Maybe I’m reading too much into this. But why would the other four guys form a new band without Tate? While not unprecedented (see: Talk Show/Stone Temple Pilots) it’s certainly rare, and raises eyebrows.
DOUBLE UPDATE WITH GRAVY: The Queensryche camp are denying any trouble saying that the band are just staying busy with side projects. Sure. A side project with everybody except the singer? Playing all Queensryche tunes from the EP to Empire? Bullshit!
When I was at the store, I grew a very thick skin. Unfortunately record store customers can be dicks, a considerable percentage in fact, especially when you throw in the “buy and sell” factor. Then you get people looking for money for every reason you can imagine. I’ve had people throw things at me. I’ve had people call me an asshole. I’ve had people call me gay (not that there is anything wrong with that!), question my eyesight, and question my hearing.
One guy was pissed off that his CD was too scratched for me to buy. So instead of keeping a CD that he claimed played perfectly fine, he chose to shatter it in his hands, sending little plastic shrapnel shards at my face.
Once I had a pencil thrown at my head. I can’t even remember the context anymore, but I do remember that Kam was having issues with a customer. I assume it was over the selling of used CDs to the store, it always was. Kam seemed to be struggling a bit, so I stepped over to help. Again I don’t remember the details of what happened, but he zeroed in on me, and didn’t cool down. I was probably backing Kam up in whatever he was saying. This guy was pissed. He didn’t give a shit about Kam, he asked for my name. I remember thinking, “My name? What the hell did I do to him?” He then threw the pencil at my head, and walked out.
I said to Kam, “I don’t make enough money to put up with people throwing shit at my head.”
But, like I said, you grow a thick skin. You go home and on to the next day. The only thing left is a good Record Store Tale.
When I first started out, the boss taught me a really smart lesson.
If someone comes in and asks for something we don’t have, never say, ‘I can order it for you’. Instead, you should say, “I can call you when the next one comes in”.
That was really smart. People feel guilty about ordering stuff, so not all people want to do that. But if you word it as if it was coming in anyway, they don’t feel bad about putting you out, and it seems like less of a big deal if they don’t pick it up.
Usually the next question was, “When is the next one coming in?” You’d give the standard answer of “one to two weeks”. And that usually was the case.
Except this one time, a guy walked in looking for the Stones. Specifically, he wanted Love You Live.
“Have you heard of a Rolling Stones album called Love You Live?” he began. Of course, I had. Live at the El Mocambo in Toronto. I knew we didn’t stock it, but the Stones were on Sony and easy to get.
“Yep, I know it. We don’t have one in right now, but I can give you a call when the next one comes in,” went the standard answer.
“Really?” he asked. “You carry that?”
“Oh sure,” I said. “We have usually have it in, I just sold our copy last week, so a re-stock is on order anyway,” I lied.
He seemed absolutely shocked, then overjoyed, then offered me $50 personally to get it in for him. That is, the price of the CD plus a $50 tip. That seemed a little out of place to me, but hey, guy was a fan, right?
What I neglected to do was check the catalog from our distrubuter. Instead, I just wrote the guy’s name and number down and told him we’d give him a call. Well, when the boss went to order that CD, it was not in the catalogue. It also wasn’t in the importer’s catalog. However, that didn’t mean we couldn’t get it, so he dutifully ordered it anyway and I assumed all would be well.
For whatever reason, Love You Live (much like some other important albums like Kill ‘Em All and Garage Days) went out of print in the 90’s. This was usually due to record label disputes and whatnot. Love You Live was commanding $50 and $60 price tags, used, at record shows at that time. I was not aware of this. No wonder the guy seemed so excited.
Well, it took a few weeks for me to realize that the CD was not coming in. In those few weeks, the guy showed up every Wednesday asking if his disc was in. He looked so crushed every time I told him no. But it should be here next week.
The album was remastered and reissued in 1998 at a reasonable price, and remastered yet again in 2010 to milk it one more time.
Still, I want to personally apologize to Mr. Stones Fan for probably ruining your year. Sorry man. My bad.
Got this update from my buddy Aaron:
Dude
Yeah, I had to get my copy of Love You Live, at the time, in the box set I got as a gift. Covered 1971-1989. It’s a sweet live record. Especially the last four tracks of the set, holy.
My memory tells me there were others of theirs that were hard to get for a long time, too (before remasters). Couldn’t tell you which ones, though. I had them all. ;)
This was an idea that came from Kevin. For a while there, he was making a new mix CD every month, made up of the best stuff he was listening to in the last 30 days or so. The idea was, you’d have a neat chronicle of your most impactful listening experiences. And a good mix CD in general.
Knowing that I was into making mix discs, Kevin passed this concept down to me. I held it faithfully for three months. Then it became every other month…every six months…when I felt like it…etc.
But, the end result is, I do have a chronicle of whatever period I’m capturing on those discs.
And I called them Integrity Mix.
For example, I have one here that was made in October of 2004. It has goofy stuff (William Shatner). It has stuff that reminded me of friends (“Mr. Bad Guy” by Freddie Mercury) and enemies (“Asshole” by Gene Simmons).
But there’s also a subtle common thread in some of the songs. This was during a long stint in Oakville. I was sinking pretty low at that time. I was spending 2 1/2 hours commuting every day, minimum. I was working long hours and I wasn’t eating right. I was stressed beyond my limit. But mostly I was lonely and homesick a lot of that time.
So you see songs with titles like “Wish I Could Be There”, “Comin’ Home”, “We Stand Alone”, “To Be Alive Again”, “By the Grace of God” and “The Battle Rages On”. The sounds are equally melancholy: “Loosen My Strings” by Deep Purple is an example, but it doesn’t get any sadder sounding than “This is the Day” by Captain Beefheart. The mix disc from the following month, November, got even darker.
On the other hand, I have the mix CD from the month Jen and I got married. It has tunes on it by Kiss (“And Then She Kissed Me”), The Darkness (“I Believe in a Thing Called Love”), the Beatles (“Here Comes the Sun”), and Zappa (“Peaches en Regalia”) which to me reflect a much more positive state of mind!
It’s cool that I have those discs, and they are always a great listen no matter what state of mind you’re in. Think about it: It’s the best of the best of the best shit you were listening to for any given month of your life. I don’t get embarassed by what I was listening to 10 years ago, and we always have a blast playing these in the car.
After a chaotic decade of lineup changes, solo-but-not-solo albums, record label switcharoos, and a few aborted attempts to reconcile with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi finally did something that we fans had been wishing for: He recovened the classic Mob Rules lineup of the band, featuring fellow cohorts in rock Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, Vinnie Appice, and unofficial keyboardist Geoff Nicholls.
The results were staggering: Dehumanizer, the best Black Sabbath since Born Again at least, and Sabotage at best. It is incredibly heavy even for Black Sabbath, topped only by the same lineup’s The Devil You Know in 2009. Yet heaviness alone would not make any album a classic. Dehumanizer is marked by outstanding production (by Mack of Queen fame), newfound seriousness in the lyrical department, and a certain rhythmic thrift courtesy of Appice. To me, Dehumanizer is among the best of all Sabbath albums, and that includes Ozzy’s. For that vintage guitar sound, Iommi resurrected his old Gibson SG that he used back in the Paranoid days. That’s why it sounds like a monster puking distortion out of the speakers.
A track like “Computer God” relies on Appice’s relentless hammering, until Iommi’s riff subdues you into a pulp. None of these songs are immediate. The sludge of “After All (The Dead)” crawls along, but slowly burrows its way into your memory. My personal favourite song is “I”, which…man, I won’t even try to describe it, except to say that it’s awesome.
The liner notes reveal that the band had to convince Dio to drop the rainbows and dragons from the lyrics, and the album is that much more powerful for it. This carried on through to some of Ronnie’s solo albums as well. It is a shame that this newfound seriousness did not strike a chord with the grunge scenesters of the time.
This deluxe edition is pretty much as good as they get. It collects every B-side side and associated track for Dehumanizer, as well as one previously unreleased one. On the bonus disc you will find three non-album versions of “Master of Insanity”, “Letters From Earth”, and “Time Machine” (the version from Wayne’s World). “Letters From Earth” is an early version with slightly different lyrics and riffs. This had been on a B-side before.
You also get five live tracks, all from single B-sides. This was a real coup for me, as I didn’t even know these existed before. I missed out on those singles. As far as live songs go, they could be better. “Die Young” is a mere two minutes long (you can hear that it was about to merge into “Too Late” before the fade). Geoff Nicholl’s keyboards are mixed in too loudly. “Master of Insanity” is previously unreleased, and although unlisted it is actually a medley with “After All (The Dead)”. I’m glad that this brief era of Sabbath has been documented with some live songs, and Dio was in peak form back then.
For some reason, I couldn’t get this from the Canadian Amazon site. I had to order it in from the States. Weird.
5/5 stars. A crucial slab of Sabbath that has now been given the appropriate treatment, same as Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules. Complete your collection.
When customers order discs, as a rule of thumb, it was always a good idea to, at minimum, get the name of the person you are ordering for. So, imagine the scenario about to unfold….
Perfectly normal looking middle aged guy, dressed in a suit and tie, walks in and wants some Stevie Ray Vaughan. I say, OK, I can get you such-and-such an album for ‘x’ amount of dollars and I can get it here before the weekend. Are you interested? Can I get your name?
“Yeah, can you hold it for S.F.G?”
S.F.G.? That’s who you want us to ask for on the phone?
“Yeah. Short Fat Guy. S.F.G. See ya.”
I swear to God because you can’t make this shit up, he always gave that as his name. I had to call him once. “Hi, is this S.F.G.?”
I’ll tell you something, it was a game we all played with each other, when we had to call customers for their orders. But nobody ever wanted to call the ones with the weird names. S.F.G. Koolio. Yeah, one guy was in the system as “Koolio”.
So we’d always leave the weird named ones for whoever was working next. If I was working in the day, I would put a note on it saying, “Call during evening.” If I was working the night, I would write a note saying, “Number busy, try during day.”
Check out the cool video below for some SFG…err…I mean SRV!
Shortly after we kicked off our website, we ran into a brand new breed of customer. This breed was probably accidentally created in a lab when scientists cross the “annoying customer” with the “computer” and tossed in some DNA from “the internet”.
These guys bought the same titles, over and over and over again. Then they would re-sell them on eBay and double their money. The problem is these guys would get up early in the morning, check the website updates, and snag them before sane people wake up.
Some of the titles they were always hunting for:
Alanis Morissette – Alanis
Alanis Morissette – Now is the Time
These were Alanis’ first two dance-pop discs that have never been reissued. For obvious reasons.
Another:
Last of the Mohicans – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
This classic score was out of print for a long time. That, and it’s dramatic quality, made it a classic for eBaying.
The Traveling Wilburys – Vol 1
The Traveling Wilburys – Vol 3
Before these two albums were reissued recently with bonus material, they were completely unavailable. People were willing to pay up to and over $50 for the first one on eBay.
There were pretty strict company rules about staff buying product for resale on eBay for their own personal profit. You can see why this would be so, the store is not there to supply an employee’s personal eBay business.
However before that rule kicked in, and eBay was new to the world, a few of us tried selling some stuff as an experiment. I remember getting good good money for the following, which I sold multiple times:
Freddie Mercury – Mr. Bad Guy
The Tea Party – Release (EP)
Now it’s almost impossible to imagine a time when you couldn’t get (almost) anything on eBay, if you can afford it. Yet there are still some things I’m hunting for, and I have not found yet on eBay. If you have either of these, drop me a line!
The Cult – Capsule 2
The Sultans of Ping F.C. – Casual Sex in the Cineplex
First of all, this Victoria Day weekend, I would like to apologize to the nations of the world, for Nickelback. You forgave us for Celine, you forgave us for Bryan Adams, do we get three strikes?
NICKELBACK – Dark Horse
the only thing that could make me feel worse about my life would be to play bass for nickelback. — Mike Jackson, actor, “Trevor” on Trailer Park Boys.
As if Nickelback weren’t bad enough on their own, here comes Mutt Lange to “polish” their sound! The result is an album that — guess what! — sounds like a cross between Nickelback and Def Leppard. Don’t believe me? Check out those “HEY”‘s on “Shakin’ Hands”. Lifted straight out of “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, but without the sugar. This is more like aspartame.
In fact this is one of the least fun album about beer and chicks that I’ve ever heard. Kroeger’s overwrought, over-serious singing style makes this one tedious listen. I’ve never heard a “party” band take themselves so seriously before. Even Metallica don’t take themselves this seriously.
The lyr-yucks are a nauseating mix of cliche after cliche, stripper after stripper, beer after beer. But without a wink and a smile, like David Lee Roth used to do. This time, nobody’s laughing.
Worst songs:
“Something In Your Mouth” (how can a band write such stupid lyrics? With rapping?)
“This Afternoon” (a pretty dour sounding party)
“Shakin’ Hands” (Nickelfunk?)
“If Today Was Your Last Day” (philosphy 4 dummies )
There’s a reason Nickelback are hated by millions and got rocks thrown at them in Greece. This album boils it all down into one handy package for you to piss on.
No stars.
My favourite thing about Chad Kroeger is how dumb he sounds when he’s trying to sound smart!
In 2008, the year we got married, Jen was diagnosed with epilepsy. Some people with epilepsy never have a seizure, once diagnosed and medicated. Unfortunately for us, Jen is not one of those people.
It’s been a long hard struggle, but we have made it through so far with humour and a positive attitude. One part of having a positive attitude came from my research on the illness. While researching epilepsy online, I discovered that numerous rock stars have it, but still function! Knowing this was a huge boost to our attitudes, because being on stage involves lots of lights, and lights can be a trigger for many people with epilepsy.
I constructed a 4 O’Clock 4-Play for Craig at 107.5 Dave FM, involving this theme. My goal was simply to raise awareness. I told Craig, “If just one person hears this and learns something about epilepsy then my work is done, because so many people have no idea what it is.” Judging by the feedback I got, it did succeed in getting people thinking!
1. Prince. The royal single-monikered one was born epileptic and suffered a lot of taunting at school. He’s obviously come a long way since! I submitted “Let’s Go Crazy” in my 4-play but Craig subbed in a collaboration with Stevie Nicks which was fine by me!
2. LindsayBuckingham. He was born with a mild form of the disease, but still manages to tour with Fleetwood Mac. Good on him! I chose “Go Your Own Way”.
3. AdamHorovitz. This Beastie Boy is sensitive to flashing lights, which I am sure they use in their stage show. It certainly didn’t seem to hold him back from massive success. For this 4-play I chose “Sabotage”.
4. NeilYoung. He was medicated for epilepsy as a child, but didn’t like the side effects of the meds, which can go all over the spectrum depending on you and your meds. Neil chose to make lifestyle changes instead, and has lived without medication since! And, obviously, rocked the world. Good on you Neil. I used “Rockin’ in the Free World”.
Epilepsy scares a lot of people when they see a seizure happen. Don’t be scared, but if you want to learn more, check out some of these links.
mikeladano.com 