Author: mikeladano

Metal, hard rock, rock and roll! Record Store Tales & Reviews! Grab A Stack of Rock and more. Poking the bear since 2010.

Part 115: The Rockmobile!

RECORD STORE TALES PART 115:  The Rockmobile!

In the early 2000’s, somebody thought it would be a good idea to spend money on some company cars.  Now, I’m no accountant.  I’m no expert on finances.  But I would have thought it would make more sense to pay mileage cheques on time than to buy a mini-fleet of cars!

They were Azteks.  They were painted in our store colours and had G-I-A-N-T store logos plastered all over them.  It was like driving a giant logo board.  They were hideous.  I only rode in one, once.  They tried to get me to lease one though.

“Hey Mike.  How would you like to drive one of these babies?”

Wha?  Why would I want to when I had my own car that I bought, that wasn’t a big ugly moving billboard?  Let me tell you something people.  They weren’t just ugly, they were fugly!

I guess the idea here was advertizing;  mobile advertizing.  I’m not too sure if that worked.  I don’t know how many people driving down the street would see a car like that and go, “Quick honey, write down that phone number — I need some CDs!”

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Coincidentally, GM slashed the price of the Aztek right around the time we got ours…

I think two or three people drove the Azteks.  I heard they weren’t that great.

One afternoon working in the head office, I overheard a phone call.  A customer was calling in to complain about somebody driving one of our Azteks.  I knew it was Meredith, one of the favourites.  She must have pissed someone off in traffic, like “Hey, that idiot in the CD Car cut me off!  I’m phoning their boss.”  I’d hate to own one of those and somebody see it in my driveway.  “Hey, that’s the guy who only gave me $1 for my Mellencamp!  Let’s go egg his house!”

So, I happily drove my own car instead of one of those ugly RockSuckmobiles.  They were phased out a couple years later.  The great experiment had presumably failed, because the Azteks were no more.  Never to be seen again.  Thank God.

 

 

REVIEW: Journey – Trial By Fire (Japanese import, 1996)

JOURNEY – Trial By Fire (1996, Japanese import with bonus track)

The classic Journey lineup (Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain, and Steve Smith) were back however briefly in 1996 with this triumphant reunion album.  I remember in the store in 1996, nobody was buying it.  How sad.  This is among the very best Journey albums.  In fact with Steve Perry’s voice showing a little more weathering and character, and the band having a more mature sound, I think it is the best.

It’s a mellow journey, very much suited to Perry’s incredible pipes.  The opening track, “Message of Love” storms across the speakers with Perry singing as powerfully as ever with Schon’s patented guitar melodies behind him.  Cain tinkles at the ivories at precisely the right moments, while Smith demonstrates the timing and style that makes him a top jazz fusion drummer today.

And that’s just the first song!  The slower but equally powerful “One More” follows, and then we’re onto the first signature Perry ballad.  “When You Love A Woman” was the single, but to me it’s filler.  Much better is the ballad that follows it, “If He Should Break Your Heart”.

“Don’t Be Down On Me Baby” demonstrates Perry’s soul roots.  Whether on the ballads or the rockers, Perry nails every song perfect.  If anybody else was singing on this Journey album, it wouldn’t have half the impact.  As great as the songs are (and I believe they are a collection of Journey’s strongest ever), it is Perry that drives them home with his ballsy, epic delivery.

I don’t want to bother listing all my favourite tunes.  Basically all of them, with the exception of “When You Love A Woman” and the mid tempo rocker “Castles Burning”.  Everything else is great, and distinct from one another.  Each song inhabits its own space, style and sound.  Yet it sounds like a cohesive whole, thanks to expert producer Kevin Shirley.  And Steve Smith makes the ballads as smooth as butter.  Just listen to “Still She Cries”.

The Japanese bonus track is called “I Can See It In Your Eyes”, and is sequenced in the body of the album.  This is a straightforward rocker, perhaps compensating for the lack thereof on the rest of the album.  While not one of the better songs, it does have its place in appeasing those who think Trial By Fire is too soft.

4.75/5 stars.  They should have toured.

Part 114: Albums That Don’t Exist

RECORD STORE TALES Part 114:  Albums That Don’t Exist

I had plenty of requests for albums that didn’t exist.  Or at least, I don’t think they exist.  Am I right or wrong?  Leave a comment.

Who.  Not The Who.  Not The Guess Who.  Just…Who.  I was told that albums by this band exist.  I can’t imagine how a band could be called just “Who”, but the customer swore up and down that’s the band, not to be confused by the other two.

Jewel’s first album, before Pieces Of You.  Maybe she released an indi album?  Regardless, the thought of any showing up in a used CD store in southern Ontario, all the way from Alaska, wasn’t too likely if they existed at all!

Blue Rodeo’s Greatest Hits…but years before they actually released one.  In the mid to late 1990’s A lot of people were baffled by a band that had 7 or 8 studio albums, but no hits collection.  Yet it was insisted to me by a customer that not only did they have a greatest hits CD, but that they’d seen it for sale elsewhere.

Five solo albums, by all five Backstreet Boys, released simultaneously.  A feat to make Kiss jealous, unfortunately such albums do not exist.  Which makes me wonder what the lady was smoking when she mocked me for not knowing about them, since “Walmart has them!”  Don’t know how they got something that doesn’t exist.  But that’s what she said.  I guess that makes me the dumbass.

Black Sabbath 1991, an album that supposedly came between Tyr and Dehumanizer.  The guy kept calling for this album that never existed.  My best guess is that he was looking for Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991?

Comment below!  Do any of these albums exist?

REVIEW: Budgie – “You’re All Living In Cuckooland” (2006)

BUDGIE – “You’re All Living In Cuckooland” (2006 Noteworthy Productions)

24 years passed between this and the last Budgie studio album. Not that you can tell, as “You’re All Living In Cuckooland” sounds like classic Budgie to the last detail. The cover art even looks like classic Budgie! No computer generated images here, and the classic Budgie logo is intact! Drummer Steve Williams has returned, and the guitar slot was filled by the excellent Simon Lees (although I understand Craig Goldy of Dio toured with them a lot).

Right from the first track, “Justice”, you know that Budgie are back. Burke Shelley’s unmistakable voice is as vintage-Geddy as ever, and the sound of this band has hardly changed at all. Maybe there are some slicker effects on the guitars, but the style is 100% Budgie.  The songwriting is still idiosyncratic Budgie, except for some unaccompanied acoustic tracks which Burke wrote alone. Musicianship is in the forefront and production is sharp, although I can’t hear enough bass for my tastes. To me, early Budgie was all about Burke’s slinky bass lines, and I want to hear them!

Highlights include:

  • The solidly heavy “Justice”.
  • “Dead Men Don’t Talk” and its positively squirrly solos.
  • The psuedo-title track, “We’re All Living In Cuckooland”, an acoustic number that remained lodged firmly in my skull for days.
  • “I’m Compressing The Comb On A Cockerel’s Head”, the 8 minute closer with its stuttering tremelo guitar solos. Yet another oddball Budgie song title too. I love it!

Everything here is a winner. No filler.

5/5 stars

Part 113: Destiny (“It’s Like It Was Meant to Be”)

RECORD STORE TALES PART 113:  Destiny (“It’s Like It Was Meant To Be”)

Sometimes, like destiny, something cool arrived on my counter at random. Something I’d been hunting for.  Something special, that hit the spot at exactly the right time.  That was the beauty of used CD’s.  Even more than a box of chocolate, you truly never knew what you were going to get!

For example:

IAN GILLAN – The Best Of

I had pretty much cleaned up on Deep Purple, and I was ready to start exploring the solo projects of people like Gillan, Glover and Lord.  Like it was meant to be, suddenly The Best Of Ian Gillan showed up!  This compilation covered his two most recent solo releases, Tool Box and Naked Thunder.  Both albums are hard to get, and I still don’t have them!  This compilation hit the spot.

I remember Statham coming into the store while I was playing the opening track, “Hung Me Out to Dry”.  He chuckled at the opening screams!  “What is this?” he laughed.  But he respected my choice instead of mocking it which is more than I can say for some of the coworkers!   You never see this stuff used in these parts, but once in a blue moon.  I truly felt like I’d hit a home run!

Another example:

DEEP PURPLE – “Haunted” (CD single)

I’d been planning on ordering this one online. I found it on the German Amazon site, but only there so far.  All the single had was a bonus remix of “Haunted”, but as a Deep Purple completist, this is the kind of rarity that I seek.  CD singles tended to be a European thing and hard to get here.  I was prepared to have to pay up to $15 for this single….

When suddenly a guy brought in not one but TWO promotional copies with the bonus track!  Unmarked promotional copies, as in only the case was marked, which you can replace.  SCORE!  I saved myself some cash on that lucky happenstance, and the other copy sold off the shelf in short order.

A third great example:

JOURNEY – Trial By Fire (Japanese import)

I had been collecting Journey rarities, especially the Steve Perry years.  I saw a Japanese import of the final album they did with him, Trial By Fire, at HMV 333 Yonge in Toronto.  It was $40 or $45.  The bonus track was “I Can See It In Your Eyes”.  It just wasn’t in the budget that day.  I had several Japanese imports in my hands that day, and something had to be sacrificed.  Journey didn’t make the cut.

And then a couple weeks later, one of my regulars, Conrad, sold me a mint condition copy, bonus track intact.  Instead of paying $45, I paid $15!  Score!

REVIEW: The Black Crowes – Before The Frost…Until The Freeze (2009 CD, vinyl)
THE BLACK CROWES – Before The Frost…Until The Freeze (2009 Silver Arrow)
I didn’t know what to expect when I cracked the seal on my brand new vinyl LP of Before The Frost…Until The Freeze. The Crowes do something different every time. Reemember how different By Your Side was from Three Snakes? And how Lions was from both of those?  Not to mention Southern Harmony compared to Money Maker…
The Crowes have done it again, with an album different from their others, and they did it right.  Not that Warhorse was a bad album at all, although it’s one that remains tucked away on my shelves most of the time.  This time, the Crowes are digging way, way back to their roots.  The album is evocative of many eras of American music, from the 1920’s to the 1970’s, with an emphasis on the blues.  There’s also some bluegrass on this album, plenty of acoustics, and a little bit of funk.
And interestingly,a lot of it seems to be recorded live in front of a studio audience. Amazing atmosphere on Before The Frost…Until The Freeze!

I will say that this album should really be owned on vinyl. I own both the vinyl and CD formats, and vinyl is the most enjoyable listen.  The vinyl comes with all 20 tracks in a more logical order.  The CD comes with 10 songs, and a download code to the get the rest.  It’s nice that you can get all 20 songs via download, but I’m too old-school for that. I want to own these songs on some form of plastic.  Some form of physical product.  I want to hear these songs breathe on vinyl, because the Crowes are meant for vinyl.

Here’s your track list for both LPs.  The first record is more mellow, rootsy and acoustic.  The second, more electric and blues-driven.

Record one — Green vinyl!

“Aimless Peacock” – 6:40
“Good Morning Captain” – 3:24
“Been a Long Time (Waiting on Love)” – 7:47
“Greenhorn” – 7:12
“Appaloosa” – 3:35
“The Shady Grove” – 4:42
“The Garden Gate” – 4:21
“Shine Along” – 4:47
“Roll Old Jeremiah”- 4:40
“Houston Don’t Dream About Me” – 5:05

Record two — White vinyl!

“I Ain’t Hiding” – 5:57
“Kept My Soul” – 5:23
“Lady of Ave. A” – 5:20
“Make Glad” – 4:18
“And the Band Played On…” – 4:12
“What Is Home?” – 5:13
“So Many Times” – 4:53
“A Train Still Makes a Lonely Sound” – 4:23
“Fork in the River” – 4:11
“The Last Place That Love Lives” – 4:57

To give you an example of why you need to hear this on vinyl, the first track, “Aimless Peacock”, is a nice acoustic instrumental. It segues pretty seamlessly into “Good Morning Captain”, a beautiful song. Well, if you buy the CD, “Good Morning Captain” is track 1, and “Aimless Peacock” is track 1 of the free downloads. So you miss that transition.

The best songs for me:

“The Garden Gate” — pure bluegrass. Could have been on the O Brother soundtrack. Beautiful song, amazing song. And this one isn’t even on the CD version, just the vinyl/download.

“I Ain’t Hiding” — wow. You go from the very bluegrass first LP, to this opening track on record two, which is pure 70’s disco funk. That’s why you need to hear this on two LPs! This is track 5 on the CD, which makes its appearance more jarring.

Other standouts include “Appaloosa”, “Roll Old Jeremiah”, Rich’s “What Is Home?”, and “Good Morning Captain”, but really this is a great album, all 20 songs. It’s a great one to just chill and relax to.  I think it’s becoming my favourite Crowes album.  I’m a big fan of Amorica, but when I can find the time to devote to it, I think I prefer Before The Frost…Until The Freeze.

5/5 stars

CD tracklist for the curious:

  1. “Good Morning Captain” – 3:24
  2. “Been a Long Time (Waiting on Love)” – 7:47
  3. “Appaloosa” – 3:35
  4. “A Train Still Makes a Lonely Sound” – 4:23
  5. “I Ain’t Hiding” – 5:57
  6. “Kept My Soul” – 5:23
  7. “What Is Home?” – 5:13
  8. “Houston Don’t Dream About Me” – 5:05
  9. “Make Glad” – 4:18
  10. “And the Band Played On…” – 4:12
  11. “The Last Place That Love Lives” – 4:57

Part 112: Klassic Kwotes IX!

RECORD STORE TALES PART 112:  Klassic Kwotes IX!

1. “I just have this image of Josh shaking his ‘thing'”.  Not actually spoken in-store, this was found on the ground on a piece of pink notepaper, after a gaggle of school girls had left the store.  Odd.

2. “I’ll tell you something, somebody’s getting fat off that Gumbo thing!” said the surly old man when I showed him the price of the Forrest Gump soundtrack.  Too rich for him!

3. “So how is the new N’Sync CD, is it decent?”  Why would you even ask this question of a guy wearing a Kiss shirt?

4. “I hear good things about it.”  My response.  This was a standardized response for if you hadn’t heard the album in question, or had heard it but hated it.  For example, “How’s the new Nickelback?”  The correct answer would have been, “I hear good things about it.” 

5.  Another standardized answer for questions like that:  “If you liked their last album, you’ll like this one.”

6. “Can I try these out?” said the guy holding about dozen discs, 10 minutes before closing time.  (Luckily, we had a policy of shutting down the CD players 15 minutes before close to avoid these situations.)

7. “Sorry man.  These things are on timers.  I can’t even turn it on.”  This is what you said if a simple, “No, sorry man, we’re closing,” wasn’t good enough.  And people believed it!  There was a neat trick.  The headphones were hooked up to these little amps.  But if I shut down the amp, there was a good 20-30 second delay before the music died.  So I covertly could flip a switch to kill the amp, walk across the store, and be doing something else before the customer’s music stops.  Then when they’d say, “Hey, the music stopped, I don’t know what happened,” I would respond:  “Sorry man.  Those things are on timers. We’re closing and they automatically shut down at this time.”  This was reserved for the jerks who abused the players.

8. “Sorry man, this CD is too scratched for me to take,” said I, to the customer selling the disc.  His classic response?  “Fuck!  That’s what you said when I brought it in last time!  But this time I fuckin’ buffed it in Turtle Wax!”

9. When we first opened, we had a big huge sign that said “WE PAY CSAH FOR USED CDS“.

10. The man from the sign company came in to fix the sign.  He said to me, and I swear to God I’m not making this up — he said to me, “That’s Bill.  He spells ‘cash’ wrong on every sign.”

BONUS 11! “Hey man.  You spelled ‘cash’ wrong on your sign you know.”  No kidding?  And Bill fuckin’ spelled it wrong, not me!

REVIEW: Accept – Stalingrad (2012)

ACCEPT – Stalingrad (2012 Nuclear Blast, bonus track)

They said there could be no Accept without Udo!  But here we are, two albums deep onto a healthy Accept rennaissance with Mark Tornillo at the mic.   Wolf Hoffman and company have carried on with class.  Has there ever been a metal band that so seemlessly replaced their beloved longtime original throat?

I think on Stalingrad, Tornillo’s fitting in better than ever.  It seemed to my ears that they have upped the SPM (screams-per-minute) on this Accept album, and Tornillo’s never sounded better honestly.  I guess that big long tour really tightened everybody up, because the whole band sounds awesome.

Stalingrad is very much a companion record to the successful comeback Blood Of The Nations.  It sound like a natural succession, with perhaps a little more emphasis on melody and catchiness.  The tracks are still as Teutonically heavy as before, but there seems to be just the oddest incremental increase in melody.

Strongest songs:

“Stalingrad”, “Flash To Bang Time”, “Shadow Soldiers”, “Us Against The World”, they’re all good!  I also liked the 9/11 song “Never Forget”, which is a bonus track on some editions.

On a final note, I think Peter Baltes is a damn fine and underrated metal bassist.  He sounds great on this album!

4.5/5stars

REVIEW: Iron Maiden – Virtual Lights Strikes Over France (1998, bootleg CD)

IRON MAIDEN – Virtual Lights Strikes Over France (1998, bootleg CD)

This awkward title was a disc I was really looking forward to playing.  I snagged it in early 2000 at a record show in London, Ontario.  I remember wanting to look at the discs before I bought it, because cheap bootlegs on CD-R’s were becoming more common.  I wanted to make sure this was an actual factory pressed CD, not a CD-R, and the seller pretended she didn’t know what a CD-R was!

I like the Blaze-era Maiden albums and I was eager to have a live document of those years of some kind.  A quick glance at the back cover reveals this concert to be an excellent choice.  Not only do they play 7 of the 8 songs from Virtual XI, but there are three bonus tracks from 1996’s X Factour as well.  All in all, an excellent cross section of Blaze material, with a smattering of Bruce and Paul.

Upon first listen, however, I was horrified!  Blaze is shockingly tuneless!  The rumours of his voice being shot during the Virtual XI tour seem to be confirmed.  Judging by his recent solo output, his voice is much stronger today.  But in 1998, something was clearly very wrong.  He misses notes more often than he hits them on this one.  Neither Blaze nor Steve Harris have really elaborated on the why’s.

Gratefully, the 1996 recordings are much stronger.  Blaze’s voice here was album-quality strong.  These three tracks are truthfully the only thing on this disc that I can stand listening to.  The rest is just tunelessly bad.

1/5 stars

    

REVIEW: King’s X – Dogman (1994)

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Complete studio albums (and more!), part 7

DOGMAN FRONT

KING’S X – Dogman (1994 Atlantic)

I remember getting this for Christmas of 1994.  “Blown away” about sums it up.

Is Dogman their best album?  No, but it sure was a shock to my system when I first heard it.  Back in the 1990’s, I skipped the previous (self-titled) album and picked this up based solely on the strength of the killer first single “Dogman”. I could not believe the song — groovy, basic, heavy, angry but loaded with soul and melody. Just like King’s X in general, but “Dogman” upped the heavy and downplayed some of King’s X whimsy.

When I got the album Dogman, one thing surprised me — not one song was sung by Ty Tabor! Except for the bridge on “Dogman”, all lead vocals were handled by Doug Pinnick. This was disappointing to me as I like bands with two lead singers. I never heard why Ty doesn’t sing on it, but I adjusted.  Truthfully every song on Dogman is a winner, and are suited to Doug’s vocals.  In hindsight, it fits the direction.

I mean, this band is so freakin’ talented!  From the sheer unique sound of this band, mixing progressive rock with heavy metal and soul, mixed with the Beatles and so much more…you can’t see enough good things about King’s X.  I love Doug’s bass, I think he’s playing 8 or 12 string in spots.  But what makes this band unique is Doug’s voice.  Nobody else has that.

Doug’s lyrics are quite obtuse (I don’t know what “Tide, underside my pillow, willow, whoa-oh, thundering” means) but the way he sings it sure sounds like he has something to get off his chest. “Passionate” might be one way to describe these songs.  At the same time there are slower songs like “Flies and Blue Skies” that I won’t call a ballad, but have that ballady vibe.

Highlights: The title track, “Shoes”, “Cigarettes”, “Pillow”, “Pretend”, “Fool You”, “Go To Hell”, “Complain”, and…hell.  All the rest.

I really like “Cigarettes”…it’s just mournful.  “Shoes” is more upbeat and grooving, although still with dark undertones.  Really, the whole album has darker undertones than previous King’s X releases.  And that’s just fine.  It was 1994.  What are you gonna do?

Lowlights: None. There are no weak songs.  Maybe just the live version of “Manic Depression” (Hendrix).  I liked that they tacked on a live cover at the end of the album, it’s just not my favourite Hendrix tune by a good margin.

Notably, this is King’s X first album without Sam Taylor producing.  It was crushingly produced for the 1990’s by Brendan O’Brien.

4.9999~/5 stars

Part 1 – Out of the Silent Planet (1988)
Part 2 – Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (1989)
Part 3 – Kings of the Absurd (split bootleg with Faith No More)
Part 4 – Faith Hope Love by King’s X (1990)
Part 5 – “Junior’s Gone Wild” (from 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack)
Part 6 – King’s X (1992)