It took a while to be able to review this CD for technical reasons. From day one, this disc would not play smoothly in any computer. Most CD players could handle it, but no PC could without skipping horribly. Independent CD production had iffy quality in the early 90s. Now using external components I’ve finally been able to rip the album to PC. I have not played some of these songs in decades!
Raw M.E.A.T 3 was different from the first two volumes. The first focused on hard rock, the second on thrash. One band from Raw M.E.A.T 2 went on to big things, that being Varga. Volume 3 combined all genres of heavy music together on one disc. From the heaviest of bands (Mindrape, Sinister Fiend, Hanker, Vertical After) to pop rock hooks (Deadline, Raw Trixx, Tryton) and progressive (Destiny, Justin Sane), all bases are covered. The bands span several provinces from British Columbia to Quebec, whereas the first CD only had groups from southern Ontario.
Highlights are numerous. Perhaps Russian Blue came in strongest with opener “Mama’s Love”, a modern twist on hard rock. Deadline were right up there too, with a re-recording of “Friction Addiction” from their excellent first CD. Raw M.E.A.T 3 is the only place you can get the re-recording, which is slicker and punchier than the original. Tryton, the only female-fronted band, kicks serious ass on “Burning the Cradle”. Singer Nina Zzo had the lungs for it! (They later made an album as Loudshine.) “A Wonderful Day” by Tempted Fate is another genius track, sounding a bit like “When Death Calls” by Black Sabbath before exploding into a punk rock chorus.
It’s a very diverse CD. The bands Raw Trixx and Stone Valley both put in strong entries with “Time” and “Forever Gone” respectively. These groups employ older hard rock sounds in spite of the changing tides of rock. Slam Glory’s “Say It Like You Mean It” also fits that mold. Fans of early Queensryche and Scorpions might enjoy Destiny’s “Man Alone” which brings to mind the trademark sounds of those bands. Old-school thrash fans will dig the traditional speedy chug of Hanker and Vertical After. The Cult-like No Morals had an enjoyable, unconventional 90s edge. For Faith No More funkiness, it’s Sinister Fiend. Overlord’s “Never Enough” has a tough metal punch but with punk-like recklessness. “And if I sound bitter, it’s because I am!” Even Christian rock makes an appearance. Thunder Rider’s “For Christ’s Sake” isn’t bad, but the Quebec band had an early unfortunate image including swords, shields and hammers.
My favourite track of them all is “Illusion” by Justin Sane, which should have become a massive hit in 1992. The four piece band combined modern metal grooves with quality lead vocals and musicianship to create a nearly seven-minute behemoth of a song. It was recorded (like several of the songs here) at the renowned Metalworks Studios in Mississauga. Shame the band had a jokey name, as it does not accurately depict their music. There is a Justin Sane EP out there, reissued in 2006 as a split album with a band called Native Tongue, but it’s impossible to find.
I also approve of the names of the members of Vertical After: Kick, Stu, Rhys and Odd. I definitely want to be friends with anyone named Odd.
For the variety of quality hard rock, heavy metal and miscellaneous good stuff, Raw M.E.A.T 3 serves as an enjoyable listen and gateway to some bands you’ve never heard of before. Off to Discogs to look for more!
In the early 2000s, the best way to “share” music (note the quotations) was to burn a CD for your friends.
I had a customer, now friend, named Len. I knew him originally via some mutual highschool pals. I recognised him because he was in a Kiss air band when I was in grade 10. I befriended him later on as a customer at the Record Store, and I learned more about his taste in music and his collection. We were on the same page in virtually every way musically.
Len had a neat way of tracking his music, in the days before computers made this easy. He made a black and white photocopy of every CD cover, and filed them all in order, in a huge binder with title, year and tracklist. A work intensive process I’m sure, but it benefited me tremendously as you’ll soon see.
Len loaned me the book and said “pick anything you want me to burn for you.”
I still have all the CDs Len burned for me! One was a Kiss rarities disc (we’ll look at that another time), and another was all Bon Jovi B-sides. He made me a CD copy of the first Hurricane EP with a non-vinyl bonus track. And he put a whole ton of miscellaneous songs on two CDs that I titled, obviously, Len Mix!
The title confused a few people. I remember I had a girl over and she saw the CDs. “Are those all songs by the band Len?” At that point I may have realised I should have picked another title.
I made a list of songs that Len had that I wanted. They were generally big singles from bands I liked, that I didn’t own the album. A lot of songs I was exposed to on the Pepsi Power Hour in the 80s.
Let’s have a listen then, shall we?
LEN MIX Vol. I
Autograph’s “Loud and Clear” is a killer rocker, far less commercial than “Turn Up the Radio”. I do have the album today (on CD), but I don’t own the Krokus that follows. “Midnite Maniac” is still enjoyable, especially since I haven’t played it in over 10 years. Kingdom Come’s “Get It On” is one I own a couple times over now, and I think I like it more today than I did in the beginning. Y&T’s “Summertime Girls” is horribly cheesy, and yet so much guilty fun. It’s bright, it’s catchy and I don’t give a fuck! I still don’t own it properly on album. Nor do I own “Run Runaway” by Slade, a song I have liked since I was a little kid. I should pick up a Slade compilation, shouldn’t I?
According to MSG, “Love Is Not a Game”. I have this one on vinyl today, but Len Mix is still my only CD copy. Next, a very important song for your Ozzy collection. “Close My Eyes Forever” is by Lita Ford, featuring Ozzy in a stunning duet. Yet it may as well be an Ozzy song featuring Lita if that’s what you prefer. You can’t get it on any of the Ozzman’s albums. Today I have it on a Lita CD. Then King Kobra advise us to “Never Say Die”…”Iron Eagle”, baby! I still don’t have this album, and the song is a guilty pleasure. Not one of King Kobra’s proudest moments. You gotta admire that they all cut their hair for the music video, though.
I was always jealous that Len owned a four track copy of Def Leppard’s “When Love and Hate Collide” CD single. Mine only had two tracks! So I requested that Len burn me the demo version of the song that I did not yet own.
“Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?” asked Love/Hate. I ask myself why I still do not own Blackout in the Red Room! It was rare back then, but there is no excuse today in the age of Discogs. The Blink 182 song that follows it sticks out like a sore thumb, but I still like a lot of Blink. Travis Barker is a tremendous drummer, and these guys wrote some great pop punk. Then Kingdom Come are back with their tremendous ballad “What Love Can Be”, followed by the incredible British band Thunder. They had a number of great tracks on hard to find albums. “Low Life in High Places ” classes up the CD by several increments, but then Y&T are back to crash the party. “Contagious”, like “Summertime Girls”, sounds a bit dated today. Yet it’s just so damn catchy.
The next two songs are ones I have happily acquired on CD. Actually, Keel’s “The Right to Rock” is here on LP and CD. It’s an old classic I grew up with, and so very 1980s. So is Aldo Nova’s “Fantasy” but in a completely different way.
Len had some extra space on the end of this CD and so threw on Axel Rudi Pell’s “Tear Down the Walls”. I have not played this song in over a decade, but it sounds great! Far more modern than anything else on this disc, but Len was right to add it! Discogs tells me that the stunning lead vocal is by Johnny Gioeli of Neal Schon’s band Hardline. Of course!
LEN MIX Vol. II
That’s it for Len Mix Vol. I. The rest of the songs went onto Vol. II, which like Vol. I, begins explosively. Kingdom Come had a few bangers, and “Do You Like It” is the best of them. This one comes from their underappreciated second album In Your Face. (Legend has it that some stores thought the band was called “Kingdom” and the album Come In Your Face, and refused to stock it.)
The next three songs in a row are ones I still need to own on CD or LP: More Y&T, Autograph and Krokus. So far, all the Y&T songs have been pretty weak (though catchy and fun). “Mean Streak” is anything but weak! Y&T’s heavy metal roots are on full display with a riffy blast. Then it’s Autograph’s return, with the previously mentioned “Turn Up the Radio”! This song is probably better known today then it was in the early 2000s, thanks to video games and radio nostalgia. Krokus’ “Ballroom Blitz” cover was one that, like “School’s Out”, I grew up thinking was a Krokus original! Fortunately in time I learned the truth.
House of Lords albums were hard to come by at the time, and back then I didn’t own any but their first. On this CD is the ballad “Remember My Name”. This is from the second album Sahara which I now happily have. I don’t particularly care for this one, as it has that overly saccharine faux-romantic sound that was too common in the late 80s into 1990. But then like a kick in the face, it’s an Udo-less Accept with “Generation Clash”! Though David Reese’s tenure in the band was brief, this song is a triumph. I am happy to own the oddly titled album Eat the Heat today, because this darkly sparse prowl is still ace. What a voice on Reese, who could reach for those Udo screams when necessary.
Hey mom, Have you always followed the golden rule? Cause this just happens to be my first love. And that being a must – a must. That being playin’ my guitar!
It’s hard to come down from such a peak, and unfortunately the fall is broken by an out-of-place Blink 182 song. “All the Small Things” is such a diametrically opposed song, it’s like cold water dumped on your head! Two older goodies are not far behind: “Blackout in the Red Room” by Love/Hate, and the amazing acoustic ballad “Loving You” by Kingdom Come. It’s oh-so-very Zep, but what the hell. Zep weren’t making that sound in 1989 and there was obviously a demand for it.
The aforementioned “School’s Out” by Krokus marks their last song on this set, meaning that via Len Mix I got all the Krokus songs that I knew as a kid. Then it’s Y&T’s final song, the ballad “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”. It’s not one of their finest moments, but I would have requested this one because I had it on VHS but nothing else. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, Y&T were obviously aiming to score that “hit ballad”, but Meniketi’s always perfect voice is still a pleasure to listen to.
Thunder’s “Dirty Love” from their first album reminds me that I really need to buy some Thunder. Then comes a band from whom I only know one song. It’s a good’un called “You’re So Strange”, though the band had a silly name: Kik Tracee. Their ace in the hole was singer Stephen Shareaux. What a set of lungs on this guy! He was one of many who auditioned for the vacant vocalist role in Motley Crue in 1992. Gotta wonder what kind of music they could have made with a pair of lungs like Stephen Shareaux’s.
Moving on to the end, it’s the final Autograph song “Blondes in Black Cars”. I don’t think it’s their best moment, but I sure have a lot of childhood memories associated with the music video. I pretty much discovered what puberty was all about thanks to that video. I must have worn out that pause button.
MSG’s “Gimme Your Love” was their other single from Perfect Timing, an album I now have on LP but would like on CD for the bonus tracks. I’m getting the feeling an Amazon order order is forthcoming. Following MSG is a remix of “Armageddon It” by Def Leppard, from the same since-acquired single as “When Love and Hate Collide”. At 7:44 it’s a bit much, but I’m a Def Leppard completionist. Once again Len had a little bit of space at the end of a CD and so wisely included the brief Dokken instrumental “Without Warning”.
It’s important to note that these CDs would have taken Len a bit of time to put together for me. Few of us kept our music on computer. Len would have been painstakingly switching discs in and out of his computer to make these for me. The addition of bonus tracks shows how much care he put into it.
For Len Mix Vol. I and II, I’d say the verdict is clear. These were a blast to listen to again.
ALICE COOPER – A Paranormal Evening With Alice Cooper at the Olympia Paris (2018 Edel)
You don’t so much ask if a new Alice Cooper live album is good; instead you just ask what songs are on it.
A Paranormal Evening With Alice Cooper at the Olympia Paris (what a mouth full) features “Hurricane” Nita Strauss on lead guitar, Chuck “Beasto Blanco” Garric on bass, drummer Glen Sobel, and guitarists Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen. Guys like Garric and Roxie are the veterans, but Nita Strauss is a serious focal point. She can really shred.
The setlist spans most of Cooper’s career. The CD even opens with “Brutal Planet”, which was the set opener back in 2000 on the Brutal Planet tour. The industrial-tinged song is less jarring live. From there, onto the oldies: “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “Under My Wheels” and “Department of Youth”. Alice’s band are capable backing singers and they tend to focus on the melody while Alice does his schtick with character. I won’t tell you who Alice name-drops in “Department of Youth” (remember, it used to be teen idol Donny Osmond). That’s a surprise.
Another surprise: the fabulous “Pain” from Flush the Fashion. The powerful dark pop is heavier live, enriched by three guitars in harmony. Alice can still infuse the song with suffering, even decades later. Back to an oldie for a moment with “Billion Dollar Babies” (absolutely massive with three guitars) and then another surprise: “The World Needs Guts”. Very few songs from Constrictor get played live, and this one is a live album debut. There’s a certain nostalgia now for the Kane Roberts era, and “The World Needs Guts” thrills my gorilla on this album. Then to another niche album, 2005’s garage rock of Dirty Diamonds. It’s an underrated gem of an album, and so “Woman of Mass Distraction” is a welcome selection, though others would have been more interesting.
“Poison” is a perennial, and here it is again representing 1989’s Trash album. Every Cooper lineup has its own touch with it. This one isn’t the sleekest version but it’s the most thunderous. To cap off the first CD, it’s “Halo of Flies” from “Killer”, almost 11 minutes in length. This is the kind of deep cut you crave, complete and unedited. Once again, the three guitars really enrich the sound.
Another regular, “Feed My Frankenstein”, is one I could live without. But this one is a generational song. Fans who grew up in the early 90s remember it from Wayne’s World. It’s the song Mrs. LeBrain sang along to in the car. Boring to some, a highlight for others. Then it’s back to “Cold Ethyl” from Welcome to My Nightmare, a stone-cold classic (pardon the pun) highlighting the rock and roll side of Alice. The trade-off guitar solos are a newer twist. From the same album comes “Only Women Bleed”, and really the only slow song in the set. Alice doesn’t need to take it slow!
It took this long to play the one and only new song, “Paranoiac Personality“. It’s not always like this — in the past Alice has peppered his set heavily with new material. For whatever reason, this time the focus is on the variety. There are new songs that will unfortunately never get the chance to shine live. Still, it’s hard to complain, especially when the next song is “Dwight Fry”, the second epic on the album. A medley of “Killer” and “I Love the Dead” keep that same vibe.
“I’m Eighteen” is the beginning of the end, with “School’s Out/Another Brick in the Wall” ringing the final bell. Listen to the band introductions for something that Alice rarely does. Take a minute and appreciate how great Alice’s band is — and always has been no matter the lineup!
A Paranormal Evening With Alice Cooper at the Olympia Paris (say that three times) comes highly recommended. Anyone who collects Alice Cooper will find something here that they’ve wanted to hear live. Has any artist been as great as Alice for as long as Alice? Very few, and this album proves he’s still the one and the only.
GYPSY JAYNE – Alive and Wandering (1992 independent cassette)
There is still way too much music that was only released on tape. Gypsy Jayne (formerly Wildside) were from Oakville Ontario. What they lacked in originality, they compensated for in classically trained guitarist Johannes Linstead. He ‘s a Juno nominee with several flamenco albums today. Back in the early 90s, he shredded the electric. We talked about this band briefly during Record Store Tales, but they deserve a closer look. They were a solid quartet, with a great singer and musicianship. All that exists of Gypsy Jayne today is their sole cassette: six songs and a guitar instrumental.
It’s easiest to compare Gypsy Jayne to Illusions-era Guns N’ Roses; they probably had a similar set of influences. Their namesake song “Gypsy Jayne” opens the tape with a mid-tempo Izzy-like vibe and a hell of a chorus. Singer Andy Law had a good glam rock voice, but it’s clear right away the guitarist is something special. The solo is carefully composed and serves the song. “Whiskey Blues” also has a Guns vibe, particularly the Axl-ish vocals. The guitar playing is more Van Halen than Slash, but the song smokes. “As Good as it Gets” boasts some cool slippy slidey intro guitars before going full Guns. Great tune, blistering solo. Influences are quickly forgotten as the song repeatedly kicks your ass.
Beginning side two, it’s a new version of “Ready, Willing and Able”, the song they recorded as Wildside on Raw M.E.A.T. #1. Sleazy rock, L.A. infused. You can’t tell these guys are from an upper class town in Canada, except perhaps by the schooled guitar approach. “So Wild” takes it slow, crawling in your ear canal and letting the groove do the work. “Leave You Now” is acoustic nostalgia, a song about “Chasing all our dreams” and “living crazy nights, lazy days.” For composition, this could be Jayne’s best song.
“Leave You Now” by Gypsy Jayne
The final track is “Romanza”, a lovely solo classical guitar piece by Linstead. This foreshadowed where he’d be going in his future. It’s a nice coda, like Randy Rhoads would have done.
This one’s going to be hard to find — there is no listing on Discogs.
It’s always disappointing when you give a new album a fair shot, but it refuses to stay in your skull. Such is the case with the latest Alice In Chains, Rainier Fog.
It’s especially disappointing since their last platter, 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, was so crushingly perfect. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why Rainier Fog lacks the same impact. It’s not singer William Duvall — this is his third album with Alice In Chains, and he’s done an admirable job every time out. It’s also not the fault of the lead track, “The One You Know” which is a terrific starter. “Rainier Fog” is also slammingly good. From there on, the songs are less memorable, with the exception of “Never Fade” which has a chorus that goes on for miles.
What’s the issue? Is it that we’ve heard all this before? Ever since the passing of Layne Staley, Alice In Chains lost that certain “fucked up” quality to their music. Staley seemed to bring an unschooled approach, completely unafraid to make unconventional music. Rainier Fog is terribly conventional by comparison with Dirt. There are verses, choruses, melodies and all the accoutrements. And they are all good ones. Little guitar hooks snake in and out of verses, cool as hell. Riffs are constructed from the strongest mortar. These foundations support a collection of well written songs. But most of them refuse to stick. It’s baffling.
Perhaps Rainer Fog is one of those albums that doesn’t click until the 100th listen. They exist and when they do, they often become favourites. If that happens here, we will line up Rainier Fog for a re-review.
“Supergroups” are everywhere these days. Four By Fate is best known for its former members of Frehley’s Comet: Tod Howarth and John Regan. When they first formed, they also contained drummer Stet Howland (W.A.S.P.) and guitar master Sean Kelly. Pat Gasperini replaced Kelly, and A.J. Pero played drums on half the album before his untimely death. The band was completed by ex-Skid Row skinsman Rob Affuso.
Relentless is a beefy album, with 13 tracks including a handful of covers. The opener is John Waite’s “These Times Are Hard For Lovers” (co-written by maestro Desmond Child), and it’s decent. Frehley’s Comet fans will recognise Howarth’s lead vocals, though this band is harder than the Comet. Blasting through “Moonshine” and “Hangin’ On”, they got a nice heavy drum sound. It’s good to hear Affuso on an album again. Track four, “Levee Breach” is the first of six with A.J. Pero. It’s a little like a Stone Temple Pilots clone.
The next cover is a remake of “It’s Over Now” from the Comet’s 1988 album Second Sighting. Nothing is ever as good as the original, but if you wanted a heavier version of that power ballad, here ya go. (You can really hear those low piano keys.) Onto “Follow Me”, another one that sounds grungy. They went with such a “modern” sound on this album. Some might have expected more influences from the pop-smart 80s, the era most of these guys were rockin’.
“On My Own” has a cool Howarth riff and some befitting hooks. Grunge emerges again on “I Give”, and a partly acoustic song called “Don’t Know” is similarly dark and out of the 90s. Relentless almost sounds like an album written in 1994 or 1995, and not recorded until 2017. Then suddenly, “Back in the 80’s” has a Dio-like chug, and of course A.J. Pero on drums. Then it’s “Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo”, a really fun Derringer cover. They close the album on a strange patriotic ballad (two versions) called “Amber Waves”
The strength in Relentless is the musicianship. Howarth and Gasperini make a formidable guitar team, and we all know the reputations of guys like A.J. Pero and Rob Affuso. Musically, Four By Fate can face off against the big boys.
I didn’t have any childhood friends who were into Aerosmith. I had to get into them on my own.
Well, that might not be entirely true. Next door neighbour George may have been into them, but the rest of us ignored Aerosmith because they were “the band with the singer with the weird lips”. They weren’t “metal” enough to be in my wheelhouse at that young age. There wasn’t much Aerosmith being played on MuchMusic in the early 80s. Maybe “Lightning Strikes”, but that was about it. The music video with the greasers didn’t appeal to us metal kids. The Joe Perry Project didn’t do it for us either. The video with the pink saxophone? (“Black Velvet Pants”.) Not metal enough! We were strict metal heads as kids, and pink saxophones were not metal.
What was it that finally caught my Aero-attention? Joe Perry’s plexiglas guitar.
This all seems silly from an adult perspective, but we were just kids. We loved metal, not just for the music but also that all-important image. Videos were so important to us. A band not only had to sound cool, but they had to look it. Aerosmith didn’t look cool to us, with the tights and the lips. That changed in early ’86.
Ironically enough the video was called “Let the Music Do the Talking”. It was and is a killer song. I didn’t know, or care about its history as a song by the Joe Perry Project. What caught my eye was that guitar. A transparent guitar? I’d never seen anything like that before. My best friend Bob and I were obsessed with unusual guitars.
“I have to tape this and show it to Bob,” I said.
The video itself was pretty cool. A group of bootleggers snuck a camera into a concert to make their own video. It was a glimpse at an adult activity we’d yet to experience: the live concert. “Let the Music Do the Talking” made concerts look just as cool as we imagined they would be. There was even a twist ending. And like that, Aerosmith began to chip away the walls around me. Once they got me to pay attention, I was loving the song! Sure it wasn’t “metal”, but it was fast and rocked hard. The singer may have looked kind of weird, but the guitar player was cool as hell! I’d never seen anyone use a slide before. Watching Joe Perry hammering away at that clear guitar gave me a million new air guitar moves.
What came next was “Walk This Way” with Run DMC, Permanent Vacation and mainstream recognition. Before long everybody was into Aerosmith (again). “Angel” came out when I was really into ballads, and it was a fantastic ballad. On a kid’s allowance, I wasn’t able to get the album for many years, but Aerosmith were still on my radar.
Only a year after Permanent Vacation came the song that I grew to love the most. What came out a year after Permanent Vacation, you may be asking?
Many people didn’t catch the 1988 release of Gems. It was on their former record label Columbia and didn’t get a lot of notice. What Gems had wasn’t a new song, just an obscure one dusted off: “Chip Away the Stone”.
Written by Richie Supa, “Chip Away the Stone” is one of a few hit songs the guitarist gave to Aerosmith. Others like “Amazing” might be more well-know, but “Chip Away” is special. When the music video hit in late ’88, Supa was featured in it via archival footage (look for the guy with the moustache). If anyone knew “Chip Away” in ’88 prior to Gems, it would have been through their album Live! Bootleg. The studio version was only available on a rare single! If you were a kid living in Kitchener in the late 80s, good luck finding it, or even knowing it existed. For us, and the majority of fans, “Chip Away the Stone” was a brand new song.
I was getting into piano in rock songs around this time too. “Chip Away the Stone” had just a hint of boogie-woogie and it hit the right chords for me. Even though I was expanding my musical horizons slowly but surely, the music video still had a huge impact. Considering it was made up of old live footage, it was surprisingly well edited, fresh and cutting-edge. The shots of the piano were spliced to look like somebody was playing on one super-long piano keyboard. I assumed it was Richie Supa playing piano: the credits are unclear. Either way, that video got me deeper into Aerosmith. Way deeper.
Today my two favourite songs are “Chip Away the Stone” and “Let the Music Do the Talking”. I have plenty of others — “Seasons of Whither”, “F.I.N.E.”, “Draw the Line” — but those first two just stick with me. Part of that is nostalgia, but the other is that they are just great fucking songs.
THE DARKNESS – “Love Is Only a Feeling” (2004 Warner UK CD and DVD singles)
Collecting singles isn’t as easy as just buying the single anymore. Which versions are out there, with what tracks? The Darkness’ singles are usually interesting for the different bonus tracks and variations out there. Their hit ballad “Love Is Only a Feeling” was available on CD, DVD and 7″ vinyl. You only need the CD and DVD to get all the tracks, but there’s a catch: the DVD is in PAL format (common in Europe), so you need a player that can decode it.
No problem. LeBrain HQ has a collection of frankenstein multi-media tech that can convert the most popular physical formats into something easier to play! It’s not a pretty setup but it gets the job done. All the tracks from all the versions of “Love is Only a Feeling” can be compiled in a single file folder!
As far as ballads go, The Darkness didn’t wimp out with “Love is Only a Feeling”. The Lizzy-like intro harmonies meld into an acoustic mandolin verse. A bombastic band like the Darkness is at home with a bombastic ballad, but early Darkness didn’t use a lot of frills and extraneous instrumentation. “Love is Only a Feeling” doesn’t go overboard, but sticks to pretty a traditional rock arrangement. You can blast it out the car windows — no problem.
The first of the single B-sides is “Planning Permission”, an unpolished song that almost stands with the ones that did make it onto Permission to Land. It could use a little more tightening up but the roots of a good song are there. Next is the bizarre “Curse of the Tollund Man”. It might even be considered educational. The actual mummy of the Tollund Man was found buried in peat as described in the song. It sounds like the Darkness were really trying to write a Queen B-side. It’s amusing but all over the place.
The music video for “Love is Only a Feeling” is the main feature of the DVD single. I’m a sucker for mountaintop videos. “Love Is Only a Feeling” is almost as epic as the Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses clips that came before . Then, they take it over the top by going under the ground, in a cave! A behind-the-scenes video reveals safety ropes, helicopters and elevated platforms to heighten the drama.
The real reason to seek the DVD single is to acquire the final bonus track, “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” live at the Astoria. The action-packed track features Dan Hawkins on all guitars, so Justin can jump around and do the splits. Vintage live Darkness with the original lineup is scarce, as far as official releases go. This live Darkness is full speed, filmed in the raw. It doesn’t matter if you get it for watching or just listening. It’s a great version.
If you’re fortunate enough to play DVDs from multiple regions, the singles are usually dirt cheap on Discogs. This one even came with a poster! DVD singles were a fad and never really caught on. They can, however, patch some holes in your Darkness collection.
QUIET RIOT – Cum On Feel the Noize (1989 CBS cassette)
From the same line as the previously reviewed Trouble Shooters by Judas Priest, here’s a tape-only Quiet Riot compilation. Like the Priest tape, Cum On Feel the Noize has nothing more recent than five years. For Quiet Riot, that unfortunately means you’re only hearing songs from two albums! (Nothing from the first two which were only released in Japan.)
The title track (and Slade cover) “Cum On Feel the Noize” goes first, muddy tape hiss and all: this cassette has seen better days! It’s an edited version (roughly 3:10), so perhaps something you don’t have in your collection. The speedy album track “Run For Cover” then delivers the scalding hot metal. Two more big hit singles follow: “Mama Weer All Crazee Now (another Slade cover) and “Metal Health” (sometimes subtitled “Bang Your Head” in case you didn’t know the name). These two hits will keep the party flowing, and that’s it for side one.
Proving they had more than just a passing interest in mental health, “Let’s Go Crazy” kicks off side two with a bang. Frankie Banali is the man — his drums really sell this one. “(We Were) Born to Rock” is another solid number, all rock no schlock. “Slick Black Cadillac” is a shrewd inclusion. Gotta have a car song for the road. Then “Party All Night” finishes it off with a pretty clear message.
As a party tape, Cum On Feel the Noize would have done the trick. You should probably just own Metal Health and Conditional Critical instead, but this is a fun tape and would have been enough Quiet Riot for most folks.
PSYCHO CIRCUS – Psycho Circus (1992 indi cassette EP)
Psycho Circus put out their one and only album in 1993. They were a talented band who avoided grunge cliches and instead dove into funk-metal and a darker Faith No More sound circa The Real Thing. The album was split down the middle between the two sides. Decades later I found an earlier indi cassette, released after they signed with SRO Management, the team behind Rush.
It’s quite clear this band had musical chops. Opening track “Picky Purple People” is killer. Faux-horns, massive bass and busy drums are relentless. This is a goofier side of the band, but well executed. If the Chili Peppers and Faith No More had a baby, it would sound like “Picky Purple People”. Next is “Funk in Our Souls”, a track that was re-recorded for the album later. The cassette version sounds more bass heavy. It’s more enjoyable for that reason, not to mention the smoking guitar solo. “Can You Feel It?” was also re-recorded for the album, but this is one of those darker songs that eschew the funk. Singer Vince Franchi hits unreal notes. His voice is versatile. It’s Faith No More without the twisted mind.
The final track didn’t make it onto the CD. “Psycho Circus” opens with traditional circus music, a full six years before Kiss did the same thing with their own song called “Psycho Circus”. Maybe they should try suing Kiss? It would be fun to see! That’s the only similarity. This is another funky track, and though the circus music is a bit silly, the chorus rocks.
The tape comes with a nice J-card and full lyrics. In a way it’s a better listen than the album. It doesn’t have as many great songs, but it also has less filler.
RAW M.E.A.T 3 (1992 M.E.A.T Magazine)
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