REVIEW: KISS – Off The Soundboard – Poughkeepsie NY 11.26.1984

 – Off the Soundboard – Poughkeepsie NY 11.26.1984 (2023 Universal)

Are you getting sick of reading all the same complaints about the new Kiss Off the Soundboard CD from Poughkeepsie NY 1984, the fifth in this series?

Me too!

If you can’t appreciate the historical value of a Mark St. John show with Kiss, then I can’t help you.

If you didn’t know Kiss played these songs at lightspeed in the 1980s, then you never saw Animalize Live Uncensored.

And if you don’t know what an official bootleg is, then this CD is not for you anyway.

Actually, the only thing I’m really sick of is typing “Poughkeepsie”!

There are Kiss bootlegs with Mark floating around out there.  I can’t vouch for the audio quality on those.  This, I can tell you, is soundboard quality, which in my opinion is the best way to hear a live album.  Unpolished, the way it was that night on the board.  I love hearing the band make mistakes.  I have no problem with the fact you can barely hear the bass on some tracks, and too much on others.  The vocals are clear and each member is distinct in their singing.  Whether you think Paul is too “erratic” or not, that’s personal taste.

The setlist is similar to Animalize Live.  You won’t hear any Animalize deep cuts that were not on that video.  Two songs are incomplete (“Young and Wasted” and “Rock and Roll all Nite”) due to tape issues but are included for their historical significance.  No issues here.  In fact, “Rock and Roll all Nite” might be better this way…it often drags on too long at the end of a show!

The jazz-influenced Mark definitely added his own style and twists to the solos, even simple ones like “Detroit Rock City”.  There, he inserted an extra note or two to make it his.  Mark was a shredder, and that was the direction Kiss wanted to go in at that time.  It was the 80s.  Bands had to have shredders if they wanted the kids to take them seriously.  Mark wasn’t even Kiss’ first shredder, but he was certainly unique.  There’s a lot of whammy bar, and some pretty wicked licks on songs like “Fits Like a Glove”.  Now, before you get too excited, the “Guitar Solo” listed on the back cover is Paul Stanley’s familiar solo that he was playing during that era.

Mark aside, Eric Carr is a star on this album.  He was a busier drummer than Peter Criss and he goes to town on songs like “Cold Gin” and “Under the Gun”.  Fox fans will not want to miss this CD in their collection.  Peak Eric.  His drum solo will be familiar, yet will also most likely sound better than any version you currently own.  Unfortunately he stops singing on part of “Young and Wasted”, which is one of the partial songs anyway, so no big deal.  We have him singing that on Animalize Live.

Paul Stanley’s performance is pure rock and roll, and especially expressive on “I Still Love You”, but many have complained about the F-bombs dropped during his intro to “Love Gun”.  Hey…check out the Animalize Live version for something naughtier than an F-bomb!

If you’re Kiss collector, this is ending up in your library regardless.  Choose your format and go wild like the animals.

3.5/5 stars for the quality

3.5/5 stars as a “Kiss show”

5/5 stars for historical value and significance to the Kiss army

Grab A Stack of Rock Shirts & Merch are arriving!

Just look at these handsome devils and one Dr. of Music!

Store:  teepublic.com/user/grab-a-stack-of-rock

Neurotic Outsiders on Grant’s Rock Warehaus TONIGHT!

Tonight I will be LIVE on Grant’s Rock Warehaus to discuss a forgotten 90s supergroup: the Neurotic Outsiders!

The 90s were a weird time.  For all intents and purposes, one of the biggest bands in the world was gone:  Guns N’ Roses.  We had to settle for solo albums from Duff, Slash, Gilby and Izzy.

Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan teamed up with Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, and John Taylor from Duran Duran, to form the punky supergroup Neurotic Outsiders.  They made one album.  One and done!  But what an album it was.  We’ll be discussing all this and more tonight on Grant’s Rock Warehaus!

7:00 PM EST

#1056: Spring Metal on the Other Side of Winter

RECORD STORE TALES #1056: Spring Metal on the Other Side of Winter

I think many people share my sentiment that this winter was absolutely brutal.

Since ages past, it has always been a celebration when the sun emerges warmly after a long, cold winter.  Memories flooding back.  So many memories.

1986.  On the back porch at the cottage, playing “Turbo Lover” and “Locked In”, freshly recorded in mono from MuchMusic, from the brand new Judas Priest album Turbo.   I was probably told to turn it down….

1987.  On my bike.  I had received The Final Countdown by Europe for Easter.  It was difficult for me to get into; different from what I was used to.  I remember cruising down Carson Ave on my bike with that album in my head.  Best track for me:  “Cherokee”.  I loved the keyboard hook and the chorus.

1988.  I was given Skyscraper by David Lee Roth for Easter.  It became a “warm weather album” that spring, played many times weekly in a Walkman while riding a bike or strolling through the neighbourhood looking for girls.  (Not that I ever found any.)  Memories of setting up my ghetto blaster on the front porch, with Skyscraper serenading the street.  That cassette wore out rapidly.  It was one my first CD re-buys a couple years down the road (spring ’91).

1989.  Trying to look cool, and practicing my guitar on the front patio for the world to see.  I was never any good, but I am sure that “Mary Had A Little Lamb” really delivered the spring-like vibes I was laying down.  In my earphones were things like New Jersey by Bon Jovi, House Of Lords’ self-titled debut, Quiet Riot’s latest with Paul Shortino on lead vocals.  Amazingly though, 1987’s Hysteria by Def Leppard was still in my Walkman.  The album had incredibly long legs.  I was hoping for one more single, which never came to be.  I picked “Love and Affection” as my favourite in ’89.  Then, I had some new buys!  We had just joined Columbia House.  I split the membership with my sister and picked up these treasures that rocked my whole spring:

  1. Leatherwolf – Leatherwolf
  2. Motley Crue – Girls, Girls, Girls
  3. Hurricane – Over the Edge
  4. Stryper – To Hell With the Devil
  5. Stryper – In God We Trust
  6. White Lion – Pride
  7. Sammy Hagar – VOA

Shortly after the first seven, I added Triumph Stages to the list, which carried on rocking me into the summer of 1989.  That year was one of the most critical in my life as a music fan, and the spring motherlode from Columbia House had a lot to do with it.

1990.  I was now working at the local grocery store, Zehrs.  Short-haired and geekier than ever, I was really getting in Black Sabbath.  Pushing the shopping carts in long lines, singing “Sweet Leaf”, but having no idea what it was about.  When I declared it as my favourite Black Sabbath song, people reacted strangely and I didn’t know why.  I guess they thought I was into the pot!  I thought the “Leaf” of the song was a girl named Leaf.

1991.  The end of highschool loomed…I felt very free.  Very excited about the future.  The future of hard rock.  Little did I know!  I was listening to a lot of the new Mr. Big that spring, an album called Lean Into It.  I thought they had really refined their sound.  I had also taken the dive into indi rock, and Raw M.E.A.T was absolutely one of my favourite CDs that spring.

Good place to end this trip down memory land:  happy memories, all of them!  I wonder what will be dominating the car stereo with the windows down this spring?

#1055: Alone Again

RECORD STORE TALES #1055: Alone Again

I think I’ve felt alone most of my life.  Alone inside my head.  Sometimes creating worlds of imagination, sometimes overthinking the world around me.  I guess not much has changed in that regard.

Eventually you come to crave that alone feeling, even when you would be better off out with friends.  Just because that alone feeling is what is safe and comfortable to you.  It’s a situation you can control.

I suppose this lonely feeling began in grade school, where I did not fit in and had few kids that I would consider truly friends.  We were not “friends” because we liked one another, we were “friends” because we were in the same grade at school.  It was a case of proximity and temporal coincidence and nothing more.  Those kids — Kevin Kirby, Ian Johnson, Kenny Lawrence — they were not my friends.  We might have spent time together, but by the end of the 8th grade they had sided with the bullies and expelled from my life.

My friends from my neighbourhood were the real deal.  But we weren’t in school together.  We were separated most of the time.  And so for just about all of grade school, I felt alone.  Hearing conversations I was not a part of, wishing I was in on others’ jokes, or longing to be picked first for something.  Anything.  It was not meant to be for me.

As I got older and friends moved on with work, school, and families, I spent a lot of time in my room listening to music.  Though it is not something I do anymore, and kind of wish I did, I used to lay on the bed, playing an album for the first time, and reading the lyrics along line by line.  Studying them, trying to penetrate the meaning.  Squinting the eyes to read the tiny print on the inside of a cassette J-card.

Though I’m not alone today, and have not been for 17 years, it’s startling sometimes how easily I can slip back into that mindset.  It can happen in the car or on the couch.  I retreat into my head, and those feelings of isolation creep back like the tide.  I remember loving and hating the Rush song “Subdivisions”.  A great song, with a phat synth riff that echoes in the head for days.  But the lyrics hit a little too close to him.  “Be cool or be cast out.”  Was that my fate, to be cast out every time I tried?  Only when it stopped mattering if people were cool or not did I finally feel like I was no longer alone.

Sometimes retreating into those lonely spaces one more time can result in helpful introspection.  Other times, it just brings me down.  The constant has always been the music.  Music has always been there.  If it’s not in my ears, it’s always in my head.  I can hear songs in my mind when I need them.  The songs of my life’s soundtrack will always be there to accompany my smiles and tears.

REVIEW: Night Ranger – Big Life (1987)

NIGHT RANGER – Big Life (1987 MCA)

This CD was a gift from Tim Durling, and this review is simply a conversation with Tim Durling!

Tim:  Big Life might sound dated to you, it is very 1987 and possibly one of their mellowest albums. Of course I have a soft spot for it, but then I like the band.

Me:  That’s the one I’m popping in now actually.

Tim:  Your Big Life is a fancy 2009 remaster that I’d never seen before. The original was my very first CD back in 1990.

Me:  Oh jeez, it’s the album with “Secret Of My Success!”  Now I have two copies of that song…The booklet is nice, full lyrics.

Tim:  You can file that under guilty pleasure for me, I know it’s cheesy but “worlds collide, and hearts will be broken” damn it’s so catchy.

Me:  Wow, Blades’ name is on every single songwriting credit.

Tim:  Fun fact: there are two different covers, and I didn’t know that till I had Josh from Fans in Motion on my show.  Same band shot, but some copies have less stuff in the background. I love learning stuff like that.

Me:  Interesting. So somebody said “We need to add a spotlight and a wall” to some versions.

Me:  Wow this opening track is very…Umm…Faux-macho.  Sorry, not liking “Big Life” the track.  It’s like when Warrant tried to act tough on “We Will Rock You”.

Tim:  Doesn’t bode well, but I did say it will sound dated to you.  If you’re looking for a more typical catchy Night Ranger tune, I’d recommend “Carry On”, maybe my favourite on this album.

Me:  I’m gonna give it a fair shake.  This guitar solo is great. Gillis?

Tim:  Not always sure who does which solos, all I know is that if you hear crazy whammy bar, that’s Brad.

Me:  “Color of Your Smile” is better.  I like this one.  Very youthful lyric.

Tim:  Wow, I figured you’d hate it.

Me:  No,  there’s something here that reminds me of youthful summers.  Fuck, this is good. Didn’t see this dual solo coming.  OK, so we have a winner here on track 2, good tune.  If I had this as a kid, it would have been the song I played for girls to get them to like me.

Me:  “Love Is Standing Near” – starting well.

Tim:  That’s encouraging.

Me:  It’s the guitar that sets this band apart for me. Puts them a level up.

Tim:  Definitely one of their calling cards.

Me:  Now I’m on the David Foster produced song (“Secret Of My Success”) that we already know my opinion of.  I really hate it.

Tim:  I will accept that, frowning.  But I get it if you didn’t grow up with it.

Me:  It’s like they’re using the ZZ Top Afterburner book of samples

Tim:  With you there, way overboard on the bells and whistles.

Me:  “Carry On” is a little corny, but might grow on me.  Actually…love it…Very Bon Jovi to my ears, but better vocally.

Tim:  Probably why I like it, never made that connection.

Me:  “Better Let It Go” – I like the acoustic, don’t like the drum loops.

Tim:  “Better Let it Go” is a great faux-ballad, sabotaged by Fitz’s unfortunate decision to use the “French horn” patch similar to Don Henley’s “Sunset Grill”.

Me:  It was a thing. I never liked that kind of thing, but it was a thing.

Tim:  Get ready for the French horn patch.

Me:  Oh it’s like House of Lords French horn.  “Under Blue Skies”.   Yup, I hear it.

Tim:  Down at the sunset grill.

Me:  Marillion have some like this too.

Tim:  I have to say I was most apprehensive about your thoughts on this album, so not bad.

Me:  Well, I mean context is important, 1987 was peak synth.

Tim:  Yes.

Me:  Things got toned down in ’88, ’89, ’90 and then of course ’91 killed synth!  …This guitar solo is great.  Why are Gillis and Watson named more frequently on lists individually, rather than as a duo?  Just strikes me, these guys are absolutely up there with the great duos.

Me:  “I Know Tonight” is a little overwrought.

Tim:  Man, I can’t predict shit.

Me:  OK, now it’s kicking in.

Tim:  I thought you’d dig it.

Me:  Now it’s like “Turn On the Night” by Kiss.

Tim:  It is! Good comparison.

Me:  Yeah see this would have been kicking it in my stereo in 1987-88, IF ONLY MUCHMUSIC PLAYED THESE GUYS ON THE POWER HOUR. I never heard this music

Me:  Please tell me they’re not ending this album on a ballad.

Tim:  They’re ending this album on a ballad.

Me:  Ah damn.

3.5/5 stars

Happy Easter Gallery! KISS’ Off The Soundboard: Poughkeepsie 11/28/1984 has arrived!

Jen beat Covid just in time to enjoy a happy Easter with the family.

I rocked my brand new Grab A Stack of Rock “Faces” hoodie, and unboxed the new KISS Off The Soundboard:  Poughkeepsie 11/28/1984.  This is the only soundboard show with Mark St. John on lead guitar.  This will be an interesting listen to a period of KISStory that ended prematurely.  Also opened the deluxe Blackout by Scorpions, one of the few deluxes of theirs that I was missing.  No longer!

Finally, I opened a new Apexcam, underwater camera.  My cottage videos from last year were lacking in underwater footage.  The old camera case had finally cracked.  Now I have a new one, in time to up my cottage video game this summer!

 

 

Unfortunately the Jays beat the California Angels, ending Easter on a downer!  Hah.

On the bright side…we now have Tee Bone Man shirts!  Thanks Harrison!

 

 

Store address:  teepublic.com/user/grab-a-stack-of-rock

#1054: The Darkest Winter

RECORD STORE TALES #1054: The Darkest Winter

I think I’m going to go ahead and declare winter “over”.  In Canada that can be a rather meaningless gesture, but I’m going to do it anyway.  So let’s talk about mental health during the winter of 2022-23.

Winter started mild.  Most importantly though, I had this plan, see….

Well you know what they say about plans.

It was a simple plan, and it did work for the first part of the winter.  Because I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter can be the most difficult time of year for me.  Winter in Canada can be unpleasant.  Dark, wet, cold, often all three at once.  The nights are long.  The days are spent in an office.  When I arrived at work, it was still dark.  When I left for home, it was already dark.  This takes its toll.  So what was the plan, then?  The plan was to try and see winter through new eyes.  My American friend MarriedandHeels has never experienced winter.  I thought it would be fun to share images and videos of things she doesn’t see every day, like giant icicles, road salt, snowbanks and all the rest of it.  For a time, it worked.  The novelty of it was really fun.  Some of these snowbanks were mountains!  Her reactions were entertaining (especially to the idea of road salt).  However, as the months dragged it, this wore itself out on me.  Every day seemed like a repeat of the last.  The snow lingered and lingered on, accumulating and dominating the images.

Things started to go to hell.  Everyone in my family except my dad has had Covid, including my 98 year old grandmother.

Oh, my grandmother.

She took ill early this year.  We thought was was gone, twice.  I wrote her eulogy!  I came home from work early and wrote a eulogy…and she keeps hanging on.  I have grieved her twice this year already!  But she is currently doing well.

My sister has been sick, my mom has been sick, my dad is feeling the years take their toll on his body.

I’ve been sick twice, once with stomach ailments and once with Covid.  Same with Jen, but she’s had a much longer dance with Lady ‘Rona.  The isolation also takes its toll.

I would say I fell apart a couple times this winter.  Two people thought I should see a psychiatrist and get put on happy pills.  I have tried happy pills before and they do not work for me.  They wreak havoc on my stomach and I prefer to do this without prescriptions.  MarriedandHeels expressed her concern that I had fallen into a depression, and I agreed with her.

But then things started to change.  The clocks went forward, giving more daylight during the leisure hours.  The snow started to finally melt.  The birds are returning.  And soon the snow tires will be off!  And that can only mean one thing.  Cottage season!

I’m starting to feel like myself again.

This has been without a doubt the most brutal winter since the winter of cancer, 2018.  Did you know it was actually the darkest winter in Ontario in 80 years?  That means it was the darkest winter most of us have ever experienced.

Winter took its toll, did its damage, but I won.  I am still standing and it is gone.

I won.

 

 

Youtubin’: Loudness – “House of 1000 Pleasures” Live

From 1994’s live album Once And For All, it’s Loudness with the EZO cover “House of 1000 Pleasures”.  Masaki Yamada (ex-EZO) was the singer, and this live album kicked absolute ass. That riff really grooves.

Hope you enjoy.

The Adventures Of Edie Van Heelin’: Edie Meets the Wolf

THE ADVENTURES OF EDIE VAN HEELIN’:  Edie Meets the Wolf

Wolfgang Van Halen was feeling down.

He should have known better, but he opened his phone that morning to a tirade of hate on social media.  Why did he do this?  Did he have to run his own social media?  No, but he felt that giving it up would be giving in to the trolls.  They were relentless, and they were hurtful.  Not that Wolf ever let them see the hurt.  Still, he hurt inside, and it was very real.

“Why don’t you try making a name for yourself, instead of living off your father’s?” asked one troll.

Wolf grumbled to himself.  “Van Halen IS my name!” he yelled at the screen.  “What, should I change my name to Wolfgang McCartney?  Wolfgang Led Zeppelin?  What idiots these people are.  Not worth my time.  Why do I bother…”

He walked across the studio floor, plugged in a guitar, and tried to jam away the blues.  He played some licks, but a dark cloud still hung over his head, a bad mood that wouldn’t go away.

Wolf’s playing was interrupted by a sonic boom overhead.  He put his guitar down and looked out the window to see the contrails of rockets in the sky.

“Oh shit!” he exclaimed.  “I forgot!  I have a recording session today.”

He heard a knock at the studio door.

Wolf tripped over a guitar cable on the way to the door, but managed to open it with rock star-like grace.  Before him stood a vision unlike any he had seen before.

The woman at the door was dressed in head-to-toe silver.  Silver rocket boots, a sleek tight-fitting short silver dress, silver lipstick, and silver nails.  Over her shoulder was a guitar case, also in silver.  Edie Van Heelin’ had arrived.  It may only be a recording session, but she was dressed for the stage anyway!

“Edie Van Heelin’, I presume?” asked Wolf with a broad smile.

“In the flesh!” gleamed Edie, her silver lips smiling just as wide as her eyes.  Even though she had just broken the sound barrier, her long brown hair was as perfectly stick-straight as if she had just finished brushing.  “How are you, Wolf?  You know, your dad was my biggest influence on guitar.  But I love your album!  It’s so different from Van Halen, so modern, so melodic, so good!  Amazing lyrics and music!”

The two hugged.  “Thanks for saying that, Edie.  I’m having a rough day.  I miss my pop.  I hate these online trolls.”

Edie’s face turned to sadness.  “Come on, Wolf.  Let’s sit, you got any tea?”

“Of course, yeah, come in please.”  Wolf went over to the kettle and started brewing some tea.  “Green with honey, right?”  Edie nodded yes, eagerly.  Wolf laughed.  “I did my research, I made sure we had something for you today.”

A few minutes later, Wolf returned with two steaming cups.  The two sat across from each other.  Wolf picked up a guitar and randomly strummed as he sat.

Edie began speaking in a soft, understanding tone.

“I lost my dad a few years ago, too,” she began.  “I understand your pain. That song you wrote for him, ‘Distance’…it gets me.  I feel it.  I know your pain.  And trolls?  You should see what I get online.  My body, my face, my clothes, my makeup…they have an opinion about everything, and they are never happy.  And it’s every day.  You know what?  There’s only one person I can make happy, and that’s me.  So I dress how I want to dress, how I feel good.  I play the music I like, and it would not matter anyway, because they always have something to complain about.”

Wolf’s eyes went wide.

“Right?  They tell me to do my own thing, so I put out my own album, and it’s nothing like Van Halen.  Then, they tell me I should reform the band with Dave and Sammy and do a tour instead!  And then, they tell me I shouldn’t be trying to milk the Van Halen name!  I can’t do anything right according to them!”

Edie had removed her guitar from its case and was strumming along with Wolf.

“You know what the solution is Wolf?  I know that you do.”

Wolf shrugged.  “Tell me.”

Edie smiled and played a melodic line on her guitar.

“You just keep doing what you do!  Your album is awesome!  I especially love the song ‘Resolve’.  The defiance you show in that song is what you need to show to those online trolls!  Just keep being you, and remember that they only wish they were you.  Maintain your resolve!”

Wolf kicked into the main riff of the song.  Edie began singing along.

“No more flowers, what we know is not the same. Drunk with power, only you control this game!” she sang with deep conviction.

Wolf smiled as the two jammed.

“Countless hours, only you can cure this pain. You freaking coward, brought on more unwanted change!”

Wolf laughed.  “The word is ‘fucking’, Edie, not ‘freaking’!”

Edie smiled.  “Edie Van Heelin’ doesn’t F-bomb, Wolf!”

Laughing, Wolf nearly fell out of his chair.  “Seriously!?  You dress like the hottest space chick I’ve ever seen in my life, with nine inches worth of heels on your boots, and you won’t swear?”

Edie smiled.  “Nope!  Much like you Wolf, I am more than what I seem, and not what I appear to be!”

“Clearly, that is true!  I’m glad to have met you, Edie Van Heelin’.”  Wolfgang put down his guitar.  “So what are we working on today?”

Edie cranked out some chords.  “Time to start my debut album, Wolfie!  And there’s only one person I want to produce it.”

“Me?” Wolf asked with both hands pointed towards himself.

“You’re the one, Wolf, you’re my number one pick,” proclaimed Edie with the confidence she embodied.

“I could never say no to a woman as beautiful as you,” gushed Wolf.  “Fortunately, you have the talent to back it up.”

This time it was Edie who blushed.  It’s not every day you get a compliment from the son of Edward Van Halen.

“Aww thanks Wolf,” she said as she nervously played with her hair.  “I’m honoured.  Wanna hear some songs?”

Wolf nodded eagerly yes, and set up the desk to record.

This was it!  The Edie Van Heelin’ album was happening, for real now.  Edie took a moment to let it sink in.  She’d worked hard to get to this point.  Regardless of naysayers, the haters, and the trolls, she had made it this far.  Nothing would stop her now.

Wolfgang Van Halen took a seat at the console, opened some software, adjusted some levels, and said the magic words.  “We’re rolling!”

Edie dug deep, ready to rock him with her new material.  She placed her perfect silver fingertips upon the fretboard, and strummed….

…Just as the lights went out.

“What just happened?” shouted Wolf in frustration as he stumbled blindly around the studio, looking for a flashlight.  “The power just went out as we started to record?  What the hell?”

Edie shook.  This was all too familiar to her.

“I have a bad feeling about this….”

Epilogue

In orbit overhead, comfortably seated in his starship, the evil clone known as Shinzon laughed.  He got out of his chair with a flourish of his long dark hair, and placed his evil hand upon his clean-shaven Australian chin.  He laughed some more, as he looked down upon the Earth.  His boss wanted this album delayed, and Shinzon had just caused a power disruption that would keep Wolfgang’s studio down for weeks.  His boss would be very, very happy this time.

He cackled.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold!  And Edie Van Heelin’…it is very cold, in space….”

 

 

 

THE ADVENTURES OF TEE BONE MAN:  PHASE ONE – THE SQUIRREL SAGA 

THE ADVENTURES OF TEE BONE MAN:  PHASE TWO – THE MULTIVERSE SAGA

 

 

THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF EDIE VAN HEELIN’

THE WRITER’S ROOM