CKWR

REVIEW: Motley Crue – Swine Sampler (1997 promo)

MOTLEY CRUE – Swine Sampler (1997 Elektra promo EP)

Promo CDs are a funny thing.  Any promotional CD that you have ever seen or owned was free at some point in its life.  Since promos were intended to be play copies, or giveaways, selling them was highly frowned upon.  When I say “frowned upon” I mean illegal though not heavily enforced.  So it is funny that this 23 year old Motley Crue promo has “STOLEN FROM CKWR” (the very station that hosts Rob Daniels’ Visions In Sound), written on the disc in black marker.  I did my duty and reported it to CKWR just now, but weirdly enough they could care less!

The real crime here is the “clean” version of a Motley Crue song from Generation Swine, and it is an absolute hatchet job.  Unlistenable.

Why would you even bother with a “clean version” of “Find Myself”?  The very second line in the song is “I gotta find myself some BEEP”!  (The word was “drugs”!)  The first line of the chorus is “I’m a sick mother BEEP er!”  Utterly ridiculous.  You’d think someone would have played it once and said “this is unreleasable”.  I counted seven beeps in under three minutes.

If you prefer, the “dirty” version of “Find Myself” is on the CD too.  Why was the record company Elektra pushing that song so hard?  It’s a weird punky track with Nikki Sixx on vocals for the verses, with the returning Vince Neil handling the choruses.  Not the kind of thing you’d really think to push at fans all excited about Vince coming back, right?  But here it is, twice.  Though the chorus is good, I’m not going out on a limb by calling this song “shitty”.  Or BEEP-y!

Much, much, much better are the album tracks “Let Us Prey” and “Shout at the Devil ’97”.   First, “Let Us Prey”.  This is the only track that sounds like a progression from the ’94 self-titled album with John Corabi.  Crabby even has a writing credit on it, and who knows, maybe that’s him screaming “Let us hunt!”  Tommy Lee did that, according to Tommy Lee, but I think it sounds like John.  It was certainly written for John to sing.  “Shout ’97” is a cool remake of a song that didn’t need remaking, but it was 1997 so what’re ya gonna do?  Added samples and a dance-y beat made it pretty irresistible.  Mick Mars threw down some cool new licks here, although the droning guitars are very dated.  Still, passing grade for “Shout ’97”.

Even though this CD has two good tunes out of four tracks, the “clean” one is such an atrocity that this gets:

0/5 stars

and the dreaded Flaming Turd.

 

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Blade Runner radio, tonight!

edit: I cannot attend this show due to illness.

 

LIVE at 12:00 AM (ET) Saturday morning!  It’s Robert Daniels and Jason Drury on VISIONS IN SOUND with music from BLADE RUNNER!  Tune in on your dial to 98.5 or internet to CKWR.  You folks in the UK can tune in as you enjoy some morning java!

As to my own involvement, I’ve come down with a mystery cold-like illness.  Whether I can make it to the station or not remains a question mark at this point in time.  I’d certainly like to.  Even if I’m “well enough” to go, I can’t risk passing this on to anyone else.  But you should still listen, if I’m there or not!  Rob and Jason always do an entertaining show with great music.

I’d love to share my own stories of this movie.  Seeing the comic book in a convenience store.  Thinking the title was cool if ambiguous.  But wishing Harrison Ford would get back to playing Han Solo or Indiana Jones already!  (As kids, we really did think it was that simple.)  I didn’t see the movie for many years later, when it was showing on one of the new pay TV channels.  Family friends the Lazbys were over, and it didn’t make sense to anybody!  The thing I remember the most about that viewing was the guy selling eyeballs.  I think that’s the moment all of us pretty much gave up trying to enjoy it.

But times and perspectives change.

Blade Runner’s visual impact came later.  The first and most obvious example was Iron Maiden’s Somewhere In Time album.  The front and back cover art are smorgasbords of Blade Runner visuals.  Numerous films have attempted to rip off Ridley Scott’s remarkable cityscapes, notably George Lucas in Attack of the Clones.

Listen in THIS Saturday 12:00-2:00am (ET).

Sunday Chuckle: Radio Mission Accomplished Face

RECAP:  Visions In Sound – The Black Hole on 98.5 CKWR

To those of you who tuned in:  thank you!  Sorry to Holen MaGroin for not reading your email on the air.  I couldn’t quite figure out how to work “I wish I could ask about The Black Hole, but I’ve never seen it, Disney sucks ass, Fuck ’em,” into the discussion.

Thanks Rob Daniels for having me, and to Jason Drury for awesome insight and comedy relief. (Ernest Borg-ninny.)

I was doing research all week, including watching lectures from Neil DeGrasse Tyson and other scientists about black holes.  Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a harsh critic of the film, incidentally.  I was glad to have worked this into the discussion.  Due to the sheer amount of research I did, I was overprepared and hyped to go.

I always take a nap before the show, which used to air at 12:30 am.  Well, I hadn’t been on Visions In Sound for a while.  I woke up at 11:50 to have my coffee and a bite to eat.  Then my phone rang.  It was Rob and they were about to go live!  Turns out the show was back to the 12:00 am slot.  Whoops!  I hopped in the car and drove down to CKWR which happens to be only 10 minutes away anyway.  I made it in just in time for my introduction, and that’s including having to stop for a R.I.D.E. check on my way!  Thank you to the local boys in blue, always doing a fantastic job keeping us safe on the road.

Among the myriad subjects discussed, one of the most interesting to me included Rob’s topic, the blaster beam.  I’d never even heard of it before, but I have absolutely heard it before.  It’s an integral part of the soundtrack to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which I am intimately familiar with.  I thought that what I was hearing was a guitar.  Turns out it’s a bizarre 15-foot long beam of stainless steel with strings and pickups.  You can hear it readily in The Black Hole (music by John Barry), and now I know what it really is.

We also talked a bit about the toyline (available by mailing in UPC codes found on cereal boxes).  We couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room, which is the bizarre ending to a so-called “children’s film”.  In this visually stunning abstract sequence, the villain Dr. Reinhart (Maximilian Schell) embraces and merges with his robot minion called Maximilian (no relation).  Reinhart finds himself trapped in Maximilian’s shell (pun intended) ruling over a hellish landscape.  Wild-eyed and helpless, Reinhart is punished for the evil he inflicted.  Meanwhile our surviving heroes, including robot V.I.N.CENT. (Roddy McDowell) experience a wild ride including visions of a heavenly cathedral and a floating angel.  They then emerge in a brand new universe, to triumphant swells of Barry’s score.  This raises numerous questions about the film’s message on heaven, hell, morality, mortality, the soul, artificial intelligence, and more.

Thanks again to Rob for having me.  I am currently planning to be there for his 1000th episode a few weeks from now, and his Rise of Skywalker special the following week.

This episode can now be streamed at Visions in Sound, just click the link right here.

 

 

The Black Hole radio, tonight!

I will be LIVE at 12:30 AM (ET) Saturday morning with Robert Daniels and Jason Drury on VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in on your dial to 98.5 or internet to CKWR!  You folks in the UK can tune in as you enjoy some morning java!  Join Us THIS Saturday 12:30-2:30am (ET).

What a bizarre Disney film The Black Hole was.  Marketed to kids with funny looking robots from the House of Mouse, instead of a swashbuckling adventure, kids got a strange treatise on life, death, morality, mortality, God, the soul, isolation, artificial intelligence, good, evil, heaven, hell, and eternity.  It attempted to be Star Wars, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Rob, Jason and I will be playing the soundtrack by John Barry, and dissecting this interesting and puzzling film piece by piece.

For my DVD review of the The Black Hole, just click here.

 

 

The Big Lebowski radio, tonight!

I will be LIVE at 12:30 AM (ET) Saturday morning with Robert Daniels on VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in on your dial to 98.5 or internet to CKWR!  You folks in the UK can tune in as you enjoy some morning java!  Join Us THIS Saturday 12:30-2:30am (ET).

This Week On Visions In Sound – The 20th Anniversary Of The Big Lebowski – Drop in to see what condition your condition is in this week as this week we celebrate the 20th of the Coen Brothers cult classic The Big Lebowski. We will also be live on Facebook!

I’m a bit of a fan of both the movie and its excellent soundtrack.  My movie review can be found here.  Check out my cool Lebowski ID and swag!

 

 

#480.5: Transformers Radio, tonight! (Rescheduled)

RESCHEDULED!

You got the touch!  You got the power!

Rob Daniels was sick last week, so we had to postpone his show to this week.  Tonight at midnight, catch me LIVE on Rob’s radio program VISIONS IN SOUND.   Tune in locally on your FM dial to CKWR 98.5, or even easier, just click “listen live” via their website!  The show runs from midnight to 2 am (ET).  My energon this evening to keep me going will consist of the sweet sweet coffee.

The subject:  the 30th anniversary of THE TRANSFORMERS movie!  The soundtrack was recently re-released in a deluxe Record Store Day vinyl anniversary edition.  Tonight I’ll be joining Rob as we spin music from the film, discussing its impact, and I’m certain we will be able to “touch” on the controversial killing off of kiddie favourite character Optimus Prime!

Don’t “Dare to be Stupid”, join us tonight for some “Prime” music!
TF

#455.5: More Star Wars radio, tonight!

SWTFA

Tonight at midnight, you can again catch me LIVE on Robert Daniels‘ radio program VISIONS IN SOUND.   Tune in locally on your FM dial to CKWR 98.5, or elsewhere, just click “listen live” via their website!  The show runs from midnight to 2 am (ET).  Coffee?

Tonight’s subject:  STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS!  The brand spanking new soundtrack by John Williams.

This will be our first time hearing it.  Last week, Rob and I covered the music from the classic trilogy also composed by John Williams.  We had an amazing time talking about the music, what it means to us as fans, and what it does for the films.  Tonight will be interesting because I have no idea what the music sounds like!  I am hoping to see The Force Awakens this morning or afternoon.  One thing I mentioned to Rob last week (and I can’t even remember if this was on or off the air) was that this is the movie we have really been waiting for since 1983.

In ’83 when the credits rolled, all we really wanted to know was “what happens next?”  Lucas had long teased us with the idea of three trilogies, but after Jedi it soon seemed unlikely that a sequel trilogy would ever happen.  In 1983, we didn’t care about whatever happened Episodes I, II, or III.  Many of us consider that to be backstory that would be better off left to the imagination.  Kind of like reading the indices in a Tolkien book.  We really wanted to see what happened next with Luke, Leia and Han.  Would Luke become the most powerful Jedi ever?  What new threats would emerge now that Vader and the Emperor were dead?  And most interestingly, would Luke find and train new Jedi Knights, as Yoda instructed him?  “Pass on what you have learned.”

That’s what we wanted to see.  Then Lucas crapped out and said, “No more Star Wars.  We’re done.”

By the time 1994 rolled around, his tune changed.  It was Jurassic Park that did it.  Lucas became enamoured with computers and said, “Now we have the technology to go and do Star Wars the way I always wanted to do it.”   He began work, and as the prequels emerged from 1999-2005, Lucas often said “I only have ideas for six movies.  That’s all there is.  There are no sequels.  The story is about Anakin Skywalker’s fall and redemption.”  Yada, yada, yada….

I’ve always believed that George Lucas, much like his creation Han Solo, was just “making it up as he goes”.  Although George did come up with story ideas for Star Wars Episode VII and beyond, what we will see today is a brand new creation.  Lucas always said that if there were to be any sequels, they would be about Darth Vader’s grandchildren with Luke playing a mentoring role, like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Today, we finally find out.

But tonight, I hope you’re able to tune in and catch what I assume and hope to be some incredible music.  The Force Awakens will be the seventh Star Wars film composed by John Williams, and I am certain that it will be a treat.  I’ve already reviewed all the classic trilogy soundtracks already, so if you need to catch up before the awakening, here they are:

Check in tonight, and may the Force be with you!  Always.

EDIT: Stream the show now, right here:
Visions in Sound archive

#454.5: Tune in tonight for some Star Wars radio!

IMG_20151210_171422_edit

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Tonight at midnight, you can catch me LIVE on Robert Daniels’ radio program VISIONS IN SOUND.   Tune in locally on your FM dial to CKWR 98.5, or even easier, just click “listen live” via their website!  The show runs from midnight to 2 am (ET).  Needless to say I’ll be fueling myself up on coffee.

The subject:  STAR WARS!  The soundtracks specifically.  Last week, Rob covered the music from the prequel trilogy composed by John Williams.  Tonight is the original classic trilogy, also composed by Williams, so you don’t want to miss this.  And if you do, it should be available online for streaming later on.   Rob and I have been excitedly discussing the upcoming film The Force Awakens (only a week away!) and I can’t think of a better way to get ready.

I hope you’re able to tune in and catch some incredible music.  I’ve reviewed all the classic trilogy soundtracks already, and you know you’ll be in for a treat.

Check in tonight!