Jimmy DeGrasso

REVIEW: Y&T – Ultimate Collection (2001)

Y&T – Ultimate Collection (Universal)

When Tim Durling, author of Down For the Count: The Y&T Album Review, found out I didn’t own any Y&T, he sought to rectify the situation.  As a passionate and knowledgeable fan, he knew that I wanted to start with a good compilation that covered all the songs I liked, and as many albums as possible.  The Ultimate Collection was the CD he vouched for, and he did not steer me wrong.  This is an amazing compilation.

The disc opens with four songs from Earthshaker, their first album as Y&T after two records as Yesterday & Today.  “Dirty Girl” is an unusual if brilliant opener.  It’s both slow and heavy, with a couple genius guitar solos, one different from the other, and each telling a story.  This track plods in the best possible way, with a cool signature riff and a stomping beat.  The chunky “Hurricane” and an epic “Rescue Me” follow, but “I Believe In You” is a real standout from Earthshaker.  This is a powerful metal ballad, like something the Scopions used to score hits with.  Dave Meniketti has expert control of his voice, with a vibrato to die for.

A clutch of songs from Black Tiger (produced by Max Norman) follows.  The title track from that album fades in from ominous jungle sounds (because tigers usually live in the jungle).  “Cat eyes!  She draws you in!”  Dave is singing about a different kind of jungle here.  The black tiger he’s singing about is of the feminine variety, and Dave wants you to heed his warning.  “She’s playing for keeps, so you better get away!”  Just a smoking metal track with stinging guitars.  “Open Fire” is just as heavy, if a bit faster.  These two songs boast hooks, both on guitar and vocals.  Y&T are experts at this high-velocity rock, but “Forever” could fool you into thinking it’s another ballad…until it storms off, bordering on thrash metal.  “Forever” definitely competes with the kind of heavy rock bands that were starting to make a name for themselves in the early 80s.  Leonard Haze pushes it over the top with his adrenalized drumming.

Chris Tsangarides took over production duties on Mean Streak.  We only get two heavy hitters, including the title track “Mean Streach”.  (That’s a joke – listen to the chorus.)  “Midnight In Tokyo” is the other, and by contrast, this song isn’t as simple or straight ahead.  Complex, jazzy verses collide with melodically heavy choruses.  Phil Kennemore must be credited for some really incredible, gallopy and melodic bass playing.

In Rock We Trust was produced by Tom Allom of Judas Priest fame.  We only get one track from this record, the big hit “Don’t Stop Runnin'”.   This one is especially notable for the backing vocals.  The band probably don’t get enough credit for that, and the thick and sweet chorus is all band.   Though I did see this music video on Toronto Rocks and the Pepsi Power Hour once or twice, it should have been a lot bigger.  This band had a number of circumstances against then, as discussed in Tim Durling’s book, available on Amazon.

The next couple studio albums were produced by Kevin Beamish.  Some may love, and some may hate, the direction this band evolved on Down for the Count and Contagious.  If the songs chosen here are any indication, the band were going for a more radio-oriented mid-80s mainstream sound.  They still managed to pack punch into the songs, but “Summertime Girls” and “Contagious” are notable more streamlined and polished.  The melodies and backing vocals take more prominent positions, and keyboards enter the fray.  I think these tracks are great.  They are among my childhood favourites.  I love the backwards-recorded drum parts on “Summertime Girls”.

A live track from Open Fire provides some much-needed music from the first Yesterday & Today album, which was on London Records and unavailable for this compilation.  Wicked riff from Joey Alves on “25 Hours A Day”!  Note the backing vocals once again.  Whether they were polished in the studio, it doesn’t matter.  The band can sing.  This fun rock groove has a little more power than the studio version.  Nice bass solo from Phil!

The end, temporarily, was 1990’s album Ten produced by Mike Stone.  The ballad “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” turned me off back in the day.  It was too soft for the direction I was headed.  Judas Priest was dropping “Painkiller” while Y&T released a ballad.  It just wasn’t what I wanted.  I should have given Ten a chance.  I love this song now.  Though the lineup had changed, and Journey’s Steve Smith was playing drums in the studio, it still sounds like Y&T.  Those melodies and backing vocals!  That “touch by touch, little by little!” hook just knocks me out, not to mention Meniketti’s voice and delivery.

Y&T came back in 1995, retaining Stef Burns and Jimmy DeGrasso from the last incarnation.  Musically Incorrect was the name of the album, and “I’m Lost” is an absolute smoker!  You’d think it came from one of the earlier albums…because it does.  It was originally on Struck Down and re-recorded here.  It’s one of the fastest songs on the compilation, and the raw 9o’s production gives it a vintage sound.  It’s challenging stuff.  DeGrasso absolutely smokes on the drums.  No wonder he ended up in Megadeth a bit later on.  The same lineup remained on Endangered Species in 1997.  A heavy ballad called “God Only Knows” represents that album.  It’s passionate metal, with the kind of wrought-iron arrangement you expect from a power ballad.  Absolutely killer lead solo work.

The final track takes us back to the beginning.  A live version of “Beautiful Dreamer” from 1991 is originally from the debut Yesterday & Today.  Again, it’s a little more complex, but still boasting the kind of melodies, riffs and singing that we expect from Y&T.  That is, high quality heavy rock.

This is easily the best first-purchase Y&T you can make.  It’s a great sampling of as much music as you can reasonably expect.  Solid listen front to back, and then back to front.  Liner notes are by the late Gerri Miller of Metal Edge magazine.

5/5 stars

 

 

 

REVIEW: Alice Cooper – A Fistful of Alice (1999, Japanese edition with bonus tracks)

Scan_20160418 (2)ALICE COOPER – A Fistful of Alice (1999 Guardian records, Japanese edition with bonus tracks)

A Fistful of Alice was released at a time when the sometimes maligned The Alice Cooper Show was the only official live Cooper album.  As only the second live Alice record, Fistful didn’t receive the attention it deserved.  That’s especially too bad, considering it had cool guests including Slash, Rob Zombie, and Sammy Hagar.   There are lots of Alice Cooper live recordings to get today, but in ’99 that wasn’t quite the case.  Fistful, recorded at Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina, came a full five years after Cooper’s last studio album, The Last Temptation, ending the long drought.   The single new song, “Is Anyone Home?” was a pleasant acoustic rock keeper, but the main feature was the live stuff.

There are lots of versions of this album, but only the Japanese has the full 17 song track list.  It took me 15 years to finally track one down at a decent price.   The Japanese edition is worth the effort just for “Clones (We’re All)”, a song that was rarely played for a lot of Cooper’s career.  It’s from near the start of Alice’s 80’s art-punk persona, but its robotic synth-pop was catchy enough for the Smashing Pumpkins to cover it.  The other two bonus tracks are “Bed of Nails” from Trash, and the classic “No More Mr. Nice Guy”.  One that wasn’t on the domestic edition, but was on the UK version is “Under My Wheels”.  Cooper’s band at this time featured Reb Beach (Winger/Whitesnake) on guitar, and damn does he shred on “Under My Wheels”!  The rest of the lineup consisted of Jimmy DeGrasso (Megadeth/Black Star Riders) on drums, guitarist Ryan Roxie (Slash), bassist Todd Jensen (David Lee Roth) and Beach’s old Winger bandmate Paul Taylor on keyboards.  This was Taylor’s second stint with Cooper.  His first stint in the mid-80’s eventually launched the band Winger, since Kip Winger was in the Cooper band at the time.

Besides “Clones”, other pleasant surprises in the set include “Desperado” (“a song I wrote for Jim Morrison a long time ago”),  “Teenage Lament ’74” (dedicated to the glitter and glam rockers) and “I Never Cry”.  “Welcome to My Nightmare” is preceded by an excerpt from the chilling classic “Steven”.  Familiar concert perennials include “Feed My Frankenstein” with Rob Zombie, “Only Women Bleed” with Slash, and “Elected” featuring both.  Slash also plays on the newer tune “Lost in America”, fitting right in there naturally.  It’s quite a decent track list, and Cooper’s band is as professional as any other lineup.  The sonics are great, and Fistful is a nice full recording without a lot of crowd noise.  The Cabo Wabo is probably a great stage for capturing a live recording.

Scan_20160418 (6)

Finally, Alice self-produced the new song “Is Anyone Home?”, featuring a different set of musicians.  Unexpectedly pop sounding and even featuring a Beatles-like string section, “Is Anyone Home?” was very unlike most of Alice’s stuff.  Take acoustic rock a-la popular 90’s acts like Fastball or the Goo Goo Dolls, crank it up a notch, and add Alice Cooper’s unmistakable voice.  It’s a good track to throw on as a bonus for a live album.  It did not indicate at all where Cooper was going musically, which would prove to be the industro-metal of Brutal Planet.  “Is Anyone Home?” then is an interesting sideline from the main trajectory, but worth having.

A Fistful of Alice was an important album in some ways.  At the time, many fans wondered if Alice had quietly retired.   He hadn’t.  He was playing a lot of golf, but he was also touring regularly.  I saw him play a similar set in Kitchener Ontario in 1997, with the lineup including Reb Beach.  Like on Fistful, he played a few songs from his most recent album even though he technically wasn’t supporting it, and I liked that.  Pick up A Fistful of Alice for a good single-disc summary of the Alice Cooper live experience, and a pretty decent new tune too.

4/5 stars

REVIEW: Black Star Riders – All Hell Breaks Loose (2013)

BLACK STAR RIDERS – All Hell Breaks Loose (2013 Nuclear Blast CD/DVD set)

Epic Review Time again!  This time it’s a CD/DVD combo set, the debut album by Black Star Riders.  You might know the guys from Black Star Riders by another name they sometimes use: Thin Lizzy.  Scott Gorham put a Lizzy lineup back together in 1996, over the years utilizing Lizzy alumni such as himself, John Sykes, Darren Wharton, and Brian Downey.  But when it came to creating new music, why did they change their name?

Let’s begin by reviewing the DVD, which answers this question and any others you may have about who Black Star Riders are.

IMG_20141010_185936

Scott explains that he and Brian Downey really decided not to do a “Thin Lizzy” album because of their own discomfort with the idea. Without Phil, it didn’t seem right. The rest of the band were disappointed because they had written 17 new songs they were excited about. But they would not add a Lizzy album to the canon without Phil.  Singer Ricky Warwick (The Almighty) says that once that decision was made to record with a new name, he found inspiration from a western movie featuring a gang called the “Black Star” gang. He liked the gang mentality. But Brian Downey dropped out early in the proceedings (although he did participate in writing some of the material.)   New drummer Jimmy Degrasso (Megadeth) explains that Thin Lizzy’s special sound comes from a Blues/R&B swing, and of course the “dual guitar armies”. They aimed to keep these qualities with Black Star Riders. Guitarist Damon Johnson believes that Ricky Warwick’s lyrical prowess is exemplary, and carries the Lizzy spirit. I would have to agree.

Recruiting producer extraordinaire Kevin Shirley (Iron Maiden),  the album was done in 12 days. They did one song start to finish each day. It was recorded as live as possible, simply because they only had 12 days!

Unfortunately for me, there just isn’t enough behind the scenes footage on the DVD. There’s a little: brief glimpses of writing and recording sessions. The disc is made up mostly of interviews. Gorham, Warwick, Degrasso, Johnson, bassist Marco Mendoza and producer Shirley take turns in front of the camera. It is quite extensive; this is not a short DVD. (I don’t see a time listed anywhere but I’d guess it was an hour long.)  Subjects covered include Phil Lynott, songwriting, pressure, inspiration, guitar solos, Ireland and more. Each individual song is discussed in detail.

Now that you’re familiar with Black Star Riders, we can discuss the album All Hell Breaks Loose.  Which is a killer.

You could easily mistake the title track for an outtake from the Jailbreak album, or Johnny the Fox perhaps.  Though there is only one Phil, Ricky Warwick’s voice occupies the same range.  His lyrics are storytelling much like Phil’s were, and they both share similar interests in history and gang mentalities.  This is as close as anyone has ever gotten to Thin Lizzy (and no wonder).  I love when, just before the solo, Warwick cries, “Alright Scotty!”  But Johnson joins Scott for the second part of the solo, recreating the classic Lizzy guitar sound.  Then, the single “Bound For Glory” completely captures the goodtime vibe of “Boys Are Back In Town”.  It’s a great choice for a single, and once again you could easily mistake it for an outtake from Jailbreak.   Just like Phil would do, there’s even an Elvis reference in the lyrics.  You truly get the feeling that All Hell Breaks Loose is as much a new album by these guys as it is a tribute to Lynott.

“Kingdom of the Lost” captures the Irish spirit of Lizzy.  Traditional Irish instruments join the band, and it’s in the same vein as a Lizzy track like “Black Rose”.  I should mention now that while each song feels like an homage to Phil, none sound like a re-write.  They capture the spirit without being note-for-note ripoffs, and I think that is an extraordinarily difficult thing to accomplish.

“Bloodshot” gave me a different feeling, which is while the riff has Lizzy elements, it sounds more “southern rock” to me.  Nothing wrong with that either.  “Kissin’ the Ground” then has a more “hard rock” sound, almost like something Damon Johnson might have written with Alice Cooper (who he used to play with) in mind.  But then the excellent chorus is one of the most Lizzy-like.  Then “Hey Judas” (a play on the title “Hey Jude”) is pure Lizzy, 110%. There is no question that Scott Gorham has carried so much of the Thin Lizzy sound into the present.  “Hey Judas” often finds itself as my favourite song (alternating with “Bound for Glory” and “Valley of the Stones”).   Then onto “Hoodoo Voodoo”, where I think the album sags.  I don’t think this is a standout.  Since the aforementioned “Valley of the Stones” is next, the decline is only brief.  This metallic stomp is like a highspeed Mad Max race through the desert, searching for the mystical valley of the stones itself.  Fear not through, the guitar duels keep it within Lizzy Nation.

If things have been a bit heavy, then the gleeful “Someday Salvation” captures that “Dancing in the Moonlight” swing of early Lizzy.  Then “Before the War” has an appropriate military beat.  I’m sure this is an excellent song in concert; you can shout along.  The last song on the regular edition of the CD is “Blues Ain’t So Bad”, a dusky slow rock song.  But I think the better closer is the “bonus track” “Right to be Wrong”.  That “better believe it!” shout-along hook is just great, and this upbeat song just smokes.

As you can no doubt see, I would have found it an impossible challenge to write this review without comparing to Thin Lizzy.  But I don’t think that’s important; the band clearly intended to follow in those footsteps.  If anybody has a right to, it’s Black Star Riders.

4.5/5 stars