music

REVIEW: Miscellaneous Maiden – Maiden Heaven / “Space Truckin'”

Part 41 of my series of Iron Maiden reviews!  This time, we’ll talk about the Kerrang! exclusive tribute album Maiden Heaven, and a cover tune that didn’t make it onto the B-sides for A Matter of Life and Death.

This will be the last Maiden review of this series before Christmas.  After the holiday we’ll reconvene so be sure to check back!  

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TRIBUTE TO IRON MAIDEN – Maiden Heaven (2008)

A little bit out of continuity, I wanted to get this release out of the way before we get into the next Maiden studio album.  Maiden Heaven was a Kerrang! exclusive tribute album, probably out of print.  I received this from my bud Dan Slessor who writes for the mag.  It was especially interesting to me for the exclusive Metallica and Dream Theater tracks!  Thus far, neither of these tracks have been reissued on releases by either band!

“Remember Tomorrow” by Metallica is friggin’ amazing.  It sounds exactly as you would expect, retaining the hard/soft vibe of the original, but with Kirk’s slippery soloing and Lars’ machine gun snare fills.  James nails the vocal with his trademark growl.  I would consider this among the very best covers that Metallica have recorded.  As James says, “Yeeeahh-yah!”  Unfortunately, there are no producer credits.

Dream Theater had the guts to cover “To Tame A Land”, one of my personal favourite tracks from Piece of Mind.  Dream Theater have been nothing but courageous their entire career, so it is only suitable that they would tackle one of the lesser-appreciated Maiden epics, and one of the rhythmically most challenging.  Mike Portnoy was still the drummer at this time.  It’s interesting to hear the song performed with keyboards since the original was so sparse and dry (reflecting the planet Dune itself).  But the keyboards lend a more exotic middle-eastern flavour.  It is also interesting hearing anyone but Steve Harris playing the bass line since it is such an integral part of the song.  Nothing against James Myung, the man is an absolute master of his instrument, but any time anybody covers Maiden, the bass always sticks out like a sore thumb because nobody sounds like Steve.  James LaBrie has no problem tackling the challenging vocal, high notes and all.

Other bands that appear on the disc include Coheed and Cambria (“The Trooper”), Avenged Sevenfold (“Flash of the Blade”…woo!), Trivium (“Iron Maiden”) and Machine Head (“Hallowed Be Thy Name”).  Most of the rest of the bands I have never heard of, but I also liked this soft acoustic n’ keys version of “Brave New World” by a band called Ghostline.   One that I definitely hated was “Run To The Hills” by some band called Sign.  It’s just…weird.  Unique, but just wrong.

Overall, an interesting listen but I really only need it for Metallica and Dream Theater.

3/5 stars

And second, from the brand new Deep Purple tribute album…

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IRON MAIDEN – “Space Truckin'” from the Deep Purple tribute album Re-Machined (2012)

Although this came out in 2012, the Maiden track “Space Truckin'” was recorded during the A Matter of Life and Death sessions for use as a B-side. Last time, I talked about the other cover they recorded, “Hocus Pocus” (by Focus!) which made it to the “Different World” single.  “Space Truckin'” went unreleased, until now.

Sonically, it is very raw, sounding live off the floor.  Some fans were underwhelmed by the track.  I think it’s obvious that Bruce is thrilled to be covering his idol, Ian Gillan.  He throws in lots of those little Gillan idiosyncrasies.  “Eee-hoo-hoo!”  While I think Maiden did a fine job on the track (especially considering they don’t have a keyboard player), this is not one of the great Maiden covers.  It’s no “I’ve Got The Fire” or “Massacre”.  It’s still a total treat to hear Maiden gleefully ripping through this classic.  If this was actually live in front of an audience, I think it would have been better received.

3/5 stars

Part 152: Carnival of Lost Souls

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RECORD STORE TALES Part 152:  Carnival of Lost Souls

The Year:  1996

The Place:  Dr. Disc, Hamilton Ontario

The Guilty Party:  Me

Remember when the original Kiss reunited back in ’96?  It was a huge deal.  Everybody was talking about it.  What very few people were talking about was the studio album that the previous Kiss lineup (with Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick) had completed prior to the reunion.  That album, Carnival of Souls, was shelved to avoid confusion.

It was, however, leaked.  Or, at least most of it was.  It revealed a new, grungier Kiss ready to take on the likes of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden.  Not a bad album in fact, and some songs such as “Hate” and “In My Head” were downright vicious.  A buddy of mine, Len Labelle, hooked me up with a poor-sounding cassette.  It was better than nothing.

Both Gene and Paul pooh-poohed the idea of a release.  You’d read things like, “We don’t know when it’s coming out,” or “We have no plans to release it right now.”  But I was digging that tape and I wanted a CD, dammit!

T-Rev, Tom and myself were at a record show in Hamilton, and we stopped at a local Dr. Disc.  I went over to the Kiss section.  I saw two discs, both at $30 staring me in the face:  the ultra rare Japanese import Chikara, a greatest hits album, and a bootleg copy of Carnival of Souls…

I had a limited budget and could only buy one.  I chose Carnival of Souls.  I’ve never seen a copy of Chikara again.  And Kiss officially issued Carnival 9 months later, rendering my bootleg obselete.  I can’t give it away, today.

It was a bad call, Ripley!  Bad call!

So what about this bootleg that I bought?  Well, it has a few notable features.

  1. The title is wrong.  The title on the bootleg is Carnival of Lost Souls.
  2. The wrong lineup is on the front and back covers.  They show the original Kiss, in makeup.
  3. Even though it says it’s “the complete 11 track version” on the front cover, Carnival of Souls has 12 tracks.  Missing is “I Walk Alone”, the lone Bruce Kulick lead vocal.
  4. The songs are in the wrong order, and most have the wrong titles.

For example:

  • “Hate” = “Hate (Is What I Am)”
  • “Master & Slave” = “Tell Me”
  • “Rain” = “I Think It’s Gonna Rain (Down On Me)”
  • “It Never Goes Away” = “It Never Ends”
  • “In the Mirror” = “(Take A Look) In the Mirror”
  • “I Confess” = “You Confess”

At best, this is now just a weird oddity that sits in my closet, unlistened to, unwanted, unloved, for the rest of eternity.  There’s $30 I’ll never get back again.  Yeah, like I said, it was a bad call!

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Part 48: Thick Skin

RECORD STORE TALES Part 48:  Thick Skin

When I was at the store, I grew a very thick skin.  Unfortunately record store customers can be dicks, a considerable percentage in fact, especially when you throw in the “buy and sell” factor.  Then you get people looking for money for every reason you can imagine.  I’ve had people throw things at me.  I’ve had people call me an asshole.  I’ve had people call me gay (not that there is anything wrong with that!), question my eyesight, and question my hearing.

One guy was pissed off that his CD was too scratched for me to buy.  So instead of keeping a CD that he claimed played perfectly fine, he chose to shatter it in his hands, sending little plastic shrapnel shards at my face.

Once I had a pencil thrown at my head.  I can’t even remember the context anymore, but I do remember that Kam was having issues with a customer.  I assume it was over the selling of used CDs to the store, it always was.  Kam seemed to be struggling a bit, so I stepped over to help.  Again I don’t remember the details of what happened, but he zeroed in on me, and didn’t cool down.  I was probably backing Kam up in whatever he was saying.  This guy was pissed.  He didn’t give a shit about Kam, he asked for my name.  I remember thinking, “My name?  What the hell did I do to him?”   He then threw the pencil at my head, and walked out.

I said to Kam, “I don’t make enough money to put up with people throwing shit at my head.”

But, like I said, you grow a thick skin.  You go home and on to the next day.  The only thing left is a good Record Store Tale.

Summer 2000

Part 35: Credit Due

RECORD STORE TALES Part 35: Credit Due 

In the late fall of 1995, my enthusiasm for the store had never been greater.  I had already created and posted our very first online ads, on my own time.  The first one was in November of 1994.  I posted it on every C-Net BBS (Bulletin Board System) in the area code.  I drew a full colour (but very blocky!) version of our logo, using the most state of the art BBS software of the time.  It took hours.  In the ad, I hyped that we would be carrying the new Vitalogy album by Pearl Jam the following week, on vinyl!  Limited quantities!

I did this on my own time, because I loved the store.

But back to 1995.  I thought that we had already done an excellent job of giving the store some rocking personality and quality stock.  I had never been more psyched.  I used to go to Future Shop, again on my own time, just to check their prices and stock versus ours.

I decided I wanted to get writing.  I’ve always loved writing and I thought the store could be the vehicle.  I came up with the idea of doing the monthly newsletter.  I even put together a primitive prototype.  It was printed on tractor feed printer paper by a dot matrix printer, stapled in the top left.  It was all I had, but the point was to do a proof-of-concept.  I was demonstrating that we could come up with our own content, from reviews to charts, and do it our way with humour. Not like all the lame corporate type newsletters that other stores had.

The idea was met with dead glances as I passed around my prototypes.  It was shot down for being “too expensive”.

In 1997, the newsletter idea was revived.  It was like mine, but folded instead of stapled, and in two colours at first (red and black).  The kid that printed it couldn’t spell worth shit, but he made it look acceptable for the period.  I received no credit or recognition for what was my idea, nor did I have any creative control at all. I felt like my idea had been taken away from me. But, I went along with it, I happily contributed.  It was better than nothing.

Finally, I was the guy who ran our website, solo, for the first year or two of its operation.  I conceived all the initial procures, I filled the orders, kept the books, filed the emails, and I corresponded with the customers.  I did it all, myself.  I even wrote the FAQ page, and in fact some of my original words are still there online today.  I answered every customer email and question, myself, positive or negative.  For a little while I had my own office with a computer and phone to work out of, although it was about the size of a toilet. It was still a very rewarding experience.

The website was taken away from me because I was told that my time was “more valuable to us in the store.” Fuck! I didn’t spend all those years working at this place to just end up in a store, I wanted to be in an office, doing stuff! That was what I had been promised! I was turning 30, and I didn’t want to be working in a store anymore in my 30’s, but again, I went along with it, because it was better than nothing.

Some of the other people from the organization say that I didn’t stand up for myself enough, that I should have called bullshit on a lot of stuff.  They were obviously right, but I was always sort of a peacemaker.  Never wanted to raise a stink.  So I didn’t.  I kept the peace and kept my tongue.

But what the hell? I’m proud of what I accomplished there, out of sheer passion to be involved and creative, and it’s time I said so.

 

The fallout was immediate.  Continued in Part 35.5:  Spoogecakes.