Monthly Archives: August 2010
Songs That Give Me Chills
Obviously, anyone who enjoys listening to music is going to have hundreds and hundreds of songs that would say they “love”. Some songs strike an even more special chord with me though. Yes, that’s right. There are some songs that seem to inspire something within me WHENEVER I hear them. Songs that quite literally send a chill down my spine by their awesomeness. Off the top of my head, here’s a handful:
Avantasia – “The Scarecrow” (The Scarecrow)
One of the most epic metal songs of all time. The vocals are outstanding and I really enjoy the Celtic rock vibe of it. I can see this having a really cool set up on a live stage.
L.A. Guns – “OK, Let’s Roll” (Waking The Dead)
With lyrics written about the events of United Airlines Flight 93 from 9/11, this one really gets to me:
Skies of Pennsylvania became a battle ground
Two hundred miles away, the towers had come down
One last chance to say goodbye, he called her on his phone
Said he knew what must be done, “I am not coming home.”Are you ready, okay, let’s roll
KISS – “Love Gun” (Love Gun)
One of KISS’ finest songs, I’ve loved it since I first heard it and thankfully I can now die saying I’ve seen them play it live. I’ll never forget seeing Paul zip-line over the crowd on the way to his platform as the intro played out. Picked a live version from 2005 just for something different.
KISS – “Modern Day Delilah” (Sonic Boom)
My favorite track off Sonic Boom. It’s a KISS classic with a mix of Zeppelin thrown in. Love the lyrics.
KISS – “I’m An Animal” (Sonic Boom)
Another instant classic from Sonic Boom and easily the best Gene song from the album. They’ve started playing this one live, too bad I caught them on the very first show on their previous tour, so they hadn’t added it to the set list yet!
Guns ‘N Roses – “Madagascar” (Chinese Democracy)
Chinese Democracy is one of my favorite albums of all-time and this one of the best songs on the album (and that’s saying something).
Aren’t there more? Of course but we’ll get those on a later date…
Like this:
BUCKCHERRY – All Night Long
Buckcherry – All Night Long [Best Buy Exclusive Limited Edition] (2010, Eleven Seven Music)
Disc 1: All Night Long
1. “All Night Long” … 3:54
2. “It’s a Party” … 3:44
3. “These Things” … 3:52
4. “Oh My Lord” … 3:38
5. “Recovery” … 3:01
6. “Never Say Never” … 3:43
7. “I Want You” … 3:43
8. “Liberty” … 4:16
9. “Our World” … 3:50
10. “Bliss” … 3:56
11. “Dead” … 5:24
Disc 2: Reckless Sons Acoustic EP
1. ‘These Things” … 3:58
2. “Fire Off Your Guns” … 3:46
3. “Black Butterfly” … 3:47
4. “King of Kings” … 4:49
5. “My Friend” … 3:58
6. “Grace” … 4:20
Band:
Josh Todd – Lead Vocals
Keith Nelson – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Stevie D. – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Ashhurst – Bass, Backing Vocals
Xavier Muriel – Drums, Percussion
Producer: Marti Frederikson & Keith Nelson
All Night Long is one of my most anticipated albums for 2010. The release of the singles “All Night Long” and “Our World” gave me great hope for this album. I was a big supporter of this band when their debut album hit back in ’99 but then they kinda drifted away after the release of Time Bomb but made a great rock ‘n’ roll comeback with 15 in 2006. 2008′s Black Butterfly was the band’s finest moment in my opinion (though most disagree) and their Live & Loud 2009 release is one of my favorite live albums of all time. I guess maybe in my eyes this band can do no wrong at this point. I’ve been lucky enough to see them in concert three times and they’re one of few real rock bands left. They have a classic sound and look but aren’t retro. Simply put, Buckcherry is good sleazy rock ‘n’ roll.
I pre-ordered the Best Buy edition because it was only $9.99 and also it comes with an “exclusive” second disc — the Reckless Sons Acoustic EP. Well, I guess Best Buy is correct in saying this version of Reckless Sons is exclusive because while they are offering six acoustic tracks, iTunes is offering seven (an acoustic version of “Sorry” is the extra track). It’s a shame digital music gets preferred treatment these days but that’s just the way it goes when CD sales continue to drop. I don’t download albums so I guess I’ll have to settle for this inferior Best Buy version of the EP.
The Acoustic EP is good for what it is. The original plan for the album was for all of it to be acoustic but they scrapped that idea presumably after all these acoustic songs were written. The songs are what you would expect: ballads and mid-tempo numbers. Not really something I would want a full album of but for bonus content it’s pretty good. Some of these songs would have fit in well onto the actual All Night Long album. The song “Black Butterfly” was actually written for the album of the same name but for whatever reason was not included.
As for the actual All Night Long album, for any that were disappointed by the detour the band took a bit with Black Butterfly, I think they’ll find much to like here. The album is straight-forward meat & potatoes rock ‘n’ roll. It’s Buckcherry doing what they do best — sleazy rock songs about sex and partying. There is no “Crazy Bitch” or “Too Drunk…” here and maybe that’s a good thing. I’m glad they’re not trying to re-write previous hits. I have found every single song to be enjoyable, no filler here. Of course, there’s the few obligatory ballads but I think that’s an area where Buckcherry excels. “These Things” and “I Want You” fit in just fine with the rest of the great ballads this band has written.
In a cool nod to their debut, the album cover and inside art features photos of a live model made up to look like the painting of the girl on the cover of their debut. Apparently, her name is “Cherry Girl”. And the real girl is pretty hot!
Okay, I do have one complaint — the first disc seems to have trouble playing my computer. Reckless Sons will play just fine but All Night Long seems to have a 99.9% fail rate on this computer. I have tried it on a laptop, two DVD players and a car and it plays there fine with no problems but I guess it hates my computer. I’ve only been able to get it to play once and that was after I had restarted the computer. I ended up ejecting the disc to listen to Reckless Sons and then went to put All Night Long back in and it was back to not playing! This is very frustrating because I listen to 98% of my music on my computer.
Other than that, this is an amazing release and it’s a very strong contender to be my favorite album of the year.
Highlights: “All Night Long”, “These Things”, “Oh My Lord”, “Never Say Never”, “I Want You”, “Our World”, “Dead”, “Fire Off Your Guns”, “My Friend”
WARRANT – Dog Eat Dog
Warrant – Dog Eat Dog (1992, Columbia Records)
1. “Machine Gun” … 3:45
2. “The Hole in My Wall” … 3:30
3. “April 2031″ … 5:05
4. “Andy Warhol Was Right” … 3:37
5. “Bonfire” … 4:21
6. “The Bitter Pill” … 4:07
7. “Hollywood (So Far, So Good)” … 3:47
8. “All My Bridges Are Burning” … 3:37
9. “Quicksand” … 3:58
10. “Let It Rain” … 4:16
11. “Inside Out” … 3:40
12. “Sad Theresa” … 3:25
Band:
Jani Lane – Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Joey Allen – Guitar
Erik Turner – Guitar
Jerry Dixon – Bass
Steven Sweet – Drums, Backing Vocals
Additional Musicians:
Scott Humphrey – Keyboards
Ron Feldman & Scott Warren – Piano
Dee Dee Bellson & Yvonne Williams – Backing Vocals (“Let It Rain”)
Producer: Michael Wagener
And this is where Warrant started to get a bit heavier as the ’90s rolled on. Janie & Co. must have seen the writing on the wall by this point with the rise of grunge and tried to develop a tougher sound and image while still not straying too far from the pop-metal that made them so successful. Must’ve worked because while radio didn’t support this album it still managed to go gold. Funny thing, while bands these days would kill to go gold, back then for a multi-platinum act, having a gold album was considered a disappointment, at least as far as the labels were concerned. Sure enough, Warrant found themselves dropped from Columbia after having “only” sold in excess of 500,000 copies of Dog Eat Dog. To me, that’s pretty impressive for a Warrant album in 1992 when Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden and Nirvana were dominating the charts.
Anyway, Dog Eat Dog serves every sale it got because it’s a really strong album. I still prefer the pop-metal of Cherry Pie but the band does a fine job of delivering a similar slice of hair rock with “The Bitter Pill”, “Quicksand”, “Let It Rain”, “All My Bridges Are Burning” while going more metal than they ever had before with “Machine Gun”, “Inside Out”, “Hole In My Wall” and “April 2031″. Meanwhile, I can’t help but think “Hollywood (So Far, So Good)” sounds like a re-working of Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says”. Perhaps it should be have called “Jani Says”?
I have to point out the album’s best track — the ballad “Let It Rain”. Before I discovered this album, I discovered this song. I was searching online years ago and found a site that listed every Warrant ballad and thought this song was amazing when I first heard it. Still do. Had this been on Cherry Pie and had it been released as a single, it could’ve been huge. One of the genre’s best ballads but then again that’s almost a formality when it comes to ballads written by Jani!
The photos of the band around this time are pretty funny. All the white spandex and glitter, neon colors and ruffles and what have you are gone. It’s all been replaced by black leather. Jane Lane actually looks A LOT like Dee Snider with the black leather pants, black leather vest, shades and his bleach blond hair pulled back tight in a ponytail. And Joey Allen and Erik Turner look to be doing their best KK Downing and Glenn Tipton impersonations with the leather studded jackets.
The band would stumble for direction over the next decade and then find some redemption with 2006′s Born Again but Dog Eat Dog remains Warrant’s last great album.
Highlights: “Machine Gun”, “The Hole In My Wall”, “Andy Warhol Was Right”, “The Bitter Pill”, “All My Bridges Burning”, “Quicksand”, “Let It Rain”
http://www.warrantweb.net
http://www.myspace.com/warrantband
THULIUM – 69
Thulium – 69 (2010, AKAmusic)
1. “Running” … 3:13
2. “Craving” … 2:56
3. “90 Days of Sorrow” … 4:40
Band:
Boubou – Lead Vocals, Guitar
Vik – Guitar
Chris – Bass, Backing Vocals
Rob – Drums
Thulium is an alternative rock band based out of London, England. The band’s roster is an international one, lead vocalist Boubou hails from France while the rest of the members are from England, Canada and Hungary. Pretty cool.
To give you an idea about the band, they cite Audioslave, Evanescence, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nickelback as inspiration. I don’t think they necessarily sound like those bands but hey, they have some pretty good influences (well, besides Nickelback, sorry). What they actually sound like to me are bands like Breaking Benjamin or Crossfade, that wave of alternative rock & metal that popped up 5 or 6 years ago.
This EP is actually a pretty good release and I enjoy all three songs despite the fact that alternative music generally isn’t much of an interest to me. I could see any of these songs getting some radio play on modern rock stations. “Running” starts the EP off right, it’s a good rocker. “Craving” slows the tempo slightly and features a catchy chorus and “90 Days of Sorrow” is a nice melancholy ballad.
All told, 69 shows that Thulium holds a lot of promise and this EP can be downloaded at a rock bottom price from a variety of online merchants. Alternative rock enthusiasts shouldn’t miss out on Thulium!
