journey

REVIEW: Journey – Eclipse (2011 Japanese import)

JOURNEY – Eclipse (2011 Japanese import)

You gotta give ’em credit for trying. Three (!) singers since Steve Perry left, and Journey still refuse to patch it up or pack it in. Arnel Pineda is still the singer, back here for his second Journey album, and now contributing songwriting to the mix.

ECLIPSE_0003Otherwise, Eclipse (stylized as ECL1PS3 on the cover art) is heavily dominated by Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, and you can tell that this is Neal’s album. Upon playing Eclipse, you will be inundated by colossal Schon riff after colossal Schon riff. This is backed by some dramatic synth by Cain. It’s a much heavier Journey album than any in recent memory. It’s a good mix, and producer Kevin Shirley captured it. I’ve been skeptical in the past when Journey puts out a new album and says, “This is us being heavier.” Stuff like the Red 5 EP…they were just underwhelming and were missing the soul of Journey.

I would argue that the soul of Journey belongs to Steve Perry, but Arnel Pineda turns in a stunning performance this time. Not that he didn’t last time, but this time it sounds less like he’s trying to be Steve Perry. This time it sounds like he’s more himself, and it’s better that way. Incredible set of pipes on this man by the way.

As long time fans know, Journey did three albums before Steve Perry joined the band. These albums had their roots in more instrumental, progressive rock.  One or two of the guitar passages on Eclipse sound a like stuff from those first three albums. It’s fleeting but it’s there.

Fave track: “Edge of the Moment”.

Most Journey-esque song: “City Of Hope”. (It even calls out an older Journey song title called “Message Of Love”.)

Meanwhile, the fine “She’s A Mystery” (co-written by Pineda) is a great little epic acoustic/electric song with some sweet Schon overtones that sound like gulls flying overhead. It captures the vibe of the more atmospheric material from Trial By Fire that I liked so much.

The extra thick case of the Japanese CD, can't replace it if you break it!

The extra thick case of the Japanese CD, can’t replace it if you break it!

The Japanese bonus track is a live cut of “Don’t Stop Believin'”, from the DVD Live In Manila.  No live album was ever made of that live concert, so this is a CD exclusive.   The Japanese CD also comes in an extra wide case, housing a lenticular cover insert.  Very similar to the recent “3D” Kiss Monster cover.

The thing about Journey albums of late is memorability. Your brain says “this is a good song, it has a melody I like,” but a day later you can’t remember how the song went. Eclipse is also like that.  All the songs are strong, melodic workman-like Journey songs.   They just seem to lack whatever it was about the classics that made them stick in the head.  Maybe I need to listen to it more, but I rarely have the craving to do so, when I can spend the time with Trial By Fire.

3/5 stars

Part 192: Mix One

MIX ONE

RECORD STORE TALES Part 192:  Mix One

Blank discs are so cheap, and musical tastes so fleeting today, that I wonder if anybody but me still has the first mix CD they ever burned?

I’m hoping some of you have, and I’m hoping to hear it about from you too.  My first disc was made in early 2001 when we got our first burner.  It was made for a very specific purpose.

At the store, there was an informal rule that if you were closing one day and opening the next, it was “OK” to borrow a movie overnight, watch and return it.  So if that was true for movies, why not a CD?  Why not a dozen?  A few nights after having the CD burner installed, I borrowed a bag full of discs and burned this compilation on a Maxell CD-R 650.  74 minutes!  Up to 16x certified!

I returned the discs the next day, all albums that I wanted one or two songs from, but not the whole album.  Many were soundtracks and tribute albums.  I ended up buying The Strokes’ album a few weeks later, an ill-advised purchase that yielded only two or three listens.  I don’t have that one anymore.  But I still have my mix CD with “Last Nite”!

The Robbie Williams + Queen track is taken from the soundtrack to A Knight’s Tale.  I shall maintain the anonymity of the store employee who had the crush on Heath Ledger and inundated us with this soundtrack.  The same disc also yielded “I Want to Take You Higher” by Sly and the Family Stone.

Track 3 is an industrial-rock hybrid tune called “Violent New Breed”.  I later purchased the Violent New Breed album by Shotgun Messiah.  Industrial rock fans will know that Messiah’s original bassist/singer was Tim Tim, aka Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, and his eponymous band.  I liked the title track enough to later buy the album and the prior one too.  Both were keepers.

I’ve been a Goo Goo Dolls fan for a while so I thought I would grab their INXS cover “Don’t Change” from an Ace Ventura soundtrack.  Their cover of “Bitch” came from the 1993 No Alternative compilation album.

Apparently I was on a Warrior Soul kick at that time as well.  Shame that there isn’t a great Warrior Soul compilation album that suits all my needs.  I bought and sold their studio albums.  As for Michael Jackson, I later decided to add a single disc compilation to my collection, offsetting my burning of “Billie Jean”.

This being a real odds n’ ends disc, it’s not a spellbinding listen today.  It’s fun to remind myself of some oddball tracks that I liked enough to burn but not enough to buy.  I’m also amused by the title Mix One, the first of many!  And I was even doing cover art back then, too.  On the cover is myself dressed up as the alien from Part 148: Navigate the Seas of the Sun!

2/5 stars!

NEXT TIME ON RECORD STORE TALES…

The return of the Dandy!

REVIEW: Anthrax – Anthems (2013)

ANTHEMS COVER

ANTHRAX – Anthems (2013 Megaforce Records)

Anthrax have recorded some of the most entertaining covers of the last 30 years.  Many of them have appeared as hard to find B-sides or bonus tracks.  Anthems is Anthrax’s new covers EP, readily available, and a welcome addition to a metal lover’s collection.

As if they needed to show off how well they could play, the EP kicks off with “Anthem” itself, a Rush cover, and a stunning one at that.  Joey Belladonna’s voice strains to reach the highest of notes, but he hits ’em.  This is one dead-on accurate Rush cover, not an easy thing to execute.  And it’s heavy as balls.

“T.N.T.” is a blast.  Again, this is not an easy song to cover, because it is so indelibly linked to AC/DC and Bon Scott.  Incredibly, Anthrax do so with as much accuracy as they did Rush.  Joey sounds perfectly in his element paying tribute to Bon.  Up next is “Smokin'” as performed by Boston.  Like a chameleon, suddenly Joey is in Brad Delp’s shoes.  As great as the entire band is on Anthems, at this point, it is Joey that is blowing me away the most!  What’s also cool about “Smokin'” is that the lengthy organ solo is intact, performed by Canadian Fred Mandel (ex-Alice Cooper).  An extended keyboard solo with Anthrax?  Smokin’!  (No kidding though, it’s great.  Like it or lump it!)

We all know Joey Belladonna is a huge Steve Perry fan.  It is a joy to hear him having a chance to pay tribute to his hero on “Keep On Runnin'”.  Scott Ian proclaims in the liner notes that “On paper, Anthrax covering Journey may seem weird,” but he reminds us that “the song just fucking rocks”.  Charlie Benate ensures this with surgically inserted blasts of drum fury.

“Big Eyes” is a Cheap Trick song I had somewhat forgotten about.  It has a monster groove and yet another fantastic lead vocal.  Anthrax bring the song to its knees.

“Thin Lizzy is arguably the most underrated and under appreciated band of our time,” says Scott in the liner notes.  Amen brother!  But he also points out their paradoxical great importance and influence.  Scott reveals he’d like to do an entire record of Lizzy covers.  Phil Campbell of Motorhead plays the solo, as per the Live and Dangerous version.  I love hearing Joey do the “Hey you, good lookin’ female! Com’ere!” line.  So much more menacing than Phil Lynott!

From Anthrax’s most recent record, Worship Music, comes “Crawl”.  I am on the fence with this song, as all I can think of is Soundgarden.  “Fell On Black Days”.  Can you hear it, there in the first minute of the song?  (Maybe it’s their Soundgarden cover, eh?)  Also on the EP is the remix of “Crawl”, which was previously only available on the Japanese version of Worship Music.  So this purchase worked out well for me.  I had been putting off buying Worship Music until I could find a reasonably priced Japanese import.  I prefer to get all the bonus tracks, so with Anthems now in hand, I can just pick up the domestic Worship Music and be done with it!

As a nice touch to collectors, Anthrax released this EP with six different covers.  I pre-ordered this thing from Amazon, so I didn’t get the luxury of picking my cover art.  If I did, I might have chosen the Rush or Journey versions.  What I got was the Cheap Trick cover, but I think I like it best anyway.

5/5 stars

Part 171: VIDEO – Record Store Gallery

RECORD STORE TALES Part 171:  Record Store Gallery

Douchebag

Most Unrightfully Ignored Albums of the 1990s – LeBrain’s List Part 2

In alphabetical order, here’s Part 2:  88 albums that meant the world to me in the 1990′s but never got the respect I felt they deserved.  

Dokken – Dysfunctional (reunion with George, adventurous album)
Steve Earle – I Feel Alright (jail obviously did him some good — his best record)
Steve Earle – El Corazon (among his best records)
Extreme – III Sides To Every Story (don’t get me started!)
Extreme – Waiting For the Punchline (a stripped-down oft-forgotten classic with Mike Mangini)
Faith No More – Angel Dust (…)
Faith No More – King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime
Fight – War Of Words (I didn’t like Halford’s followup effort but this one is brutally heavy)
The Four Horsemen – Nobody Said It Was Easy (it wasn’t easy, is why)
The Four Horsemen – Gettin’ Pretty Good…At Barely Gettin’ By (but they released two great records in the 1990’s)

Fu Manchu – The Action Is Go (started me on my Fu Manchu addiction)
The Gandharvas – Sold For A Smile (my cousin turned me onto this one while I was in Calgary)
Halford – Live Insurrection (better than any of the live albums that Priest did without him)
Harem Scarem – Mood Swings (brilliant album, you can hear Queen influences, but it’s the guitar and vocals that set it apart)
Harem Scarem – Karma Cleansing (…now a bit more progressive, like progressive-lite)
Harem Scarem – Big Bang Theory (…and now, short and to the point!)
Helix – It’s A Business Doing Pleasure (too soft for the general Helix masses)
The Hellacopters – Grande Rock (the album Kiss should have made instead of Psycho Circus)
Glenn Hughes – From Now On… (anthemic and spiritual)
Iron Maiden – Fear Of the Dark (it gets a bad rap but it pretty much got me through 1992)
Journey – Trial By Fire (I don’t think they’ve ever made a better record to be honest)
Killer Dwarfs – Dirty Weapons (ditto!)

REVIEW: Carmine Appice – Carmine Appice (1981)

Next in line of my reviews from Record Store Excursion 2012!  Check out the video below if you missed it.  This one bought at Paradise Bound.  If you recall, this is actually one of two drummer solo albums I bought that day, the other being Over The Top by Cozy Powell.

MIKE AND AARON GO TO TORONTO

CARMINE APPICE – Carmine Appice (1981, CBS/Pasha)

Well hey.  He did co-wrote “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy”, and that ended up being one of Rod’s more massive hits.  Why not do a solo album?

Carmine co-wrote all tracks herein, and sings lead as well.  There are a couple interesting co-writes:  “Drum City Rocker” was co-written by an unknown named Vincent Cusano.  Cusano would later change his name to Vinnie Vincent when he joined Kiss the following year.  Another alumnus from the school of Gene & Paul, Ron Leejack (ex-Wicked Lester) “Am I Losing You”.

The sound is pop rock with pounding drums, a sound I don’t mind too much.  I’ve always been a fan of Carmine’s drumming, and his drum sound here is what I like.  A big snare drum that sounds like a snare drum, lots of toms and a non-stop approach.

The songs are not great, especially dreadful is a tribal keyboard-drenched “Paint It Black”.  Perhaps inspired by Ian Paice, Carmine chose this Stones cover for a drum salvo.  He plays it very tribal but…how many people have done covers of this song and buggered them up?  Most.  The minority do it well.

Better is the ballad “Blue Cafe” with its mournful sounding vocal and keyboard lines.  The rockers fare less well, with “Have You Heard” and “Keep On Rolling” both sounding pretty weak kneed for rock songs.  The drumming’s great of course, the singing less so.  Carmine barely holds it together at times.

“Sweet Senorita” which closes side one is a Bon Jovi-esque rocker that might have been hit worthy in 1981.  Really the weakest aspect of the album is the vocal.  Carmine’s voice lacks character, sounding very much like Joe Pop Singer.  It’s too bad because “Sweet Senorita” boasts a great groove and fine guitar solo, along with memorable hooks.

Side two opens with a drum salvo!…and then this lame vocal part kicks in, “Drum city, drum city…”  Yes, it’s “Drum City Rocker”.  Why couldn’t they have left it instrumental?  It’s otherwise fine, with punchy drum fills and a great boogie!

“Hollywood Heartbeart”, much like the earlier song “Keep On Rolling” sounds like a Journey reject, without any of Steve Perry’s vocal grace.  They sound like pale imitations.  I had higher hopes for Phil Spector’s “Be My Baby”, being a personal favourite.  Thankfully this is more suited to Carmine’s style and he doesn’t butcher it.   The backing vocals are pretty sucky though.

“Am I Losing You” is another strong ballad, a good song, a decent vocal from Carmine.  I hate buying a rock album only to find that the best songs are the ballads, but in this case, that’s the way it is.  Both ballads are good and have some feeling to them.

“Drums Drums Drums” closes the album, and as you can guess, it’s a plethora of drums…with Carmine’s annoying vocals!  “Drums drums drums…” he sings.  This is followed by an awful “Heyyyyy, heyyy, heyyy–o!” section.

Produced by Richard Polodor.  It has this dry, dull sound kind like a Peter Criss solo album.

The record sleeve has an ad (expiring December 31, 1982) to send $12 to buy Carmine’s own book, The Ultimate Realistic Rock Drum Method!  A quick Amazon search reveals that the book is still in print today, available for $18 on Amazon.

2/5 stars

Part 129: Moneytalks

RECORD STORE TALES PART 129:  Moneytalks

Are you a young person working in the world of retail?  Have you been offered a raise and a salary instead of hourly wages?

If you answered “yes” to both those questions, then sit right back and you’ll hear a tale.

I never much liked working Saturdays, for two reasons.  One, it was the longest, busiest shift.  Second, when I worked alone at least I picked the music.  Saturdays we had two people on, because it was the busiest day.  More often than not, I didn’t think much of the music the other people picked.

I mean, I hope it’s obvious by now — I’m a rocker!  Unfortunately I didn’t work with many other rockers.  On the other hand, they didn’t think much of my Journey discs.  We actually later wrote it into the training manual — try not to knowingly pick music that your co-workers disliked!  That narrowed the scope for me!

But as I said, Saturdays were our busiest days.  Makes sense — kids are off school, a lot of other people have the day off — why not pick up tunes for the weekend?

One day, the boss called a staff meeting.  He was giving us store managers a raise, and a salary.  The only catch?  We had to work one extra Saturday per month.   They decided (and logically so) that our best people needed to be working on our busiest days.  Therefore managers must work a minimum of two Saturdays a month.  Makes sense.  Previously we were only working one Saturday per month, and I knew that it was a free ride of sorts.  I wasn’t surprised when it ended, although it definitely meant less cottage time.

Later that week, T-Rev called me.

“Have you done the math on your new salary yet?”

“No,” I answered.  “Why?”

“Well,” he explained, “Even though he called it a raise, when you account for the extra Saturday we’re working, we’re actually making less money per hour now.”

“No shit,” I answered.  “That sucks.”  Once we were on salary, we couldn’t go back.

Salaries came with all sorts of interesting loopholes.  For example, as managers if we couldn’t get someone to work a shift and we were short people, it usually fell on us to work the hours.  Now, we weren’t getting paid extra to do it anymore.  Another new duty that came with the salary was stock transfers:  Driving stock around town to another store in rush-hour traffic.  The gas in your tank and miles on your car?  “That’s all a part of your salary”.

Not to mention all the extra hours I started to do in training duty  and putting out fires, and the aforementioned twice-weekly stock deliveries.  I did the math one time — you don’t wanna know how much more money I would have made on my old hourly wage!  Enough to buy several of those new Iron Maiden picture disc sets!

So, young grasshoppers:  if you too find yourselves pinned on the horns of a dilemma like this, think hard on your options!

REVIEW: Journey – Trial By Fire (Japanese import, 1996)

JOURNEY – Trial By Fire (1996, Japanese import with bonus track)

The classic Journey lineup (Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain, and Steve Smith) were back however briefly in 1996 with this triumphant reunion album.  I remember in the store in 1996, nobody was buying it.  How sad.  This is among the very best Journey albums.  In fact with Steve Perry’s voice showing a little more weathering and character, and the band having a more mature sound, I think it is the best.

It’s a mellow journey, very much suited to Perry’s incredible pipes.  The opening track, “Message of Love” storms across the speakers with Perry singing as powerfully as ever with Schon’s patented guitar melodies behind him.  Cain tinkles at the ivories at precisely the right moments, while Smith demonstrates the timing and style that makes him a top jazz fusion drummer today.

And that’s just the first song!  The slower but equally powerful “One More” follows, and then we’re onto the first signature Perry ballad.  “When You Love A Woman” was the single, but to me it’s filler.  Much better is the ballad that follows it, “If He Should Break Your Heart”.

“Don’t Be Down On Me Baby” demonstrates Perry’s soul roots.  Whether on the ballads or the rockers, Perry nails every song perfect.  If anybody else was singing on this Journey album, it wouldn’t have half the impact.  As great as the songs are (and I believe they are a collection of Journey’s strongest ever), it is Perry that drives them home with his ballsy, epic delivery.

I don’t want to bother listing all my favourite tunes.  Basically all of them, with the exception of “When You Love A Woman” and the mid tempo rocker “Castles Burning”.  Everything else is great, and distinct from one another.  Each song inhabits its own space, style and sound.  Yet it sounds like a cohesive whole, thanks to expert producer Kevin Shirley.  And Steve Smith makes the ballads as smooth as butter.  Just listen to “Still She Cries”.

The Japanese bonus track is called “I Can See It In Your Eyes”, and is sequenced in the body of the album.  This is a straightforward rocker, perhaps compensating for the lack thereof on the rest of the album.  While not one of the better songs, it does have its place in appeasing those who think Trial By Fire is too soft.

4.75/5 stars.  They should have toured.

Part 113: Destiny (“It’s Like It Was Meant to Be”)

RECORD STORE TALES PART 113:  Destiny (“It’s Like It Was Meant To Be”)

Sometimes, like destiny, something cool arrived on my counter at random. Something I’d been hunting for.  Something special, that hit the spot at exactly the right time.  That was the beauty of used CD’s.  Even more than a box of chocolate, you truly never knew what you were going to get!

For example:

IAN GILLAN – The Best Of

I had pretty much cleaned up on Deep Purple, and I was ready to start exploring the solo projects of people like Gillan, Glover and Lord.  Like it was meant to be, suddenly The Best Of Ian Gillan showed up!  This compilation covered his two most recent solo releases, Tool Box and Naked Thunder.  Both albums are hard to get, and I still don’t have them!  This compilation hit the spot.

I remember Statham coming into the store while I was playing the opening track, “Hung Me Out to Dry”.  He chuckled at the opening screams!  “What is this?” he laughed.  But he respected my choice instead of mocking it which is more than I can say for some of the coworkers!   You never see this stuff used in these parts, but once in a blue moon.  I truly felt like I’d hit a home run!

Another example:

DEEP PURPLE – “Haunted” (CD single)

I’d been planning on ordering this one online. I found it on the German Amazon site, but only there so far.  All the single had was a bonus remix of “Haunted”, but as a Deep Purple completist, this is the kind of rarity that I seek.  CD singles tended to be a European thing and hard to get here.  I was prepared to have to pay up to $15 for this single….

When suddenly a guy brought in not one but TWO promotional copies with the bonus track!  Unmarked promotional copies, as in only the case was marked, which you can replace.  SCORE!  I saved myself some cash on that lucky happenstance, and the other copy sold off the shelf in short order.

A third great example:

JOURNEY – Trial By Fire (Japanese import)

I had been collecting Journey rarities, especially the Steve Perry years.  I saw a Japanese import of the final album they did with him, Trial By Fire, at HMV 333 Yonge in Toronto.  It was $40 or $45.  The bonus track was “I Can See It In Your Eyes”.  It just wasn’t in the budget that day.  I had several Japanese imports in my hands that day, and something had to be sacrificed.  Journey didn’t make the cut.

And then a couple weeks later, one of my regulars, Conrad, sold me a mint condition copy, bonus track intact.  Instead of paying $45, I paid $15!  Score!

Part 36: The Hunt

RECORD STORE TALES Part 36: The Hunt

Before the record store, during the record store, and after the record store, one thing remained constant:  the Hunt.

The hunt for something long sought.  The hunt for something cool.  The hunt for something rare.  Peter and I hunted for all these things together.  The problem was that Peter and I like the same music, so if we’d only find one copy, who got dibs was who found it first.

Peter was at a record show once and asked a vendor, “Do you have Ward One: Along The Way by Bill Ward?”  This solo album by the original Black Sabbath drummer featured guest vocals by Ozzy, making it a must have for both of us  The guy didn’t have it there, but he did have it in his shop in Brampton.  The following week, Peter jumped in his car, headed down to Brampton, and bought it.  I’ve only ever seen this CD twice, and the second time was the time that I bought it.  In the interim, Peter taped it for me.

Today, there are no “shops in Brampton” in which to buy rare CDs.

Kids today would be shocked at the lengths we went to to get albums.  Peter and I once headed down to Michigan with the (essentially) sole purpose of finding rare things.  Peter had heard about this comedy tape called The Jerky Boys that was not out yet in Canada.  Score!  I added to my Savatage collection on the same trip, picking up Power of the Night, which I had never even heard of before.  On another US trip, Peter picked up the Black Sabbath box The Ozzy Osbourne Years.  The set was a pretty decent overview of the first six Sabbath platters plus the then-rare track “Evil Woman”.

Peter and I used to also look at bootleg videos on our many trips to record shows.  Once again, the hunt for Ozzy and Sabbath continued.  Peter snagged a rare 1995 Ozzy club show with the short lived lineup of Geezer Butler (bass), Deen Castronovo (drums) and Joe Holmes (guitar).  This lineup never recorded an album.  It was memorable for that reason, and also the fact that  when Ozzy shouted, “Do you people want to hear some Sabbath songs?” the crowd responded “NO!“

Even though I was working at the store, I couldn’t rely on the store to complete my collection.  You had to think outside the box, you had to travel, to find those rare items.  I found the rare first Vinnie Vincent Invasion album on CD in Kincardine, Ontario — the one with Robert Fleichman singing.   I also found a Helix single there with a then-unreleased remix on it.  My boss never understood why we’d shop anywhere we didn’t get a discount.  This was why.  You found the coolest stuff in the small towns, the out of the way places.  But you sometimes also had to venture into the epicenter of a record show, and pay a little bit more, to get what you need.

SAM_1499