Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

and then there are people who only love sid presley experience stuff. there are lots of them.

x-posts all around

i knew you would love that headboys album, chuck. totally underrated. or underheard.

Just super listenable, tuneful, somewhat ornate hard rock bordering on power metal. Fave: "Death Rides A Black Horse

Pretty much describes Savatage's major label records, too.

i loved that john oliva album from a couple years back. really good.

the sid presley stuff before the godfathers is really throwback mod/garage stuff and i always thought it sounded really good. the godfathers were definitely a band that made me want to listen to MORE garage rock/60's stuff back in the 80's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLOp8cE5zEw&feature=related

Man, second side of that Headboys LP is as good as the first side, maybe even better! Starts with "Experiments," the kind of robotic science-lab clink-clink-clank rhythms Thomas Dolby would be tinking with a few years later (actually the beat reminds me of "Let's Go All the Way" by Sly Fox) except done as fast loud rock (my college radio station played that one a lot I think); then a "2-4-6-8 Motorway" style music hall pub stomper getting pervy about "Schoolgirls," then the album's longest cut (just 4:11, most everything else being in the three-minute range) with Lou Lewis's best guitar solo, then a total speedy snappy ringer for 1979 Boomtown Rats (or maybe those two were the other way around -- doing this from memory; my wife hears Phil Lynott in Lewis's singing but I hear Bob Geldof), then a snide Jack The Ripper tune. I never stop being amazed by how many really good LPs like this were coming out around '79/'80, just from regular old bar-band rockers figuring they could cash in on new wave, knowing how to play but now speeding up the tempos and making hooks and beats wacky for the kids.

Speaking of wacky, this only peripherally hard rock I guess (so don't read it if that bugs you), but I found this 2-disc vinyl TV-mailaway novlety-song sampler from 1978 called Goofy Gold last month; Ronco and K-Tel sold similar comps (Goofy Greats and Funny Bone Favorites respectively) with a good deal of overlap, but this one is on HRB Music, which I know nothing about, and looks extremely cut-rate: the LP cover is really cheap cardboard, and there's basically no spine, so I'm not sure how legit it was. Anyway, song selection is the usually suspects, almost all great -- "Monster Mash," "Purple People Eater," "Wooly Bully," "Alley Oop," "Ahab The Arab," "Hello Muddah Hello Faddah," etc. A couple surprises ("Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus and "Beep Beep" by the Playmates rule!), but the only one I'd never heard or heard of before is this song called "King Kong (Your Song)," by Pickett and Ferrara. Turns out it came out in 1976, never charted, and Pickett is the same Boris Pickett who did "Monster Mash." But basically, from the thick opening Funkadlic-style post-Hendrix guitar on down, it's a ripoff of Jimmy Castor Bunch's "King Kong - Pt. 1," which went #69 pop (and #23 r&b) the year before, in '75. Except Pickett and Ferrara use silly foreign accents, presumably mirroring the movie. (There's a clip on youtube that sets the song to actual Kong clips.) Google search says the Pickett B-side was "Disco Kong"!

Playing Yesterday & Today's debut album from 1976 today. Wow, they sounded really metal already. They were totally ahead the game.

Ha ha, the Headboys' LP cover credits "the drunken yobs chorus on 'Schoolgirls'" to "Greg, Pete, Duncan, Bobette and some mysterious person who walked off the street." Also reminds me that there's a sax (played by a 300-year-old man, allegedly) on closing cut "Take It All Down," plus "stepping down the street" sounds in "Kickin The Kans."

(Typos: Dolby was "tinkling" not "tinking"; novelty comp has "usual suspects" not "usually suspects"; also I left out an "is" somewhere.)

Yeah, Yesterday & Today arrived armed and ready. London, however, apparently didn't know how to promote them even though they were managed by Bill Graham. There's a little drop off on the second album. Then the name change to Y&T for Earthshaker which was about as good as the first though lacking anything like "Alcohol" which, seems to me, should have been a frat party singalong hit nationwide.

got some great stuff at the record show in amherst.

loving this:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00013TBQK.jpg

the only rock band on the de-lite label? southern band with some funky disco moves:

http://www.vinylwhizrecords.com/data/vinylwhiz/_/70726f647563742f353734353633626235372e6a70670032353000.png

not so hot on first listen, but i'll try it sober:

http://dreamchimney.com/slvs/starbuck_20060815083631.jpg

finally got a nice clean copy of hooked by the hook. love this band. they were definitely a harbinger of the 70's hard rock onslaught to come. ilxor chaki's father was the bass player.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uypEFQ3_Vu8/S6AlttYQd0I/AAAAAAAAGEw/3j4C06C-Zn4/s320/Untitled.jpg

and THIS record. man, this record SMOKES! for real. it rocks so damn hard. there are serious guitar solos on this thing. hell, i think i'll play it again right now.

http://www.ohrwaschl.de/shop/ProductImages/diamond%20reo%20dirty.jpg

Wait, were Starbuck actually ever hard rock??

Was listening to the first, self-titled Michael Stanley LP from 1973 on Denver-based Tumbleweed Records last week; have played it a couple times now, and I like it, but even despite the presence of Joe Walsh (most notably on the great "Rosewood Bitters," also feat. Todd Rundgren on clavinette) and "Rock and Roll Man" (which Joe arranged), I'd still call it more a "Gordon Lightfoot style folk" than rock album. Weird how Stanley actually sings the lyrics of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (LP's final track) instead of rapping them in rhythm like Dylan; don't actually think the song works that way, but it's interesting.

Also, though I need to listen to them all more (and the Rods one isn't totally bad per se'), I can now conclusively report beyond a shadow of a doubt that Yesterday and Today's aforementioned debut LP is a hell of a lot better than the Rods' Wild Dogs from 1982. Also, if you wondered, Babe Ruth's Kids Stuff and the Sparks' Propaganda are both more rocking than you might think they are.

aw, i like the rods.

so i got this mike heron album that i've never heard cuz i am a fan of everything incredible string band and it's got some real rocking on it! lots of electric guitar action. it's funny cuz the dealer at the record show who i bought it from had it in his metal section. guess he thought HERON were an obscure nwobhm band.

http://991.com/newGallery/Mike-Heron-Diamond-Of-Dreams-331070.jpg

chuck, i think you'd really like this album by The Other Side on De-Lite. Starts out with a southern rock disco cowbell cover of "lies" by the knickerbockers. second song is a peppy rocker with great two guitar action. third song "gotta get to you" has great hard rock riff + disco flute! closing track on side one has the promising title of "ghengis chicken", but it turns out to be a sort of corny henhouse country joke number. how much you like it would depend on how much you like rock bands doing "country". even southern rock bands.
second side opens with a fat break beat and skynyrd guitar. this whole album SOUNDS really good. every southern rock band should have recorded their albums in a disco studio in philly. (i don't even know where these guys were from. but they've got the twang and the guitars.) the next song "day dream" is a serious prog disco treat. great mix of percussion, synth, organ, and those duelling guitars. it's got the mexican beat a la babe ruth. epic power ballad "dead or alive" is next. the only skippable number, really. it was made with stadium cig lighters in mind, but i don't know if these guys ever got out of the bars. last song is "rock x-ing" and its a decent rave-up with handclap beats and AGAIN the great guitars, but the song itself is only fair to middling. but its short. and before you know it, the album's over.

really loving the dirty tricks album i got too. their third and last. produced by tony visconti. apparently the band tried out for ozzy after he left sabbath the first time. this album is just wall to wall guitar goodness. you can hear the nwobhm coming around the corner on this thing too.

I will probably die some day still confusing Dirty Tricks with Dirty Looks (who I realize they probably don't have very much in common with.)

Will keep an eye out for them, though, and for The Other Side; thanks for the tip, Scott. (Probably not within my budget, but you never know.)

as far as overall expiry thread appeal goes, i think everyone here would dig the dirty tricks album. even crazy phil.

A friend passed on a couple Steve Morse Band albums on a thumb drive. The one I've listened to is Out Standing in the Field from late 2009.

Lots of power riffage, moreso even than the Dixie Dregs debut back in the Seventies. Lotsa jazz fusion thrown into same, all instro so far, "Name Dropping" is the kick off track and the most might. "Relentless Encroachment" is similar. "Flight of the Osprey" is Euro power metal with all the pretty stuff but not the singer included. "John Deere Letter" made me laugh briefly being Morse's country hoedown licks into superplayer style. Solid B if you like the subject matter. If you really really like it, an A. C if you've no use for solo instro chops heavy for the sake of chops guitar heroism by Marvel superhero-like musos.

I just happen to have the answer to this question:

chuck, i think you'd really like this album by The Other Side on De-Lite. Starts out with a southern rock disco cowbell cover of "lies" by the knickerbockers. second song is a peppy rocker with great two guitar action. third song "gotta get to you" has great hard rock riff + disco flute! closing track on side one has the promising title of "ghengis chicken", but it turns out to be a sort of corny henhouse country joke number. how much you like it would depend on how much you like rock bands doing "country". even southern rock bands.
second side opens with a fat break beat and skynyrd guitar. this whole album SOUNDS really good. every southern rock band should have recorded their albums in a disco studio in philly. (i don't even know where these guys were from. but they've got the twang and the guitars.)

They were from Minersville, in Schuylkill County, PA, where I grew up. I saw them many times.

I wrote about them here a year or so ago:

ttp://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2007/12/sludge-in-70s-other-side-minersvilles.html

And they were on a label financed by profits from Kool & the Gang.

Aghh. Now let's get that link working.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2007/12/sludge-in-70s-other-side-minersvilles.html

well, there you go, they were from pennsyltucky all along! nice. i did time in wilkes-barre for a year. felt like a century. sometimes i forget that it ever happened.

I actually saw them perform "Genghis Chicken" many times. The drunk girls and guys at the shows at the Pottsville bowling alley always liked it a lot.

pottsville! man, you are bringing me back. i spent a year in hazleton one night.

you are making me hungry for pierogies too.

Then you are quite familiar with coal piles and cinders as country-living beautification, too.

the thing i remember most about living in wilke-barre in the late 80's was the truly amazing number of building fires. every news broadcast would lead with a fire story. also, apparently, after reagan closed down some state mental hospitals, lots of the former patients moved to wilkes-barre. or were moved to wilkes-barre. apparently. and they would wander around the town square and streets all day long. i didn't have a lot of fun there. i was lonely and felt completely lost at sea. my parents made me go to school there. that's why i was there. did a year, went home for the summer, and then moved to philly at the age of 19. the rest is history.

Ha ha

NEW RINGGOLD, Pa. – Hey, didja hear the news? Beyonce and Jay-Z are moving to Schuylkill County, Pa.!
That's the rumor swirling around these parts: That the singer and her rap mogul husband, Grammy Award winners both, are planning to buy a multimillion-dollar spread on 210 secluded acres in eastern Pennsylvania.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_en_ot/us_beyonce_s_rumored_move

It's also convenient — just over two hours west of Manhattan by stretch limo, even closer by helicopter or private plane.

This is stupid, bad and wrong. Unless you're going well over 120 mph and expect zero traffic,
Schuylkill Co. is certainly not two hours 'west' of Manhattan. Make that five easy, considering
the traffic on the route you'll have to take.

It'd make a good sitcom, though: Beyonce in Old Slovenly Whiteville. Sending servants to the supermarket'd be a laugh riot. They would doubtless be disturbed by the alarming lack of quality restaurants and good takeout.

Better have a romantic attitude about snow, ice and salt on the roads, too. And if you're a wine drinker, forget it, unless you like the box varietals. You'll have to bring it in with your own shipping line.

http://dickdestiny.com/pennsyltuckyvotersmall.JPG

What's that you say, sonny? Someone named Jay Tee's comin' here?! You have to speak up, Ima little
deef.

Think I asked on the '09 thread whether REO Speedwagon (like their fellow Midwest prairie dogs Kansas, Styx, and Head East) ever made any Uriah Heep moves early on, and now I'm thinking that's more or less what the astounding killer 10-minute "Dead At Last" on their '71 debut was, at least up until the Freedom Soul Singers gospel-rock chorus at the end. Also, that dark shadowed photo of the band on the back, and even more so "Five Men Were Killed Today" (complete with Andre' Borly on prehistoric electronic instrument the Ondes Martenot) make this a sort of death-rock LP. All the songs about various kinds of ladies ("Gypsy Woman's Passion," "Sophisticated Lady," "Prison Women") have a real kick to them, too. Wondering if goodtimey riverboat-piano woogie "157 Riverside Avenue" was the only song that lasted to their Kevin Cronin era; don't have the live LP, but that was on there, right?

Also caught off-guard this morning by the tricky changes in "Waiting Place," the secretly pompy early-Rush-getting-funky cut on Side Two of the first Artful Dodger LP from '75. Not sure what my other faves are; "It's Over" and "Things I Like To Do Again" maybe, but the whole thing pop-rocks on such an even keel that it's hard to pick standouts. All sounds good; not sure how many great songs they had, though. George may be able to set me straight on that issue. Also, fwiw, here's what I wrote about their followup, a couple years back for Blurt:

ARTFUL DODGER Honor Among Thieves (American Beat)
Along with their '75 debut, this newly reissued bicentennial sophomore slab is one of history’s great lost hard-pop albums, from Virginia’s answer to the Raspberries or maybe Slade, back when labels like Columbia would stick with East Coast rock bands who looked like baseball infields even if their LPs never hit the Billboard 200. Like Richard Bush of the A’s, Billy Paliselli has a classic adenoidal high register. But the title opener has him yelping Steve Tyler-style, “Scream” could be where Bryan Adams learned his best early ‘80s ideas, "Hey Boys" is archetypal bazooka bubblegum, and there’s a backwards-guitared Little Richard cover. Some say that, on stage, they had as much balls as the Dolls.

("Some" in that last sentence actually means "George", I think.)

Yeah, 157 Riverside Avenue probably still is in the current REO stage show. It certainly was on the first live album. I always thought the early band was essentially Gary Richrath's. So the less he did his guitar thang and the more successful they became, the less I liked them. Tuned out around 'Can't Tuna Piano" although I think the album just before it "REO," would make a great Sugarland album today.

I also liked the "Lost in a Dream" album, made in the studio Sly & the Family Stone were using. Sounds nothing like what everyone got used to REO sounding like although it is a good hard rock album. Live they gave Kiss a run for their money -- I saw one show -- until the fireworks smoked the stage. But without any hits and having as undistinguished singer in "Mike Murphy" as they did, they were just wasting time until Cronin was enticed back into the band.

Best stuff on the first Artful Dodger album -- which I liked best -- were the tunes "Wayside" and "Think Think" which had a gruff power pop quality. Probably one or both of them are on YouTube. Live, one of their better songs was a cover of "Showdown," prob'ly sparked by the New York Dolls although Artful D put a lot more Everly Brothers/early Stones into it.

Btw, George and others might be interesting in knowing that there are two murderous new Rufus Huff tracks ("Cocaine" and "Crazy Mama") on a new Zoho Roots compilation called Tribute To J J Cale Volume 1: The Vocal Sessions. Rest of the album (covers from Swamp Cabbage, Dixie Tabernacle, the Persuasions, etc.) isn't doing much for me, however. (Then again, it's not like I've ever been a huge JJ Cale fan, either.)

Also kinda liking Necessary Illusion, new blues-rock solo album (on Tarock Music) by Rick Shaffer from old Pennsy new-wavers The Reds.

This interview with Jesse James Dupree of Jackyl is pretty great.

i am a huge jj cale fan! that is all.

Favorite songs on that new Jackyl album so far are the slowest (countrified Cinderella-style post-Southern rock power ballad "When Moonshine And Dynamite Collide" a/k/a the title track) and fastest (biker boogie-metal closer "Full Throttle.") "My Moonshine Kicks Your Cocaine's Ass" and "Freight Train" also reasonably speedy; "Just Like A Negro" ridiculous -- "you know the brothers are the ones who started rock'n'roll, yeah" -- but maybe in an entertaining way and sorta funky (are the backup grunts supposed to represent jungle noises or something??); "Mercedes Benz" cover pointless and rather off-key. And I wish Dupree had more way with a tune. So basically, I'm on the fence.

aw, i like the rods.

I like 'em okay I guess. Had never listened to them before I got '82's Wild Dogs (their best, according to Popoff, because "there was still hope") for a buck last month; wish they went totally crazed (especially tempo-wise) like they do in the title track more often, but the rest is halfway fun in a totally dumbass way. (Jasper and Oliver: "Rumoured to heavily into sexism!!!," ha ha, their exclamation points not mine.) First two songs "Too Hot To Stop" and "Waiting For Tomorrow" maybe halfway catchy, and slightly pompy midtempo almost-ballad almost-anthem "End Of The Line" puts me in mind of early Def Leppard. I guess slowly covering the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" means they were Vanilla Fudge fans. But they still have that kind of cold, ploddy, blues-drained brainlessness that really starts to bug me about bands like Priest in that era; saving grace is that they also seem a lot trashier than Priest. Was not aware that (possibly Jewish?) David "Rock" Feinstein was a cousin of Dio and a former Electric Elf until I read Jasper/Oliver. So were they considered NWOBHMers, or not?

Uh, I guess not, since they were apparently...American. Duh. (Wild Dogs was recorded and mixed in the U.K., but the bands's management was in Rochester, NY.) Other early LP covers on line look more street-dog punkish and Boyzz-like, and Popoff calls '81's self-titled "poverty metal", though he only gives it a 4; maybe I'd like that more? And they used to get compared to Motorhead?? Not really hearing that on this one.

Well, Wild Dogs has an actual (albeit three-headed, one more than the Roxy Erikson song!) street dog on the cover. But I meant some other LPs make the Rods look like greaser hoods. (Not sure why that makes me think I might like them more; just does.) (Also, learning that they were from in or around New York -- still haven't pinpointed where, exactly -- gives both my Jewish and Vanilla Fudge theories more credence, especially since the drummer went on to produce Anthrax. Though probably who I should really be associating with is Riot, right?)

(Roky Erickson I meant. Though Roxy Erickson might've been a cool idea --especially if Roky had joined when Eno was still in.)

Meanwhile, I've pretty much conclusively decided that Yesterday & Today' self-titled debut is one of my favorite metal albums of all time -- or at very least, with Riot's Rock City, one of the mid/late '70s metal albums that I most cluelessly left out of my metal book even though I don't think anybody who's ever whined about what's included and not in that book has ever mentioned them. Curious what people think Yesterday & Today's heavy sonic predecessors are -- near as I can tell, there's no Sabbath or Zeppelin in their sound here at all. Maybe a perfect meeting of Deep Purple's British precision with Grand Funk's manly mid-American groove? I swear, the drumming and singing, especially, just kill on this record, and it is relentless in its power, its rhythm, its tunefulness, you name it. George is right about "Alcohol"; totally should have been the frat-rock drunkalong hit of '76. But that's an anomaly, and so is the totally fucking gorgeous psychedelic blues ballad, "My Heart Plays Too," at the end of Side One. Popoff calls them "spiritual Grandpa" to Van Halen, and yeah, I was definitely thinking the same thing, although the first couple VH albums had a certain Top 40 pop sense that these guys didn't seem to have to bother with. (Not saying one's better than the other; the philosophies are just different. But there are definite sonic similarities, maybe even more to VH's third and fourth albums.) But like I said, I'm more interested in where Y&T's sound came from. And also how a band that started this mature apparently just wound up backpeddling from there (judging from what people say about their later albums, anyway.)

Better late than never. I thought the record was great. Bought it because it was reviewed in a Billbaord with a little pic of the album cover originally.

Leonard Haze, drummer, was one secret weapon. He was always fireballing and with groove. Meniketti is pretty much a blues rock guitar player, no gimmicks, but right on top of a the high energy tone you could get from a Les Paul straight into a Marshall. "Ima mean earthshakuh, baby; A cold cold heartbreakuh, yeah." The lyrics aren't spectacular but when you throw the execution on top of the drums and riff on that tune, it's pretty great stuff.

There's a trio of albums - Earthshaker, Black Tiger and Meanstreak which are pretty consistant.
So with Struck Down and the debut, that makes five albums which are never less than above average to vry good.

They didn't have much of an image and when they tried for one it was always not quite right. They didn't really get a single until "Summertime Girls" and that wasn't representative of their best material.

And they certainly didn't have any colorful personality like David Lee Roth.

None of these are sins. But they didn't get quite the mileage they deserved for being so expert and out their by themselves on the first album. Like Riot. Like about half a dozen others from the period.

Curious who you'd think the other half dozen or so are, actually. (Though maybe I could figure it out myself if I gave it some thought -- or pull out the list of recommended albums you sent me a couple decades ago, when I was mapping out my metal book. Still have it somewhere, I think.) Anyway, "one of my favorite metal albums of all time" probably overstates the case; just mean it'd place high somewhere in Stairway, if I had to do the book over again. And right, I don't pay attention to the lyrics much, give or take "Alcohol"; it's the overall command of the band's playing and metalcraft that blows me away. And yeah, also occurred to me a few hours after posting that Y&T lacked a Roth, or an Eddie for that matter, to ensure pop-culture visibility.

Been wanting to defend Babe Ruth's Kids Stuff, from 1976 -- after Janita Haan and Alan Shacklock had left -- but I'd be pushing my luck. Funk ("Oh! Dear What A Shame") and disco ("Sweet, Sweet Surrender," "Oh! Doctor") moves toward the starts of sides don't have much rock in them, and are tentative even for their adopted genres (plus, Babe Ruth had way more groove early on, when they were heavier.) Too many ballads, too. But toward the end, things finally kick in, with Ellie Hope doing a tough Joplin in the hard funky rocker "Keep Your Distance," which builds to an really cool extended breakbeat. And then LP closer "Living A Lie" is a fairly explosive guitar ballad. So, maybe worth a buck for "Keep Your Distance" alone, but not worth much more.

was gonna post something last night but i fell asleep. was also gonna point out that Y&T had no diamond dave. or great songs, really. always thought of the 70's stuff as good to sometimes great, but also somewhat faceless. they were the new breed though, like van halen. and they, like vh and and scorps and ufo and priest, would inspire the modern metal warriors to come.

Yeah, supposedly Metallica (or at least Lars?) were big Y&T fans. Pretty sure I read that someplace once, anyway.

their second album is even more metal.

speaking of 1977, do you even own a copy of sin after sin by judas priest, chuck? just wondering.

Yes! I have it on CD, a Columbia/Legacy pressing from 1981 with bonus tracks "Race With the Eveil" and "Jawbreaker (Live)". It is the one Priest album I actually like. (Which isn't to say I might not like more of their earlier ones, if I explored them more. Though then again, I might not. I have no use for most Judas Priest I've heard, obviously.)

("Race With The Devil," duh.)

Almost bought a vinyl copy of Rocka Rolla at a garage sale a couple weeks ago, actually. Probably I should have. (Was thinking it was 1984 not 1974, unfortunately -- maybe it was a reissue too? Robot monster cover, not the one with the bottlecap. Assume I'm more likely to like what those guys were doing in the '70s. I should've bought it.)

(And obviously the CD Sin After Sin pressing is 2001, not 1981.)

you should own a copy of hell bent for leather too.

HEY CHECK THIS OUT! trailer for the barry richards t.v. show collection on dvd. BOB SEGER SYSTEM footage about five minutes in but there is a ton of awesome stuff on this thing. i gotta get one.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WDCAfan#p/a/u/0/xv9dBcTlQa8

want the entire humble pie segment they filmed!!!!! ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!