of a hard-rocking album, let alone always have a ballad on every album. Okay, Poison is famous for it's ballad, but not every ballad is great & some bands are better rockin' hard. Luckily, the ballads are in the middle of the album & are quickly passed through to end the album on an equally as high note as it started, as there's nothing worse than an album that starts off strong but it's not going fast enough to win the race. This album might not have some of the fan accolades that L.A. Guns' earlier releases got but I believe it's a career highlight & among their best. This is a necessary album for 80's hair metal fans. It's pretty much a point-by-point textbook perfect album of what you expect from this style of music. But, for once, playing by the rules kicks major ass with all the elements in place & musical styles every band should cover from punk to metal to ballads to ripping guitar solos. This is the album Guns'R'Roses should have followed Use Your Illusion I & II with.

Jizzy Pearl's L.A. Guns ~ Shrinking Violet (album review) ... Jizzy Pearl is loaded!

Style: hard rock, glam metal
Label: Perris
Year: 1999
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Jizzy Pearl ~ vocals
Tracii Guns ~ guitars
Johnny Crypt ~ bass
Steve Riley ~ drums

Additional: Teddy Andreadis ~ keyboards

Guest: Gilby Clarke ~ guitar

This album featured new lead singer Jizzy Pearl, which cracked the L.A. Guns fan base with controversy & in turn made this the only L.A. Guns album to feature him. But for everyone else unfamiliar with the legacy of the 9 singers that have passed under the Guns umbrella Jizzy is without a doubt the most noticeable thing on this album with a raspy near-falsetto voice that seems to become something new with each song like a cast of characters on parade (i.e. "Bad Whiskey"). For all the controversy surrounding what he didn't bring to the band compared to his predecessors he makes this album stand out from similar bands & even similar albums. I've never heard a voice like Jizzy's & rarely have I heard such a range of vocal styles on one album ... sadly the band isn't able to give him what he needs musically to shine. Honestly, Shrinking Violet largely comes across as just another album from just another L.A. glam band half-heartedly chugging away half-heartedly on quasi-memorable songs that mix hard rocking riffs with occasional forays into Pink Floyd-wannabe experimental territory highlighted by tired power ballads, acoustic guitars & keyboards. If it wasn't for Jizzy I probably wouldn't review this album. Jizzy has one of the more unique voices I've heard in a while & I can see why they would recruit him. I would do the same if I had a band. Actually, I wouldn't mind singing like him. He should probably be more famous than he is. He later fronted Ratt from 2000-06, which was probably a good fit for his particularly raspy & odd tones ... albeit they weren't exactly chart-toppers at the time. This may or may not be the greatest L.A. Guns album & Jizzy may or may not be the best singer the band has had, but this release certainly stands out from other albums & even the rest of the Guns catalog. The highlights of the album "Shrinking Violet" & "Girl You Turn Me On" open the album, though sadly it's a hit or miss affair afterwards of weak arrangements occasionally brought back to life by hard rockers (i.e. "I'll Be There"). This is not the raw garage band that Guns has become known as, but largely sounds like a band on it's last legs & trying something new because they have nothing to lose. It's an interesting affair I'd recommend for the singing. You probably won't come away with any feel of what type of band Guns is, sadly. For those who don't know, Guns was founded by guitarist Tracii Guns of whom Guns N' Roses is named for, as it was a combination of bands L.A. Guns & Hollywood Rose with Axl Rose that was the original line-up of GNR ... only to have all Guns members replaced ... Tracii by Slash.