I’m taking today off from blogging. It’s my birthday! So I’ll be opening stuff like this, while you are hopefully enjoying a nice day off, too.
I deserve a day off! I’ve been posting here almost daily for three and a half years! I’ve accumulated almost 1600 posts in that time, so I’m sure you won’t hold it against me.
In the meantime, you can check out the past birthday related posts. I’ll be back tomorrow with more rock!
Record Store Tales Part 78: Meat on LeBrain (An overly kind birthday post from my friend Uncle Meat to me.)
Record Store Tales Part 306: Happy Birthday to Me – (Memories of being hired at the Record Store 20 years prior.)
Blu-ray review: 2001: A Space Odyssey – (My favourite movie, a post I did on my birthday 2013)
Thank you Aaron for the gift…whatever it may be…well, it could be a bomb but it’s not ticking! I will be sure to update you all with photos of whatever musical treasures await me today.
MIKE PATTON – Adult Themes For Voice (1996 Tzadik)
I’m a huge Faith No More fan; I think they’re easily one of the most brilliant bands of any genre to grace the stage. I collect their stuff, and occasionally Mike Patton’s solo projects as well. Numerous as they are, I tend to pick and choose today. Back in 1996, that wasn’t the case.
One night, out with T-Rev record shopping, we visited Encore Records in downtown Kitchener. On their shelves, for $24.99, was a Mike Patton solo album called Adult Themes for Voice. I asked the lady at the counter, “Is this any good?” She responded cryptically, “Well, nobody’s ever returned one.”
I did buy it, not only because I’m a completist, but because the text on the obi strip made it sound so fucking cool:
The debut solo album from a performer/composer who has worked with Mr. Bungle, Kronos Quartet, Faith No More, Bob Ostertag and many others. Experimental sounds never imagined from just a voice and microphone. An absolute classic.
Shit, how could I possibly say no after reading that? I’d have to be a dick not to buy the CD.
Then, we went to go visit Tom at his store, and he put the disc on. In-store.
First came the wide open eyes, then the chuckles, then the “I can’t believe you spent $25 on this”.
Sorry folks, it’s just not for me. I know there are people out there who can appreciate this. I’m not one of them. It’s true that Mike Patton can do just about anything with his voice, and here he does just about anything with his voice, except singing. Different screams and guttural sounds are spliced together into brief compositions. Tape editing is just as important as the vocals, in terms of the final compositions. At times his voice is percussive, at other times whimpering. At all times, assaulting the ear. It rarely sounds human at all. It’s interesting, with the recent release of the new Faith No More album Sol Invictus, how Mike Patton has integrated some of these techniques with their sound.
Being a collector, and being a long-time Faith No More fan, I did keep this album in my library. I found a good use for it: the shorter tracks make for awesome transitions on mix CDs!
1/5
But 5/5 stars if you can listen to something like this regularly; there’s no denying the creativity involved!
C.C. DeVille was let go from Poison after an embarrassing performance on the 1991 MTV awards. Who can forget the pink-haired C.C.? Drugs and alcohol had taken their toll on the guitar player. There were musical differences as well. Bret Michaels liked the bluesier direction Poison were going on; C.C. preferred basic sloppy rock. A parting of ways was all but inevitable.
Poison were lucky enough to convince guitar prodigy Richie Kotzen to join the band. Kotzen was from Pennsylvania, like Poison, and had released three critically acclaimed solo albums. Richie Kotzen and Electric Joy were hard-to-penetrate instrumental albums, while Fever Dream introduced Richie’s soulful singing voice. He had also contributed the bluesy rock of “Dream of a New Day” to the Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack album.
Like many fans, I waited and wondered what the new Poison would sound like. Kotzen claims that many of the songs were completely written, lyrics and all, before he joined Poison. Regardless each song received a four-way songwriting split among the band members. Fans in the know could tell right away that Kotzen’s impact on the songs was much greater than the other members.
Native Tongue was not as immediate as any prior Poison album, but what it lacked in instant hooks it made up for in musicianship and integrity. Native Tongue was also a long album, at almost an hour not including B-sides such as “Whip Comes Down”. It was a lot to absorb, and due to the changing winds of rock, not too many fans were willing to spend time with and get to know Native Tongue.
You couldn’t have asked for a better start to the album that the duo of “Native Tongue”/”The Scream”. Tribal drums by Rikki Rockett and Sheila E. set the scene for one of Poison’s heaviest songs ever. “The Scream” is killer: a relentless driving rock song with aggressive playing and lyrics. Bret Michaels merged this with his Poison singing style, creating a successful hybrid. “The Scream” is one of Poison’s finest achievements, and a hell of a way to kick off the new album with the new guitarist.
“Stand” was the soulful, gospel-like lead single. It didn’t do anything for me, but you have to give Poison credit for going all-in. With choirs and Kotzen’s soulful guitar playing, it’s still an outstanding Poison song. “Stay Alive” was another good tune, this time about bassist Bobby Dall’s struggles with substances. That led into the ballad “Until You Suffer Some (Fire and Ice)”, one of the band’s best such songs. The only weakness here is a grouping of slow songs on side one. “Body Talk” and “Bring It Home” make up for that. “Bring It Home” in particular had that heavy groove that you needed to have in the 1990s, as well as strong backing vocals from Kotzen. “Bring It Home” ended the first side with the heaviest song since “The Scream”.
The one thing that I found difficult about Native Tongue was the aforementioned lack of immediacy. Thankfully, side two had a few songs that maintained that old-tyme Poison singalong chorus. They were “Seven Days Over You” (a horn-inflected goodie), the anthemic “Blind Faith” and, “Ride Child Ride”. These tunes weren’t too much of a departure from earlier Poison of Flesh & Blood. Perhaps if they had been released as singles, there would have been more chart action. “Strike Up the Band” is similar, capturing the high octane rock that Poison were good at doing live.
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“Richie’s Acoustic Thang” and “Ain’t That the Truth” are swampy bluesy goodness, crossing Poison and Kotzen perfectly. Where Poison failed to do decent blues before, they finally managed to get it done with Richie. Likewise, “Theatre of the Soul” is a soulful ballad that acts as another album highlight.
The final song was “Bastard Son of a Thousand Blues”, and it is really the only stinker, despite Kotzen having plenty of vocal time. It reminds me of “Poor Boy Blues” from the prior album, and unfortunately ends the album on a mediocre note, guitar pyrotechnics notwithstanding.
Kotzen didn’t last long with Poison. After a controversial departure, he was replaced by Blues Saraceno, another highly rated shredder. The ironic thing was that Blues Saraceno was in the running for the guitar slot in the first place, but the band chose Kotzen. Saraceno recorded the strong Crack A Smile CD, an intentional return to good-time Poison rock, but were dropped by the record label before a release. That’s a whole other story, with six years of delays and bootlegs before the album was out, eventually leading to a reunion with C.C. DeVille.
Fortunately, Native Tongue remains a reminder of a brief period in Poison where they were momentarily among the best acts in hard rock. No shit.
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale #415: B-Cards
One of the least practical formats that I saw during the Record Store Days was the B-Card CD. A B-Card is the same as a CD-ROM, and works on any standard CD-ROM player, but was the size and shape of a business card. The idea was that business people could order B-Cards instead of regular business cards. This would be a striking alternative, in tune with the tech-savvy 90’s. It was a way to appear on the cutting edge.
A B-Card could hold up to 100 MB of data. The disc was rectangular, about 90mm x 55mm, but with a circular silver CD portion in the center of the disc. The readable part of the card was smaller than even a 3” CD single. You could still encode anything you wanted on the disc, from audio to video to slideshows and text. Instead of handing someone a business card with your phone number on it, you could give them a card with that and a visual presentation of whatever you were selling. From that point of view, it was a pretty inventive idea.
Where the B-Card failed was physical storage. As any music fan knows, CDs scratch up very easily, especially when in physical contact with another material. Plastic sleeves were the worst. Nothing scratched plastic discs worse than plastic sleeves. And guess what B-Cards often came packaged in? Plastic sleeves. There were larger plastic cases available, hinged to open and protect your precious B-Card, but nobody carried them because they were too thick for a wallet.
Lord of the Rings “Gollum” B-Card CD-ROM
I had one business man come into the Record Store with a scuffed up B-Card that no longer worked. He asked me to fix it for him, but I could see easily with just a quick glance that it wouldn’t be possible. The plastic sleeve had worn off the protective top layer of the CD in spots, creating massive top-scratches and pinholes. When that happens, there’s nothing for the laser to read and it comes up with errors or skips. He was very unhappy that his B-Card was toast.
I explained to him that it was the plastic sleeve itself that had ruined the card. This did not make him happy. I showed him how a CD should be properly stored (in a protective jewel case) and his response was “I’m not going to carry that around in my pocket!” That was the first major flaw with the format. It was small and portable, but not easy to keep safe without bulking up with a proper case.
The other problem with B-Cards was the rectangular shape. This unusual shape meant that it might encounter problems being played. The weight of the disc wasn’t evenly distributed. You could not play them in many tray or slot-based readers. They were the same idea as a shaped CD, which were popular novelty items at the time. These came with warnings that they could not be played in all players due to the shape, and the ominous message that the manufacturer would not be responsible for any damaged equipment.
I’m glad that B-Cards have gone the way of the Dodo. My mikeladano.com cards are printed on regular paper – and that’s fine by me!
By special request of J. atResurrection Songs! This is an old review that I wrote when the Blu-ray of I’m Still Here was released. I have since sold the movie and have no good way of re-watching in order to ensure I still feel the same way about it. Hence, this review was written in 2010 and may or may not reflect my opinions if I saw the movie again….
I’M STILL HERE (2010 Magnolia)
Directed by Casey Affleck
I can’t stand today’s media as much as the next guy, so when Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix revealed that they just “punk’d” the media in a big way, I was curious about the results. Joaquin faked a major meltdown in front of the world, pretending that he was retiring from acting to become a rapper. His rapper persona, “JP”, grew out a long straggly beard and hair to feign mental illness.
The movie never addresses the issue of “fake/real”. As far as the film is concerned, Affleck doesn’t let on. It was only after the fact that they both let the cat out of the bag.
Things start out innocently enough. “JP” reveals that he’s become interested in music and wants to concentrate on that. As the beard expands, so does the odd behaviour. Weird, disjointed and off-rhythm raps, dirty clothes, and the beard continue to grow. The infamous Letterman appearance follows and this is when most people heard of Phoenix’s breakdown. The media reports, which immediately follow his public television “meltdown”, are covered as well.
JP gets frustrated trying to find a producer, finally getting some interest from P. Diddy. Trying to hook up with Diddy is damn near impossible, but when he does, Diddy is interested. One song, “Compli-fuckin-cated”, could have been a novelty hit for real. When it comes time for concerts, the stage gigs don’t go well, as JP is heckled by the crowd. Can JP redeem his rap career and finally begin to express himself in a meaningful way? If the drugs don’t get to him first, maybe.
I’m Still Here wasn’t a bad film. It was definitely a unique film; I’m just not sure how much entertainment value it had. Pranks tend to go best when they are short and sweet,and to the point. When they last a year and become a full length movie, the lines between prank and reality are blurred (which I’m sure was part of the point). I admit that Phoenix did outdo himself, creating this character based on himself, and living with it for this time, never breaking character in public. The problem is, while technically it is a great achievement, as a character JP isn’t all that interesting. As a breakdown, we’ve seen far more interesting real ones in recent years. Hard to top Britney shaving her head, you know?
Spacehog fans will enjoy Antony Langdon’s appearance as a personal assistant to JP. Royston Langdon contributed to songwriting.
The Blu-ray bonuses are generous, with all sorts of featurettes and deleted scenes with commentary. Perhaps they will shed some light on the process. The movie hasn’t clicked with me, but I’ll give it another shot. It is a strange animal after all.
STAR WARS: Return of the Jedi – Special Edition original motion picture soundtrack (1997 RCA limited edition with holographic discs, original soundtrack released 1983)
The final soundtrack of the original trilogy received the most disappointing Special Edition soundtrack. The reissues for A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back essentially offered complete collections of all the music from those two films. The soundtrack for Return of the Jedi suffers the most from the Special Edition changes. New music replaces old well-loved tunes, which is rarely a good idea.
Instead of the classic music of “Lapti Nek” (Jabba’s palace scene) we now get “Jedi Rocks”. I need not tell you how unwelcome that song was, replacing “Lapti Nek”. All because Lucas didn’t like that the singing alien puppet’s lips didn’t move enough, so he decided to “fix” that by putting in a much more elaborate musical number to go with the new CG lips. Thanks, George. Thankfully “Lapti Nek” was included on the 4 CD Star Wars Anthology box set.
The other missing music is “Ewok Celebration”, which fans worldwide know as “Yub Nub”. This Ewok song was one of those miserable little teddy bears’ few redeeming qualities. “Ewok Celebration” is replaced by the bland new “Victory Celebration” which ends the film. Thankfully the original music is also on the Anthology box set. (I would like to get that.)
Yub Nub!
Return of the Jedi gets off to a slower start than the other soundtracks. Instead of a battle or vicious Wampa attack, Jedi opened with a couple droids wandering through the desert before finding gainful employment with Jabba the Hutt. I know, right? How could that not make for exciting music? It’s not until Luke Skywalker confronts Jabba (track 6) that things start to move. Until then, the music remains largely atmospheric and creepy. There are a few unforgettable musical cues, such as that which accompanies Han Solo’s thawing.
Because Jedi was the third movie in a trilogy, it revisits a lot of familiar themes. The music for “The Imperial March” is heard several times for example (such as within “The Emperor Arrives”), but there isn’t much in terms of new memorable themes. I suppose that is to be expected. The nature of the film, including the deaths of beloved characters and other upsetting revelations, lent themselves to a darker soundtrack. A lot of atmospheric pieces helped underscore the mood of these scenes. This is offset by child-like Ewok segments of brightness.
A nice touch is the inclusion of alternate versions. The exciting “Sail Barge Assault” is included in an alternate take. There is also a sweeping concert suite of “The Forest Battle” on disc two. “Lapti Nek” and “Yub Nub” would have been nice, but in 1997 George was really trying to bury the original versions of the films forever. I’ll just have to find an old record, or that Anthology box.
The original music, excised for the Special Edition, is what this CD misses most.
ALICE COOPER – The Alice Cooper Show(1977 Warner Bros.)
The Alice Cooper Show is far from a perfect example of Alice in the mighty 1970’s — for a much better live album experience, pick up Billion Dollar Babies (the deluxe edition) which contained a live album recorded by the original Alice Cooper band. Having said that, the band here are not slouches. Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter were great guitar players who defined the late 70’s period of Alice. However, the albums were starting to slide — Go To Hell and Lace & Whiskey were more notable for ballads like “You And Me” and “I Never Cry” rather than idiosyncratic Cooper rockers or horror tunes.
The recording of this album is fine, but the record is far too brief. Aside from the fact that there are too many ballads (time-wise, over a quarter of this album are ballads!), a lot of the songs are truncated versions. “Sick Things” for example is less than a minute as it segues into “Is It My Body”. Likewise, there is an “I Love the Dead”/”Go to Hell”/”Wish You Were Here” medley where I wish I could have had more. Then again, Alice has always done medleys of tunes, since he has so damn many.
I have nothing negative to say about the singing or performance. The band were outstanding, featuring some of the best players Alice has shared the stage with. They even featured Canadian bassist Prakash John who was previously in the original band Bush with Dominic Troiano (R.I.P). It’s hard to say exactly why The Alice Cooper Show doesn’t completely click. Certainly the medleys and song excerpts make it feel like an overly rushed affair, and even considering that, it’s missing too many great tunes. “Elected”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, and “Welcome to My Nightmare” would have been perfect.* Perhaps Warner should have shelled out for a full-on 2 LP set? But Alice was a fading property in 1977, with an infamous stint in rehab to follow.
This record fails to deliver what Alice was really about. The album cover gives it all away. It looks rushed, with truncated images of Alice and his live show. Serious fans will need it to complete the collection. Otherwise, stick to the Billion Dollar Babies deluxe package for a seriously awesome live 1970’s Alice experience.
3/5 stars
* Looks like a lot of those songs were dropped from the set in ’77.
RECORD STORE TAKES MkII: Getting More Tale #414: Get the Firehouse!
Initially, I wanted to do a post called “Miscellaneous Mailings”, with all sorts of fan club and fanzine paraphernalia. Once I started digging through said bags and boxes of postal paraphernalia, I realized I had enough Kiss curiosities here just to do a post on them alone.
Canada’s Firehouse Magazine’s claim to fame was being the longest running Kiss fan club in world. Based out of Surrey BC, I first became aware of Firehouse via Len, a customer of mine at the Record Store. They had an actual mail order service where you could buy Kiss bootlegs, both audio and video. That must have really chapped Gene’s ass. We all know how much Gene likes fansites and fanzines….
Len gave me the Firehouse catalogue which I used to buy a live tape and some back issues. There are plenty of cool things inside these books to drool over. News about concert dates, new releases, chart positions and set lists were regular. There are even exclusive interviews! The Sept./Oct. 1996 issue features the Ace man himself! I really like the personals ads in the back. “Hey Kissexy female Kiss fans of all ages! I will answer all!”
Other neat things I found in the bag o’ mail: bumper stickers, an official Kiss catalogue, and the sales chart from Canada’s The Record magazine, showing Kiss’ Psycho-Circus debuting at #2 on the top retail albums! The only thing that held it back was the Armageddon soundtrack, which jumped to #1 after 16 weeks on the charts. Take a look for yourself, and bask in the nostalgia of a period that boasted such luminaries as Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys on the charts.
Lastly, and certainly not least: an unsigned letter from “Gene Simmons” to my mom, who put the Kisstory II book on her credit card. Gene was apologizing for a manufacturing delay that had caused the book to be several months late. He assured my mom that her credit card would not be charged until the book shipped. How kind of him! I thought this was amusing, so I kept the letter! I’m sure my mom appreciated hearing it from Gene personally.
STAR WARS: The Empire Strikes Back – Special Edition original motion picture soundtrack (1997 RCA limited edition with holographic discs, original soundtrack released 1980)
Composed and conducted by John Williams
When I was 8 years old, this was my favourite album. It was my favourite album for a long time. I didn’t have a lot of albums when I was young, but The Empire Strikes Back was a clear favourite. It was only usurped by Styx’s Kilroy Was Here several years later.
Even when I was a child I had a sense that this one was something special. The Empire Strikes Back contains one of the best known Star Wars anthems ever: “The Imperial March”. Hard to imagine today, but that piece of music did not exist when the original Star Wars came out in 1977. The character of Darth Vader grew tremendously in the second film, and I think “The Imperial March” helped drive it home.
As far as I’m concerned, composer John Williams is a rock star. He makes instrumental concept albums. That is exactly the way that my rocker ears hear this music. I cannot express how true to me that is. For me, this album (in its original double LP format) was like The Wall, Tommy, or Quadrophenia. It has always been a rollicking journey to listen to, preferably loud. It has swells and drops, peaks and valleys. It has memorable “songs” that you can go back to over and over and over again.
The original soundtrack from 1980 was a massive two record set, but it was still only long enough to contain 75 minutes of the film’s music. This double CD has a whopping 124 minutes — the complete score. Even all these years later, revisiting the soundtrack, I can immediately tell when a piece of music wasn’t on the original record. “Ice Planet Hoth” was the first such moment. Other pieces such as “The Magic Tree” are very familiar because I played those records so many times! As a kid, I don’t think I even realized that the LPs didn’t have all the music.
Having the whole soundtrack, in order, on CD, is a real treat. It makes me want to take a dig through my parents’ basement and dig up my old Kenner Millenium Falcon. Or even better, get the bigger, badder, awesomer new one. That thing looks incredible…but I digress. My point is, it reignites that feeling I had as a kid. I’d hear this music, and go grab my Falcon toy, and “fly” it around. That feeling hasn’t gone away. In fact, with this baby remastered the way it is, I’d say that feeling is stronger than ever.
Other honorable mentions: “The Battle of Hoth”, “The Asteroid Field”, “Mynock Cave”, and “Yoda’s Theme”. All these are almost as memorable as “The Imperial March”.
Since I’m not musically schooled in any way, I wanted to talk to someone who is. I spoke to world-renowned bass clarinetist Kathryn Ladano about the music:
This album is one of my favourite soundtracks, and I still listen to it often. In fact, when I got my new turntable for Christmas, the original LP soundtrack for Empire was the very first album I played on it. In terms of Star Wars soundtracks, I think this is the best one. I am certainly more critical of John Williams’ soundtracks in general now than I was as a kid because I now know that much of his material was “borrowed” from other composers, but despite that knowledge, this album still has a lot of iconic and evocative themes. My favourite is probably “The Asteroid Field”, but obviously “The Imperial March” is pretty amazing too.
If I had to pinpoint a favourite moment in this soundtrack, it actually appears during the track “Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader’s Trap/Departure of Boba Fett”. From about 5:10 to 5:20 is a series of dissonant chords that I have always loved the sound of (especially the one at 5:17 – 5:18!). Long before I studied music or played an instrument, those dissonant chords resonated with me and I still love hearing them.
I now know what album I’m going to listen to today.
I’m fortunate to have the limited edition CD wallet version of this soundtrack. As with A New Hope, the discs are hologram etched. This time, instead of the striking image of the Death Star, it’s just a fairly flat Imperial logo. Not quite as awesome.
POISON – Native Tongue (1993 Capitol)
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