Old School Album Of The Week For Jan. 25th - 29th

This weeks pick is an album I probably hadn't listened to since it first came out in 1984,the debut album from Armored Saint - called March Of The Saint. And I don't imagine I will be listening to it again anytime in the near future,lol.
The production and vocals and such on it are quite good,but the music its self surely doesn't stand the test of time. No wonder lead vocalist went on to join to Anthrax after Joey Beladonna left the band.
There are few funny moments on this album, like these lines from the song Mad House.
"I got an urge to tell a story,
Mad house set to unload,
I try my best to keep a distance,
From going down loony road" and then this one from the same song,
"This certain pad will make your heart beat,
Rum,sex,drop hit the floor,
Next day you feel your head spin,
Back up again, do it some more" Then there is the awful ballad, ya if you can believe it a ballad from a bunch of dudes that dressed up in armor outfits, the ballad being Take A Turn, just terrible.
Near the end of the album, there re even a couple of relationship songs, which made me laugh. Them being the songs "Stricken By Fate" and "Envy". The song Envy has fuckin' hilarious verse in it.
"I could end things really quick,
With a bullet right to his head,
But she was the one who left me,
So I should get you both instead"
I think someone is a little bitter after a break up,lol.
Like I said earlier, I can't see listening to this again for a long time, but it did bring some memories back. Like watching the old Power Hour on Much Music which is where I first heard of this band and saw the video Can U Deliver.

I also see that the band is back together and have a new album coming out in March.

Motley Crue In Edmonton,AB

On Wednesday night January 27th Earl I ventured out to the Motley Crue(Dead Of Winter Tour appropriately named,it's fuckin' cold here)concert at Rexall Place (free tix thanks to K97) with openers Airbourne and The Joe Perry Project.The seats were in the 3rd row of the upper deck next to the stage, not bad seats, but holy shit,no wonder I don't like sitting up there, felt like fucking sardines packed in them seats, way too tight, or maybe I am just getting fat. Nonetheless, we moved up ever further for the Crue where there was some room to move and a guy could get away with smoking.
We missed the opening band Airbourne as we were downing a quick six pack before heading in. After all, beers are a whopping 8 bucks a piece at Rexall for shitty draft. So a few beers out in the cold beat the hell out of paying for them inside.
Earl and I made sure to get inside in time for Aerosmith's guitar players new band The Joe Perry Project. His set started strong opening with the song "Let The Music Do The Talking" I have always liked that song for some reason and ending with the song "Train Kept A Rollin'" the rest of the set just felt like filler, more like an Aerosmith cover band. It was nice to see Joe Perry playing some rock n' roll guitar instead of the ballad shit Aerosmith has put out on their last 4 albums. But all and all Joe Perry is really nothing without Steve Tyler, so here is hoping that Aerosmith can get there shit together.

Next up was Motley Crue, this was my sixth time seeing them in concert and first time since 2005 when they were on their Better Live Than Dead Tour. The show this time around was much more stripped down, no dancers,jugglers,fire breathers,no screens, just a whole lot of flash pods,fireworks and explosions, a bit much really. Kind of nice to see them like this actually. I thought the set list was quite good, with even new songs from the album Saints Of Los Angeles fitting in good. Sure I would have liked to hear more from the first couple of albums, but still thought it was alright. My biggest complaint with the show was the sound. The sound was not mixed well, sounding very muddy with Vince's vocals barried deep in the mix, which was alright actually, cause if there is a weak link in the band, it's Vince's vocals. But hell, he can get the crowd going and is a great front man for the Crue. The crowd actually did more of the singing then he did. With a crowd of 10,000 it sounded pretty cool hearing them shout out the lyrics word for word. Mick Mars was even moving around more this time, which was nice to see.
All and all, you know what your getting when you see Motley Crue in concert, and thats just some good ol' fun rock n' roll. I would give this show a 6 out of 10.

Edit this setlist | More Mötley Crüe setlists

Steve Earle In Edmonton,AB.

On Tuesday night January 26th Janis,BZ and I went and saw Steve Earle play at The Jubilee Auditorium with opener Hayes Carll whom I missed,as I was having a few beers before the show.
This was my sixth time seeing Steve Earle perform in concert, but the first time I have seen him without his back up band The Dukes. This night it was just Steve and his guitar.
Last year he put out an album called Townes, which is a tribute to the late Townes Van Zandt whom died in 1997.The album is Steve playing nothing but Townes songs. While the album is alright, it's kind of a dark album of blues songs.I have found it hard to listen to the whole album from start to finish.He did play Pancho & Lefty from said album, which is a really good song.
Well the show Tuesday night was pretty much all of that album with a few other songs of his own.His voice sounded good and guitar playing was good. While I understand playing some of your new album, playing the whole damn thing got really boring. It was a real slow moving concert. Some of the banter between songs were interesting and funny, with stories about him and Townes hanging together. To me, the show should have been billed as a tribute show to Townes. I was hoping to hear some of his classics. He did play the obligatory Copperhead Road, but it seems he is sick of playing it, it sure came off like that, which is fine, cause I am sick of that song too. There is so much more to him then that damn song.
After the show, I heard a lot of people grumbling about the show, so I wasn't the only one not much impressed.
The last time I saw Steve was in 2003 at Red's, which was a good show. The show really lacked without the Dukes backing him up. The show wasn't sold out either, only 1400 people, Steve comes through town a lot and was last here in the summer at The Folk Fest. Maybe a bit of overkill for this market.
Overall a disappointing show, I would give it a 5 out of 10.

Jimi Hendrix Energy Drink

A few weeks ago I was at Shoppers Drug Mart on Whyte Ave having a look in the drink cooler looking for something to drink when I stumbled across this energy drink with Jimi Hendrix's image on it. It's called The Jimi Hendrix Liquid Experience which is a berry flavour energy drink. Well, I had to have one of these, unfortunately it wasn't a trippy drink like I was hoping, little purple haze I was hoping for but to no avail. Apparently this drink also comes in a tin bottle version which I haven't been able to find yet. It's actually a pretty cool looking can, the bottle looks cool as well.
I'm not much into the energy drinks, and don't find this one very tasty either, but seeing Hendrix on this can, I had to have one.

Old School Album Of The Week For Jan.18th - 22nd

This week I pulled out some old school boogie blues music from the British blues band Savoy Brown, led by Kim Simmonds on guitar. The album I picked is called A Step Further that was released in 1969 on Decca Records.
A good friend of mine BZ introduced me to this band about 20 years ago. Sitting around at his place bugging out to the Savoy Brown album Jack The Toad which is fuckin' awesome.
I just picked up this album A Step Further about a month ago, I had never heard it before but have to say it's a pretty good representation of the band. Side One is recorded in the studio( four songs) while Side Two is a live recording of one song (Savoy Brown Boogie) that is 22 minutes long, that includes pieces of Feel So Good, Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Little Queenie and Purple Haze recorded in Edmonton, London May 12th 1969. Live is the way to hear them, they rip it up some fucking good.
My favorite memories of The Savoy Brown Band other then tripping to them with BZ is getting to see them perform at The City Media Club (July 1st 1994) which was a cool intimate club on 99st. below the old IGA grocery store. The place couldn't have held more then 100 or so people. Awesome venue to see a band like Savoy Brown. I went to that show with Earl and BZ, a good time was had by all.
If you are new to Savoy Brown I recommend checking out his albums Jack The Toad and Hellbound Train. Savoy Brown are still touring these days and would love to see them come through town again.

Vampire Weekend Album Review

The first new big release of 2010 was Vampire Weekend's second album called Contra that came out on January 12th.
Now, I have given this album a listen about a half dozen times and have to say I think it sucks. It's no where near as good as their first album that came out in 2008 I really liked their debut album so I was excited to hear some new music from Vampire Weekend. What a huge disappointment it is. It seems like the band is trying to hard to do too much, it just sounds to my ears anyways, like a big mish mash of lots of ideas but none of them coming across very well.
There are a few good songs, my faves being a song called White Sky (very Paul Simon like, Graceland era)I like the oohh's and ahhh's in it. Another good song is Holiday, and 2 other songs Taxi Cab and Cousins are alright.
I would give this album a 4 out of 10. Another thing, whats with the shitty album cover?
Vampire Weekend will be playing The Edmonton Events Centre March 14th, the show is sold out.

Old School Album Of The Week For Jan.11th - 15th

This week I tripped out to some old school metal from the Canadian band Kick Axe and their album Vices released in 1984. This band and album bring back some great memories from being a teenager. Kick Axe was the first band I ever saw in concert when they opened for Helix back in 84 at The Golden Garter on Halloween here in Edmonton.
This album Vices is rocking through out, with not really a bad track, it's well produced and real fun listen if you are into old 80's metal.I also love the album cover for Vices for some strange reason,lol.

My favorite tracks on the album are Heavy Metal Shuffle (like my brother has said "what exactly is a heavy metal shuffle?"),Vices, On The Road To Rock, Alive & Kickin' and the Humble Pie cover Thirty Days In The Hole which only appeared on the cassette release.
In 1986 I opened the year Jan.1st seeing Kick Axe with openers Whitewolf play the Jubilee Auditorium. My brother and I went to this show together. I recall the members of Whitewolf coming on stage with Kick Axe and playing the Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends" while passing a joint around.

I then closed the year Dec.31st seeing Kick Axe open for Triumph at Northlands Coliseum which was an awesome double bill of great Canadian rock. I don't recall who I went to this show with. Had front row seats for this show.







I see that Kick Axe are still out performing and will be playing The Deerfoot Casino in Calgary. Who wants to go? Road trip, flashback to being a teenager :)

Ween Box Set

In mid December I finally purchased the limited edition Ween Box Set 1996-2000. Only 1000 copies of this were printed and released by Plain Recordings out of San Francisco, my copy is # 687.
The box set includes the 3 albums that were released between 1996-2000. These albums include 12 Golden Country Great (which only has 10 songs on it),White Pepper and my very favorite Ween album The Mollusk.
The packaging on this release is awesome, the box looks like, well, a wooden box. All the albums come with the original inner sleeves, a sticker, post card and the album flats of each album.
The Mollusk is on green marble coloured vinyl.
12 Golden Country Greats in on brown marble colour vinyl.
And White Pepper, you guessed it, comes on white vinyl.
All three of these albums are fuckin' awesome and well worth checking out.

It's nice to have these titles on vinyl to go with my other Ween vinyl which include Chocolate and Cheese, Quebec, La Cucaracha, Live In Toronto and The Friends EP.
Now I need to find these Ween titles on vinyl, The Pod, Pure Guava, GodWeenSatan and Shinola Vol. 1.

The Wit and Wisdom of Keith Richards

This book review is from a book I have had for a while now called Stone me (released in 2008 and compiled by Mark Blake), that I finally got around to reading, which is a book of quotes from Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. It's a small pocket book of 117 pages that makes for a good bathroom reader book.

Here are a few examples of some quotes in the book.
Keith on the Stones asked whether he thought Brian Jones was murdered " No one will ever know... Brian never told me" 1999
Keith on Women and Guitars, What do you want to do next? "Britney Spears" 2004
Keith vs. The Law, Recalling his 1967 court appearance, "When I wasn't high I was in court. You try saying 'Guilty,Your Honor' twenty-five times in Marlborough Street and keep a straight face" 1986
Keith's Philosophy Of Life, "Music's always been streaks ahead of any other gig. After air,food,water and fucking, I think music is the next human necessity" 1983 Such a great quote and so true.
Another great quote from the same chapter. Asked what advice he would give his younger self, "Do exactly what you're doing. You'll end up like me, and don't worry about it" 2006
As you can see, it's a great book, it's very humorous and a quick easy read, excellent for reading while on the shitter.

Old School Album Of The Week For Jan.4th - 8th

This weeks album is the debut from J.J. Cale called Naturally released in 1971. This is an artist I didn't get into until my late teens when I kept seeing his name on song writing credits from artists like Eric Clapton (Cocaine,After Midnight),Lynyrd Skynyrd (Call Me The Breeze,Bringing It Back),The Band (Crazy Mama) as well as Tom Petty,Gaye Delorme and Santana have covered his songs. I finally thought I need to hear what the originals are really like.
The first album of J.J.'s I got was his album called Naturally. And what a great album this is. It's got a very laid back feeling with some cool guitar playing (another very underrated guitarist). My favorite songs on this album would be Call Me The Breeze,Clyde (which has some cool guitaring and fiddle in it and an awesome bass line) and Bringing It Back (a song about smuggling some Mexican pot across the border) all and all there isn't a bad song on the whole album.
It's no wonder so many artists have covered his songs, as he is a great song writer and guitar player. he is in his 70's now and still kicking out the albums, like last years Roll On which is also a great album.
I have yet to see him perform live, I hope I get my chance before he leaves us.
"Naturally" is well worth checking out.

Old School Album Of The Week For Dec.28th To Jan.1st

This week I pulled out some old school Canadian rock n' roll from a band called Fist. The album is called Fleet Street and was released in 1981. This is some straight up rock. I remember listening to this when I was 13 years old, the album had been out for a few years before I had ever heard it, but what an excellent album. This band gets no airplay, yet is some great party rock. My favorite tunes on this album are the title track Fleet Street,Double Or Nothin',Leather N' Lace and Better Way To Go. Lead singer Ron Chenier has a great set of lungs and plays some wicked riffs.
To me this album still stands the test of time.